Culver City Federation of Teachers Reaches Tentative Agreement with CCUSD

Following a meeting between the Culver City Federation of Teachers’ bargaining team and the management Tuesday, the two parties have reached a tentative agreement for the 2012-2013 school year.

The CCFT executive board must now approve the agreement, as must the CCUSD Board of Education. CCFT will hold a meeting on Tues. May 30 at 3:45 p.m. at Elementary School to go over the agreement.  If the CCFT board approves the agreement it will then be sent out to all CCFT members for ratification.

CCFT President David Mielke said in a written statement if all goes well the agreement could be ratified as early as June 1.

Highlights of the agreement include:

• A full school year for 2012-2013 with no furlough days.
• Two more years of the eight "meeting-free" Wednesdays to provide elementary teachers more prep time.
• Five new release days for Elementary Special Day Class teachers for IEP prep and planning.
• New contract language outlining a process for Special Ed teachers and Speech/Language Specialists to address caseloads, which approach the state maximums.  The new language requires CCUSD to maintain caseloads within Ed Code guidelines.
• A $200,000 annual block grant for athletic stipends at Culver City High School.
• A $5,000 annual grant to each elementary site for stipends for extra-duty assignments.
• Nurses
  1.  New language enabling nurses to qualify for a $3,000 annual stipend for National Board Certification.
  2.  Establishment of a nurse sub pool to cover duties when nurses are absent.
  3.  New language providing compensation for nurses in the event that subs are not available.
• The establishment of a joint labor/management task force to explore new evaluation procedures.
• A one-time bonus, equal to one day's pay, due on Jan. 1, 2013 if tax initiatives pass in November 2012.
• Sick leave balances posted on Subfinder website.

Mielke said CCFT’s bargaining team would recommend CCFT approve the agreement.  

“In a tough year, these are real gains,” Mielke said in a written statement. “Of course we are disappointed that CCUSD has not offered us any compensation on an ongoing basis. When we get to the table again next fall, we will encourage CCUSD to take a second look at these "bonus" dollars and work to get them added onto our salary schedule so that they are ongoing.”

Mielke added that CCFT was “disappointed” that it was unable to secure an agreement with CCUSD that would ensure future health care premium increases to be split 50/50 between CCUSD and bargaining unit members. However, he stated CCFT would bring the issue up again at next year’s talks.

Mielke also expressed concern that only the assistant superintendent of human resources and the director of security received ongoing pay increases.  

“You can be sure that we will remind [CCUSD] in next year's talks that those of us on the front lines could use an increase as well,” he stated, adding, “We will also remind them that if CCUSD wants to attract and keep the best teachers, it needs to offer competitive compensation.”

On the plus side, Mielke noted that there were no layoffs this year and that CCFT members will be paid in 11 installments next year with first checks arriving on Sept. 1.

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