|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Less than a month after a strike was authorized by its members, the Association of Pleasanton Teachers has reached a “tentative agreement” with the Pleasanton Unified School District in their ongoing contract negotiations.
Superintendent David Haglund said he was “pleased to inform” the PUSD community about the development in a message on Monday.
“We are grateful to the participants of both negotiation teams for their focused efforts to bring this settlement together,” Haglund said. He did not detail specific terms included in the proposed tentative agreement.
APT President Michelle VerKuillen could not be reached for comment as of Monday afternoon, but members of the union recently held several rallies outside the district administration office during meetings of the Board of Trustees to share their message.
According to Haglund, the agreement will be brought to APT members for ratification during the next week, then presented to the Board of Trustees for final approval at their regular meeting on Nov. 18.
In mid-October, more than 98% of PUSD’s collective bargaining unit members who participated in internal balloting voted to allow a strike once state-mandated impasse procedures have been “exhausted”. An impasse between APT and PUSD was declared in September, around the same time the California Teachers Association (CTA) also requested to enter fact-finding.
The district did not provide any details about the newly proposed agreement and told the Weekly, “Until members vote, it’s our practice to respect that process and not share details until they’ve had the opportunity to make a decision.”
Before the impasse was declared though, PUSD had proposed a two year compensation package (2020-2022) that they said is equivalent to a 5% compensation increase.
When the strike vote was first announced last month, union representatives said PUSD was “proposing only an off-schedule payment for the 2020-2021 school year and a mere 2.0% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase for the 2021-2022 school year, even though the state has increased the district’s ongoing funding by over 5% for the 2021-2022 school year alone.”
The teachers union also said health benefits are not included in certificated salaries, and that their members “are currently paying an average of $14,000 or more a year to provide medical insurance for themselves and their families,” with costs expected to rise up to 23.75%, depending on the plan, by next year.
Members have also pushed for smaller classes and class loads, individualized support for special education students, and offering “competitive compensation” to retain and recruit more educators.
While I’m glad that there will not be a strike, I am still extremely disappointed in the Superintendent, his cabinet, and the Board of Trustees. Everyone in our community should know that Haglund and his cabinet, in addition to what they already have secured for themselves (3.5% raise each year and paid benefits for themselves and their families), will receive whatever was offered to teachers, as they made sure to include in their contract a “Me Too Clause.” And the Board approved this. Many community members have lost confidence in district leadership’s ability to lead. They have put themselves before everyone else, including students.
So what are our options for removing these individuals from their current responsibilities
There is the election in November 2022 for the board—Maher, Laursen, and Miller. You could also try to recall the board. And if you get a better board, you tell them to can Haglund and have the new superintendent assess/eliminate cabinet members (although they all have three year contracts).
There is, by the way, no way any cabinet member should get the me too amount. They bungled this negotiation badly. AND it is ludicrous to believe anyone with a me too clause is going “darn, they sure got us didn’t they”.
Assuming you could even get enough signatures for a recall, by the time you do that, verify the signatures and set the special election (which we pay for) it will already be November 2022. Two of the Trustees whose terms expire next year announced months ago that they will not seek re-election.
There have been posts questioning why anyone would want to be a teacher in PUSD. Some of those posts make rationale, fact based arguments proving their point (compensation, benefits, etc.).
Why would anyone run for PUSD Trustee and subject themself and their family to all that goes with it? Personal attacks, bullying and intimidation including from some who don’t even live here or work for PUSD. Connect the dots on why someone would come here from San Ramon or Dublin to protest PUSD. Constant criticism often without factual statements to back up an opinion.
I’ve met every member of the current board. I think some of them are much better than others. I don’t care for some of them at all. I think each of them, however, including the ones who I do not support ran for office because they wanted to make PUSD a better place (whatever their vision of that may be). I think they operate with good intentions and should not be subjected to personal attacks like the ones that often permeate this forum. Attacks that are motivated by political and/or financial gain while using PUSD students and employees as pawns.
