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The Pleasanton school board on Thursday is set to receive the list of topics that the Association of Pleasanton Teachers want to negotiate with the district for the next academic year, including reducing class sizes, adjusting salaries and benefits, and assessing the instructional calendar.
Back in May, the Board of Trustees unanimously passed the new teachers contract that includes a 3.25% salary increase and new health benefits.
The terms are part of a tentative agreement covering the next three academic years, with a one-year settlement for the 2022-23 portion of the agreement.
Teachers can also now receive a cash-in-lieu contribution of $1,500 if they choose not to participate in the health benefits program. An annual cash-in-lieu contribution of $2,000 will also be available for any member not participating in the CalPERS health benefits program after July 1, 2023.
According to Thursday’s board meeting staff report, the teachers union will be introducing a new proposal to reduce the number of kids in classrooms as part of labor negotiations for the 2023-24 year.
“Our students deserve the best, therefore we will seek fair and balanced class sizes and caseloads that foster student and teacher success in the classroom,” according to the staff report. “Every PUSD student has one opportunity to excel in each grade level. Smaller class sizes and caseloads give students a more individualized educational experience and the best opportunity to be successful.”
The association is allowed to propose reopener provisions in the California State Collective Bargaining Act. Reopener proposals can be included in the collective bargaining agreement as a mid-term clause for new negotiations over particular issues or terms if specified conditions are met.
Salaries, health and welfare benefits, and the instructional calendar are listed as automatic reopeners in the union’s letter.
According to the staff report, the district is presenting the association’s reopener proposals in order to initiate formal negotiations for the 2023-2024 school year.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 27). Read the full agenda here.
In other business
* The board is set to review and possibly approve a comprehensive early intervening plan for disenfranchised students who have specific learning disabilities.
According to the staff report, the 2022 Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CCEIS) plan outlines new and improved programs and services that will address how to better serve the disproportionate number of Hispanic and Latinx students with disabilities.
“In 2020, 2021 and again in 2022, the California Department of Education (CDE) cited PUSD as significantly disproportionate in the over-identification of Hispanic/Latinx students within special education under specific learning disability,” according to the staff report.
Because of that, PUSD is now required to uncover the root cause of this and create a yearly programmatic improvement plan through the CCEIS plan. The goal will be to monitor these students and their progress to better understand their disabilities and how to get them the help they need earlier rather than later.
Some measurable outcomes listed in the plan are reducing the percentage of initial special education assessments conducted for Hispanic/Latinx students, reducing overall chronic absenteeism rates and reducing overall suspension rate in those marginalized communities by 2024.
* The board will be reviewing architectural design agreements for the fire alarm upgrades and replacements at several schools.
Part of the $270 million Measure I1 school bond that voters passed in 2016 included plans to upgrade all the fire alarms in the district. As of now, upgrades to the following schools have either been completed or will be completed in the fall: Donlon, Lydiksen, Valley View, Walnut Grove, Alisal, and Mohr Elementary Schools and Harvest Park Middle School.
At Thursday’s meeting, the board will be reviewing the agreements for upgrades at Hearst, Fairlands, and Vintage Hills Elementary Schools as well as for Pleasanton Middle School.
If approved, the newly listed schools can expect to have new fire alarm upgrades by the end of summer in 2023.
Up until now, Sugimura Finney Architects (SFA) has done the architectural services for these Fire Alarm Upgrade Projects and will continue to do so. All the previous projects were completed within budget and their fee percentage has remained the same since last year’s projects.
“With their knowledge of previous system designs and the Districts Facilities, the Facilities and Construction team feels they remain the best fit to design this year’s Fire Alarm Upgrade Projects,” according to the staff report. “The system designs will stay consistent with the previous upgrades to maintain system standards that will increase the efficacy in which the systems will be maintained and repaired in the future.”
So the Teacher’s Union (the most powerful liberal Democrat voting block) wants to talk AGAIN about salaries and contract negotiations? Is your voting choice for President not working out for you? Your household costs are rising? Teachers were able to work for a year and a half in their pajamas from the comfort of their living room where the students learning curve went down. If anything, there should be a refund to parents that didn’t receive the level of teaching they expected.
Class size? How does that work? Where are you going to place the overflow?
“Some measurable outcomes listed in the plan are reducing the percentage of initial special education assessments conducted for Hispanic/Latinx students, reducing overall chronic absenteeism rates and reducing overall suspension rate in those marginalized communities by 2024.” – I guess Pleasanton will have to establish their first Title 1 school. The hole in the southern boarder comes to our little town.
Isn’t giving teachers money instead of benefits how Pleasanton got into the situation where teachers are supposedly underpaid?
In the private sector, in most cases you don’t get money if you don’t take the benefits offered.
PUSD should not give teachers cash if benefits are declined.
Instead, pay teachers competitive salaries and leave money for benefits out of the equation.