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The Dublin teachers union made good on its vow to strike Monday morning following multiple rounds of unsuccessful contract bargaining this past weekend with the district negotiators.
Among the aims of Dublin Teachers Association are better pay and benefits, smaller class sizes and maintaining a full-time counselor at each elementary school. The Dublin Unified School District has backed the fact-finding panel’s neutral recommendation, which includes increased compensation but no movement on class size reductions and the counselors.
“The current offer is not student-centered,” said DTA President Brad Dobrzenski during a brief press conference Monday outside Dublin High School, where the campus – like all other public schools in the city – were open to students with administrators and others in the classroom and teachers picketing on the streets.
Dozens of employees paced the parking lot entrances of the high school along Village Parkway, waving signs and shouting chants such as “DTA all the Way.” With them, a couple students rallied in solidarity.
“We hope that this demonstrates our commitment and investment in our students,” Dobrzenski said of the strike in an interview with Pleasanton Weekly.
“A strike is hard, but it’s about putting students in the front with a big statement,” DHS teacher and strike lead at the campus Catie Tombs said.
The two sides went back to the negotiating table on Monday evening but emerged from the private meeting without a deal. The strike is scheduled to continue on Tuesday.
Day one of the strike
As students arrived at Dublin High, DTA members alerted them to the ongoing strike with some students immediately departing.
Behind the campus gates, few students were visible as classes continued.
“The District’s current proposal reflects an effort to move toward resolution while still acknowledging the financial realities we face,” assistant superintendent of educational services Matt Campbell said in a statement Sunday announcing that no agreement had been reached.
Superintendent Chris Funk expressed similar sentiments in an interview with the Weekly.
“At this time, going any higher would just mean even more cuts,” Funk said.
DUSD is not alone in its financial challenges, Funk added, noting school districts in Pleasanton and Livermore among those with strapped budgets.
Funk suggested that the state change the way it funds public education, including the complete funding of special education and region-based bumps.
“I’m very disappointed that they chose to go on strike because a strike does not benefit anyone,” Funk said.
Employees lose pay, the district loses funding and students along with their families are placed in the tough spot of choosing between supporting the teachers or supporting the district, he explained.
“They’re being treated as pawns,” Funk said of the students.
Instead of his typical role as superintendent, Funk taught fourth and fifth grade classes on March 9 with full sets of students. They worked with packets and online math programming, he explained.
“Our teachers are essential to our community,” DHS senior Noor Rizvi told the Weekly. “I’m really disappointed to see that the school district is not prioritizing the needs of teachers and by extension, not prioritizing the needs of students.”
Following the school site picketing, hundreds of DTA members and their supporters gathered for a rally at Kolb Park in Dublin.
Just after 1 p.m., DTA lead negotiator Monica Lewis informed the crowd that the district had not budged in its offer.
She reiterated DTA’s goals surrounding class sizes, counselors and the ability to recruit and retain qualified teachers.
“We are not going to stop fighting until we get them for our students,” Lewis said before the crowd.
Also in attendance was U.S. Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell (D-Livermore), who is a Dublin High School alum.
“Teachers are the backbone of our community,” Swalwell told the crowd. “You are the co-authors of our children’s lives and for that, we don’t just owe you a raise. We don’t just owe the community a smaller classroom. We owe you everything.”
Attendees erupted in cheers.
Later taking the stage, California Teachers Association President David Goldberg commended the Dublin teachers union for their collective efforts.
“I saw your strike lines today — that is a beautiful thing to see,” Goldberg said. At a time when people are being pitted against each other and our students are under attack, you’re standing up for our students and saying you’re willing to fight for them.”
Following the rally, the crowd took off for the district office.
As day one of the strike entered midafternoon, DTA Vice President Brittany Neideffer said she was feeling inspired.
“Seeing everybody show up today and really stand with each other has given me so much hope and it has really made me feel so much more connected to my colleagues,” Neideffer said.
“I honestly thought our leadership was gonna be more collaborative, so I don’t think we’re gonna be able to avoid day two tomorrow, but I really hope that is the last day,” Neideffer told the Weekly.
