On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the Pittsburg Unified School District (“District”) and the Pittsburg Education Association (“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 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.
