PUSD and Teachers Union Hit Impasse

After almost two years of negotiations, the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) announced today that it has reached an impasse with the United Teachers of Pasadena (UTP), the union that represents district teachers.

“I am very disappointed,” said Superintendent Edwin Diaz. “Although we made some progress there is still profound disagreement over major areas, such as the need to permanently contain the escalating costs of health and welfare benefits.”

PUSD is one of the few remaining public school districts in California that provides “uncapped benefits” to its teachers, meaning that the District automatically absorbs these annual increases without passing on additional costs to teachers.

Also at issue is the length of a new agreement with UTP and the conditions under which the parties may negotiate in the future.  PUSD and the teachers’ union have reached agreement on the terms of a retirement incentive for teachers, which may mitigate the number of layoffs.

Given the fiscal crisis facing school districts statewide, PUSD says it intends to align its benefits coverage policy with the standard for school districts statewide. The district has proposed to continue covering the full cost of benefits through December 2010, in order to allow teachers and their families to plan accordingly.

Teacher unions in surrounding districts have agreed to furlough days, salary reductions and benefit caps in light of the severity of budget cuts by the State.  The other three unions that represent PUSD employees, the California School Employees Association, Teamsters and the Association of Professional School Administrators, have already agreed to furlough days in order to save jobs and avoid layoffs.

“What saddens me the most is that, in the absence of an agreement on areas that would reduce our budget deficit, we will be unable to drop the number of teacher layoff notices that will be issued next month,” said Diaz.

By law, school districts in California must issue “reduction in force” notices to employees whose jobs may be cut in the 2010-2011 school year.

With a more than 18 percent reduction in school funding from the State of California, PUSD must eliminate more than $23 million from its budget in the next two years.  At stake are more than 200 jobs, including arts, music, physical education, and health programs, counselors and school libraries.

If the impasse is certified by the state agency regulating school negotiations, the parties will enter into mediation.