GILROY
– Teachers reached a tentative agreement with the school
district on their 2002-03 as well as their 2003-04 contracts,
nearing an end to 16 months of negotiations that came to an impasse
this summer.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Teachers reached a tentative agreement with the school district on their 2002-03 as well as their 2003-04 contracts, nearing an end to 16 months of negotiations that came to an impasse this summer.
Salary and 2003-04 health and welfare benefits, the last two major contract issues, were resolved in the proposal drawn up by the Gilroy Teachers Association. But district officials sent back several pages of revisions which the GTA will review today.
Teachers will not receive a salary increase for 2002-03 but will get a 3 percent raise retroactive to the start of this school year. A health and welfare benefits package was also protected so teachers will have no out-of-pocket costs. Some teachers have been paying for an increase in their health insurance costs for the first time this year.
“It’s a nice compensation package, but it took too long,” GTA President Michelle Nelson said.
Teachers were also disappointed that negotiations failed to yield a raise for last year.
“The only part that I don’t like about this agreement is that we weren’t able to get a retroactive increase for the people who retired this year,” Nelson said. “But, other than that, I think it’s a pretty fair package that both sides can live with.”
School Board Trustee David McRae agreed that both sides were anxious to settle.
“I’m very glad that it’s been resolved,” he said. “It’s just good to remove the whole air of negotiations because I think both sides felt like this was something that needed to get done and not dragged out any further.”
The tentative agreement Wednesday came as teachers’ frustration with stalled negotiations rose.
“The tone has changed from ever-escalating activities to talk about how far apart we are, to, ‘I think we are done here,’ ” Nelson said.
Nelson contacted Superintendent Edwin Diaz Tuesday in an attempt to settle the negotiations, she said, because the two sides were stuck within 1 percent of each other on a salary increase. GTA sent Gilroy Unified School District officials a counter-proposal Tuesday night, which the district approved after flip-flopping several times Wednesday, Nelson said.
At issue was the wording of a health and welfare benefits clause, which states that the district will continue to cover insurance costs up to the Kaiser family plan rate. The 2001-02 contract included a dollar amount for the cap, which meant the district was no longer paying the family plan rate when it increased this year.
“So if your health care (costs) increase 20 percent and there’s a number there, that’s the cap,” Nelson said.
Some teachers were paying $97.73 a month this year when the family plan rate increased and no new contract was approved.
The dollar amount was removed from the contract and the district will continue to pay the family plan rate even when teachers are working without a contract. The district also agreed to cover increased dental and vision premiums.
The GTA and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Linda Piceno signed the proposal Wednesday, Nelson said.
Piceno could not be reached for comment before deadline.
Teachers and the school board still must officially vote to accept the proposal, which will likely take place next week. Teachers will meet on Wednesday and a regular school board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 6.
Meanwhile, Wednesday afternoon, GTA invited any interested teachers to meet to discuss the counter-proposal and whether negotiations should enter the last-ditch fact-finding phase.
More than 100 teachers attended, representing a wide range of approval for the proposal, although all were frustrated that a more favorable agreement wasn’t reached sooner.
“It’s not just the state economy,” Nelson said. “It’s that we’ve been behind for so long, it’s frustration that it’s taken so long …”
Some teachers were willing to picket, even if the district agreed to their proposal, to protest what they think is a history of unfair pay and unsuccessful negotiations.
Teachers said the district was giving them the impression that, if negotiations are drawn out long enough, they will simply be given what’s left.
Some wanted to reject the proposal in favor of trying to get a raise retroactive to 2002 and another increase for 2003-04. Even those who wanted to accept the proposal and settle said they would not because the agreement is ideal, but because it is the best they can get right now.
In the light of glowing Academic Performance Index scores released by the state last week, many teachers at the meeting said they deserve thanks from the district for their hard work and extra hours.
“It doesn’t look good, especially when the API scores jump as much as they did,” Nelson said. “There is a lot of frustration. I think people are upset that the district is not giving credit where credit is due because it’s the teachers that are making this happen, not the district.”
Contract negotiations reached an impasse in June, triggering a mediation phase in which a neutral state representative met separately with both sides to help them reach an agreement. Teachers and the district met with the mediator five times, most recently on Friday. In fact-finding, a state party would investigate school district records and recommend an appropriate offer.
Although the last major hurdle has perhaps been cleared, the GTA today will consider the school board’s latest contract revisions.
“What (the district) sent back to us last night that they want us to sign has some changes in it, which we need to review as a team,” Nelson said.
