Bargaining Update for Parents:

What about the State Budget Crisis?

       News of the governor's 10% across-the-board cut in the California State Budget has caused concern throughout education. Fortunately, the state requires that school districts retain a reserve of funds for just this kind of budget crisis. Our district has this reserve, and more. (This fund is made of money that the district has carefully set aside out of teacher's salaries.) Because CUSD teachers have not received full Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) each year, the district has extra money left in their budget for other things. In essence, money from teacher's salaries are being used to support district programs.

Over time, however, the neglect in health benefits and salaries has taken its toll.  Teachers get less money now for health and welfare than they did five years ago. Cupertino is slipping in compensating its teachers, and this shortfall will start impacting classrooms soon if it is not remedied. The CEA members are not trying to bankrupt the district or take money from students. There is money that has been collected from the State and from short COLA years to easily fund what the teachers are asking. CUSD is also a growing district, and more students mean more money coming in.

What is happening with District/Teacher negotiations?               

The current contract between teachers and CUSD expired in June of 2007. Bargaining between the CUSD district office and the teacher's association (CEA) started in August of 2007. Bargaining was slow and unproductive. The district made no movement towards a settlement, choosing "status quo" answers to even the non-monetary requests. CEA and the CUSD district office jointly agreed to impasse at the end of November. Then in January, the district retracted their previous offers reducing all money given to teachers to 0%. CEA started legal actions against the district and agreed to increase labor actions. Our response to their illegal tactics was quick and aggressive.

Why have labor actions?

Work to Rule and other labor actions are a way to encourage the district to return to fair bargaining by demonstrating how valuable teachers are in student success.  By instituting labor actions, like Work to Rule, teachers are showing their commitment to getting a fair contract settlement. Being able to attract and retain qualified, dedicated teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists and SLPs (speech and language pathologists) is one of CEA's main goals in these negotiations. A fair contract will only make our district, both students and teachers, stronger.

What is Work to Rule?

Work to Rule is a labor action that shows the district and the community how much extra work teachers do beyond their duty day. During Work to Rule, teachers work their contractual day of 7.25 hours, and no more. That means coming to work when their contractual day begins, and leaving when it ends. All work that does not get completed in that time frame would be left out. Papers may go home ungraded, homework may be stopped, after school volunteer activities that teachers do on their own time could be canceled, etc. Work to Rule shows how much more teachers do above and beyond their regular work day.

 What can I do to help?

We encourage our parent community to support their teachers. Hearing from parents at board meetings, writing letters, and making personal phone calls is very important. We encourage parents to share stories of how teachers have helped make CUSD the excellent academic district that it is. If CUSD cannot attract and retain excellent teachers, the quality of the education provided will suffer.

            If you would like more information, talk to your child's teacher, or visit the CEA website and www.ceaweb.org.