Dublin school district makes new offer to teachers union

Days after the Dublin teachers union authorized its leaders to initiate a strike if labor negotiations break down, Dublin Unified School District officials announced a revision to their original offer, hoping to find an equitable compromise and end negotiations that have been ongoing for nearly a year.

In an announcement released Wednesday, DUSD officials stated they have increased their original offer to an ongoing raise of 4% for all teachers and a one-time bonus of 1%, as well as an additional 0.5% salary increase for the district’s longest serving teachers.

The current offer the Dublin Teachers Association union has made is for a 4.5% ongoing raise and a one-time bonus of 3.5%.

“The school district has worked diligently and sought to find creative solutions to meet DTA’s request, making multiple wage offers in a variety of combinations or configurations in search for a fair agreement,” DUSD Superintendent Leslie Boozer wrote.

Boozer said the Board and district staff have looked to utilize future state funding increases in combination with one-time district monies — the district reserves — to sustain an on-going increase for teachers in the current school year.

Prior to the increased offer, as of March 5 DUSD officials were offering the union a 2% increased salary schedule — effective July 1, 2018 — and a 3% one-time bonus, in addition to other benefits.

“Today’s offer seeks to meet (the Dublin Teachers Association) as closely as possible to their proposed contract terms, while ensuring the long-term fiscal health of our schools,” Boozer said via email. “We feel that today’s offer provides equitable pay for our dedicated teachers and allows us to have the ongoing resources to invest in critical needs like new text books, professional development, educational programs and services and counselors.”

Additional benefits proposed by the district include incentives for teachers depending on the size of their classrooms. Teacher of K-5 classes will receive $6.50 per student per day in excess of the negotiated class size of between 24 to 28 students — depending on grade.

As for middle or high school classroom, teachers who have a cumulative total that is larger than 165 students will receive additional compensation of $1.50 per student per day.

Additional propositions made by the district include compensation for teachers attending preschool Special Day Class Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, implementation of specialist support providers, pay for completion of annual and triennial assessments, and pay for teachers who are assigned to cover another classroom.

The announcement comes days after the DTA overwhelmingly voted to authorize its leaders to declare a strike should negotiations break down and both sides become unable to find an amicable agreement.

“Finally, as you all know, we had our second mediation session (Tuesday). Both sides spent much of the day at mediation, as we sought to find common ground. Our hope is that (Wednesday’s) formal offer demonstrates our willingness to find solutions to the issues we’ve collectively identified. The offer being made today represents that work and shows our commitment to collaborating with our teachers and their union to find an equitable solution,” Boozer said.