NEWS RELEASE: Tentative Agreement Between San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Education Association on 2012-13 Contract Revisions

June 19, 2012

News Release

CONTACT: Bernie Rhinerson, San Diego Unified Chief of Staff and District Relations, 619-300-7015
Jonathon Mello, San Diego Education Association, 619-283-4411

TENTATIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, SAN DIEGO EDUCATION ASSOCIATION ON 2012-13 CONTRACT REVISIONS
Includes Restoration of more than 1,481 Positions for Teachers, Librarians, Counselors and Nurses; Defers Raises; Continues Furloughs

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) have reached a tentative agreement on revisions to the 2012-13 school year contract that will result in the district recalling all 1,372 of the K-12 teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses who had received final layoff notices in May. An additional 109 Early Childhood Education teachers will be recalled under the agreement.

To make this possible, SDEA members will defer raises and continue the five furlough days in the current contract with possible additional furlough days should the November tax initiatives fail.

The membership of San Diego Education Association must now ratify the revisions and the Board of Education must also approve the agreement.

Board of Education President Dr. John Lee Evans praised SDEA for coming forward to work with the district.

"On behalf of the district and all of our students, I want to thank SDEA for agreeing to come together with the district to save our schools," said Evans. "This marks a new era of cooperation between SDEA and the district."

SDEA President Bill Freeman acknowledged the continuing budget crisis made it necessary to make some tough decisions.

"Our members have invested their lives in public education and deserve to be rewarded for that investment. These are tough times that require tough decisions and ultimately, I believe that this agreement protects our schools and our members," said Freeman.

Superintendent Bill Kowba believes that this agreement will save the jobs of teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses and allow San Diego Unified to maintain current class sizes and educational programs for the 2012-13 school year.

"San Diego's educators deserve a raise but without this agreement to return teachers to our classrooms, we are facing a new school year with higher class sizes and reduced programs that threaten our positive record of increasing student achievement," said Kowba. "We would not have been able to develop an agreement that protects our schools without SDEA."

The Tentative Agreement, which must be ratified by the Association membership, contains the following elements:
. All SDEA members in the K-12 program released May 25 will be recalled in two phases: 1,090 unit members will receive a written notice of recall by June 30.  The remaining 280 unit members will be sent a notice by June 30 stating they will be recalled no later than Sept. 30 as budgeted positions become available through attrition.
. 109 (full-time equivalent) SDEA members in the Early Childhood Education program will also be recalled on or before June 30.
. Raises will be deferred.
. Five furlough days will continue.
. Health care will remain the same; SDEA members who are not placed in a budgeted position by July 1 will maintain uninterrupted healthcare benefits for up to 3 months.
. A retirement incentive will be offered to eligible SDEA veteran members.
. Additional furlough days are possible if the November tax initiative ballot measure fails.

"Teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses as well as our police officers already sacrifice every day for our kids; they've agreed to sacrifice even more to keep working despite a fifth year of draconian budget cuts by the state," said Evans. "I hope that our legislators in Sacramento will take note of what educators are sacrificing here in San Diego. We now must be united with the teachers in advocating for proper funding of public education in California."

Link to Tentative Agreement: http://www.sandi.net/cms/lib/CA01001235/Centricity/domain/105/sdea/SDEA-TentativeAgreement-06192012.pdf

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Linda Zintz
Communications Director
4100 Normal St.  Rm. 2145
San Diego, CA  92103
lzintz@sandi.net
l619-725-5578 office
619-847-6637 mobile


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