Teacher Contract Gets ApprovalNegotiations wrap up with signing
of new agreement; 87 percent of teachers OK contract
Gilroy – Following the lead of local students, teachers wrapped up 2005-2006 negotiations on Friday, the day schools let out across the city and 440 Gilroy High School students took home diplomas.
Eighty-seven percent of local teachers approved the contract, according to California Teacher’s Association Consultant Dale Morejon, which includes a 17 percent salary stipend for middle school teachers who volunteer to teach an extra period, limits middle school staff meetings to three a month and gives teachers control over weekly collaboration periods every third Wednesday.
Gilroy Teachers Association President Michelle Nelson did not return calls for comment and district officials were unavailable for comment as of presstime. In an e-mail sent last week Nelson called the 17 percent component “a very small part of the agreement.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if no one did (get) it next year,” she wrote, referring to the bonus for teaching an additional period.
Also, a stipend for teaching extra classes is not unusual, on the contrary it’s common practice, Nelson added. Gilroy High School teachers who choose to take on a sixth class are compensated an extra 20 percent, since that’s how much each class is worth. In local middle schools each class is equivalent to 17 percent, where six periods is the regular load, she said.
The sudden emphasis on middle school issues sprang from the Gilroy Unified School District board’s decision to tack on an extra period and convert math from a 45-minute to 90-minute class at all three middle schools.
The move is just one of the district’s remedies it hopes will improve low math scores since less than half of elementary, 30 percent of middle and 11 percent of high school students are proficient in math.
Since the May 4 unanimous vote to tack on the additional period, the union and district officials have butted heads over the change. Nelson, numerous teachers and parents asked the board to reconsider its decision but the resolution remained firm.
And during a recent negotiations session, the union requested an across-the-board 3 percent raise for all teachers. Nelson said the union elected to drop the request because “we decided that it would be better to completely close-out negotiations for 2005-2006 now, take a break, then begin negotiations for 2006-2007 with a clean slate.”
Nelson said the union will negotiate for a substantial salary increase when they begin negotiating a contract for the 2006-07 year.
