SCUSD Observer
SCUSD and SCTA reach tentative agreement
Today at 3 p.m. at Theodore Judah, Superintendent Jonathan Raymond, SCUSD Board President Ellyne Bell andSCTA President Linda Tuttle announced in a press conference the details of a two-year contract designed to save teachers’ jobs and to keep class sizes small.
The deal includes:
- a mutual understanding to keep K-3 class sizes small with a 1/25 ratio
- teachers will be asked to give up the equivalent of 3 furlough days in salary. Each SCTA member will effectively pay back approximately $950 per year to the district in order to “give back” or retain teachers currently holding pink slips
- teachers will be asked to increase their monetary contributions to their retiree health benefits packages
- the board is being asked to consider a parcel tax measure to go on the ballot, possibly next year
SCTA’s 3000 members have not yet seen the details on paper. SCTA volunteers will deliver the proposed contract to members beginning tomorrow and the final vote will be tallied by late Thursday evening.
This two-year agreement will push out the previously scheduled 2011 contract negotiations for SCUSD and its teachers’ union.
Tuttle described the compromises as a “stop gap measure” to immediately bring back teachers and also to concede to parent partners’ demands for small class sizes in the elementary grades.
Raymond believes the furlough concession is a “huge part” of the agreement because roughly $2.3 million will be saved in district coffers. The school year calendar will not change. Teachers will be working three days a year, essentially without pay
.