San Ysidro Teachers Reach Pay Deal

San Ysidro school teachers have agreed to a new contract that includes a 6% pay increase and additional savings on their health care benefits.
The school district board will vote on the new agreement at their next meeting on September 24th. If approved, the pay increases will be retroactive to July 1st.
“After so many years of struggling with a non-transparent administration, teachers finally feel we are getting the respect that we deserve,” teachers’ union President Guillermina Sandez said. “This new administration has truly been open and shown themselves to be trustworthy.”
The new contract was reached after a relatively short negotiating period compared to the months-long battle that transpired last year and eventually led to a teachers’ strike. The sides reached an agreement last week after only 3 hours at the bargaining table.
“We made a commitment to give our teachers a meaningful raise to help us be more competitive with other districts’ pay,” Board President Antonio Martinez said. “We don’t want to lose our great teachers because our pay is too low for them to live and raise their families in our own community,” he added.
<figure id="attachment_32661" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32661" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/featured/edgar-gonzalez-confirmado-como-en…; rel="attachment wp-att-32661"><img loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-32661" src="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/sysd_pic1-300x1…; alt="Krystal Browne, Member of the Teachers’ negotiating team; Guillermina Sandez, Teachers Union President; Arturo Sanchez-Macias, SYSD’s Chief Financial Officer; SYSD School Board President Antonio Martinez. Dr.; Julio Fonseca, SYSD Superintendent." width="300" height="192" srcset="https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/sysd_pi… 300w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/sysd_pi… 1024w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/sysd_pi… 1880w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-32661" class="wp-caption-text">Krystal Browne, Member of the Teachers’ negotiating team; Guillermina Sandez, Teachers Union President; Arturo Sanchez-Macias, SYSD’s Chief Financial Officer; SYSD School Board President Antonio Martinez. Dr.; Julio Fonseca, SYSD Superintendent.</figcaption></figure>
This time around, the negotiations were spearheaded by new Superintendent Dr. Julio Fonseca, who started in his position on July 1st.
“The District was able to reach this agreement because our finances have improved from last year. We should be honoring our teachers for their commitment to helping us improve the education we provide to the community,” Dr. Fonseca commented.
During this year, an extensive review of the District’s budget found several million dollars of unallocated funds that could be redirected to staffing. The issue of whether those funds were available for teachers’ pay was a point of contention between the District and the San Diego County Office of Education during the period the District was under the county’s oversight.
In March, as the District was still in negative certification, board members accused the county fiscal overseer of misstating the District’s financial condition by misallocating funds. Edward Velasquez, who served as Interim Superintendent from February to June of this year, restated the budget which led to a qualified certification by June, as well as the upgrading of the District’s bond ratings.
“I believe the District never should have been in negative certification and close to insolvency,” Mr. Velasquez commented. “The strike should never have happened, and it caused friction between the Administration and teachers that we’re still recovering from,” he added. Mr. Velasquez has remained on as a consultant to the District to help in the transition to the new Superintendent.
This year has seen several other changes in administration staff. The Board selected Dr. Fonseca as Superintendent in June after having had three Interim Superintendents since the resignation of Manuel Paul in March 2013. In the past 2 months, both Assistant Superintendents, Dena Whittington and Gloria Madera, resigned their positions. Under a new reorganization plan, Dr. Fonseca consolidated the roles of Assistant Superintendents into that of a new Chief Operating Officer. That position was recently filled by Arturo Sanchez-Macias.
”It’s a new day for our teachers after years of turmoil,” said Martin Galante, 2nd Vice President of the teachers’ union. “We now feel like we have a positive working relationship with the Board and Superintendent, and that they understand we need to work together to deliver better results for our students,” added Mr. Galante, a kindergarten teacher at San Ysidro’s Willow Elementary School.
One year ago, the San Ysidro School District was in an entirely different position. After months of failed negotiations and facing pay cuts of up to 20%, the teachers went on strike on October 8, 2014. The strike lasted three school days before both sides came to an agreement for a 1% pay increase and a 1% one-time bonus. The agreement was for two year but both sides agreed to return to the bargaining table after the finances were cleaned up. The frictional costs of the strike are estimated to have cost the District upwards of $1 million.
“No one wanted to get into another situation like last year where we ended up on a strike,” said Board member Rodolfo Linares. “Our students, parents, and teachers expect a high quality education and that starts with high quality teachers,” he said.