Newark School District And Teachers Association Reach Tentative Agreement

From the Newark Unified School District:

February 19, 2020

The Newark Unified School District and Newark Teachers Association are pleased to announce they reached a tentative agreement over a new three year contract on February 19, 2020. After ten bargaining sessions, the parties negotiated changes to approximately 15 contract articles, including major areas such as Work Year, Work Week, Class Size. Reassignment/Transfer and Safety. The parties also agreed to a new article devoted to Technology.

The three year contract provides compensation increases in each of the 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. If a statewide ballot measure passes in November 2020 that would increase school funding, further negotiations would occur in 2020-2021 and/or 2021-2022 to consider whether additional compensation increases could occur. Each party would also be able to reopen negotiations in 2021-2022 over two non-cost items.

The District will need to submit the proposed agreement to the Alameda County Office of Education for their review and opinion on the District’s ability to fund the cost increases.

Both the District and Association teams are appreciative of the candid and constructive discussions that took place throughout this process. This affirms their mutual belief that challenges can be met head on and problems can be resolved when all parties commit to attacking the issues but not each other or their constituents.

Details of the agreement will be disclosed through the ratification process by NTA membership and the NUSD Board of Education, the latter of which is expected to occur during the month of March.

This press release was produced by the Newark Unified School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.