After more than three years of negotiations and six years since their last raise, Shoreline Unified School District’s classified staff has a tentative three-year contract, but not without some disappointment over delays in finalizing the agreement. The contract, signed in June, could have been approved by trustees at last week’s meeting, but the district removed it from the agenda after it failed to prepare the required financial disclosure document on time.
“This has caused a feeling that the district did not value this agreement and, in turn, did not value the contributions of the classified staff,” Linda Borello, the president of Shoreline’s chapter of the California School Employees Association, read from a union letter to the board.
State law requires local districts to publicly disclose the provisions of collective bargaining agreements for 10 days before those agreements are finalized.
The letter from the C.S.E.A. calls for trustees to schedule a special meeting to approve the contract. “This would go a long way to show your hard-working classified staff that you really do value them,” it states.
Shoreline superintendent Bob Raines told the Light that the document was not completed in time for the August board meeting because of summer vacations and the document’s complexity. “There’s a whole lot of calculations and things that need to be done, so we want to make sure we do all of that correctly,” he said.
The document, which requires the district to analyze the future fiscal impacts of the agreement, will be completed in the next day or two, Mr. Raines added. Once it is posted, a special board meeting will be called so that trustees can approve it.
The contract stipulates a yearly 3 percent salary increase for classified staff—roughly 45 school employees whose positions do not need certifications or licenses—and a $7,416 cap on the district’s annual contribution limits to individual health benefits.
The annual raise is retroactive to July 1, 2018, when the last labor agreement expired, and to July 1, 2019. That means staff will receive one check with their raise for the last school year, and another for the first few months of this school year. Yet staff are worried about when those payments will come, especially in light of delayed back payments to certificated staff after their own contract was finalized.
“It’s a huge concern that we’re going to get it in a timely fashion,” Ms. Borello said.
At last week’s meeting, certificated staff reiterated their complaints from last school year about unpaid stipends and tax reimbursements that had been agreed upon in January. Not all of the teachers have received their payments, said DeeLynn Armstrong, co-president of the teacher’s union, and some were owed close to $1,000. Especially during summer break, “$1,000 can make a difference in the grocery store, with your rent,” she said.
Both Ms. Armstrong and Larissa Morelj, the teacher’s union treasurer, complained about the lack of an email response from Mr. Raines. “We’re a little bit desperate at this point to get some answers,” she said.
Mr. Raines said staff would see the payments on their next paycheck. “It was just a matter of folks juggling a whole lot of different tasks,” he said.
Staff also took the opportunity at last Thursday’s meeting to question the rationale behind sending Mr. Raines to Washington, D.C. for a three-day conference in September to lobby for federal aid.
“He has a lot that he needs to do for the students, the teachers, and the classified staff,” Ms. Borello said, citing a laundry list of 27 ongoing issues. In response, Mr. Raines said he attends the conference along with fiscal director Logan Martin and trustee Tim Kehoe out of a need to develop relationships with other districts that receive federal impact aid.
Mark deRutte, a concerned citizen, countered that the superintendent could send letters and make phone calls from his office desk. “The teachers, the students—everyone is footing that bill,” Mr. deRutte said of the total trip cost of $7,580.
Yet trustees defended sending Mr. Raines to the conference, saying superintendents historically have gone because of the opportunity to meet with elected officials and ensure the district does not lose its $2 million in federal impact aid. “Bob has stepped up and taken quite a bit of leadership on this stuff,” Mr. Kehoe said. “I think it’s made a difference.” The board unanimously approved the trip.