Newman Crows-Landing Unified School District board members unanimously voted Nov. 18, to continue ongoing bargaining agreement negotiations with two employee associations.
Both the Newman Crows-Landing Teachers Association and the California Schools Employee Association Newman Crows-Landing Association Chapter 551 are seeking changes to each of their respective bargaining agreements with the district.
The CSEA is the largest classified school employees union in the United States as it’s represented by more than 250,000 school support staff members in California, according to the association’s website. The members of the union include custodians, food service workers, librarians and school bus drivers.
Justin Pruett, the Superintendent for NCLUSD, said that the district received the Sunshine proposals from both associations a week before the meeting.
Prior to the proposal being sent to the district, NCLTA’s president Maria Andrade, who is also a Spanish teacher at Yolo Middle School, said a survey was sent out in September to all teachers within the district regardless if they are a part of the 147 members union, asking what changes teachers want to see in the upcoming contract.
The document of NCLTA’s proposal mentions several changes that the teacher’s association including competitive pay to encourage teachers to stay within the district, payment of medical benefits to employees who are older than 65 years old and stayed in the district for at least 20 years and more leave options or flexibility for teachers experiencing serious medical issues such as cancer.
Andrade said the teacher’s association wants to focus on making an environment where young and veteran teachers want to stay, mentioning that she has seen teachers leaving NCLUSD for another school district due to them being offered a better pay rate.
“I don't want Newman to be a stepping stone district,” Andrade said. “I want it to be a place where teachers will want to come here and will want to stay and those teachers who have been here want to stay here.”
For the NCLTA, yearly changes have been common within the last couple of years for bargaining agreements within an academic year. Last year, there were several changes to the 2023-24 agreement in comparison to the previous agreement including the district increasing its contribution for full-time employees who currently in the district’s insurance coverage health care or in the employee’s dependent coverage to $9,475 per year and a newly added section within the contract that allows the association to meet with new employees.
NCLUSD responded to the NCLTA’s proposal by mentioning that they will go over various articles within the existing agreement such as Hours of Employment, Retirement Incentives and Evaluation Procedures.
In the 2023-24 NCLTA agreement contract, the Hours of Employment sections mention the responsibilities, instructional time, number of workdays within an academic year, and other information that teachers within the district should know about. The Retirement Incentives section goes over the district’s early retirement incentive where employees eligible for the incentive could receive a one-time payment that is equal to 40% of their final base salary. It also includes extended teacher pay and extra work agreements.
In the CSEA Newman-Crows Landing Chapter’s proposal, they are looking to bargain and clarify multiple articles that address vacation benefits, salary increases, layoffs, organizational rights, a new section about personnel files and other various sections within the contract.
Brittney Clarke, the CSEA Newman-Crows Landing Chapter president and library media clerk at Orestimba High School, said the biggest concern that she along with members of the Newman’s CSEA chapter have is whether there will be an increase in funding for those who use the district healthcare option, hoping it would help others who use less of their own money to cover insurance costs.
“I have employees that their entire check goes to covering their entire health care,” Clarke said. “I know that we’re not the only sector that’s struggling with this, health is ridiculous nationwide, but we have to figure out how to best support our members here, and I’m hoping we can do that through negotiations this year.”
In response to the CSEA Newman Crows-Landing Chapter’s proposal, NCLUSD sent a document to the chapter where it mentioned that the district plans on addressing the articles about recognition and pay and allowance along with an appendices section about forms.
According to the chapter’s most recent agreement, the recognition section goes over the various classifieds positions within the district that are covered by the agreement including an instructional aide, school secretary and attendance clerk. The Pay and Allowance section offers information about payments such as pay rates, errors within the payroll, and longevity pay. Some of the forms mentioned within the appendices section include grievance, evaluation and personal necessity.
Pruett mentioned that while this is what the district plans on addressing with each of the two associations, any additional items can also be discussed. He also said that while in years past the CSEA Newman-Crows Landing Chapter agreements were settled quicker while the teacher association’s agreement took a bit longer to resolve, this time it could be different with the addition of new board members this year.
“Part of it is just finding out where each side is coming from and what each side is trying to achieve,” Pruett said. “It’s been rare that it goes into the summer, but by the end of the year, they usually come up with a conclusion.”
