The Pleasanton Unified School District and Association of Pleasanton Teachers recently signed a memorandum of understanding that both sides say signifies a successful start to next year's labor negotiations.

Cheryl Atkins, president of the association, told the Weekly that PUSD and the teachers union signed the agreement on Wednesday to clarify the language in their contract regarding calculating time off for personal or medical reasons.

"The MOU stated that an eight-hour day would be used when calculating leaves," Atkins said. "This MOU is important because, when teachers apply to go on leave … the total hours worked in the last year are calculated to qualify. Teachers' instructional day with students is not eight hours, however, their additional time used to plan and prepare for their teaching, write lesson plans, communicate with parents, correct work and assessments, is often more than eight hours."

According to a news release from the district, apart from the memorandum enabling teachers to continue to access Family and Medical Leave Act benefits, it has also led to a positive "interest-based" approach to the negotiations process.

"We’d like to thank our partners at APT for a constructive start to our negotiations, a process that serves our students, staff and (the) community," Julio Hernandez, assistant superintendent of human resources, said in the news release. "We look forward to a collaborative and open relationship as we move forward in the best interest of our students and staff."

According to the release, the agreement represents a shift for a "more open negotiations process with the goal of increased transparency and identifying shared interests to reach agreements."

Back in May, the district approved a new collective bargaining agreement between the district and the teachers association that included a 3.25% salary increase and new health benefits.

The tentative agreement covers the next three academic years, with a one-year settlement for the 2022-23 portion of the agreement and health benefits for employees in line with CalPERS health benefits -- a maximum of $5,000 including all CalPERS-required contributions.

Atkins said that the union negotiates salary, calendar and benefits every year and each side of the negotiations teams gets the opportunity to open to articles in the contract to renegotiate.

The entire contract is open for negotiations every three years.

Apart from time off, the teachers association has sunshined -- which is another way of saying it reopened -- the article in the contract regarding class sizes and caseloads for negotiations during the 2023-24 school year.

Atkins said the association sunshined that article in late October and is now waiting for the district to sunshine their article in the joint contract, which she said will occur during the Jan. 19 school board meeting.

She said negotiations will hopefully start shortly after that meeting but as of now, there are no set dates.

"(The Association of Pleasanton Teachers) and the district have been working together on building better relationships since our near strike," Atkins said. "I feel that is going well, and it is our hope to see this carry into our upcoming negotiations."

She was referring to October 2021 when more than 98% of PUSD's collective bargaining unit members on the APT voted to allow a strike, which did not materialize after the district reached an agreement with the association.