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Schools

Board of Ed Opens Contract Negotiations For Two Unions

With no state budget, the Albany Unified School District - like other districts - has to delay any real contract offer to its three unions because it doesn't know how much money it will receive.

Just how complicated the unresolved California state budget can make life for local school districts showed itself in full force last night during the Board of Education meeting when the Albany Unified School District formally opened negotiations with two unions -- but had no specifics to offer pending a completed budget.

In its "Initial Proposal" to the California School Employees Association Chapter 679 of para-educators and secretaries, and to the Service Employees International Union local 1021 of custodial and kitchen workers, the AUSD basically punted.

"Once the State finalizes the budget for the current fiscal year (2010-2011), the District will define a proposal that is practical and beneficial. The District's proposal will be guided by available fiscal resources and known future obligations," states the district's initial proposal on the crucial topic of wages and salaries.

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The document continues, "The District will provide adjustments to the salary schedule to implement changes in the State funding allocations, whether those allocations necessitate an increase or decrease in the salary schedule, and provide for annual negotiations of this item throughout the term of the contract."

Nobody objected or commented and the Albany Board of Education approved the opening of negotiations with both unions.

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For its part, CSEA chapter 679's intial proposal calls for no salary increase for the initial year of the contract and asks that the district pay health benefit premiums equal to the amount CalPERS pays for its members. CalPERS is the California Public Employees Retirement System.

SEIU local 1021, meanwhile, proposed no increase in salaries for the initial year of the contract and a "re-opener" of talks on wages for each of the subsequent two years in the contract. Local 1021 representative Angela Thomas said she had nothing to add about the contract but said Calfiornia is short-changing a generation of children.

"How come education is not a priority?" Thomas asked in short speech about California's budget process.

A teacher's contract, meanwhile, has yet to be initiated by either the district or the teachers union, the Albany Teacher's Association.

"We have yet to poll our members," said the union's new president, Dave DeHart, to see what the union wanted to propose.

"These are tough times," he said, and no one is in any rush to stir the pot when relations between the union and the district have been smooth.

Contracts between the school district and all three of its unions were up for renewal as of July 1, 2010, for three years. But because local school budgets are determined largely by what the state hands down, districts do not know what their exact funding will be.

California faces a $17.9 billion state budget deficit as well as a lock-jam in Sacramento where Democrat and Republican legislators have so far refused to consider each others' ideas. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed steep cuts in many programs, including K-12 public school education, in his May budget proposal. His budget would have the state ignore its pledges under Proposition 98 to set aside a certain amount for education. But the state Assembly and Senate have not voted on his proposal.

Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles) has introduced what he calls the California Jobs Budget which would protect Proposition 98 education funding and set up a "jobs creation fund" largely by borrowing from the California Beverage Recycling Fund and allowing for an Oil Severance tax, which California presently does not have.

Last night, the AUSD Board of Education passed a resolution in support of the California Jobs Budget.

Yesterday, Perez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) proposed a new budget plan that would include an oil severance tax, raise the state income tax and vehicle license fees but lower the state sales tax. It would also cut $8 billion worth of expenditures.

You can watch the meeting, and other archived school board meetings, by clicking here.

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