Saratoga Teachers Reach Tentative Agreement With School District

The Saratoga Teachers' Association and the Saratoga Union School District have reached a tentative agreement on staff learning and collaboration time days  and zero cost of living adjustments to salary during the 2011-12 school year.

The union, which represents roughly about 150 teachers, school nurses and psychologists, also reached preliminary agreement on health and welfare benefits for such employees during the 2012-13 school year and extra pay for extended duties during the 2012-13 school year.

The announcement was made during the district's Oct. 9 meeting and is described in a staff report that contains the agreement, signed by Argonaut Elementary School first-grade teacher Michelle Clements, the negotiations' chairwoman for the union.

SUSD classified employees are not represented by the Saratoga Teachers' Association and are therefore not included in the contract, Clements explained. 

Staff learning and collaboration time days, or SLCT days, are days when district teachers are released at an earlier time to work on certain projects related to their goals and programs, Clements said, adding that the amount of such days—about eight of them—has only been stipulated for the 2011-12 school year.

A separate agreement, included in the same contract, for teachers' health and welfare benefits has only been negotiated for 2012-13, but teachers' salaries for the current school year have not been agreed upon in that contract, yet, Clement said.

The ongoing agreement must be finalized at an upcoming board meeting, Clements added.

According to a staff report, a calendar will be developed with one minimum day per week of the school year for staff learning time, collaboration and staff meeting time. The calendar will be developed this fall by administration officials, bargaining unit representatives and the district's leadership team.

One unfortunate circumstance during the 2011-12 school year was that teachers received zero percent cost-of-living adjustments on their salaries.

Teachers also did not receive COLA adjustments in their salary during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school year.

However, the union and the district reached an agreement on health and welfare benefits for the 2012-13 school year, which began July 1, and which will pay 95 percent of the premium insurance payment of unit members and their families with the employees paying 5 percent.

Under health benefits for retirees, the union and the district have agreed that effective July 1, 2013, new employees will not receive any early retirement health and welfare benefits, following a trend to rein in on pension costs.

Also, effective July 1, 2014, employees who retire will pay benefits at the level under the contract in place at the time of retirement and such benefits will be offered to registered domestic partners.

"It's hard to come to an agreement on the COLA with the state education budget the way it is," Clement said. "When the education budget is cut every six months ... there's not much that can be done."

Clement said teachers have only negotiated salary increases for the 2011-12 school year and which are stipulated under a step-and-column system listed on the district's website. 

According to the STA contract and salary schedules information listed on the district's website, a beginning teacher's salary is $50,123, which increases as the educator moves columns depending on the number of education and units he or she takes to further his or her career.

For every year a teacher labors in the district, they move up one step. If they accrue extra education and college courses, they move over a column after 12 units, Clements explained.

See attached PDF for a complete SUSD certificated teachers' salary schedule for the 2009-10 school year. Teachers also receive a $1,000 stipend per year for special education and a $1,300 stipend per year for each master's and doctoral degrees earned.

"Once the contract is ratified it is an agreement," Clement said. But the contract will receive a final vote at an upcoming meeting, she added.

STA's President Eveonne Lockhart and SUSD Superintendent Lane Weiss were not immediately available for comment.