Another failed bargaining session on Tuesday has again left the Association of Pleasanton Teachers and the Pleasanton Unified School District negotiation teams at a standstill, meaning the two sides are on track to participate in a state-led mediation process next month.
APT President Cheryl Atkins said that while the union was optimistic when the district invited them back to the table with a new offer to help settle negotiations after the union declared an impasse, that contract proposal from PUSD was not enough.
"APT was hopeful that returning to the table today would be a positive move for both sides, which would get us closer to a settlement and we would not have to continue to take time out of our classrooms and away from our students," Atkins told the Weekly late Tuesday night. "However, the district's offer didn't advance us in the negotiations process."
Atkins said that she was not able to share the details of the new offer because it was not a formal written offer -- it was more of an idea that was posed by the district, which allowed both sides to talk more freely about their needs. She did, however, say that the APT had "expected a formal proposal when we agreed to return to the table but was then told the morning of, that it wouldn't be possible and that an idea would be given."
PUSD has not responded for comments as of Friday morning, but the district had sent out a press release on Monday stating that it had expressed interest in coming back to the table "with the shared goal of reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement."
The union declared the impasse in negotiations on Oct. 24, initiating the state mediation process, which is facilitated by a state mediator assigned by the Mediation and Conciliation Service of the Public Employee Relations Board, according to PUSD officials.
The mediation session is still currently scheduled for Dec. 15.
APT had declared the impasse with the district after the two sides remained well apart on proposed salary increases. The district originally proposed raising teacher salaries 6.3% but has since raised it to 6.5% while the APT initially asked for a 15% raise and has since lowered it to 14.25%.
While there are other compensation and contract requests from the APT, the salary component has been the main talking point from both sides as the district has held a strong stance against the large increase in salary mainly due to budget restrictions while the teachers have been very vocal about the need for higher pay and fully paid benefits.
Tensions between the two sides came to a head last month when roughly 400 teachers and community members marched through downtown to voice their concerns and show support for the teacher union at the Oct. 26 school board meeting.
Comments
Registered user
Birdland
on Nov 10, 2023 at 9:56 am
Registered user
on Nov 10, 2023 at 9:56 am
Regardless of where you stand on this issue, the simple fact is we have to stay competitive with area districts or we will continue to lose teachers to those districts! Turnover is killing our schools and the only solution is to give teachers and site administration a reason to stay with PUSD other than their kids going to the school or their friends work there too. If pay and benefits don’t compare to the towns surrounding us, who wouldn’t jump? Our town has always been known for its good schools, until recently when we are seeing drops in quality of education (personally seeing this) and drops in school grades by those independent raters. Whether you put stake in those ratings or not, it is what helps maintain or grow our property values (if you don’t have kids at PUSD) or what has a meaningful impact on our families (if you do have kids at PUSD). So support our teachers in this cause to be competitive with salary and benefits locally as that’s really what this all boils down to!
Registered user
Vineyard Hills
on Nov 10, 2023 at 1:13 pm
Registered user
on Nov 10, 2023 at 1:13 pm
First, the title of this is misleading. There was no contract offer. Management came to the meeting with and "idea" that wasn't an offer and couldn't be shared with anyone outside the bargaining room.
Big picture: The district is going to need to make structural change at the management level. They say they don't have money to meet the demands of the union, and that's because they've misappropriated their budget to be too top heavy over the course of years. A few examples:
While the district says they've had decreased enrollment leading to decreased LCAP funding, they continue to fund unnecessary high paying positions at the district office. Look at the org charts on the district office website and see how many jobs are titled Coordinator, Assistant Director, and Coach. Many of these jobs did not exist before Haglund and did not exist when enrollment was higher than it is now, and most of them get paid much more than the highest paid teacher. Web Link
PUSD has 4 assistant superintendents who collectively make $1.6 million, not including the cost of their administrative assistants and executive secretaries, each of whom makes more than the highest teacher salary.
Haglund's base salary increased 44.4% between 2017 and 2023. In addition, he receives an automatic 3.5% increase every year, has been given full top-tier medical and dental coverage for himself and his family for life. The rest of the cabinet receives these benefits, too.
After almost going on strike 2 years ago to secure a 3.5% raise (the district's initial offer was .27% for a multi-year contract, and they wouldn't budge from that for months) that failed to keep up with inflation, coupled with the knowledge that the district received $22 million dollars last year from the state and wouldn't reopen the contract to reflect increased revenues, teachers are just done.
And ask any secondary teacher what they think of Synergy...