After nearly 100 hours of negotiations over salaries, the Lompoc Union School District decided it can’t give its teachers more than a 1.25 percent ongoing raise and $1,000 one-time payment.
The Lompoc Federation of Teachers, the teachers union, has been pushing for raises to attract new employees to what it calls an “isolated” district and to keep up with the cost of living due to high inflation rates. The district’s decision led the union to file for an impasse, federation President Skyler Andersen said.
“Filing for impasse means that we have recognized we are at a standstill in negotiations that we believe we won’t be able to get out of without outside assistance,” Andersen explained.
The decision followed several union discussions to ensure everyone understood what an impasse entails, and about 87 percent of members voted in favor, Anderson said. The last time the union went to an impasse was in the 1970s, she said.
“We felt it was a mandate from our members, and it motivated us to make the decision,” Andersen said. “We didn’t have to go this route. We think it’s awful we have to resort to this, but we are hopeful it will result in a better outcome than what the district offered us at the bargaining table.”
The union and the district used to have a very collaborative partnership, she said, but the past year has really soured their relationship due to the district’s decision to get rid of its negotiations facilitator as well as other disciplinary issues.
“There’s been a lot of pressure related to COVID. … I would say COVID’s been a driving factor, but there have been other things in the relationship that led to its worsening,” she said.
Another motivating factor was that the other district union—the California School Employees Association, which represents all classified employees like secretaries and custodians—received a 2.875 percent ongoing salary raise, which is more than double the teacher’s union raise, Andersen said.
“Our members are not happy about that. It’s not because they aren’t worthy of that raise, but our anger stems from the fact that we believe our members are worthy of that, too,” she added.
Over the past year, teachers had to work through online and hybrid learning, increased behavioral issues as students returned to the classroom, higher absence rates, and a substitute teacher shortage, putting a lot of pressure on the classroom leaders, Andersen said.
“Every member in our union has definitely been impacted by this year, [which] has not relented at all since we got back full time in the classroom,” she said.
Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD) officials said it’s one of the few districts without a general obligation bond—a community tax that helps fund school district projects—and therefore, the majority of the district’s general fund must go toward maintaining facilities.
“Additionally, the needs of our district continue to increase while a decline in enrollment places significant constraints on our budget. It is within this challenging budgeting context that LUSD continues to negotiate in good faith with its bargaining units,” district officials said in a statement.
The school district met with the teachers union to negotiate salaries on Oct. 1, Oct. 8, Nov. 17, Dec. 17, and Jan. 28, during which the union turned down several offers, including a one-time 3.75 percent increase—near equivalent to the California School Employees Association increase—according to the district’s statement.
Andersen confirmed the union rejected this proposal because it puts teachers at a disadvantage; with more members and higher wages, it will result in a smaller pay increase, she said.
“I like to explain it as if we have two equal-sized pizzas, but one split between four people is going to have bigger slices than if it were to be shared between 10 people,” she continued.
With an impasse filed, the Public Employment Relations Board—a state administrative agency—will send a mediator to help work out an agreement between the two parties. The mediator helps make a process for both sides to come into agreement, which Andersen said she hopes will result in higher wages.
“A raise would mean the district sees the hard work and recognizes it in a very tangible way. That simple recognition carries a lot more weight, especially in this critical moment we are in during the pandemic,” Andersen said.
This article appears in Feb 3-10, 2022.