October 2, 2019
As communicated last week, we are very disappointed we are still in mediation with Pittsburg Education Association (PEA). On Friday, September 27, 2019 the Mediator scheduled a mediation conference for tomorrow (Thursday, October 3, 2019). The District wants an agreement as soon as possible and is hopeful that tomorrow’s talks will lead to a Tentative Agreement with PEA.
We care about our teachers and all of our staff in Pittsburg. Our compensation remains competitive and in the top third of the county and our offers for last year have been comparable to other School District’s offers. You can see our total compensation as it compares to
other districts here
.
The District has to be fiscally responsible and make decisions that are right for the continued education of our children and community. These important supports include providing mental health services, School Resource Officers (SROs), and Parent and Family Liaisons for our students and families outside of the classroom. The supports positively impact our children’s ability to learn from our talented teachers. We are in a deficit budget situation and simply cannot spend money we do not have. An
article in EdSource
explains the lack of funding in the State of California.
Additionally, we have offered many times to have the County Office of Education that approves our budgets, speak with PEA about our budget; however, PEA has declined this opportunity. We have hosted budget meetings with the community, presented budget updates at Board meetings, and we’ve had regular meetings with our
Budget Subcommittee and Board Budget Advisory Committee
.
The District has been negotiating with PEA for several months, since February 22, 2019. We are trying to be as transparent as possible, but we are prohibited from speaking about what happens during our mediation sessions. We encourage you to read our
Bargaining Updates
listed on our website.
Before mediation, in March 2019, the District gave an offer of 3% over two years for all members, and an additional increase of 5% for our pre-school teachers, an adjustment to the salary schedule for our psychologists, behaviorists, and speech language pathologists, allowing them to reach higher compensation faster. Through negotiations with our classified union, CSEA, we settled in May, 2019 for a two-year deal: 1.5% retro to July 1, 2018, 1% July 1, 2019, and 1% for January 1, 2020. Another way of looking at this is our CSEA members received a 2.5% salary increase starting on July 1, 2019 and will also receive a 1% increase in January 2020. As a reminder, last year, after fact-finding, we settled for 2% with PEA. We wish we could do more for all of our employees and continue to advocate at the State level, where the issue of school funding lays.
Again, we are extremely hopeful that tomorrow’s meeting will be successful with PEA. We continue to be committed to working in a respectful and productive manner.
