PUSD, teachers union set for special negotiation session as prospect of strike looms

The Pleasanton Unified School District and the Association of Pleasanton Teachers have agreed to return to the negotiation table on Monday, with the district announcing its intent to accept a deal in line with the fact-finding recommendations and avoid a potential strike.

Patrick Gannon, communications director for the district, told the Weekly on Friday that APT has accepted PUSD’s invitation to meet again in the aftermath of a fact-finding session on Feb. 26 during which the two sides did not come to an agreement.

“The district has reviewed the final Factfinding Chairperson’s Report and is fully prepared to enter into a tentative agreement with APT consistent with the recommendations set forth in the report, which includes an ongoing salary increase of 9%, full Kaiser single coverage, increases in stipends, credit for years of service, reduction in class size for grades 9-12 and reduction in the contractual secondary counselor ratio,” Gannon said.

Fact-finding is a stage of the labor bargaining process where a neutral party and one representative from each side of negotiations at impasse reviews the proposals, documents and any facts before attempting to broker an agreement. If an agreement is not reached, then the fact-finder releases a report.

Gannon said that the district received the fact-finding report on March 5 and that the report would be made available to the public within 10 days of receiving it, although that timeline on releasing the report could be waived by both parties.

“We look forward to further collaboration with APT to reach a mutually agreeable conclusion and establish a tentative agreement for consideration by the board and the represented unit members,” Gannon said. “We appreciate the patience of all of our staff, parents and community members, as we work to bring this process to a positive conclusion.”

If the two sides fail to reach an agreement on Monday, then APT could decide to go on strike. Union members voted 98.5% in favor of authorizing a strike back in December.

“Our goals continue to be the same. We always hope to come to the table and settle for a deal to give our Pleasanton students the best,” APT president Cheryl Atkins told the Weekly. “Our guiding principles are best class sizes and caseloads, best resources and supports and best educators.”

Many teachers over the past several months have expressed that they do not want to strike but will if they have to, and that sentiment was seen during the fact-finding session last month when over 450 APT members, teachers, parents and community members rallied outside of the district office where the meeting was held.

If a strike does take place, the district will have to take emergency action on finding ways to keep the schools operational.

During a special school board meeting on Feb. 28, the Board of Trustees was poised to decide on approving a resolution that would have allowed the district to hire substitute teachers for every day teachers are on strike. The resolution estimated that over 300 substitute teachers would be needed for every day of a strike and that it would have cost the district approximately $220,000 each day to pay those teachers.

However, after dozens of teachers, parents and community members voiced their anger at the fact that the district would have paid these substitute teachers rather than paying their own teachers, the board decided to remove the resolution from the agenda.

“When you tell someone their worth, they listen. When you say we will replace you with untrained people at a huge quarter million dollar expense to the district every day, but you cannot give us the raise we ask for — a fair raise for hard work in hard times — this is not the way it should be,” Livermore City Councilmember Evan Branning said during the Feb. 28 meeting.

Branning, who works as a culinary and leadership teacher at Village High School in Pleasanton, told the school board to reject the resolution, to respect the process of returning to the negotiations table until the last day possible and demand that staff find an agreeable contract that is fair for the teachers.

“You can solve this problem. You can insist that staff return to the negotiation table, that they bargain in good faith, that they work to find the money that is owed to us,” Branning said. “You have not made us whole over the last several years. We are hurting, we feel disrespected, we are angry.”