Friday, July 6, 2012

Understand the Teacher Layoff Deal: A Reader’s Guide - Voice of San Diego: Education

Understand the Teacher Layoff Deal: A Reader’s Guide - Voice of San Diego: Education:


Understand the Teacher Layoff Deal: A Reader’s Guide

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  • Union President Bill Freeman (center) stands alongside San Diego Unified students and discusses the deal with the district.
Posted: Thursday, July 5, 2012 5:04 pm | Updated: 5:07 pm, Thu Jul 5, 2012.

So, the San Diego Unified School District and its biggest labor union, the San Diego Education Association, have a deal.
The tentative agreement finalized last week will prevent more than 1,000 teacher layoffs, but could also result in the school year being shortened by as much as three additional weeks.
The deal’s a big one. Not just because it gets the district out of its latest financial bind, but also because it marks a significant change in direction for a powerful union that for years has been unwilling even to talk about helping the district out.
To understand the deal itself, its possible impacts, and why it marks such a historic moment for district-union relations, we’ve created this handy three-step guide:
Step One: What The Deal Says about the Union’s New Approach
The tentative agreement was approved overwhelmingly by educators last week, and it marked