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Dublin public schools are set to remain open to students on Monday as their teachers are poised to strike after the district and the union failed to come to an agreement during last-ditch bargaining talks over the weekend.
The Dublin Teachers Association issued its threat Thursday evening after learning the Dublin Unified School District would accept the deal recommended by a third-party panel at the fact-finding stage of the statutory impasse process. With that proposal unacceptable to the union, the two sides held special bargaining sessions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but to no avail to avert the walkout.
“Today, and every day, Dublin educators showed up for our students. We were hopeful that management would come prepared to invest in Dublin students. Sadly, they did not come with any proposals,” DTA President Brad Dobrzenski said in a statement late Sunday night. “Tomorrow, Dublin educators will show up for their students in a different way, at the picket lines, to demand that DUSD management invests in our students.”
“Dublin educators have had enough” was the union’s sentiment going into Sunday’s bargaining session. “The time to prioritize our students is now and we are not backing down until we win for all Dublin kids.”
“We call on management to agree to our student-centered proposals, which include smaller class sizes to ensure every student gets the individual attention they deserve, retaining and recruiting the best educators, and keeping a full-time counselor at every elementary school,” DTA stated Sunday afternoon on Facebook.
DUSD officials, who supported the fact-finders’ proposal for 2.1% raises and other key terms despite the budget concerns they said the deal would yield, confirmed the no-deal news and resulting impacts on school operations in separate statements Sunday evening. All schools will be open on adjusted schedules for the duration of the strike.
“We were willing to compromise. We have compromised. We came to the negotiating table today ready to sign,” said DUSD’s superintendent-in-waiting, Matt Campbell. “We remain ready to sign an agreement consistent with the neutral Fact-Finder’s recommendations.”
“The District’s current proposal reflects an effort to move toward resolution while still acknowledging the financial realities we face,” added Campbell, the assistant superintendent of educational services who took over as the face of negotiations last month after the school board selected him as the successor to retiring Superintendent Chris Funk.
“Our responsibility remains to ensure the long-term fiscal stability of the Dublin Unified School District so that we can continue supporting our students, staff, and families while maintaining the financial solvency required of California public school districts,” Campbell said. “Agreements that exceed our fiscal capacity are not student-centered and show up in the classroom, leading to larger class sizes, reduced programs, and negative impacts on student learning.”
The strike comes during what was scheduled to be a reduced instructional week – the district calendar originally featured early dismissal days on Monday and Tuesday, a full day Wednesday, a staff development day Thursday and no school Friday.
Elementary and middle school release times have been adjusted, while the comprehensive high schools remain as scheduled. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Sports and other extracurricular activities are generally on as scheduled – although a striking coach cannot participate, nor can a student who misses school due to the strike.
The full rundown of scheduling and other contingency plans for the district is available at dublinusd.org/strike.
“DUSD management, this strike is on you! Reprioritize your budget to invest in our students!” DTA said in a Facebook post around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. “See you on the picket lines tomorrow.”
The teachers union, which has more than 700 members, is organizing pickets outside each school site starting at 6:45 a.m. Monday. A press conference is set at Dublin High School at 7:45 a.m., and a rally is expected to follow at 1 p.m. at Kolb Park.
“Despite our every effort this weekend to avoid a strike, DUSD management seemed uninterested in bargaining in good faith, walking out of our meetings the past three days without making a single meaningful offer,” DTA stated in a press release issued by the California Teachers Association.
“For the past 18 months, DTA has offered numerous budget solutions to district leaders, including a comprehensive budget proposal outlining how DUSD can provide the resources our students and schools need,” the union added. “We know the school district has the ability to invest in our students to provide the high-quality education, individualized attention and mental health supports all Dublin students deserve.”
District leaders argue the union’s proposal is too costly given DUSD’s already difficult budget situation.
Campbell said the fact-finders’ proposal, which the district is willing to accept, is estimated to cost $11.6 million over three years, compared to a DTA counterproposal with a pricetag of almost $32 million over that same period – which the incoming superintendent contends “would require substantial additional reductions to student-facing programs, staffing, and services, and push the district into insolvency”.
The deal on the table from the district, which mirrors the fact-finding chair’s recommendation, would include a 2.1% salary increase retroactive to July 1, a 1% bonus, higher contributions from the district to members’ health and welfare benefits, and a commitment to form a committee to analyze class size reductions, according to Campbell.
He said the district’s bargaining team told DTA at Sunday’s session that they’d be willing to reconsider how the money was spent toward compensation, benefits and class sizes, as long as the overall bill stayed within the $11.6 million framework.
“Negotiations are meant to produce compromise,” Campbell said. “The District has demonstrated its willingness to move from its original position to reach a balanced agreement. While we appreciate DTA’s willingness to negotiate over the weekend and the movement reflected in their proposal, the overall request remains far beyond what the District’s budget can sustain. Some of DTA’s proposals rely on potential future funding that has not yet been approved by the state. As a result, their proposal remains financially infeasible.”
“Like DTA, we hope the state provides stronger funding for public education in the future. But our responsibility is to budget based on the realities we face today, not the possibilities of tomorrow,” he added.
What was the union demanding? What did the district offer? And what’s the teacher pay range? How much would 2.1% cost the district annually? Those figures would be helpful.