A dozen teachers, many clad in black T-shirts that read
”
Students are our Special Interest,
”
prodded the San Benito High School Board of Trustees with
emotional pleas to accelerate lagging contract negotiations
Wednesday.
Hollister – A dozen teachers, many clad in black T-shirts that read “Students are our Special Interest,” prodded the San Benito High School Board of Trustees with emotional pleas to accelerate lagging contract negotiations Wednesday.
“I called my mom to tell her that I got my first teaching job four years ago,” English teacher Amber Berg said. “Now I would like to call my mom and tell her that I got my first pay raise.”
Berg, who is also the junior women’s basketball coach at the high school, told board members she will have to cancel open basketball sessions at night in order to take a part-time job so she can pay her bills. She was applauded by the teachers, students and community members who filled the cafeteria for the board meeting.
“Our collective morale is low and animosity is high,” veteran teacher Frank Muro told the board. “We are not happy; we need to settle this contract now.”
Although district and union negotiators are scheduled to sit down at the negotiating table Tuesday, some teachers were pessimistic about the prospect of reaching a deal soon.
“This is the first time that I’ve gone for three years and I don’t feel like a contract is in sight,” said teacher and Student Activities Director Juan Robledo, who has been teaching at the school for more than three decades.
Three weeks ago, teachers submitted a contract proposal requesting scheduled pay raises, which they haven’t had for three years, and asked the district to continue to cover health benefit plans at no additional cost to the teachers.
District officials didn’t reject the proposal, but delayed a counteroffer in order to get a clearer picture of the district’s financial status, Chief District Negotiator Don Balfour said last week.
Balfour and Superintendent Jean Burns Slater both said the district cannot afford the union’s proposal. Pointing to new money coming into the district, Teachers Association President Chuck Schallhorn said that the district can afford the proposal, but has chosen not to. Some teachers had suggested using funds from a $3.4 million special reserve fund to pay for increased salary and benefit costs.
Superintendent Slater disagreed.
“Spending one-time monies for ongoing costs is not affordable,” she said. “I want to be fiscally solvent so that (teachers) can work here for a long time.”
Schallhorn believes the district would not need to dip into reserves to pay for the contract teachers proposed last month.
Union members have been working for over a year under the terms of the previous expired contract.
Several teachers have also expressed concern about the high school’s new eight-block schedule that administrators implemented this year without first getting the approval of the teachers union.
Working conditions are part of the union contract. Last week, the teachers filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Public Employee Relations Board, the state agency which oversees such matters, for changing the school schedule and the teachers’ hours without getting approval from the union.
“The administration changed the schedule without respect for the process of collective bargaining,” SBHS California Teachers Association chief negotiator Mitch Huerta said last week. “There is a growing sentiment among the staff – they don’t feel valued and respected.”
Slater believes the charge is “unfounded” because the district had secure a signed, tentative agreement with the teachers before changing the schedule. Union leaders disagree, and have said the agreement was not binding because it was not ratified by the teachers.
Contractual negotiations have been delayed several times during the last year.
District negotiator Don Balfour planned to file paper work with PERB in June in order to get a state mediator to oversee further negotiations, but after conversations in July between Schallhorn and Slater, both sides agreed that the impasse declaration was unnecessary and returned to the bargaining table in August. Both sides have said they don’t anticipate a second impasse declaration at this time.
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected]
