Friday, June 22, 2012

Negotiation Highlights - June 21, 2012

GEA-GSD Negotiations
June 21, 2012

The District and Association met for 2 hours on June 21st. Les Nakasaki facilitated the meeting. Genaro Alarcon was the recorder.

The District presented a proposal to the Association. It can be found here.

The proposal called for 2 furlough days and one staff development day.

Discussion surrounded the financial rationale for the proposal. The prep period at the Intermediate Schools has been restored although the original claim that 7 teachers would be brought back if the prep was restored was altered. Four teachers are scheduled to be brought back.

Of the 32.1 teachers laid off in March, 16 will have their RIF notices rescinded.

The District also used money from “Deferred Maintenance” and “Books and Supplies” to help balance the budget. They plan to use over half a million each of the next two years from these lines to supplement the general fund. The Association has been pointing at these two lines for months as areas that were over-budgeted.

The cut to the Base Revenue Limit has also been increased at the state level.

Based on all the factors, the Association agreed in principle to the two furlough days, and one staff development day. The furlough days would be restored if funding is increased next year via passage of either ballot initiatives of other means.

Additionally, two sub-committees will be set up to discuss "Duty Hours" and "Fringe Benefits" during the summer and beyond.

The District and Association still plan to discuss many other items, but they will be discussed in due course. Our next session is set for August 3rd.

GEA membership will most likely be asked to ratify a final agreement during the summer by mail. Details will follow, once a specific language for a tentative agreement is reached.

Friday, June 1, 2012

GEA-GSD Negotiations - June 1, 2012


Negotiation Highlights
June 1, 2012

An all day session was scheduled. The meeting was facilitated by Les Nakasaki. Genaro Alarcon was the recorder.

The District countered the Associations May 21st proposal with their own. The District may or may not decide to post the proposal on their website. Recent updates have not been forthcoming.

The following areas were included in the District Proposal. Other than the salary/financial aspects, the proposals were basically unchanged from the Initial Bargaining Proposal.

·        5 Furlough days
·        1 Professional Development Day
·        Parent Conferences held over the course of a week. (Minimum days of instruction with conferences in the afternoon.
·        Removing contract language allowing unit members to leave campus after 6 hours and 45 minutes if professional responsibilities are finished. Everyone would stay until 7 hours and 10 minutes regardless of duties.
·        At least 2 early release Wednesdays a month would be facilitated by the principal. District can also take more Wednesday time as they see fit.
·        Elimination of Bilingual Stipend
·        Elimination of the Recruitment Bonus
·        Elimination of Ancillary Services retirement option
·        Elimination of post-retirement medical benefits after age 65 of $112/month towards a Medicare supplemental plan
·        Elimination of the family plan exemption in the fringe benefit language. Everyone subject to the $9500 cap
·        Presently the District pays the salary and benefits for the 40% release time afforded the GEA President. The District would no longer pay for this release time.
·        Presently the Association can request up to 40 days of Union Business Release Time. The District pays for the sub for 10 days and the Association pays for the sub for 30 days. The District would now charge the Association for all 40 days.
·        Elimination of Daily Rate of pay for laid off teachers. Laid off teachers would only receive their daily rate if they were in a long term assignment for 21 days or more in a 60 day period.
·        There was no mention in the District Plan of rescission of layoffs.

The Association asked some questions and then caucused for a couple of hours.

The Association countered.

The Association stated it was willing to discuss:

·        More furlough days than the original proposal put forth on May 21st.
·        Elimination of bilingual stipends
·        Elimination of the recruitment bonus

The Association wanted to discuss the relationship between the possible concessions and the rescinding of RIFs.

The Association wanted to revisit Professional Development Days.

The Association stated the following items would need to be dropped in order to expedite an agreement before school ends. A full discussion on these items would not be possible before the end of the school year.

·        5.9 Early Release Wednesdays
·        7.2 Ancillary Retirement
·        7.5 Retirement Medical Benefits
·        8.2 Fringe Benefits
·        11.13 Association President Release Time
·        15.5 RIF Teacher Sub Pay

The Association stated that if the aforementioned items were not dropped, they would need to get direction from the GEA Executive Board on June 7th.

The District caucused.

They returned and stated they could table 5.9 and 7.2, but the other items they could not table.

The District thereby decided that no agreement could be reached prior to the end of school.

The District stated that the rescission of RIF Notices was a management prerogative. They also stated they (The District) were not inclined to make the rescission of RIF notices part of negotiations. This was contrary to prior statements.

No agreement was reached on any of the items discussed.

A two hour meeting was scheduled for June 11th.