After more than a year of contract negotiations, Santa Maria’s high school district and its teachers union reached a tentative agreement on Jan. 31, during a fact-finding hearing that lasted until about 2:30 a.m.
The agreement, which was ratified by the Faculty Association on Feb. 5, has not yet been approved by the Santa Barbara County Education Office or the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District’s board of education. Kenny Klein, public information officer for the district, said he could not release further details until those steps are completed and the contract is made official.
Faculty Association President Matt Provost also wouldn’t comment too specifically on the terms of the agreement but said the Faculty Association’s bargaining team developed compromises everyone could agree on. The Faculty Association, he said, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement.
“It’s always nice to be able to come to an agreement,” he said.
Issues first started for the district and union in October 2018, when they declared an official impasse and agreed to move forward with contract negotiations through a state mediator. When that didn’t work, the groups agreed after a meeting to move on to a fact-finding hearing, one of the last-ditch stages of the negotiation process that includes both groups pleading their cases to a panel of three judges, who then recommend a settlement strategy.
This year’s debate surrounded proposed faculty salary increases for the 2018-19 school year and changes to the district’s voluntary teacher transfer process.
While the district offered faculty members a 2 percent raise for the 2018-19 school year—including increases to the salary schedule and health benefits—Faculty Association members held out for months in hopes of getting a 3.75 percent increase.
Provost said in a previous interview with the Sun that the union made its request based on increased funding the district received from recent changes in state cost of living adjustments and growing enrollment.
Still, district officials continue to blame rising pension costs for lower than usual salary increases, and Provost said the Faculty Association eventually agreed to a 2 percent salary increase this year, 2 percent next year, and reopening of negotiations the year after that.
The groups also battled over contractual language regarding the district’s voluntary teacher transfer program, which Provost said allows teachers to voluntarily jump to schools with open positions. The transfer policy has existed within the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District since the late ’90s. It’s one of the few liberties teachers are allowed without administrative oversight, and Provost said the district’s originally proposed contract would have eliminated the program entirely.
Assistant Superintendent Kevin Platt said the lack of oversight makes it difficult for district officials and principals to deny internal transfers to longtime teachers—even if they feel other applicants would be a better fit.
“It makes it more difficult for administrators at a site to do the job they’re supposed to do,” Platt said in a previous interview with the Sun.
Faculty Association President Provost said the groups were able to come to an agreement on the transfer process, which, if the agreement is approved, will be conducted through a more detailed, clearer process that gives administrators at least some control.
“Teachers will still be able to transfer,” Provost said, “there’s just a set of criteria they need to meet first.”
This article appears in Feb 21-28, 2019.