October 24-The district continues to make proposals that are disrespectful and do not value our time and work as professionals by essentially asking us to work for free after school and attach strings in order to get a decent raise. The district is clearly not well-educated as…
A June 2024 EdWeek article entitled Teachers Report Lower Pay, More Stress Than Workers in Other Fields it states that “Teachers reported working an average of 53 hours per week, compared to 43 hours of weekly work reported by comparable workers. And teachers were significantly less likely to say they were satisfied with their pay and workload than other comparable workers.”
This includes:
Thank you for your support!
SEPTEMBER 13-This is the next scheduled date for both sides to meet with the state mediator.
JULY 19- ACT suggested another day and time for our next meeting with the state mediator, but CUSD turned it down. So, we do not have another bargaining date set.
JULY 18- The ACT bargaining team, on their summer break, showed up bright and early at the district office ready to meet with the state mediator. The ACT team presented two responses to CUSD proposals through the state mediator. The CUSD team presented nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Finally, at 3:30 the CUSD team said they didn't want to present anything until the "final numbers" are done, until the next set of unaudited actuals are ready. Those numbers are approved at the September board meeting. We have no idea why it took them until 3:30 to come up with that. The CUSD team did not present a response to what we sent them about their proposals. So, what was accomplished today between this morning and 3:30? We presented something, CUSD presented nothing. This could have been done in 10 minutes, instead they took all day. This is such a disappointing outcome to the day. We will post more information as we have it.
We are at impasse-this means that a mediator from the state will be brought in to try to gain movement. If there is still none, then we go to fact finding. An impartial third party is brought in to look at the district's financials and determine what the district can afford regarding our requests. They will report out on their findings and then we will consider next steps. The CUSD Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent recently were granted a 2.5% no strings attached raise by the CUSD School Board. ACT members were only offered a 1.07% no strings attached raise. The other percentage offers all have strings attached, such as no longer being able to timesheet most extra duties, increasing our work day by 5.5%, or eliminating physical education teachers at our elementary sites. We can't agree to these things, they are not what is best teaching and learning. We can't go back so far in our bargaining progress. CUSD has had elementary physical education teachers for 31 years! We need to look forward and progress, not regress.
June 18th-The district would not send their proposals to us electronically as we requested in order to move the process of bargaining along. We have presented more in person bargaining dates to the district and are waiting to hear back from them. The ACT bargaining team met today to review all of the different proposals that are on the district's "table." We are awaiting the district's response.
May 28th-We presented our proposals, the district presented some including one regarding salary. We simply cannot agree to a proposal that brings more cuts in personnel to our district. CUSD has had PE in our elementary schools, taught by a PE teachers, for 31 years. Cutting PE teachers means classroom teachers would be responsible for teaching PE, adding to their already full. We proposed June 11 as the next proposed bargaining date. The district said they could not meet that date and instead said they wanted to bargain on June 14th, the last day of the teacher work year calendar. That is not doable for the ACT team so we asked the district to send their responses to our proposals electronically by June 7th.
Please know that the district is accusing ACT of all sorts of things with regards to the numbers that we are using. All of the numbers that we are using are available to the public, many are reported to the state by the district, and in some cases they are presented in the way that is stated by School Services of California, the company that guides schools in their practices. We are presenting facts, not fallicies.
Two weeks after cancelling our planned bargaining session the district provided us with two dates on which our our team could not meet. We offered the district four other dates and are waiting for a response from CUSD. We met with the district on May 28th.
Next Bargaining Date is Tuesday, May 7th 12:30 am - 3:00 pm UPDATE-the district is refusing to meet with us on this prearranged date despite our requests to meet on the date as scheduled! They also have not provided suggestions for future bargaining dates.
Please note:
Educational Employment Relations Act, Section 3543.7
“3543.7. Duty to meet and negotiate in good faith; time
The duty to meet and negotiate in good faith requires the parties to begin negotiations prior to the adoption of the final budget for the ensuing year sufficiently in advance of such adoption date so that there is adequate time for agreement to be reached, or for the resolution of an impasse.”
April 30th Bargaining Update:
The district proposed that if ACT agrees to cut our own members' positions who teach elementary PE, then CUSD would increase our rate of pay by 3%. This means that elementary classroom teachers would have to teach PE to the students in their class in lieu of having a prep time at the current time; prep time could be at the end of the day after students depart. This is an example of the ridiculousness that was present in all of the proposals from the district today. The ACT bargaining team will never agree to anything as ridiculous as this. This is not what is best for students!
