Teacher Contract Talks Fail In Union City

UNION CITY, CA — The New Haven Unified School District and New Haven Teachers Association both issued statements late Tuesday afternoon stating that contract talks had been completed without an agreement being reached. The statements demonstrate how far apart the two sides are.

Here are the statements from both sides, in their entirety, to give readers a chance to form their own opinions.

New Haven Unified School District Statement:

"Today the District Management and New Haven Teachers Association completed Mediation. The session lasted all morning, but in the end the parties were released to Fact Finding, the next step in the Impasse process.

"Like most districts across the state, New Haven Unified has suffered from increasing fiscal pressures with little relief from the State. After already having made nearly $4 million in cuts in 2018/19 in order to balance a 3-year budget, and additional cuts for 2019/20, the District is still faced with a nearly $5 million budget shortfall in 2020/21.

"District staff have been consistent and clear with NHTA leadership about this impending $5 million deficit since the beginning of this school year. The District provided a detailed budget presentation to the NHTA Bargaining team on October 2, 2018, to provide the full picture of this budget shortfall and to explain that we are not able to add money to the salary schedule during this round of negotiations. This is the District’s financial situation and we have been transparent about our bottom line prior to the commencement of negotiations this year. The District rejects the assertion that we are now somehow misrepresenting our dire fiscal reality as a bargaining strategy.

"Though the District has been consistent with its message to the NHTA Bargaining Team regarding the District’s financial picture, NHTA’s proposal remains the same - a 10% ongoing salary increase and $1,500 Retention Stipend per member for 2018-19, an additional 10% ongoing salary increase and $1,500 Retention Stipend per member for 2019-20, and a compression of the salary schedule from 32 to 27 steps that would be an increased cost to the District. Their proposal of a 21% raise over the next two years represents a cost to the District in excess of $24 million and would continue as an ongoing expense every year if implemented. In the current reality of school funding, no district in the state would be able to afford a 21% raise over two years. Should the District sign off on a contract that included this language, the District budget will not be certified and the District could be identified for State receivership."

New Haven Teachers Association Statement:

"An organization’s budget sets the priorities for that organization.

"NHUSD has offered our unit members a 0% increase for 2018-19.

"NHUSD ended the 2017-18 school year with a $12.5 million budget surplus and is projecting a $2.5 million increase in revenue for the current year, 2018-19. The district has the funds to offer an appropriate raise for NHTA members.The District’s 2018-19 projected budget increases monies for administrator salaries while decreasing the monies for NHTA salaries. Over the last 5 years NHUSD has increased spending on administration salaries from approximately $6 million to over $10 million: an increase of about 66%.

"Over the last 10 years the percentage of the district’s budget spent on NHTA members has gone from 55% of the budget to less than 45% of the budget.

"An organization’s budget sets the priorities for that organization.

"District wide, class sizes over that 5 years remain some of the highest in Alameda county. This Tuesday the board will discuss increasing class size in grades 1-3.

"An organization’s budget sets the priorities for that organization.

"On Tuesday 3/5/19 the NHUSD and NHTA bargaining teams met with an appointed mediator to see if an agreement could be reached. In less than 4 hours the mediator determined that no settlement was possible with NHUSD and certified the bargaining impasse into the next phase of bargaining known as fact finding. The bargaining crisis in New Haven schools has reached another level of seriousness."

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