After declaring an impasse in contract negotiations a few months
ago, the San Benito High School District and the San Benito High
School Teachers Association have agreed on a tentative three-year
agreement that would expand the working year for teachers.
After declaring an impasse in contract negotiations a few months ago, the San Benito High School District and the San Benito High School Teachers Association have agreed on a tentative three-year agreement that would expand the working year for teachers.
The tentative agreement would re-establish two professional development days, allow teachers to take two consecutive personal necessity days without a reason and would give the teachers the right to negotiate raises in the next two school years.
The agreement would hold off reductions and re-establish cuts made to the teachers’ salaries, San Benito High School District Superintendent Stan Rose said.
“The agreement essentially has the effect of holding the reductions,” he said. “We were able to reduce the amount of reductions.”
Teachers voted on the agreement throughout the week, and soon afterward the school board will review the document. Rose expects and hopes the contract will be approved soon. The teachers’ vote was not completed before publication.
“We hope that it will – we are very hopeful,” Rose said. “But everyone has the right to vote.”
The contract would bring the school district some stability, and allow the teachers and school officials to work on other things, Rose said.
“It will free everyone up,” he said.
The agreement comes after a contentious negotiation that was declared at an impasse in October. Negotiations stalled when the district asked for a 5 percent salary decrease and the teachers wanted to prevent all cuts.
Teachers proclaimed the district had $10 million in savings to prevent any future budget cuts. Teachers also argued the cuts were crowding classroom sizes and harming the students’ learning abilities.
In October, the teachers rallied in front of the school to show their displeasure about the cuts.
After declaring an impasse, the district went back to the table to make another overture, Rose said.
“We decided it was important to make another overture to get us both back to the table and come to an agreement,” he said. “We wanted to try this one last time.”
The tentative agreement shows that the district did not cut the teachers’ salaries but instead extended their working year by two days to add a pair of professional development days, according to the agreement. The 1.09 percent salary increase replaces the decrease that was set in this year after the district cut the development days.
Professional development days are a pair of workdays before the school year starts that would allow the teachers to collaborate in creating class plans, Rose said.
“One of the things we kept on hearing from teachers was that they needed more time to plan and assess the students,” Rose said. “And this is a problem with the amount of time they have now. This will help and it’s a good idea.”
Teachers’ association president Mitch Huerta could not be reached before publication.
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With federal money being funneled back to the teachers, the district will be able to hire more teachers to reduce classroom sizes. Although only temporary, the additional teachers will spread the students out into other classrooms. The federal money will increase the school’s overall curriculum by 16 sections, according to the teachers’ association. At the beginning of the year, teachers reported some classes with as many as 40 students.
