This story was updated at 8:20pm on Aug. 27
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District and its teachers union have reached a tentative labor agreement after nearly a year of negotiations.
The agreement between PVUSD and the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers comes after months of bargaining over salaries, health benefits and working conditions. The two sides had entered the state’s fact-finding process after failing to reach an agreement at the bargaining table.
The district announced the tentative agreement Thursday, saying it resulted from “months of active negotiations and collaborative compromise.”
PVUSD spokesman Alejandro Chavez said details of the agreement will be released after it is ratified by PVFT members and approved by the PVUSD Board of Trustees.
PVFT President Brandon Diniz said Thursday that the three-year agreement includes a 2% salary schedule increase retroactive to the previous school year, followed by 1% increases this school year and next.
Diniz said the average union member will see an increase of $3,472 in annual pay by the end of the agreement, based on where members fall on the salary schedule.
The retroactive increase will also apply to employees who retired last school year through the district’s “Golden Handshake” early retirement incentive, Diniz said. Those retirees will receive retroactive checks reflecting the higher salary.
The increased earnings will also be reported to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which Diniz said will increase the pensions of those retirees.
“This is something that’s good for our past and present members,” he said.
Health benefits had been a significant sticking point during negotiations. The district had previously proposed capping its contribution toward family health benefits, a proposal union leaders opposed and over which teachers had threatened to strike.
Diniz said the tentative agreement preserves the union’s existing benefits structure.
“This agreement reflects the desires of our membership to maintain our current benefits structure with no changes, puts money on the salary schedule, and creates improved working conditions that put students first,” Diniz said in the joint announcement.
The agreement also includes changes to working conditions, including additional time that kindergarten teachers will receive support from instructional aides and a case-management preparation period for secondary resource specialists, Diniz said.
Those provisions, along with the salary increases, will carry ongoing costs for the district, he said. The agreement must be submitted to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education for fiscal review following ratification.
Superintendent Heather Contreras said reaching the deal required compromise from both sides.
“Reaching this agreement required hard work, open dialogue, and meaningful compromise from both sides of the table,” Contreras said. “We are deeply grateful to PVFT leadership, our educators, and our district bargaining team for their perseverance.”
Contreras said the agreement would allow the district and its employees to turn their attention back to students and improve classroom outcomes.
The agreement follows a lengthy bargaining process between the district and PVFT, which represents the district’s teachers and other certificated employees.
Diniz said the union is now preparing to present the agreement to members. PVFT held a virtual town hall Wednesday attended by 201 members and plans to hold additional meetings at school sites over the next two weeks to review the contract language and answer questions.
“There’s a lot of energy right now, and we’re just going to organize to get this ratified,” he said.
Voting is scheduled to begin Sept. 4 and conclude Sept. 11.
“We chose to settle on the third year because otherwise we would have closed these negotiations and had a round to immediately start,” he said. “This at least buys us a year off.”
Editor’s note: Pajaronian Managing Editor Todd Guild’s wife is a teacher in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, and his family receives health benefits through the district.