To be fair, at least one sitting Trustee exhibited that behavior themself in a prior election by making factually false, pejorative statements about some Trustee candidates. I personally heard and saw it. I hope that Trustee is introspective enough to now realize how harmful that is after being subjected to non-factual personal attacks themself.
“As long as we convince each other that people who disagree with us are evil, the likelihood for violence will keep growing.” – Dan Schnur
The question is then, if you ran to make PUSD a better place, why are you voting the way cabinet/the superintendent suggests? Two no votes is a statement; three no votes and there can be change.
Vote of no confidence. Even if the strike has been averted. None of the findings of the fact finding report have been made available to the public. The superintendant and board have just this month invoked a covid 10 – delta variant loophole state of emergency. All board meetings will be held by teleconference. Gov Newsome issued the Emergency order in March of 2020. Interesting timing PUSD and board to declare a state of emergency allowing district meetings to take place without full public access. If you dont believe me try to get access to a district school board meeting. Something is not right here.
What Teachers Spouse posted is factually incorrect. PUSD Governing Board meetings have been taking place via Zoom since March or April of 2020. The public has access to view the meetings in real time and to make public comments via Zoom. Prior meetings are archived and can also be viewed. Same for the City Council and City Commissions. Not hard to find at all.
It may be the district’s practice to keep the proposed contract secret until the union votes on it, but I’m pretty sure that’s against the law. California’s public records law states that every record created by a public agency or government body, including public schools, is presumed to be open unless a law dictates it must be private. This is taxpayer money being negotiated. The taxpayers have the right to know what the district is offering the union.
So, Kathleen, how does that work exactly? Haglund and his board get a 3.5% raise increase yearly and now get an additional raise because the teachers got one? If so, that’s ludicrous and parents/tax payers should be up in arms. Please explain further. Thank you.
Annoyed Parent that is correct. This was put into place when Haglund came on board. It is called “me too clause”. It applies to the superintendent and his cabinet.
Do Haglund and his board get an additional 4.5% increase as well? How is that not a conflict of interest? This is outrageous! How could the school board have voted for this? The Weekly needs to make these facts clear to its readers as most parents are in the dark. Not only should they be voted out of office, they should be prosecuted for ripping off taxpayers!
The “me too clause” for PUSD Superintendent and Cabinet has been in place since at least 2010. It was not created for Dr. Haglund. “This low-to-no-profile labor relations culture is not limited to public school practices.” I’m not advocating for me too clauses just stating the reality.
People should stop posting things on social media that are easily proven to be false. A couple links below on me too clauses as well as information on public disclosure requirements for public employees who are represented by labor unions.
https://calaware.org/the-other-me-too-trend/
https://employment.uslegal.com/blog/treatment-of-me-too-clauses-and-permissive-subjects-in-collective-bargaining-agreements/
Annoyed, first, the me too clause was here way before Haglund arrived, to be fair. Before 2010 as well. And to be clear, it is for the superintendent, his cabinet (all who got 3.5% already), and non-represented people (like the superintendent’s secretary and principals). The board has to vote separately to give themselves a raise.
The most appalling part of negotiations is cabinet members sit on the negotiating committee, and in this case negotiated a raise and will get another raise to match what teachers received. Pretty nice set up for them.
How it usually works, in most school districts, is that district leadership first negotiates with their unions. Then there is a me too clause that allows admin to receive the same raise as the people they serve. This ensures parity. So, if teachers get 4.5% so does admin. What Haglund and cabinet did is:
1. They served themselves first not their unions
2. They gave themselves a 3.5% raise each year, plus paid benefits for themselves and their families (a value of at least $30,000)
3. And they get the me too clause (4.5%)
They put themselves before all certificated and classified staff, as well as the students they are to serve. They have created a divisive and toxic culture. There is no trust, and as a result, they have undermined our school district. I do not see how we can move forward as a district with Haglund and his cabinet in place. And the Board is complicit. They have approved all this!