April 4, 2019
Tomorrow, April 5, 2019, is the last day scheduled for bargaining with Pittsburg Education Association (“PEA”). On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the Pittsburg Unified School District (“District”) and (“PEA”) had their fourth bargaining session for the 2018-2019 contract. The articles discussed at the table were:
- Article 12 – Employee Benefits
- Article 13 – Salary
The bargaining session began with the District providing PEA with information regarding its
Second Interim Report
, which shows the District deficit spending in its multi-year projection. School Districts are required to submit 3-year budgets, showing the impact of any costs on the following years. This includes the restricted budget. PUSD has submitted its second qualified interim budget to the County. A qualified budget means that the District shows a deficit in the 3rd year.
The District then presented its current salary proposal. The current offer from the District is 3% over two years: the current year (2018-2019) and the following year (2019-2020). The 3% would be a 1% increase retroactive to July 1, 2018; an additional 1% increase effective July 1, 2019; and another 1% increase effective January 1, 2020.
In addition to the increase for all members, the District offered an increase of 7% over the 2 years for pre-k teachers: this would look like 5% retroactive to July 1, 2018, then a 1% for July 1, 2019, and a 1% for January, 2020. Also, the District offer for pre-k includes an addition of 30 minutes to their workday and an increase on their salary schedule to reflect the additional time.
The District also offered a salary schedule restructure for psychologists, speech and language pathologists, and behaviorists. The salary schedule included a column that encompasses compensation for unit members that possess 90 or more college units.
The District also discussed adding in language to guarantee we would reopen for bargaining for 2019-2020 if the State’s budget shows enough of a positive increase/impact for our school district if PEA would accept a two-year deal.
PEA responded to the District's current salary proposal by rejecting the offer for a two-year deal and decreasing its salary proposal by only 0.5% percent. PEA's current salary proposal includes a 4.0% increase retroactive to July 1, 2018 and a salary schedule restructure for psychologists, speech and language pathologists, behaviorists and preschool teachers.
The District continues to hope an agreement is reached with PEA.
