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Dublin Unified School District and Dublin Teachers Association bargaining teams came to terms on a tentative agreement that includes a 6% raise for educators among other provisions, Superintendent Chris Funk announced at the end of a long negotiation session Friday night.
The deal, which still needs ratification by union membership and approval by the Board of Trustees, would end months of tense talks that saw both sides acknowledge the threat of possible DTA strike in the wake of an initially unsuccessful fact-finding meeting March 11. The two parties decided to return to the bargaining table at the end of the week and a tentative agreement was ultimately reached.
“We are pleased to share that the District and the Dublin Teachers Association (DTA) have reached a tentative agreement to resolve negotiations for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. We’d like to thank our union partners in DTA for their time, collaboration, and commitment to reaching this tentative agreement,” Funk said in a statement released just after 9 p.m. Friday (March 15).
The deal includes a 6% salary increase for the 2023-24 academic year, paid out at 4.5% retroactive to July 1 and 1.5% effective on May 1, according to Funk – who also referenced another 0.5% increase “to reflect the five additional collaboration meetings (total of 26) as described in Article 6.17.1.”
Other key provisions reported publicly by Funk were that the district would provide new and existing employees up to eight of their years of experience for prior full-time teaching experience at the TK-12 level and that the number of prep periods for first through fifth grade teachers will increase to 108 per year, up from 90 – both of those terms would take effect starting in the 2024-25 academic year.
DTA representatives have not yet shared a public comment on the tentative agreement.
The two sides had gone back and forth primarily on the salary issue, with the union declaring an impasse in negotiations in late November. DTA members accused the district of holding out with plenty of funding available to sustain higher wages now and into the future whereas DUSD leaders cited budget concerns for upcoming years, to the point of separately approving a plan for staffing cutbacks for 2024-25.