By Noel Smith
In an interview with Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers President Francisco Rodriguez, concerning the current negotiation with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, the subject of using a formula to determine teacher’s salary increases was put forward by Rodriguez. “We haven’t formally proposed this because in our 12 meetings with the District, they haven’t asked us what we want. Salary increases is one of the three issues we want to take up with the District. The other two are class size reductions for all grades K-12 and pay for preparation time.”
According to Rodriguez the current union salary proposal is 7 percent the first year and 4 percent for each of the following two years for a three-year total salary increase of 15 percent. However, according to Brett McFadden, Chief Business Officer for the Pajaro Unified School District, The District has also proposed a 7 percent raise for the first year but the way the union has structured its salary proposal, the first two raises take place immediately for a total salary increase of 11 percent the first year.
Regarding reduction in class sizes McFadden said, “The reduction in class sizes for all primary grades would take place over the next few years, one grade at a time starting immediately for the 1st grade with a student/teacher ratio of 24:1.”
The union wants class size reductions for all grades, K-12, starting next year with current class sizes reduced to 24:1 for kindergarten; 26:1 second and third; 30:1 in grades 4, 5, and 6 and 34:1 in middle and high school classes including P.E.
McFadden pointed out that according to figures provided by the District, this would result in an increase of 236 teachers or 21 percent – and an additional $18,880,000 in employee costs. This reduction in class sizes would also result in the un-estimated cost of leasing and/or building the additional classrooms needed to house this many additional teachers and classes.
Other conditions proposed by the union: 60 minutes per day of credentialed assistance for Kinder teachers; 60 minutes of release time per week for teachers in grades Kinder, 1,2, and 3, and no meetings after contract hours.
McFadden said that even though Prop 30 money is promised by the state, there is no guarantee how much the District will be receiving on a year-by-year basis. Also, Prop 30 funds dry up after eight years. The District has proposed in negotiations to delay discussion of some of the union salary and class size proposals until the next state budget cycle to ensure they will have the money in their own budget to fund any new obligations.
“If we accept all the union proposals today,” said McFadden, “The district will be $12 million in the hole by the end of the school year.”
The two parties made a joint declaration of Impasse on September 19 so that a state mediator can be brought in to facilitate further discussions between the District and the Union.
That leaves the Union’s un-proposed proposal of a salary formula. Rodriguez said, “They did this in Salinas but the union there ended up with a salary increase of less than 2 percent for the year because of their formula. The way this would work is that we both (District and Union) will have to agree on a formula where there is a cap on increases but that also has a minimum increase each year that the Union can agree to. We’ll see what happens.”