Bargaining Update

Hello colleagues,
 
Your CUTA bargaining team and the District met for negotiations on Wednesday, April 24. We spent the majority of the session reviewing the agreements we reached this year to put in a tentative agreement (TA) for you to vote on. The vote will take place in late May after a general membership meeting. Details about the time and location of the vote will be forthcoming.
 
The following includes a brief summary of the items in the tentative agreement (TA).
 

• Return rights: Current contract language allows a member to return to his or her same site after a maternity leave, childcare leave, or combination of both leaves that last 130 days or less. The District has agreed to extend the 130-day right to return to the same site to all types of leave.
• CUTA release time moved from Article 10 to Article 4: This was simply a more logical place to include the rules governing release time for CUTA members.
• Updated language for CUTA release time: The language describing how release time works for our CUTA president was confusing; we updated the language to describe how it actually works, and has worked for years. In addition, we updated language describing the number of days CUTA members can be released for completing union work (at CUTA cost). The exact language will be included in the TA.
• Add girls wrestling coach stipend: The District has agreed to add a category 2 varsity coach stipend for girls wrestling.
• Remove Article 5 and Article 21: These are defunct articles, and we are going to delete them in their entirety, but we will leave the titles for these articles in the contract as placeholders in case we need to add new articles to the contract in the future.
• Change “BTSA” to “Induction Program” in 8.1.9.A: This title change is meant to clarify that the District’s financial support for new teacher induction programs is not limited to BTSA but is for future new teacher induction programs as well.
• Additional title in 6.1.1.B.1.d: We are adding “Title 1 teachers” to the list of identified educators in this provision of the contract.
• Distribution of health care premium reduction: The member vote on this issue has already happened and it is in our contract. This language clarifies the process for the distribution.

 
In addition to completing the draft of the tentative agreement, we reviewed and agreed to continue our current MOUs (memorandums of understanding) with some changes. Our current MOUs with brief explanations are listed below. MOUs are approved by E-Board and only become a part of the contract if agreed on by the District and CUTA and voted on by general membership in a TA.
 

• New employer orientation: This language captures the spirit of California Assembly Bill 119. AB119 gives local unions the right to the demographic and employment information of their members and new hires. In addition, the union has the right to meet with new hires. The District is being very helpful and scheduling a monthly meeting for our president to meet with new hires that occur mid-year.
• Preschool: This is an ongoing MOU for the state-funded preschool program (not Loma Vista’s program) that is entering its 4th year. Preschool teachers in this program are CUTA members, but they are on a different salary schedule because they require qualifications that are more limited and work most of the year.
• CUTA members teaching at Inspire: This MOU waives the contractual rights to the CUSD high school schedule for CUTA members providing special education at Inspire. By waiving this contractual right, a teacher in this position gains first right to transfer to an open position in the same credential area after 2 years of service.
• All-day K: The current MOU will continue forward without change until we write permanent contract language.
• Secondary SBAC and finals schedule: The current MOU allows high schools to use a modified schedule for two weeks of state testing and both finals weeks, provided the site votes for the schedule via a simple majority. We will continue this MOU next year.
• Class size: This MOU reduces secondary maximum class size from 40 to 38. In addition, the District may ask a teacher to go voluntarily over her or his caseload maximum of 175. If the teacher agrees, she or he receives $500, which increases her or his caseload by 1 for the remainder of the semester. A teacher may volunteer to increase her or his caseload by up to 5 students. In elementary school, if a teacher is selected to be one of the classes that can go over the maximum class size, she or he will receive $500 per half-year. We are renewing this MOU for next year.
• Early disbursement of BTSA funds: This MOU allows the District to provide half of its financial support for new teacher induction programs up front to help new teachers pay for the program. This early disbursement only applies to the BTSA program offered by BCOE. This MOU will continue next year.
• Independent Study: This MOU governs the caseload of traditional and online independent study at the high schools. Online independent study continues with a caseload of 50 students. Traditional independent study has a reduction in the number of part-time student who can be on their caseload from 20 to 12.
• Oak Bridge Academy: We are continuing this MOU with the addition of a position for a teacher to handle students on medically necessitated instruction (MNI) and off campus instruction (OCI), who will have a caseload of 30 students.
• Early retirement tell: We are also continuing the MOU, which allows the District to provide a bonus of $1,000 to teachers who submit an irrevocable letter of intent to retire at the end of the year by February 1. If teachers submit the letter by March 1, they receive a $500 bonus.

 
We had a little bit of time left to check in on issues we are currently negotiating. The District expects the report on its special education program to be finished by early May, which will hopefully allow us to spend time during our final two sessions discussing the many issues we are trying to address in this area.
 
The District has agreed to include STRS trainings on the District-wide staff development days. STRS trainers will tailor presentation for young educators, mid-career educators and veteran educators and may provide information for additional, sensible investment options. We are trying to work out the best times to offer these training sessions, and the District is being very gracious in sharing their time to allow these presentations. We are also looking to provide STRS training for brand new teachers, and again the District has offered us time at one of the new teacher training days in the summer. This is a great example of the District accommodating CUTA member needs, because they want the best for our members, too.
 
Next year is the final year of our three-year wage increase agreement with the District. We have begun preliminary discussions about what a compensation increase might look like in 2020-2021. Although we have no way of predicting future state funding, we can start to examine various ways to offer compensation increases. This is the start of a long discussion.
 
In addition to the general membership meeting and vote on this year’s TA, we will also be holding site level votes on a formula to use for a dues increase. Our president, Kevin Moretti, sent an email explaining the formula CUTA would like to establish for dues increases. The formula would result in a very small increase of $0.76 per month next year for full-time teachers and an increase the following year of a little over $1 per month. For a detailed explanation, please see Kevin’s email. The dues increase would allow CUTA members working on union issues to continue to devote the necessary time for working closely with the District on working conditions, compensation increases, and other issues.
 
If you would like to view our current contract, you can find it here. Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.
 
Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association

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