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The Pleasanton Unified School District and the Association of Pleasanton Teachers have once again failed to reach a labor settlement agreement after a state-mandated mediation session last Friday — even after the union told district leaders that members voted 98.5% in favor of authorizing a strike.
While the teachers have not officially called a strike nor have immediate plans to call one, the vote does mean that the APT members have given union leadership the clearance to make that decision, if needed, as the two sides remain at impasse while far apart on salary proposals.
“Our educators are the dedicated professionals who guide and inspire our students,” APT President Cheryl Atkins told the PUSD school board during its meeting on Dec. 14, the night before the mediation session. “It’s only fair that we prioritize their well-being by providing healthcare with premium increases and acknowledging the invaluable contributions they make by offering a fair compensation package that reflects the historical funding increase to education that I have seen in my 30-plus years of teaching.”
“We don’t want to strike,” Atkins added. “A strike will have negative ramifications on this community for a very long time, but we are committed and we will if we have to.”
The mediation session is confidential on both sides, Atkins told the Weekly, which means that the details of why the session failed on Friday are also confidential. However, PUSD Superintendent David Haglund did offer some insight as to what transpired.
“As the session concluded, APT requested additional time to consider the district’s proposal,” Haglund told the Weekly. “The district agreed to the request in the interest of seeking an amicable resolution in the mediation process.”
Atkins said that even though they were unable to reach an agreement Friday, APT is still committed to fighting for a fair contract.
“APT is still committed to giving their students the best — which is class sizes, caps and caseloads, resources and supports and highly qualified teachers that they can attract and retain,” Atkins told the Weekly.
The union declared the impasse in negotiations with the district on Oct. 24, which initiated the state mediation process. That process, which is what took place on Friday, is facilitated by a state mediator assigned by the Mediation and Conciliation Service of the Public Employee Relations Board.
While there are other compensation and contract requests from the APT, the salary component has been the main sticking point for 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.
The district originally proposed raising teacher salaries 6.3% but has since increased its offer to 6.5%, while the APT initially asked for a 15% raise and has since lowered it to 14.25%.
Since the impasse decision, there have been several failed follow-up negotiation sessions between the two sides.
According to a Dec. 14 joint press release from the APT and the East Bay Coalition for Student Success, which is a union support organization made up of several union chapters affiliated with the 310,000-member California Teachers Association and the 3 million-member National Education Association, every chapter within the coalition has been fighting similar battles respectively since the coalition’s formation back in September 2022.
“Nearly all districts in California received an 8.22% increase in their per-student funding from the state, yet many management teams are preferring to keep that increase out of the classrooms and into their unrestricted reserves,” according to the Dec. 14 press release. “Every chapter within the coalition has been working hard at their bargaining tables to ensure that collective bargaining agreements use state funding to ensure that students and educators get the best resources.”
Atkins added to that sentiment as she pleaded with the board and the district on the eve of their mediation session to bring the current impasse to an end by saying that the focus of PUSD should be on students, and not on unnecessary spending.
“Our focus should not be on threats to lay off employees … and overspending of funds,” Atkins said. “That is what is happening. I’m hearing from members every day. Our focus should not be on buildings and facilities before students and staff.”
She also said that teachers have been patiently waiting on an offer that reflects their commitment to the district and shows students and educators that it’s not “just a matter of dollars and cents, it’s a matter of investing in the future of Pleasanton students.”
“The board has voted to give the executive cabinet full health insurance coverage, automatic salary increases and automatic longevity increases every year,” Atkins said. “Why are our students and staff last? Why can’t all staff receive the same from the board?”
Lisa Hopkins, a first grade teacher at Fairlands Elementary and a parent of a PUSD student, added to the idea that the students are counting on the district to demonstrate that it plans on putting students’ education first.
She also called out the district saying that during a recent leadership meeting at Fairlands, she had heard the district is threatening to cut employee positions as well as support programs and resources for students with intensive needs if the APT keeps asking for more money, which did not sit well with her.
“In threatening to cut the universal access and valuable training for science, reading instruction, you are showing that you are not putting students first,” Hopkins said. “If you succeed in making these cuts, you will blame us, you will make our jobs harder by adding back more to our plates, you’re going to further burn teachers out with your unending demands of unrealistic expectations without appropriate support.”
She also said that it feels like the district is constantly getting money for office needs and things the district wants while the needs from teachers are labeled as too expensive.
“When you threaten to take away the things you know we need most in hopes that it will scare us into settling for less than we are worth, it hurts kids,” Hopkins said. “It disappoints, frustrates, breaks us down, but it hurts kids. Once again you would prove you’re not so student focused. You’re not teacher focused. What is the end goal for this district? It’s not looking good.”
A petition that has been circulating on change.org demanding that PUSD prioritize teacher salary and health benefits since Oct. 16 has been once again gaining more signatures as it is now up to just under 3,000.
Atkins said now that mediation has failed, the two sides will now advance to a fact-finding stage of the negotiations. Fact-finding is when one neutral party along with one representative from each side of the negotiations reviews the proposals, documents and any facts before attempting to reach an agreement. If an agreement is not reached, then the fact-finder releases a report.
Atkins said that as of now, the APT and PUSD do not have a date set for the fact-finding session.