Your LTA Bargaining Team – led by Lisa Rubio (Huerta) and made up of Justin Catalán (Moffett), Jim Nadler (LMS) and Andrew Staiano (CTA staff) – met with the district bargaining team during summer to hear the district’s initial bargaining proposals and responses to LTA’s proposals from June. The district team consists of Dr. Hiacynth Martinez (Chief Personnel Officer), Kevin Franklin (Chief Financial Officer), Polo Marquez (Felton VP) and Steve Andelson (attorney).

District Proposal Highlights:

ARTICLE 6: COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• District made no specific salary or benefits proposals/counterproposals, but provided their estimates of the cost of various LTA proposals:
  • 5% salary increase = $1,685,000
  • Increase teacher hourly rate to $40/hour = $108,000
  • LTA benefits proposal,i.e., district fully pays the lowest costemployee + 1plan, and applies that same $ amount to all other plans = $375,000
  • $2,000 stipends for combo classes at elementary and 3-or-more preps at LMS = $70,000

ARTICLE 7: WORK YEAR & HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT

• District made no specific counterproposals to LTA’s proposal to add 7 pupil-free days paid at theper diemrate to the teacher work calendar (3 summer PD/prep days, 1 PD/planning day per trimester, make spring parent conference day a pupil-free day rather a super minimum day); district estimated the cost of 7 pupil-freeper diemdays at $1,075,000/year. Significantly, district made no proposals about what to do when the current MOU creating 3 voluntary summer PD/planning days and 3 voluntary mid-year Saturday PD/planning days expires at the end of the 2016-2017 school year (the current MOU, btw, cost the district about $522,000/year).
• District accepted (in principle) LTA proposed clean-up to Articles 7.4, 7.4.1, 7.5, 7.6.1, and 7.6.2, clarifying and better defining student dismissal times and minimum days.
• District rejected LTA proposal to dismiss LMS students at 1:38 pm on Wednesdays (when elementary schools do). Rather, district counter-proposed giving principals at all schools the authority to extend the teacher workday to 4:00 pm on Wednesdays, as needed, to “address unforeseeable issues that require immediate attention.”
• District rejected LTA proposal to a) make elementary PE/planning time permanent, and b) make 100% of PE days teacher-directed; district also rejected LTA proposal to make LMS planning period permanent. In both cases, district cited the cost of the programs (estimated by the district at $2,050,000/year… although, those costsarealready part of the current budget…).
• District rejected LTA proposal to add 3 super minimum days for scoring to the contract.
• District rejected LTA proposal to eliminate morning yard duty.

ARTICLE 9: CLASS SIZE

• District made no specific counterproposals to LTA’s class-size proposals, but estimated the cost of reduced class averages at $1,000,000.

ARTICLE 10: LEAVE PROVISIONS

• District proposed updating language on maternity leave and family leave to reflect changes in state and federal statutes.

ARTICLE 14: PEER ASSISTANCE AND REVIEW PROGRAM

• District proposed eliminating the entire article because the state no longer funds PAR.

ARTICLE 15: STAFF DEVELOPMENT BUY BACK DAYS

• District proposed eliminating the entire article because the state no longer funds “buy back days.”

ARTICLE 18: SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

• District proposed narrowing the scope of School Leadership Teams to only those topics listed in Article 18, removing references to “school-wide, grade-level or departmental issues.” District proposal also removes staffing priorities, student discipline policies, and school safety from the list of SLT topics, and moves SLT meetings to after school rather than during the workday.

ARTICLE 21: SPECIAL EDUCATION

• District made no specific counterproposals to LTA’s caseload proposals, but estimated the cost of reduced caseloads at $340,000.

ARTICLE 25: TERM

• District proposed not opening the full contract for negotiations until 2019-2020 (rather than 2017-2018, as currently required), and opening just 2 articles + compensation/ benefits in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.

Meeting with the district during summer has helped move negotiations forward, but as anyone concerned about the increase in the cost of health benefits can tell you, the enrollment window for next year is fast approaching. Your LTA Bargaining Team will make every effort to reach an agreement with the district as soon as possible, maybe even a partial agreement dealing with benefits, but not at the expense of achieving important long-term goals that will help our students and benefit our members. We will try to bring down our insurance costs for this year, but we’re fighting for a permanent improvement to our health benefits, and it is more important to get it right than to get it quick. Until we negotiate an agreement with the district, each of you will need to select the health benefits plan that best meets your family’s needs and that you can afford based on the current prices.

The two teams are scheduled to meet again August 29, September 22 and October 13.

download full text of district proposals

download Bargaining Update #3