Teachers of the Sweetwater Union High School District still have no contract.

SEA, district fail to reach agreement



By Elma Gonzalez

With the old contract having expired on June 30, 2008, the Sweetwater Educators' Association (SEA)began to engage in negotiations with the district to settle on a new contract. However, as the bargaining process began, both the teacher's union and the district realized they had very different convictions regarding the new contract. According to SEA, the district did not appear to be bargaining in "good faith" and did not "take the process seriously"; they claimed the district embarked in "regressive bargaining" meaning the district’s proposals became less favorable as bargaining progressed, forcing the union to file a protest against unfair labor practices. The district responded by filing a countersuit against SEA for stalling the process, which has so far taken more than a year.

Among the several issues prolonging the process are the elimination of Montgomery High's 4x4 schedule, the proposed two-tier retirement system, and the establishment of a fair staffing ratio. As most of us know, Montgomery High was, until this year, the only high school in our district to have the 4x4 schedule or quarter schedule -which divided each day between 4 periods. When the decision was made by the district to impose a new schedule on Montgomery, SEA claimed the teacher's rights were violated. It was not the fact that they no longer enjoyed the advantages of the old schedule, but that the union was not consulted when the change was made. The district tells a different story. They assert the union was consulted, and that the only problem was that the change in schedule was not able to go through the whole 'formal process' because the MOH school year was rapidly arriving and the master schedule had to be made. As for the reason behind this change, the district claims it was made as an attempt to improve the students' scores and eliminate the school's PI status. Although this issue does not affect SOH directly, there are others like the 'staffing ratio' that hit closer to home.

According to the old contract, there should be a student/teacher ratio of 28:1; but how many times have we entered classrooms in which there are more than 40 students. Just two weeks ago, an AP Econ class consisted of more than forty five students, almost double the limited amount. Although, some decided to switch to some other class, an excessive number still remains. Now, you may wonder, how come the old contract is being used to limit the number of students per teacher? Well, the rules of collective bargaining state that the “old” contract must be enforced until the two teams come to an agreement. When the district was questioned about this their answer was that there were actually two ratios: the 28:1 ratio and the 176:1 ratio, which represents a full school day. In other words, the only restriction is having a limit of 176 students per day.

Another issue that stands above the rest is the implementation of the two-tier retirement system, a system that denies retirement benefits to new members of the district. Many teachers believe that this is unjust for new teachers. Although it may not seem to affect the students directly, if SUHSD does not offer the same incentives as other districts in San Diego; it would put SUHSD at a huge disadvantage when attracting new teachers. For the students, this would mean fewer teachers would be available to 'teach' at our district in future years.

Representatives of theSweetwater Union High School District state that they believe the main reason they haven't come to an agreement with the union is simply a difference in opinions. One example they gave deals with the teachers' salary; while teachers demand a raise to survive in the current recession, the district is undergoing a fiscal crisis that prevents them from doing so.

When entering the District website, one of the first news articles that appears is that of the district reaching an agreement with Sweetwater Employee Unions on new contracts. However, the agreement was reached with unions representing counselors, clerical workers, paraprofessionals and operations support, not teachers. Our teachers continue to press for a fair contract. When asked about a possible strike, a Union representative assured the Union was, "most unlikely to have such a drastic response," the top priority for the SUHSD teachers is of course " the students' education."

Hopefully, our district and teachers will compromise at the next board meeting on August 17, 2010.