The LTA Bargaining Team – led by Lisa Rubio (Huerta) and made up of Sigrid Caballero (SpEd preschool), Justin Catalán (Moffett), Jim Nadler (LMS) and Andrew Staiano (CTA staff) – met with the district’s bargaining team Friday morning to present our initial bargaining proposals. The district’s team consists of Dr. Hiacynth Martinez (Sr. Dir. of Personnel), Kevin Franklin (Sr. Dir. of Fiscal Services), Polo Marquez (LMS Dean of Students) and Steve Andelson (attorney).

LTA Proposal Highlights:

ARTICLE 6: COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Increase salaries by 5%
• Increase extra-duty rate of pay to $40/hour
• Increase health benefits across all medical plans, evening contributions so the district pays the same amount into each plan, and permanently establish one 100% district-paid Employee + 1 plan
• Establish $2,000 stipends for elementary teachers assigned combo classes and middle-school teachers with 3 or more preps

ARTICLE 7: WORK YEAR & HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT

• Add 7 work days to the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 calendars – 3 PD/planning days before school begins in August, 3 pupil-free PD/planning days during the school year, and increasing the spring Parent Conference day to a full, pupil-free day, all paid at the per diem rate (equivalent to another 3.8% salary increase)
• Permanently establish 100 minutes of teacher-directed planning/preparation time/week for preschool and elementary teachers (8 PEs/month for teachers, 0 for principals, although principals could “trade” 1 PE for 1 Wednesday afternoon)
• Permanently establish 1 period of teacher-directed planning/preparation time/day for middle school teachers
• Better define student dismissal times at all grade levels, and standardize Wednesday early dismissal at 1:38 pm for all schools
• Clarify super minimum day responsibilities, and permanently establish 3 super minimum days/year for scoring
• Eliminate morning yard duty

ARTICLE 9: CLASS SIZE

• Permanently re-establish CSR/QEIA-like grade-span averages:
  • TK-1 20:1
  • 2-3 22:1
  • 4-5 25:1
  • 6-8 27:1
• Calculate grade-span averages for schools-within-schools (like Dual Language and School of Engineering) separately from the rest of the school so that students in and out of the programs can benefit from smaller class sizes
• Calculate/check grade-span averages monthly rather than yearly
• Create class-size maximums, in most cases 2-3 higher than the average above, and caps of 15:1 in LMS intervention, ELD and special education classes

ARTICLE 21: SPECIAL EDUCATION

• Create caseload caps for SDC teachers, and lower existing caps for RSP teachers and Speech and Language Pathologists

Due to the delays in the bargaining timeline this year, the LTA Bargaining Team made the unprecedented suggestion that the two teams continue negotiating through the summer in hopes of resolving some of the more time-sensitive issues (like benefits and class sizes for next year) as soon as possible. The district’s team declined, but pointed out that the district has postponed the benefits enrollment/adjustment window until fall… in case negotiations results in a change to district and employee contribution levels and people want to adjust their plans as a result. The two teams are scheduled to meet again August 29, September 22, and October 13; additional dates will be scheduled if possible.

As always, the LTA Bargaining 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 the era of Common Core and LCFF/LCAP. It is our desire to reach an agreement as soon as possible, 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.

Read the full text of the LTA proposals:

Download LTA Initial Proposals

Download LTA Bargaining Update #2