New Haven teachers talks collapse
Talks in the New Haven Union School District teachers strike broke down Monday, with teachers in Hayward and Union City returning to the picket line Tuesday for a second week.
The district, which includes 12 schools across the two East Bay cities, and the New Haven Teachers Association met for a marathon bargaining session over the holiday weekend in the hopes of reaching an agreement over higher wages. The two sides failed to reach a deal and are now scheduled to meet on Wednesday, according to the teachers union.
At the start of talks on Monday, the school district was offering a one-time 3% bonus for the current school year and a 1% ongoing raise beginning July 1. The teachers association wanted a 10% raise over two years.
New Haven’s starting compensation, including salary and benefits, is $72,031. That compares with an average starting compensation of $63,975 among Alameda County school districts. At the top end, the average compensation is $117,583 in New Haven versus $110,320 average for all the county’s districts. That data is from a 2017 analysis by GO
Public Schools Oakland, a nonprofit education group.
The union then put a revised proposal in front of the district late Monday, asking for a cost-ofliving adjustment of 3.7% for the current school year and a 3.26% raise for the 2019-20 school year. The district also made a new offer, which the union said it did not accept.
The union president, Joe Ku’e Angeles, said the bargaining team was “insulted” that the district refused to meet before Wednesday, chiding the administration for saying it had to prepare for a school board meeting on Tuesday evening.
The school board and district “absolutely refuse to prioritize our kids,” Angeles said in a statement, adding: “It’s disrespectful and it’s shameful.”
The school district said in a statement that it’s unable to meet until Wednesday.
“All members of the bargaining team have been assigned to support students and school sites during the strike. Many are teaching classes,” the district said. Administrators are also tied up in a board meeting tonight.
“This leaves tomorrow after school as the first time the entire bargaining team is able to meet,” the statement said.
Administrators said the camps were unable to “bridge the gap between their respective last, best and final offers,” in a May 26 statement on the New Haven Unified School District’s website. The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The district, which serves about 11,300 students, has kept school in session throughout the teachers’ strike. Union members include 585 teachers, school counselors, psychologists, nurses and speech therapists.
The union had expressed a new level of optimism late Monday, saying that a resolution was near and teachers could return to the classroom as early as Tuesday.
“We’re having a twosided conversation now, which is awesome,” Kim DeBono, a union representative, said at a briefing at the Alameda County Office of Education, where the talks were held.