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The Pleasanton school board is set to approve a memorandum of understanding between the district and the classified employees union on Thursday, which would end a labor dispute regarding overtime violations and would collectively pay $115,000 to 33 union members.
According to the settlement agreement included in the staff report, the California School Employees Association (CSEA), which represents classified employees, filed an unfair practice charge against the Pleasanton Unified School District after the union said the district failed to comply with an overtime distribution policy included in their collective bargaining agreement.
“The parties recognize that beginning August 2022, and continuing, the district changed the status quo by disregarding the contractually established overtime policy … by selectively offering (overtime) outside of the contractually required seniority rotation,” according to the settlement agreement.
After the union filed the charge with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) — which issued a complaint letter to the district on March 10 — both parties have agreed to the terms in the settlement agreement, which will be part of Thursday’s consent calendar.
Items on consent are deemed routine in nature and typically approved without any debate.
According to the settlement agreement, if approved the district will agree to pay about $3,500 to 31 individual union members and about $2,800 to two members who had an attendance record of less than 80% due to illness.
The lump-sum payments to each member will be provided after the agreement has been executed and following that, the district has also agreed to comply with the two parties’ collective bargaining agreement — specifically the policy regarding overtime.
The district will also track and report all overtime offers and acceptance of overtime in the future and the CSEA will also agree to withdraw its PERB charge with prejudice, according to the settlement agreement.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (June 22).
Read the full agenda here.
In other business
* The board will be receiving an update on the district’s special education department including statistics and goals for the future.
According to the staff report, fewer than 10% of PUSD’s students receive special education services, which translates to 1,423 students who were eligible for special education at some point during the 2022-23 school year.
The staff report also highlights how Pleasanton spends less to educate students in special education than is expected by the state and that PUSD also contributes less to special education from its general fund than most comparable Bay Area districts.
Another highlight from the report is that the number of Hispanic, Black and African American students that are assessed for special education is more than expected given their proportion of the general student population.
* District staff will be asking the board of trustees to approve the Measure I implementation plan, which will help ensure that the district delivers the promises listed in the bond.
It has been seven months since Measure I, the $395 million general obligation bond that will go toward funding for school facility upgrades, was passed by voters in November’s general election.
But in order to speed up the process in getting started on quick-strat projects listed in the bond — as well as long term projects — the district decided to draft up an implementation plan to make sure the bond goals are met with fidelity.
“This implementation plan will provide a road map for the execution of Measure I, outlining the program schedule, project delivery methods, project budgets, program budgets and other critical elements to completing a successful program,” according to the staff report. “It is important to note that changes may occur during a district’s bond program; district needs, market conditions, global supply chain and other unplanned items may arise, which is why an implementation plan is a living document.”
The plan was brought to the board for a first reading on May 25 where board members mainly requested that the facilities and construction team solicit additional feedback from the public, which will be presented to the board on Thursday.
* With summer break coming up for the board of trustees, district staff will be asking for the board’s approval to grant the district’s facilities and construction team the authority to pursue architectural contracts for several Measure I and Measure I1 projects.
The facilities and construction team is currently in the process of looking for potential architectural design companies and believes this work should be done by the end of this month, which is why it wants to continue working on these projects that don’t require input from district site committees.
“These items would be contracts, initial site surveys, verification of as-built and other initial design activities,” according to the staff report. “This proactive approach to these contracts will allow the team to be ready when the staff returns to dive directly into the design of the spaces, getting input from all levels of staff and moving the project forward as expeditiously as possible.”
The projects include two from the $270 million Measure I1 general obligation bond project list — expanding transitional kindergarten at Donlon and Fairlands Elementary schools — which are projected to cost $900,000 each.
The other two projects are the Pleasanton Middle School field renovation and upgrade, which is projected to cost about $950,000, and the Early Childhood Education project to move the long-running Horizon Early Education Center and STEAM Preschool program to Harvest Park Middle School, which would cost approximately $575,000.
* Another Measure I1 project that the board will be discussing is upgrading the landscape at Pleasanton Middle School and Hearst Elementary School in order to reduce water consumption.
Part of the district’s water conservation project, the two schools were recently deemed to have the highest need for the upgrades following the similar work that was done at Foothill High School.
The board will be voting to approve a contract with Bay Construction, which would do the work on both schools for $778,800.
* The school board will be set to approve its 2023-24 budget, which includes tightened budget expenditures and continued plans to right-size its staff in light of declining enrollment.
According to the staff report, assistant superintendent of business services Ahmad Sheikholeslami and executive director of Fiscal Services, Tom Gray, will be presenting the proposed budget, which meets the required 3% reserves for “economic uncertainties for the current fiscal year and through 2025-26 as required.”
“The General Fund reserve, including the undesignated/unappropriated balance, will be 4.90% for 2023-24, 4.74% in 2024-25, and 3.89% in 2025-26,” according to the staff report. “These reserve levels, while adequate, are below statewide averages and provide the district with less fiscal resilience as we head into potentially challenging fiscal times.”
The budget is in its final round of discussion after the board and members of the public expressed their thoughts at the last meeting on June 8.
“Except for some minor edits and clarifications in the presentation, the material and supporting documents are the same as were presented at the public hearing,” according to the staff report.
