Cabrillo Unified Teachers Association Still No Deal; Classified Employees Bargaining Unit (CSEA) Settle with 4% Raise, $1,500 Bonus and Possible 2% Increase Contingent on Passing November 2024 Parcel Tax

The Teachers have NOT accepted a settlement with the District. 

CSEA = California School Employee Association = Cabrillo Unified Chapter 485

3.   In fact, there is a clause in the CSEA agreement that if teachers settle for more, CSEA will automatically get that increase as well!

The Teachers find the July 30th, 2024 settlement problematic:

• CUTA does not believe any salary increases should be based on contingencies;

• CUTA’s analysis of the District budget shows that it can afford greater than a 4% raise

• The cost of teachers to the District has declined by over $1.2 million dollars in the last few years, our bargaining unit has been starved in favor of funding workplace housing and administrative “pet” projects;

• CUTA does not believe teachers should be paid a well-below standard salary because of the District’s mismanagement of funds;

• CUSD’s proposal WILL NOT “Keep Teachers on the Coastside”

• Funding teacher salaries = Stronger services for all children

The Teachers have made progress and compromised with the District over the last 2 years of negotiations, but have not yet received a compensation increase. Please refer to the history of our negotiations over the last 2 years.

2022 / 2023

• CUTA proposed a 9.6% salary increase.   

• CUSD offered a  0% salary increase.  

• The Teachers met with the District for the entire year.

• The Public Employees Relation Board mediated the case.

• District never moved from 0%

October 2023

• CUTA proposed an 8.22% salary increase, retroactive to July 2023, based on the state-funded COLA, employee plus one coverage for newer teachers and an adjustment to the salary schedule so it won’t take 27 years to reach the top.  

• CUSD offered a salary increase based on the elimination of some CUTA members’ full family healthcare with no financial information to match this offer.  There were no numbers provided for how many CUTA members would be affected, or how much of a salary increase this would mean in real dollars.  

• CUTA rejected this proposal given the devastating decrease in benefits for some families proposed without any clear benefit to our members.  

December of 2023 

• CUTA was offered a 1% salary increase retroactive to July 2023

• CUTA rejected this proposal as far too low an incentive to attract and retain CUSD teachers.  

January through June 2024

• CUTA and CUSD went through a prolonged labor negotiations process with the Public Employee Relations Board.  Third party mediator was unable to help the two parties find a compromise, which led to the fact finding process with a neutral arbiter.  

• CUSD new offer of 2% retro from July 2023, 2% retro from February 2024, a possible 2% increase February 2025 if parcel tax passes, and a limited time employee only health coverage with a $1,500 one time bonus.

• CUTA did not agree to this proposal, but found it a good place to start ongoing negotiations with the new superintendent and new financial administrator.  Several possible scenarios about spreading an increase over several years were informally proposed by both sides.  

July 2024

• CUSD offers a 4% retroactive increase from July 2023 and ongoing employee only health insurance coverage. 

• CUTA counters with 8% retroactive from January 2024, employee only health care coverage and 200 stipend for members towards additional family health care costs 

• A subgroup of members from both parties met to dive deep into the district’s finances. 

• Date set for ongoing negotiations on August 6th. See below for last CUTA proposal.

We have more meetings tentatively scheduled for July 31st and August 6th. CUTA continues to fight for a fair salary increase after working for TWO YEARS without a pay raise. CUTA has gone through the process and continues to be authorized to strike by the Public Employees Relations Board if a fair agreement is not reached.

In Solidarity, Your CUTA Bargaining Team, Joseph Centoni, Sean Riordan, Julie Ron, Jenny Scarpaci, Kathleen Wall

CUTA’s Most Recent Compensation Proposal

• The salary schedule for the 2022-2023 school year shall be increased by 8.0%, effective January 1, 2024.

CUTA Health and Welfare Proposal

3.1.1 Health and Welfare Benefits 

Replace section: “New Employees” with:

• The maximum District contribution for health benefits for employees whose first date of paid service is on or after July 1, 2011 shall be equal to the annual cost of coverage for the employee only coverage of the high plan of the lowest cost provider offered through the District’s health benefit carrier.

1. New employees may elect to contribute out of pocket through monthly (12 months) automatic payroll deduction if they wish to purchase coverage above the cost equal to coverage for an employee only on the high plan of the lowest cost provider. If purchasing health coverage for additional family members above this level, the District will contribute an additional $200 a month toward this coverage.

Fact Finding Update (June 2024)

On May 17th the district and CUTA team met to present our understanding of the current bargaining impasse. The neutral arbiter and the advocates from each side listened to both presentations and read through the lengthier written narratives.  The remaining hours were spent with the arbiter speaking closely with each team to more fully understand the situation as well as to try and find potential solutions.

Please review our presentation and report submitted as part of this process.

The arbiter’s report (available here) was released to both parties on May 30th. In it he lays out a framework for continued talks between the district and CUTA.  

• He prefaces the report with clear statements regarding the district’s inability to provide accurate numbers on the total employees in the district and their individual health care costs.

• He concurred that our compensation and recent raises are low relative to comparable districts in the area.  Although there are some factual inaccuracies in his description of our current benefits system, he does recommend that the district begin to remedy the two-tiered health system that, for the first time this January, resulted in newer employees having to begin paying out of pocket for some of their individual health care.

• He states he does not believe that the district is currently able to fund the CUTA proposal of 8.22% (matching the State’s COLA) in the 2023-24 school year. This led him to propose a two-year settlement, allowing the District time to budget for a raise.  It is no surprise that the district would have trouble incorporating a complete COLA (retroactive to August 2023) at this juncture given another year of stalled negotiations has passed without the district budgeting for a salary increase. 

• The arbiter acknowledged that his non-binding suggestions are solely based on the incomplete data he was given.  Even with this data uncertainty and the passage of another year of district spending, his conservative recommendations show that the district does have a greater ability to afford a salary increase than they claimed. 

In her rebuttal to the recommendations, our CTA financial specialist repeats our ongoing concerns regarding the mismanagement of the district’s finances and inability to give accurate numbers specific to the actual cost of the proposed salary increase. We encourage CUTA members and the public to read her report as well. 

The neutral party wants to provide the incoming superintendent with a “soft landing.” This is commendable, however we are losing qualified teachers and there are 145 teachers who have been working without a salary increase for over 2 years. Teacher voices need to be heard and a fair settlement needs to be made. CUTA hopes the report provides a framework we can use to craft a settlement as we continue to negotiate over the summer. 

A first meeting is planned for next week.  We hope the district will come to the table willing to make a good-faith effort to do everything they can to bring CUSD compensation in line with other comparable districts in the county to ensure CUSD retains the qualified teachers Coastside students deserve.