Your LTA Bargaining Team met with the district on June 3, 2014.  After extensive bargaining, the parties signed two MOUs (memorandum of understanding) addressing issues that are time sensitive and of major importance to our members.  The MOUs provide reimplementation of a 12-month pay cycle with 24 paychecks and the scheduling of 3 voluntary professional development days this summer to facilitate implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

The benefit of signing an MOU on the paycheck cycle is that it goes into effect immediately and unit members will receive paychecks through the summer on July 20^th and August 5^th 2014.  However, an MOU does not create permanent contract language, so we’ll continue bargaining for such language as we work toward a comprehensive agreement.  Likewise, the MOU on summer professional development days establishes 3 voluntary PD days during the summer of 2014 only.  Both of these MOUs are major victories and achieve two of the top bargaining priorities identified by our members.

download Bargaining Update #3

Paycheck MOU 12 months, 2 paychecks per month, for a total of 24 paychecks, beginning July 2014 MOU runs through June 2016, giving us up to 2 years to complete negotiations on permanent contract language Professional Development Days MOU 3 days provided during the summer of 2014 for professional development, planning, and collaboration Scheduled for August 13, 14, and 15 (the week before the 2 normal pre-service days) The structure of these days will include: School and/or district professional development Directed collaboration and planning No fewer than 3 hours for individual planning related to the professional development provided The days are voluntary, although members are encouraged to participate Compensation of $300 per day

In addition to the two MOUs, the district made proposals and counterproposals that included:

• Increase the Wednesday after-school meeting time by 1 hour per week (2:00 – 4:15 pm)
• Increase adjunct duties to 15 hours per year
• Reduce the voice of teachers on School Leadership Teams, including diminished voting rights
• Rejection of LTA proposals for a perfect attendance incentive and a jury duty incentive
• Rejection of LTA proposal for increased days to release unit members for conferences and union business.

 download the district’s most current list of counterproposals (6/2/14)

download the district’s previous list of counterproposals (5/16/14)

Moving forward, the district has committed to presenting a comprehensive proposal that includes language on salary and class sizes at our next meeting on June 16th.

Your team is committed to improving the learning environment for students and the working conditions for teachers in Lennox.  We believe our proposals will help meet the needs of teachers and assist the district in this new era of Common Core and LCFF/LCAP.  Please continue to support our efforts at the bargaining table by working with your site reps and the LTA Organizing Team.