This is the fastest I can remember in recent memory that a tentative contract agreement has been reached between the School District and the teacher’s union. Yesterday, the School District sent out a press release with the information, highlights:
Under the terms of the one-year agreement, members of the AEA (the teachers union) will receive an ongoing 4% raise in salary starting in 2015-2016. The district also provided 1% in salary that the union chose to use to increase the hourly rate for teachers, increase stipends for speech and language pathologists, and contribute to the cost of dental insurance for teachers. In addition, the district agreed to cover the state-mandated increase in teachers’ contributions to their pensions this year.
The two sides also agreed to establish committees to plan and establish school calendars, as well as collaboratively review the process for teacher evaluations.
This is the first time in about a decade that AEA and AUSD have come to agreement before the expiration of the contract with the teachers union. The next step is for AEA members and AUSD’s Board of Education to vote on whether to ratify the agreement. Union members will vote from June 8 to June 11, 2015. The Board of Education will vote on ratification at its regular meeting on June 23, 2015.
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The district and the union “sunshined” (or revealed) their contract proposals at the November 18, 2014 Board of Education meeting, and the two teams then began formal negotiations in January, 2015. They have met 14 times since then.
In March of 2013, AUSD and AEA agreed on a 5% raise that has been implemented over these past two years. If ratified by the AEA, the current TA would now bring the total salary increase to AEA to 10 percent over the last three years.
Hopefully, like a few years ago, we’ll get a set of school calendars that will be valid for several years which makes vacation planning so much easier and some consensus on how to evaluate teachers as opposed to just using test scores or some other metric that doesn’t take into consideration external factors.
Good job AUSD and AEA, it’s nice to have a (mostly) drama free bargaining session. Although at one meeting someone threatened to bring in stockings of coal again. Not helpful.
Blogging Bayport Alameda 
isn’t this the result of the State of California doing better and making more funds available not negotiating skill? Why only one year? How does this compare to neighboring districts? Isn’t the real,problem not salary but rising medical and insurance costs?
Comment by Breathless — June 3, 2015 @ 6:19 am
Breathless, so negative…enjoy the positive.
Comment by Jake. — June 3, 2015 @ 6:23 am
1: If I were to guess why the contract negotiations went so smoothly, I would bet that it is the appointment of our new superintendent, Sean McPhetridge, who has a far more positive view of almost everything–including teachers and their unions–than his predecessor.
Comment by Jon Spangler — June 3, 2015 @ 6:45 am
1: Some deep breaths would really help your mental well-being. You don’t need to be breathless. All is not bad!
Comment by BC — June 3, 2015 @ 6:57 am
Other districts are not finding the process so easy. Good job, Alameda, on all sides.
Comment by spaulukonis — June 3, 2015 @ 5:08 pm
From Michelle Ellison’s article…
“Alameda’s teachers have long lagged behind their East Bay counterparts in terms of pay, and union officials have said in the past that pay increases granted for years of service with the school district were more than consumed by teachers’ rising health care costs. Sharp increases in pension payments were also expected to be an issue this and future years.”
Comment by Breathless — June 3, 2015 @ 9:37 pm