Members Approve

Tentative Agreement

April 26, 2024

We are pleased to share with you that the contract ratification vote of the Tentative Agreement passed with over 98% of the voting membership voting YES to approve.

This vote sends a powerful message that SJTA members  care deeply about  learning conditions, providing  services to our most vulnerable students, and attracting and retaining high quality professionals to provide the best  educational experience for all students. 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and for sending your strong message of support for our students, families, and outstanding practitioners throughout our system.

We are stronger together.

Tentative Agreement Announced

April 12, 2024

On Friday evening, our Executive Board met and with a unanimous vote, the Board is proud to recommend an incredible Tentative Agreement. This agreement establishes significant improvements in working conditions and moves our members to a very competitive salary schedule. Thank you to our Bargaining Team – Angela Luna, Nancy Pelley and Brandon Wells – for all of your time and focus through this cycle of negotiations, leading to this agreement that will positively shift the landscape in San Juan. Additionally, thank you to our Executive Board for your guidance through this process. 

Bargaining Update

April 9, 2024

The bargaining teams met on Thursday, April 4th to continue work towards reaching agreement. 

After a review of SJTA’s class size proposal, the District expressed concerns about campus space and the ability to hire for many positions at once, and so countered with an interest in starting with a small sampling of schools. Both SJTA and District teams are working on language for a first phase implementation at five to six schools in 2024-25. The shared intent of this gradual rollout is to learn from the implementation at those schools and use this learning to create a plan for implementation at other high and mid density sites. The parties share a commitment to making a permanent impact on adult to student ratios, including a focus on class size reduction. List by density here.

The teams reviewed the details of SJTA’s salary redesign proposal. While no agreement has been reached, both parties feel that significant progress is being made towards ensuring compensation that will both recruit and retain high quality professionals in San Juan. 

Additionally, the District and Association continued to work on various articles in the contract as they relate to specific interests put forward by both parties. 

The Special Education MOU was completed and ultimately signed on Friday, April 5. This work represents amazing progress for our practitioners who are providing, and our students who receive special education services. The MOU also enables the district to get a head start on hiring practitioners under the conditions laid out. 

Both bargaining teams feel the urgency to make as much progress as possible at the next bargaining session on Thursday (April 11). 

We will attempt to get an update out following that meeting and prior to Rep Council on April 17th.

Bargaining Update

March 13, 2024

We have reached  a critical juncture in the bargaining process, and feel it is important to share this update in advance of Rep Council. 

• As a reminder, interests for this bargaining cycle were determined by:
• Bargaining survey given to members (conducted fall/winter 22)
• Bargaining team examined survey for feedback and trends
• Executive Board examined survey for feedback and trends
• Draft proposal shared with Rep Council so Faculty Rep gather feedback from their site/progra
• Rep Council provided/voted on final adjustments to Initial Proposal
• Members of Rep Council voted to approve Initial Proposal on March 15, 2023

You can see our initial proposed interests document here.

This proposal contains a multitude of ambitious efforts around student learning and practitioner working conditions. These barriers to student success, affecting both students and our members,  are issues on which we must make progress in this round of bargaining.

The Executive Board and bargaining team are keenly aware of the changing reality in surrounding districts, particularly around salary. Based on salary improvements in other districts, we have let the district know that it is unacceptable that San Juan practitioner total compensation (salary + benefits) ranks 7th in the region. Specifically of concern is that, these recent changes mean our starting and ending salaries now rank near the bottom regionally. 

We are now at the bargaining stage when the two sides begin to exchange formal proposals. On Thursday, February 29th, we proposed language to address many of the items related to student learning and staff working conditions from the initial proposal.

You can see some of those items here.

In relation to salary, the Bargaining team is proposing a new salary rewrite (similar to what was done in 2021) to bring SJTA salaries into competitive alignment with the other districts in the region. We have submitted this customized salary proposal to the district’s bargaining team, targeting areas in which San Juan is less competitive. The salary proposal is grounded in the need to retain, as well as attract, top professionals in our field. The district is calculating the various impacts of the proposal and anticipates providing a response to the financial portion at our March 21 bargaining session.  

We continue to be hopeful that this bargaining cycle will follow the collaborative footsteps of our past few cycles. We also acknowledge that we have a new dynamic in play with the changes to the make-up of the School Board, leaving us some level of uncertainty.

Bargaining Update

August 6, 2022

As many of you may recall from the 2021/22 contract negotiations (which included the rewrite of the salary schedule), our two year agreement was based on the state budget projections that were known at that time. In order to reach that agreement, it included a provision that the TK-12 salary schedule would be closed for the 2022-23 school year.

As the 2022-23 budget process unfolded this spring, it became clear that revenues were going to be much larger than what was known at the signing of our agreement in May of 2021. Upon seeing the Governor’s January Budget Proposal, the Association’s bargaining team signaled to the district that we needed to find a way to address this unexpected increase in the upcoming negotiations. Since then, our team has highlighted the impact of inflation on our members, continued to press the issue of unexpected revenues, and suggested creative ways in which these revenues could be incorporated into this round of negotiations.

On Wednesday, August 3rd, the SJTA and SJUSD’s bargaining teams met to examine the specific impact of the state’s adopted budget.

In that meeting, the District’s team officially notified SJTA of their intention to reopen the TK-12 salary schedule, pending board approval. During this time of extreme staffing shortages, and increased demands on practitioners, we appreciate the District’s and School Board’s desire to attract and retain high quality practitioners.

Stipends, ECE Salary, and Adult Ed Salary remain a part of negotiations. The District has also asked us to consider exploring a two-year agreement that possibly includes re-openers and contingency language (protection for both parties).

Both teams have articulated their desire to reach a fair and reasonable settlement, as quickly as possible. While communication between the parties is constant, the next official bargaining date will be Tuesday, August 23rd.

We will provide an update by the end of that week.