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The Dublin Unified School District and Dublin Teachers Association are at impasse in labor negotiations recently over nine articles within their collective bargaining agreement.
Articles at issue include workday, salary, fringe benefits, grievances, class size, technology, assignment and transfer, leaves and job share assignments, according to DTA President Brad Dobrzenski.
Through weekly community updates to district families, DUSD Superintendent Chris Funk has addressed relevant subjects such as district budgeting and negotiations — most recently he dispelled arguments that school districts are holding back unallocated money from being used to pay employee salaries and benefits.
According to Funk, the issue of public school teachers being underpaid is rooted in the systematic underfunding of public schools, rather than individual districts’ decisions.
While appreciative of Funk’s message for expressing the value of educators and statewide efforts to secure the best for their students, Dobrzenski said DUSD can still rework its budget locally to benefit students.
“Currently our Dublin students are suffering because district management has refused to reprioritize the budget to invest in our students,” Dobrzenski told the Pleasanton Weekly. “There are steps that can be taken locally which would provide Dublin district management the opportunity to reprioritize their budget to invest in our students.”
“We increasingly see a narrative — here and across the state — that suggests school districts are sitting on large reserves of unallocated money that could simply be redirected to salaries and benefits. This is simply not true,” Funk said in the letter.
“Even with careful planning, prudent budgeting and a strong desire to support our workforce, we cannot exceed what the state provides through California’s Local Control Funding Formula,” he added.
Following four negotiation sessions, DTA filed a request for a declaration of impasse Nov. 6 with the California Public Employment Relations Board — an independent agency that provides oversight on labor negotiations between public employers and their employees, according to Dobrzenski.
DTA later withdrew the request in light of a promising response by DUSD representatives ahead of the fourth bargaining session Nov. 18, Dobrzenski said.
Unable to reach a consensus at the mid-November meeting, DTA requested from PERB an impasse determination and the agency greenlit the request, according to Dobrzenski.
A mediator has since been assigned and DTA aims to schedule a mediation session ahead of winter break, Dobrzenski added.
It is not immediately clear how the district has responded to DTA’s declaration of an impasse.
Following the Nov. 18 bargaining session, DTA members also rallied at the DUSD Board of Trustees meeting same-day to express their discontent with labor negotiations.
“When we are told that the district cannot afford to fund our student-centered proposals, what it really means — it’s not that the district cannot afford them. It is that the district is choosing not to prioritize them,” DTA lead negotiator Monica Lewis said during the public comment period.
Supporting teachers with sustainable salaries and health care is directly linked to supporting students, Dublin High School teacher Summer Chrisman added at the meeting.
“Please remember that we’re not asking for money because we’re greedy — we just want our pay scales to maintain with the cost of living that we’re all facing,” Chrisman said.
The next DUSD board meeting is set to be held next Tuesday (Dec. 9).
“Across California, it is commonly acknowledged that public school teachers are underpaid relative to the immense responsibility they carry and the impact they have on our students,” Funk wrote Nov. 21 to the DUSD community.
The funding structure for public schools has not kept pace with the cost of providing competitive salaries, benefits and high-quality learning environments, he explained.
But district budgets are fundamentally shaped by state funding formulas, not local decisions, he added.
As for the district’s current funds, minimum reserves are legally required of districts for financial stability, management of unexpected costs and continued operations during economic downturns, he said.
“These reserves are not discretionary piles of cash,” Funk added.
Additionally, in the face of receiving significantly less per-pupil funding than many surrounding districts, DUSD continues to prioritize classroom-level spending and the district workforce, Funk said.
Despite financial constraints and the cutting of approximately $10 million from the operating budget over the last two years for fiscal stability, the district provides one of the highest levels of total compensation for teachers in the region, according to Funk.
“This reflects a clear and consistent priority: directing as many dollars as possible to the educators who serve our students every day,” he added.
District officials declined to comment on the status of labor negotiations since Funk’s Nov. 21 letter.
