PVFA and District Reach a Tentative Agreement

The news of what some students were calling the “teacher strike” spread quickly throughout the first few weeks of the school year. This “teacher strike” was the negotiation of teacher contracts with the district. The teachers, however, were not on strike because they were still working. Rather, the teachers were not doing things that were not within their contractual obligations.

On August 31, the Palos Verdes Faculty Association (PVFA) and the PVPUSD “declared to jointly file impasse” according to Assistant Superintendent Matthew Horvath.

Impasse is an extension of the negation process where a mediator is needed to help find a solution between differentiating parties. This impasse came after seven offers from the district to teachers. The impasse process began September 26.

The first major school board meeting about this pressing issue took place on the Wednesday September 6. Prior to the board meeting, the district had five negotiation sessions. From that point, the district had made “seven different compensation offers, according to Horvath. Out of these seven offers, five contained retroactive pay, which meant the district would pay income from previous pay periods to the teachers.”

The district’s seventh offer “included the most ongoing money we could afford to support our teachers yet remain fiscally responsible,” said Horvath.

This final offer included 3.1% compensation for this current year, but it did not include any retroactive pay for the 2016-17 school year.

Neighboring school districts such as Redondo Beach or Manhattan are attracting teachers because of higher pay and better benefits. During the 2015-16 school year, 42.6% of PVPUSD expenditures went to the teachers’ salaries, while in Redondo, 47.2% went to teacher salaries.

Over the time of negotiation process, many were heard saying “the district is asking for a ‘world class’ education, but they are not paying teachers a ‘world class’ salary.”  Pvpusdfacts.com states, “Meanwhile, the PVPUSD Board’s spending priorities have been clear; district administration has grown in size and cost.”

After such events and hours of negotiating, the PVFA decided that they needed to send a strong message to the district. Teachers decided to withhold grades from students, refrained from advising student clubs.

On September 1, the district sent out a emailing promising seniors that the teachers will provide letters of recommendation.

Eleven days later, teachers announced they would not be writing letters of recommendation. This made students a part of the conflict.

At the September 6 board meeting, many students spoke, including senior Izzy Barajas who addressed the board members and said, “With all due respect, which one of you district board members will be writing my letters of recommendation?” in response to the district’s promise that every senior applying to college will receive a letter of recommendation.

Barajas and fellow senior Sarah Ellis took action in supporting the teachers by creating a petition that was signed by 750+ students signed. Along with other students, Barajas took this petition to district office to show the students’ support for the PVFA.

Barajas said she needed to show her appreciation for the teachers because they “are my role models. . . Nothing I can do or say will thank them enough.” Barajas then said that students should “stand up or what you believe in. . . It’s hard to do what’s right, but I promise you, doing what’s right is so damn worth it.”

On Wednesday September 27, a tentative agreement was made between the district and the PVFA minutes before the school board meeting began.

The agreement is that district teachers will see a cumulative 3.75% salary increase. The teachers’ will receive a 1% retroactive pay beginning January, 2017 forward with a 2.75% increase beginning February 1, 2018.

The voting on this agreement started October 3rd and will end on the 13.

“My hope is that the tentative agreement is ratified and that everyone can return focus to teaching and learning,” said president of the board of education Anthony Collatos.

“It is imperative that we begin the process of rebuilding trust and working together over the next year to identify long terms solutions.”