Bargaining Report: Wed. August 20, 2025

Your Voice at the Table: Comprehensive Bargaining Update

Your Bargaining Team has been hard at work, engaged in intensive negotiations with the district on a wide range of issues that affect our members. Our goal is always to secure a fair contract that supports our  members whose work supports student outcomes. Here’s a detailed breakdown of our latest discussions.

Contract Negotiations: The Big Picture

The district's most recent offer in March 2025 was a 1.5% salary increase for two years, with additional monies for the "Nonstop" program for one year and an extension of the current 185 day work year to 2026-27.

In response, FCEA presented a counter-offer in May 2025 that better reflects your value: a 2% salary increase for one year and a one-time $600 payment.  Our counter included the 1-time Nonstop monies and the 185 day extension to  2026-27 as well.

The district's latest counter-offer today  included:

• A 2% salary increase for the 2025-2026 school year.

• Continue the 185 day calendar model for the 2026-2027 school year.  Remember, we have had this in place for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 year already.  Going from the previous 184 days to 185 amounts to an approximately 0.5% increase for the additional day.

• A one-time payment for Nonstop health benefits, distributed in two installments (minus taxes), based on the difference in district cap and Western Health Advantages premiums for all three tiers.

  
  

The district also revealed a $14 million structural deficit, but noted that increased enrollment, especially in TK/K, has brought in an additional $5 million in revenue. The structural deficit predates COVID but does need to be addressed. This financial context is important as we continue to push for a contract that recognizes your hard work while being mindful of the district's fiscal realities.  The district has assembled the Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee to recommend cost reduction strategies such as identifying services that may be reduced, made more efficient, or discontinued.  This year the SBAC will be hearing reports from all ESC departments as they are charged with reviewing their budgets with an eye toward those goals.  While the school board makes the final decisions, the committee will make recommendations based on the members' votes.  The ten voting members include : Parents/Guardians (2 - one from a title 1 school the other a no-title 1 site), FCEA (2) & CSEA (2) representatives, Classified and Certificated leadership (2) , and 2 student members.

Refining Professional Roles, and Workloads

We also discussed several job descriptions and an MOU to ensure fairness and clarity for all members.

• TOSA job description becoming New Teacher Support and Development Mentor: With 117 new teachers and a staggering 51% of our Special Education teachers being interns, we raised concerns about mentor caseloads. We’re pushing for a clear cap on mentees to prevent overwork and ensure new teachers receive the support they need. We're also fighting to add language to job descriptions that formally recognizes the demanding work of mentoring and managing Professional Improvement Plans (PIPs).

• TK Prep Time: We addressed the issue of guaranteed prep time for TK teachers. The district's new policy states that all TK teachers should receive a full 60 minutes of prep time.  However, the AM/PM TK classes at several sites are struggling with covering this time while also maintaining the state-required 10-1 ratios.  A subgroup from both teams will be meeting to collaborate on solutions.  We secured a commitment from the district to properly compensate any members who were owed this time.

• Progressive Discipline MOU: We have proposed new contract language to create a clear, consistent, and equitable progressive discipline process for all teachers. Our goal is to ensure that minor issues are addressed at the site level with a clear, documented process, preventing unfair or inconsistent discipline from site to site. This was a follow up on work started last year; the two teams are identifying common goals and working toward a solution.

Next Steps

With some clarifying edits and input from FCEA’s Executive Board, we agreed in principle at the table to compensation and benefits.  Next it will go to the Rep Council on August 26th and we are working to schedule a general meeting prior to putting the tentative agreement (TA) to final vote.  Stay tuned to the weekly FCEA News and to your site reps for updates.