Dublin Teachers' Contract Dispute In Mediation

This story was made possible by the support of Dublin Patch members. Want to support more local coverage of Dublin? Click here to learn more.

DUBLIN, CA — Despite months of haggling between the Dublin Unified School District and its teachers’ union over a new contract, the major stumbling block still appears to be money: The Dublin Teachers Association wants more than District administrators say they can reasonably afford to pay if the District is to avoid substantial future deficits.

Teachers also want smaller class sizes, reduced workloads, additional counselors and more affordable healthcare options. But what seems most important to the District’s 623 educators in the DTA bargaining unit are higher wages to help them cope with the cost of living in the Tri-Valley area that has stretched family budgets to the breaking point.

Last month the DTA declared an impasse in negotiations and today both sides are sitting down with a state mediator in hopes of resolving their difference. If the effort fails, the process moves to a fact-finding phase and then arbitration. After that it it’s up to the DTA.

• Dublin Teachers Rally For ‘Schools Students Deserve’

For the mediator the big trick will be enticing the parties to reach middle ground, if any, on salaries. Teachers are demanding a 1.5% increase for the current school year, 3% for the 2019-20 school year and a one-time bonus of 3.5%. The District’s final offer before negotiations broke down was 2% for each of the two years, a one-time bonus of 3.5% and a one-half-of-one-percent additional increase for teachers at the top of the pay scale.

The District’s proposal offers an annual base salary of $65,822 for teachers at the lowest range with teachers at the top of the pay scale earning $109,153. In addition, the District would pay annual pension costs ranging from $10,716 to $17,770 depending upon pay level along with the entire cost of family dental coverage, a benefit of $1,633 per year. With everything combined total salaries would range from $78,171 to $128,556.

The DTA’s current counter offer seeks base salaries of $67,465 for teachers at the lowest range to $111,320 for teachers at the highest pay level.

Unlike teachers in Los Angeles and Oakland who walked out over stalled negotiations, and teachers in the neighboring San Ramon Valley Unified School District who last week overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, Dublin teachers have yet to decide if they’ll hit the sidewalks. After a marathon bargaining session Wednesday, San Ramon teachers were close to a tentative settlement, having reached agreement on all but one of their demands.

“We’re following the legal process including mediation,” DTA president Robbie Kreitz told Patch, “however we’ve taken the pulse of our membership and our members have spoken loud and clear to keep fighting up to and including a possible strike.”

“A strike authorization is in our near future, but mediation is our immediate priority,” she said.

Dr. Leslie Boozer, Dublin’s school superintendent, told Patch she was optimistic the District and DTA could find common ground in mediation.

“We’re are committed to this process and to partnering with DTA to reach an agreement that increases compensation for our teachers while maintaining the fiscal health of the district” she said.

The District has already reached agreement with the California School Employees Association which represents classified employees and that contract has been approved by the school board.

Certificated employees are those who hold certificates and include classroom teachers, administrators who do not teach such as principals, assistant principals, program directors and others who do not provide direct student services. Classified employees include teacher’s aides, office staff, custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers.

Boozer’s concern about finances is shared by virtually every other superintendent at California’s more than 1,000 school districts.

Despite some extra money for education flowing into school districts from the state’s general fund, spiraling costs and diminishing revenues continue to create headaches for budget officials. An increasing number school districts are beginning to see red ink seeping onto their general fund ledgers, evaporating reserves that have been carefully squirreled away and creating general fund structural deficits because they continue spending more than they collect.

So far Dublin Unified’s general fund and its component Special Reserve Fund have maintained healthy balances because the District has managed to spend less than it collects in revenue. During a workshop last December, school board members were told an interim budget review projected $14 million in funds available for discretionary spending. That amount may be revised when a second review is completed next week, but some of this money will pay for whatever salary increases are contained in a final teachers’ contract.

While the percentages of wage increases being negotiated may appear small, their exponential impact on the District’s budget would be substantial. District financial projections suggest that meeting DTA demands would set the stage for substantial general fund deficits down the road. How large the actual financial impact will be isn’t known.

Initial estimates prepared by the District last September projected a $4.9 million difference in the additional cost of salaries between what the DTA demanded and the District offered over the two-year contract term. If the District acquiesced to demands for smaller class sizes several
million would be added to the compensation.

This week, District officials said last September’s projections of costs associated with a new contract have been revised and those revisions will be presented to negotiators.

Beyond just paying increased salaries, the District will have to make larger contributions to the California State Teachers Retirement Fund and California Public Employees Retirement Fund, amounts calculated on a percentage of the District’s payroll. In combination, these additional expenses could quickly whittle down the District’s reserves for discretionary spending.

Employee costs are Dublin Unified’s largest category of expenditures, exceeding 80% of its total general fund revenue. Over the past five school years the District has paid some $381.1 million in salaries and benefits, 82.2% of its general fund revenues.

Pensions and other benefits were a significant portion of this expense. During the 2016-17 school year Dublin Unified paid $19 million in total employee benefits with $11.4 million going to CalSTRS and $1.7 million paid to CalPERS. This didn’t include an additional $5.8 million paid to CalSTRS from the state general fund “on-behalf” of the District.

Although the District received an extension for filing its 2018 financial reports, preliminary estimates put last year’s pension expense at $14.8 million, with $12.8 million paid to CalSTRS. District pension contributions will continue to grow due to projected increases in contribution rates reaching 18.6% for CalSTRS and 26% for CalPERS by 2025, additional funding needed to reduce massive unfunded liabilities.

Dublin Unified is a “total compensation” District, a conversion made in 1995 when the DTA negotiated to have the value of fringe benefits included in salaries. At the time those benefits were worth about $5,500, but with subsequent compensation increases, District officials say today’s value is $10,298.

See Also:

• Dublin School Board Member Calls It Quits After A Decade