Where negotiations stand
The already tense tone between DTA and DUSD shifted darker last week upon the release of the final report from the fact-finding panel – which included a neutral arbitrator and representatives selected by the district and the union, respectively.
The three-person panel analyzed arguments from both sides on four subjects: school calendar, class sizes, health care benefits and salary.
On the pay question, the union proposal called for an ongoing 3.5% salary increase for DTA members and a 3% bonus, while the district pushed for a one-time payment of $1,433 to all DTA members and no ongoing raise to limit cost commitments in future years – in part because compensation increases given to DTA are typically doled out to all other employee groups.
The recommendation from fact-finder chair Gina M. Roccanova, concurred in part and rejected in part by the DTA panel member and left unsigned by the DUSD panelist, called for a 2.1% raise retroactive to July 1 and a one-time bonus of 1% of the member’s current base salary.
Other key terms included charting a path to the district fully covering the Kaiser Permanente single premium for DTA members by 2028 – 85% covered by July 1, 90% by Jan. 1, 2027 and 100% by Jan. 1, 2028.
Roccanova declined to act on specific class size ratios but said the two sides should form a committee by June 1 to identify funding sources and priorities for reducing class size. If they did not reach agreement by the start of the 2027-28 academic year, then the overage percentage would be increased by 2%.
The chair was inclined to support the district’s instructional calendar as presented.
The resulting collective bargaining agreement should be in place for two years, Roccanova recommended, with wages automatically reopened in year two and each side getting one additional item to put on the table for 2026-27. Benefits could not be reopened though.
Citing an interest in compromise and securing a deal, the district’s bargaining team agreed to accept the fact-finders’ proposal in full on March 5 – revealing the news to the community that afternoon.
Hours later, DTA confirmed the proposed agreement was unacceptable and its members would strike on Monday unless the district came to the table with “a settlement that honors our students”.
Funk lamented the DTA’s strike threat in a statement to the Weekly on the night of March 5.
“We are disappointed that our teachers — some of the highest paid in the region, working in some of the most modern facilities — would choose to take an action likely to have a lasting and detrimental impact on our students and programs,” the sitting superintendent said. “Our goal is to reach a resolution that supports our educators while maintaining the fiscal responsibility needed to sustain the strong academic programs our students rely on.”
Campbell added his own thoughts in a community message March 6.
“Recent teacher strikes across California have produced agreements that, while celebrated by unions as negotiation victories, have quickly been followed by deep budget deficits, widespread layoffs, and the elimination of programs that directly support students. This pattern has repeated itself in district after district,” he said.
“It is also important to recognize that in many districts, teachers’ unions are striking to secure compensation and working conditions that Dublin teachers already enjoy,” Campbell added.
The district says data show Dublin teachers are among the most well-paid in the region, ranking second in total compensation at $95,289 in salary and health-and-welfare benefits for beginners (with Pleasanton at No. 1), first for mid-career teachers at $137,517 and second for near-retirement educators at $159,387 (with San Leandro at No. 1).
According to Campbell, the fact-finder recommendation would cost the district about $11.6 million over three years while the DTA counterproposal would come with a bill of about $32 million during the same period.
The union has pushed back at the district’s math throughout the process, arguing that revenue projections aren’t up to date and that DUSD is ignoring obvious non-staff cuts to help right the ship.
“DTA leaders fully recognize the importance of fiscal solvency and have identified multiple sources of fiscal capacity that could be utilized to fund our proposals,” the union says on its website.
DUSD should update its 2025-26 and 2026-27 enrollment and attendance estimates, and its revenue projections for next year need to align with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget proposal, according to the union – which claims the district is underestimating state revenue by $7 million or more.
DTA also urges the district to cut consultants and contractors by $3 million, reduce spending on books and supplies by $1.5 million and stop “wasteful spending that doesn’t serve students” by management on lodging, meals and transportation for professional trips and other reasons. All of those moves would be “easily reversible and not tied to layoffs”, according to DTA.
“They offered us cuts. We said no,” the union said on Facebook on March 6. “DUSD’s proposal ignores class sizes and offers zero support for special education students. This is what they don’t want Dublin families to know.”
“We never walked away from the table – management never came to the table with a fair contract,” DTA added.
