Our Recover, Rebuild, Rise Together platform was developed by SDEA educators in partnership with students, parents, and community allies. Over a year ago, our SDEA Bargaining Team brought our proposals to SDUSD and began the collective bargaining process to win real improvements to our working conditions which are our students’ learning conditions. It was the collective action and solidarity of union educators who picketed, rallied, and held our school board accountable to demand a fair contract that gave our team the power to achieve improvements in all areas of our platform. Together we are stronger!!
Last night your SDEA Bargaining Team reached a tentative agreement with the District for our 2022-2025 union contract containing historic wins in educator compensation and investments in additional resources for our classrooms, and students.
Throughout this contract campaign, SDEA members showed up loud and proud to advocate for the schools that our students deserve. Together, we’ve built stronger relationships in the community and demonstrated that we are willing to take to the streets to win for the families and students we serve and for our public schools. Our collective power moved the District after months of stalled negotiations and led us to a tentative agreement that our bargaining team is proud of and that represents real improvements for educators and our school communities. 10
To go into effect, the tentative agreement must be ratified by SDEA members and the SDUSD School Board. If you’re not a member, join now so that you can vote and help build a stronger union! NON MEMBERS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO VOTE.
The contract tentative agreement ratification window will be June 1 through June 8.
Highlights of our Tentative Agreement:
Historic 15% Pay Raise Over Two Years!
2022-2023: 10% raise, retroactive to July 1, 2022
2023-2024: 5% raise effective July 1, 2023 (compounded on top of the 10% salary increase for 22/23, resulting in a 15.5% increase!)
2024-2025: A wage reopener, meaning we go back to bargaining, to make further improvements in wages
This is a significant investment in educators. It’s the largest pay increase in our county (and possibly the entire state) and the largest in the history of SDEA. We won this historic raise while also protecting fully paid family healthcare! Including our 4.5% one-time retention bonus, this means our effective pay increase for 2022-2023 will be 14.5%. More competitive salaries will help hire educators and fill vacancies in hard to staff areas like nursing and special education!
BIG WIN on Special Education & Private School Assessments!
Workload relief, PPPSS assessments re-centralized! The District will be creating a centralized team to address the PPPSS assessment needs. If the team reaches capacity for the amount of PPPSS assessments they can handle, the District will seek volunteer educators and/or retired educators to fill in. Volunteers will be compensated at their pro-rata rate to do this work! If there is still a need to meet the PPPSS assessment demands, the Joint Special Education Committee will then monitor and develop a plan for the completion of additional assessments.
Improvements to SLP salary rules that will now ensure veteran SLPs have all of their years of experience are appropriately credited.
Secondary Extended Day Units
We won an additional 1000 extended days units for 2023-2024, investing more than $1.3 million for SDEA members. In addition we came to an agreement with the District on Extended Day Units that will convene a committee to determine equitable compensation for secondary afterschool arts, athletic and academic work, including middle schools. This proposal would establish consistent extended day units across the District, and promote equity for the arts.
Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE)
The District agreed to convene a collaborative group to evaluate the service delivery model in the program. During the 2023-2024 school year, while that collaborative work is done, preparation time for ECSE classroom teachers will be provided by either an itinerant ECSE teacher, or a specially trained Visiting Teachers. These specially trained Visiting Teachers will be paid $300 per day for this work. This will provide sufficient staffing to ensure teachers receive their weekly prep time.
The ECSE Collaborative will have the authority, among other things, the ability to determine the weekly schedule for the 2024-25 school year and beyond.
Wins on Protecting Class Sizes and Nurse Staffing
The staffing allocation formulas for grades K-3 and 4-6 are protected in this agreement. The class average for grades K-3 will remain at 24, as it has been in previous years. In addition, we were able to lower the K-3 cap from 35 to 29. In situations where higher class sizes are a possibility, for example to avoid combos, site administrators are to collaborate with affected educators to make every effort to create classes no larger than 27. The cap for Grades 4-6 will remain at 35, with the goal of lowering that number in future successor bargaining.
Nurse Staffing Win: This agreement requires that every high school, and every elementary school with Medically and Physically Challenged classrooms MUST HAVE A FULL TIME NURSE. Strengthening shared decision-making within the nursing PGT and giving SDEA nurses a voice in the allocation of additional nurses beyond school sites while acknowledging that there are real school nurse staffing challenges in San Diego and across California.
Other Wins:
All comprehensive secondary, K8 and K12 schools would now have a new part-time position to support the implementation of effective Restorative Justice Practices.
A more detailed summary including all contract improvements will be sent to all members when we return to school on Tuesday!
Ratification Starts June 1
In-person voting at schools, programs, and at the SDEA office to ratify this tentative agreement on our new contract will begin on Thursday, June 1. Your amazing SDEA ARs/CRs will be attending a special Representative Council on Wednesday, May 31 to prepare for the ratification vote. Stay tuned for comprehensive details on every component of this historic tentative agreement!
Tentative Agreements
View all tentative agreements here.
Together We Are Stronger!
Kyle Weinberg, SDEA President, Mild/Moderate Ed Specialist, History and ELD Teacher; Teri Ang, Theatre Teacher, Mann MS; Sarah Darr, Senior SLP, Millennial Tech MS; Mary Gantz, School Nurse; Adam Goldstein, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, Hage El.; Stacy Hernandez, 2nd Grade Teacher, Dailard El.; Eri Nall, Counselor; Kiki Ochoa, History and Ethnic Studies Lead Teacher, Lincoln HS; Gale Petzrick, History Teacher, Clark MS; Angela Rieke, Ed. Specialist M/M, Cadman El. and Vista Grande El.; Lori Schmersal, PE Teacher & Coach, Clairemont HS; plus SDEA staff Abdul Sayid, Executive Director, and Sara Holerud, Organizer – with support from Christina Gallegos, ECSE Teacher, LMEC; Marjorie Treger, Theatre Resource Teacher, VAPA and Jonathon Mello, Organizer