In addition to the ridiculous items proposed by CUSD, here's what they said to us...
1) The district WON'T place educators appropriately on the pay scale if the educator is getting paid for fewer than actual years in the profession. Please know that other districts have agreed to do this.
2) The district said NO to a $2,000 Mater's degree stipend for members in Range 4 and under.
3) The district said NO to increasing our non per diem hourly rate. Please note that our rate is the same as the advertised rate for a manager at Panda Express, this position does not have an education requirement.
4) The district said NO to paying 100% of the two party insurance plan- this is district paid health insurance. Please know that other districts have agreed to do this.
5) The district said NO to paying 75% instead of 65% of the family plan- district paid health insurance. Please know that other districts pay 100%.
We are still fighting for ALL of the above.
The district states they want to recruit and retain qualified educators. Their actions DO NOT support their words.
April 12th Bargaining Update:
1) Budget discussion with the District
2) CUSD was supposed to make counter proposals from our last meeting, but they said they were reverting to their initial proposals
3) After the budget discussion, ACT made a variety of concessions in counter proposals to CUSD, including
-Class Size
-Better Health Benefits for Families and Employee Plus One
-Health Care Proration for Part Time Employees
-Early Retirement Health Benefits
-Increase Frequency of Sabbaticals
4) CUSD stuck to their initial proposals with no movement
5) ACT’s initial Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) proposal was 11% (based upon state average data). CUSD’s initial proposal was 0.76%. ACT countered with 10% and CUSD stuck with 0.76%.
6) The calendar for 2024-2025 was agreed upon.
March 26th Bargaining Update:
1) Financial presentation by Donnie Salamanca
March 18th update from the bargaining table:
1) ACT presented all sunshine articles (list below)
2) District proposed changes to articles 17, 20, 23 (pulled back on two other articles 15, 18)
A June 2024 EdWeek article entitled Teachers Report Lower Pay, More Stress Than Workers in Other Fields it states that “Teachers reported working an average of 53 hours per week, compared to 43 hours of weekly work reported by comparable workers. And teachers were significantly less likely to say they were satisfied with their pay and workload than other comparable workers.”
- On average, teachers earned 73.4 cents for every dollar relative to the earnings of similar other professionals in 2023. This is much less than the 93.9 cents on the dollar they made in 1996. This is an all-time high according to the Economic Policy Institute report.
- Research shows that teachers “wouldn’t want their own children to enter the profession.”
- “Low pay is the No. 1 reason high school students don’t consider teaching” according to the Southern Regional Policy Board.
- According to a list provided to us by the district in September 2024, 55 out of 184 (30%) of our educators were hired in the last two school years. As pointed out by the Learning Policy Institute, “High teacher turnover undermines student achievement, and replacing teachers consumes valuable staff time and resources.
This includes:
- commitment to continue to provide a quality education to all of our students
- grading assignments
- communicating concerns with parents and guardians
Thank you for your support!
SEPTEMBER 13-This is the next scheduled date for both sides to meet with the state mediator.
JULY 19- ACT suggested another day and time for our next meeting with the state mediator, but CUSD turned it down. So, we do not have another bargaining date set.
JULY 18- The ACT bargaining team, on their summer break, showed up bright and early at the district office ready to meet with the state mediator. The ACT team presented two responses to CUSD proposals through the state mediator. The CUSD team presented nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Finally, at 3:30 the CUSD team said they didn't want to present anything until the "final numbers" are done, until the next set of unaudited actuals are ready. Those numbers are approved at the September board meeting. We have no idea why it took them until 3:30 to come up with that. The CUSD team did not present a response to what we sent them about their proposals. So, what was accomplished today between this morning and 3:30? We presented something, CUSD presented nothing. This could have been done in 10 minutes, instead they took all day. This is such a disappointing outcome to the day. We will post more information as we have it.
We are at impasse-this means that a mediator from the state will be brought in to try to gain movement. If there is still none, then we go to fact finding. An impartial third party is brought in to look at the district's financials and determine what the district can afford regarding our requests. They will report out on their findings and then we will consider next steps. The CUSD Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent recently were granted a 2.5% no strings attached raise by the CUSD School Board. ACT members were only offered a 1.07% no strings attached raise. The other percentage offers all have strings attached, such as no longer being able to timesheet most extra duties, increasing our work day by 5.5%, or eliminating physical education teachers at our elementary sites. We can't agree to these things, they are not what is best teaching and learning. We can't go back so far in our bargaining progress. CUSD has had elementary physical education teachers for 31 years! We need to look forward and progress, not regress.
