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After months of negotiations, the Sequoia District Teachers Association (SDTA) and Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) have reached a tentative agreement for a new contract for teachers, counselors and other school specialists.
The decision was reached during the final bargaining session on Friday, Jan. 28, according to SDTA President and Sequoia High School math teacher, Edith Salvatore.
The contract approved unanimously by the SDTA’s Legislative Council on Tuesday will be voted on by union members this week. If ratified, it will be brought to the SUHSD Board of Trustees for final approval at their next meeting on Feb. 16.
The two-year contract includes a salary increase of 2.5% for both the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, with an additional 2% increase from benefits-related savings, effective Jan. 1, 2023.
The SDTA originally proposed a 4% raise for this year, with a subsequent round of discussions in the coming year.
Based on up-to-date salary schedules, certificated, non-management staff, which includes many teachers, have a starting salary of $70,979, which will increase to $72,753 for the current year. An additional 2.5% raise on July 1, 2022, and a final raise of 2% in January 2023 would bring SDTA members salaries to roughly those of the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD), according to Salvatore. The starting salary for certificated employees at SMUHSD is $75,883, including a 2.5% increase for this year.
Some teachers have expressed frustration that the salary increases among non-management have not equaled the salaries of management, Salvatore said. According to Salvatore, while compensation for the SDTA members has increased by about 26% in the last five years, the amount spent on certificated management staff, such as site principals and other administrators, has risen by roughly 49% over the same period.
Salaries for all certificated staff, which includes union members as well as management, represented 40.4% of the district’s total expenditures for this year, according to budget data.
The district did not respond to requests for comment by time of publication of this article.
The tentative agreement outlines changes to “healthcare providers, professional development language, adjustments to evaluations, catastrophic leave, compensation for head counselors and case management time for teachers in the specialized Satellite and Satellite Plus programs,” Salvatore wrote in an email. It also creates and maintains committees to continue discussing health benefits, professional development and job descriptions and workloads for counselors and other non-classroom staff.
With the spring term already underway, the contract comes much later than usual, Salvatore said. While the union’s original proposal was presented during a public school board meeting in February 2021, active bargaining didn’t begin until October.
“Because we were in distance learning, and we were in negotiations over the terms of all the health and safety precautions for returning in person last spring, the contract negotiations got put off until the fall,” she said. “And then we didn't actually start until October because the district was without an assistant superintendent of human resources.”
She added that it was “very frustrating to be this far into the year without a contract.”
Having served on the bargaining team for over a decade, Salvatore said she understands negotiating is a long, complicated process for the district. Still, she said she’s sympathetic to a feeling of exhaustion among many union members.
“They've worked harder, and done more, in the last two years than has ever been asked of them,” she said, adding that many feel underappreciated for their work. “There's a lot of, ‘we couldn't do it without you guys. Thanks so much.’ And at some point, you wonder, what's the priority of the district?”
