Amid negotiations, public high school teachers in Santa Maria are one step away from striking

Nearly 100 educators from the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District (SMJUHSD) gathered on the front lawn of the district headquarters during the late afternoon of April 12, shortly before the district’s board meeting.

All of them were from the SMJUHSD Faculty Association, which represents educators from all four of the district’s high schools. Association President Mark Goodman said they wanted to make a presence.

They walked in a counterclockwise pattern near the corner of Skyway and Fairview. Carrying protest signs. It looked like they were striking, but they weren’t. Yet.

click to enlarge Amid negotiations, public high school teachers in Santa Maria are one step away from striking
PHOTO BY DAVID MINSKY
NOT QUITE A STRIKE: Nearly 100 educators from Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Faculty Association picketed the lawn of the district headquarters shortly before the board meeting on April 12.

According to Goodman, they were merely prepping for a strike if the school board failed to address their grievances. 

Having declared an impasse in the negotiations on March 15, both parties moved into what’s called the fact-finding stage. According to California law, it’s the last stage in negotiations before educators are legally allowed to strike.  

Before that, both parties went through eight consecutive meetings with no agreements. It’s a culmination of three years of negotiations with no end in sight, Goodman said. For that, he blames the district for hiring an outside consultant with no ties to the area. 

“We have to bargain and talk with a gentleman who doesn’t live here, is not an educator, is not a teacher or manager, so he doesn’t know why we’re saying what we’re saying,” Goodman said. “He’s just giving marching orders. So it’s kind of a fake, façade negotiation.”

Kenny Klein, a spokesman for the SMJUHSD, said the district wanted the negotiations to be public.

“That’s the problem,” Klein said, who added that the association said the negotiations weren’t public. “If it’s not in public, then it’s ‘he said, she said’ and that doesn’t do any good.”

Goodman confirmed that the faculty association didn’t want the negotiations public. He said that no other local district makes their negotiations public because of strategy as well as because of sensitive information that may be discussed in the process.

An impasse was declared after the second attempt with a mediator from the Public Employee Relations Board.

Pay is one of the greivances. The district offered a 3.5 percent raise for the 2015-16 school year and offered to open up negotiations for the next school year, according to Klein.

The district’s offer is slightly less than what teachers throughout the state are getting, according to The Fresno Bee, which is around 3.8 percent from 2014. 

But it’s not enough for association members. In December, they originally wanted an 18 percent raise, however they dropped it to 12 percent in January, to take effect over the next two years.

However, Goodman said pay isn’t the biggest sticking factor in negotiations. There’s curricular issues involved. In short, class sizes are increasing while preparation time for teachers is going down, he said. Goodman added that the teachers are less concerned with the percentage of pay raise than they are about having the district agree to their terms surrounding issues of class size and prep time.

“It’s more than just their proposals,” Goodman told the Sun. It’s their behavior.” 

Goodman said that several teachers have gone before the board to talk about curricular issues only to face retaliation. He mentioned several instances of teachers being removed from their posts or receiving switched classes without adequate preparation. The Sun couldn’t independently confirm any of these instances. 

At the public meeting on April 12, however, Goodman accused the board of retaliation once more. He said that the board switched up their public speaking spot at the last minute by giving them time to speak publicly at the end of the meeting, around 9 p.m., instead of the usual time at 6:30 p.m. 

Goodman said the culture of retaliation comes from a handful of district officials and school board members who aren’t from this area. He expressed hope that the coming school board election will change that culture.  

“They don’t understand our community,” Goodman said. “Come November, we’ve got to change at least two of those board members.”

Recently, the association came away with a small victory. State arbitrator Linda Klibanow ruled on April 18 that the district has to reimburse more than 18 months of leave charged to teachers.

In terms of the teacher contract negotiations, a hearing is set for May 5, which will include a panel of three judges, with each side choosing a judge. Both parties will choose a third judge. 

“There is a process in place and we look forward to fact-finding and being able to share the report with the public,” Klein said in an emailed statement. “Every decision we make in this district has the best interest and future of our students in mind.’’

If an agreement isn’t made by then, the association has a legal right to strike. It’s not clear what will happen to the students if the teachers strike, but it could affect thousands of students. 

“We look forward to working with the fact-finding panel and resolving these issues for our students, staff, and community,” Superintendent Mark Richardson said in a statement provided to the Sun.  

Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at [email protected].

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