June 18th-The district would not send their proposals to us electronically as we requested in order to move the process of bargaining along. We have presented more in person bargaining dates to the district and are waiting to hear back from them. The ACT bargaining team met today to review all of the different proposals that are on the district's "table." We are awaiting the district's response.
May 28th-We presented our proposals, the district presented some including one regarding salary. We simply cannot agree to a proposal that brings more cuts in personnel to our district. CUSD has had PE in our elementary schools, taught by a PE teachers, for 31 years. Cutting PE teachers means classroom teachers would be responsible for teaching PE, adding to their already full. We proposed June 11 as the next proposed bargaining date. The district said they could not meet that date and instead said they wanted to bargain on June 14th, the last day of the teacher work year calendar. That is not doable for the ACT team so we asked the district to send their responses to our proposals electronically by June 7th.
Please know that the district is accusing ACT of all sorts of things with regards to the numbers that we are using. All of the numbers that we are using are available to the public, many are reported to the state by the district, and in some cases they are presented in the way that is stated by School Services of California, the company that guides schools in their practices. We are presenting facts, not fallicies.
Two weeks after cancelling our planned bargaining session the district provided us with two dates on which our our team could not meet. We offered the district four other dates and are waiting for a response from CUSD. We met with the district on May 28th.
Next Bargaining Date is Tuesday, May 7th 12:30 am - 3:00 pm UPDATE-the district is refusing to meet with us on this prearranged date despite our requests to meet on the date as scheduled! They also have not provided suggestions for future bargaining dates.
Please note:
Educational Employment Relations Act, Section 3543.7
“3543.7. Duty to meet and negotiate in good faith; time
The duty to meet and negotiate in good faith requires the parties to begin negotiations prior to the adoption of the final budget for the ensuing year sufficiently in advance of such adoption date so that there is adequate time for agreement to be reached, or for the resolution of an impasse.”
April 30th Bargaining Update:
The district proposed that if ACT agrees to cut our own members' positions who teach elementary PE, then CUSD would increase our rate of pay by 3%. This means that elementary classroom teachers would have to teach PE to the students in their class in lieu of having a prep time at the current time; prep time could be at the end of the day after students depart. This is an example of the ridiculousness that was present in all of the proposals from the district today. The ACT bargaining team will never agree to anything as ridiculous as this. This is not what is best for students!
In addition to the ridiculous items proposed by CUSD, here's what they said to us...
1) The district WON'T place educators appropriately on the pay scale if the educator is getting paid for fewer than actual years in the profession. Please know that other districts have agreed to do this.
2) The district said NO to a $2,000 Mater's degree stipend for members in Range 4 and under.
3) The district said NO to increasing our non per diem hourly rate. Please note that our rate is the same as the advertised rate for a manager at Panda Express, this position does not have an education requirement.
4) The district said NO to paying 100% of the two party insurance plan- this is district paid health insurance. Please know that other districts have agreed to do this.
5) The district said NO to paying 75% instead of 65% of the family plan- district paid health insurance. Please know that other districts pay 100%.
We are still fighting for ALL of the above.
The district states they want to recruit and retain qualified educators. Their actions DO NOT support their words.
April 12th Bargaining Update:
1) Budget discussion with the District
2) CUSD was supposed to make counter proposals from our last meeting, but they said they were reverting to their initial proposals
3) After the budget discussion, ACT made a variety of concessions in counter proposals to CUSD, including
-Class Size
-Better Health Benefits for Families and Employee Plus One
-Health Care Proration for Part Time Employees
-Early Retirement Health Benefits
-Increase Frequency of Sabbaticals
4) CUSD stuck to their initial proposals with no movement
5) ACT’s initial Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) proposal was 11% (based upon state average data). CUSD’s initial proposal was 0.76%. ACT countered with 10% and CUSD stuck with 0.76%.
6) The calendar for 2024-2025 was agreed upon.
March 26th Bargaining Update:
1) Financial presentation by Donnie Salamanca
March 18th update from the bargaining table:
1) ACT presented all sunshine articles (list below)
2) District proposed changes to articles 17, 20, 23 (pulled back on two other articles 15, 18)