A stall in district, teacher talks?

Association baffled by Yuba City Unified letter warning of possible impasse

A Yuba City Teachers Association representative said she was disappointed Thursday by a letter from the school district implying wage negotiations might be stalled.

Dina Luetgens, president of the Association, said teachers and district representatives met Wednesday to discuss proposals

A series of January storms that brought record rains to the state and massive amounts of snow to the mountains helped double the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, experts with the state Department of Water Resources said Thursday . ... and there was no indication that there might be an impasse.

A letter from the school district was emailed to parents, teachers and the media indicating that talks may have stalled, which could lead to declaration of an impasse.

Robert Shemwell, deputy superintendent of business services, said the district doesn’t know what will happen next, but acknowledged the association said they would be in touch.

Luetgens said the association is still interested in negotiations and will notify the district of that, but the association needed some more time after Wednesday’s discussions. The district

proposed a 1.5 percent pay increase across the board, she said.

Shemwell said the district would be hard pressed to go beyond that.

“Yesterday (Wednesday) we explained, given the resources … the offer we have put before them is where we’re holding firm,” Shemwell said. “To do anything additional would be putting the financial future of the district in jeopardy.”

He said the district also agreed to lower the amount of time it takes for an employee to move through the salary schedule – instead of it taking a teacher three years to move to another salary step, it would only take two years.

Luetgens said the association was disappointed in Wednesday’s negotiations.

“After the district reported that their financial status has significantly improved since our last bargaining session (Dec. 14), the district told YCTA that they would not be modifying their last salary proposal,” Luetgens wrote in an email.

She said the association’s most recent proposal accepted the 1.5 percent increase but added extra compensation for teachers with more education and training. However, she said, the district did not modify their last proposal.

She said the district presented their multiyear projections – which shows what their financial budget looks like for the next three years – and then the district showed a new projection based on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget, which would include more funding for schools.

“Our anticipation (on) what was going to come next was a salary proposal better than their last one,” Luetgens said.

“(Newsom’s proposed budget) includes more funding for schools than we had projected...” it was stated in the district’s letter.

“... The proposed budget does not bestow sufficient funds to allow us to implement the higher pay demands made by the teacher’s union,” it was written in the letter.

The district’s proposal would cost approximately $1.38 million in the first