The LTA Bargaining Team met with the district on May 1 and presented comprehensive bargaining proposals, after sunshining the four articles that they opened at the school board meeting on March 26. The district also sunshined four articles, although they have not presented concrete proposals yet. The next meeting is scheduled for May 15, at which point we expect to receive written proposals and counter-proposals from the district.

The LTA team is committed to improving the learning environment for students and the working conditions for teachers in Lennox. We believe the LTA proposals will help meet the needs of teachers and assist the district in the era of Common Core and LCFF/LCAP. It is our desire to reach an agreement before the end of the school year, but not at the expense of achieving important goals that will help our students, benefit our members, and be consistent with the priorities of the Lennox community.

download the full text of the LTA initial bargaining proposal

LTA proposal highlights:

ARTICLE 6: COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Increase salaries by 7%
• Increase extra-duty rate of pay to $40/hr
• Increase health benefits across all medical plans, evening out contributions so the district contributes the same amount to the plans of each carrier (currently Kaiser and Health Net), and establish a mechanic so that district contributions to employee-only, employee-plus-one, and family medical plan options all increase each year relative to a reference plan in their own category
• Increase service credit for prior teaching experience to 10 years
• Grant full service credit for all experience in any setting to fully-credentialed Speech and Language Pathologists, and increase the SLP stipend to $4,000/yr to attract and retain teachers for these hard-to-fill positions

ARTICLE 7: WORK YEAR & HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT

• Add 6 work days to the calendar for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 – 3 before school begins and 3 pupil-free days during the year, paid at the per diem rate; at least 50% of each of these days would be teacher directed time
• Create contractual language establishing 1 period of preparation time/day for middle school teachers
• Create contractual language establishing 100 minutes of preparation time/wk for preschool and elementary teachers
• Eliminate morning yard duty
• Extend “first Friday” minimum days to all first Fridays, not just 9/yr
• Clarify and reorganize existing language defining the teacher work day, student start and end times, minimum days, super minimum days, and flex calendars
• Clarify and reorganize existing language on adjunct duties, as well as Back-to-School Night, Open House Night and after-school Parent Conferences

ARTICLE 9: CLASS SIZE

• Create contract language establishing the Class-Size Committee recommended grade span student-teacher ratios:
  • TK-1 20:1
  • 2-3 24:1
  • 4-5 27:1
  • 6-8 29:1 (with a planning period)
• Create class size maximums, in most cases 2 higher than the average stated above

ARTICLE 21: SPECIAL EDUCATION

• Increase teacher input in the district special education program
• Create caseload caps for SDC teachers, and lower existing caps for RSP teachers and Speech and Language Pathologists
• Clarify and reorganize existing language on regular ed teachers’ rights regarding student IEPs

download a copy of LTA Bargaining Update #1