Contract Negotiations: 2022-24

August 16, 2023

Greetings! Fellow Chapter 399 Members,

Thank you to all who attended our Ratification  Meeting.

Here are the results.

Vote	Count
YES	328
NO	18
ABSTAIN	1

School Board of Education will be voting on August 24 2023 to make it official the Ratification of the CSEA Tentative Agreement, Salary Schedule, and AB 1200 Disclosure of Proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement with California School Employees Association (CSEA) Chapter 399 for Fiscal Years 2022/2023-2023/2024.

Hope you all can attend!

August 8, 2023

Greetings! Fellow Chapter 399 Members,

Hope you all had a very restful summer and are ready to commence this year with positivity and enthusiasm.

It’s with much joy that we present to you our Tentative Agreement to be ratified by us, Chapter 399.

I would like to thank our negotiators for their dedication and hard work to get this done. Without them, this TA wouldn’t have been possible.

To all members, be at ease, your negotiators have presented to you the best reasonable Tentative Agreement possible. 

A meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 16, 2023, at Willie Moreno Junior High School, release time from 8:00 am – 10:00 am has been approved.  

Please take time to review the attached agreement thoroughly before we gather any questions or concerns you may have.   

Voting time will be from  8:15 am – 9:45 am

Hope you all can attend!

August 1, 2023

We hope you are having a great summer. We are excited to announce that we reached a tentative agreement with the District for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years.  We are grateful for all of your support and positive vibes. Below is a brief summary of the contract articles we completed during these negotiations.

Summary of Article VII, item A – Evaluation procedure:

● Allow unit members to receive another evaluation to improve in “areas of improvement” received in an annual evaluation and qualify for future promotions, summer work, and other job opportunities.

● Doubled the number of days from five (5) to ten (10) to provide a response to evaluations. 

Summary of Article XI, item A – Salary and benefits:

● 2022-2023: 5% ongoing salary schedule increase, retroactive to July 1, 2022.

● Health and welfare benefits paid by the District for the 2022-2023 school year.

● 2023-2024: 7% ongoing salary schedule increase, retroactive to July 1, 2023.

● Health and welfare benefits with the current plan paid by the District for the 2023-2024 school year.

Summary of Article XI, item E – Professional Growth Incentive:

● Increase incentive from 20% to 25% with two additional one-time bonuses.

● Streamlined process on course approval.

● Simplified approval process.

Summary of Article XI, item H – Classroom supervision

● Minimum amount of minutes eligible for supervision decreased from 30 minutes to 15 minutes

● Rate per hour increased from $10 to $16

Summary of Article XII, Holidays

● Include Juneteenth (June 19th)

Summary of Article XV, item H – Bereavement Leave

● Increased amount of days for Bereavement leave from 3 days to 5 days.

● Removed the mileage requirement.

Summary of Article XVI – Safety

● Streamlined the process of how unit members report safety incidents to the district.

● Alignment to Educational Code and Board Policy to allow reasonable self-defense of unit members.

Summary of Article XVII, item B – Notice of Layoff

● Unit members shall be notified by March 15 of potential layoffs for the following school year.

Our Labor Relations Representative, Daniela Vega, will be submitting our Tentative Agreement through the 610 process. As soon as it is approved by the Field Office, we will reach out with an update and send you all the Tentative Agreement for ratification. We are tentatively scheduled to meet on August 16^th from 8 am to 10 am. The District will be providing release time for all unit members to attend this meeting. Place and time will follow at a later date, along with the Tentative Agreement. 

The CSEA Negotiations Team is proud of the agreement and is excited to share it with you. Thank you to all of the negotiators. We look forward to gathering as a union on August 16^th.

Enjoy the rest of your summer. Have a great 2023-2024 school year.

June 27, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Monday, June 26, 2023, for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed health and benefits in great detail. 

The following is the District’s salary proposal:

• 2022-23: 5% ongoing on the salary schedule and retroactive to July 1, 2022
• 2023-24: We have discussed several packages that include more health insurance options with zero out-of-pocket contributions.

Negotiators continue to advocate for more competitive packages and continue to push for the existing health insurance plan. 

The next Negotiation session will be on August 1, 2023.

June 14, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Salary and Health and Welfare Benefits.

The District has slightly moved on their salary proposal. The following is the District’s salary proposal:

• · 2022-23: 5% ongoing on the salary schedule and retroactive to July 1, 2022
• · 2023-24: 7.8% ongoing on the salary schedule and effective July 1, 2023

The District is proposing the following health and welfare caps:

• · $10,000 for single coverage premiums
• · $17,000 for single plus one coverage premiums
• · $21,500 for family coverage premiums

The District has offered insurance option #2 at no cost – including the family plan. Negotiators continue to advocate for more competitive packages.  

The next Negotiation session will be on June 26th, 2023.

May 31, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Wednesday, May 31st, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Salary, Health & Welfare Benefits, and Professional Growth.

For Professional Growth, we are waiting for clarification on language before coming to an agreement. 

The District has slightly moved on its salary proposal. The following is the District’s salary proposal:

• 2022-23: 5% ongoing on the salary schedule and retroactive to July 1, 2022
• 2023-24: 6% ongoing on the salary schedule and effective July 1, 2023

The District is proposing the following health and welfare caps:

• $10,000 for single coverage premiums
• $17,000 for single plus one coverage premiums
• $21,500 for family coverage premiums

The District has offered family plans at no cost, but the negotiators continue to advocate for more competitive packages. 

The next Negotiation session will be on June 14^th, 2023.

May 23, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Salary, Health and Welfare Benefits, and Professional Growth.

CSEA has decided to table the Bilingual Stipend discussions since we have not come to an agreement with the District. The District wants to implement a bilingual test and have everyone take it. They did not entertain a conversation on grandfathering the current folks in.

The negotiators advocated adopting the current Professional Growth MOU language into the contract with some additional changes. We want members to be able to take any course that will allow them to grow professionally. The discussions are promising.  

The District has not moved on its salary proposal. The following is the District’s salary proposal:

• · 2022-23: 5% ongoing and retroactive to July 1, 2022
• · 2023-24: 5% ongoing and effective July 1, 2023

The District is proposing the following health and welfare caps:

• · $10,000 for single coverage premiums
• · $17,000 for single plus one coverage premiums
• · $21,500 for family coverage premiums

Your negotiations team continues to advocate for a fair living wage increase and for reasonable insurance costs. We ask for your support throughout this process.  

The next Negotiation session will be on May 31, 2023.

May 10, 2023

Negotiations with the District were initially supposed to continue today. Negotiations have been rescheduled until May 23^rd. By then, Governor Newsom will have announced his revised budget for the 2023-2024 year. 

The next Negotiation session will be on May 23, 2023.

May 5, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Friday, May 5th, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Salary and Health and Welfare Benefits.

Today, the District presented its salary and health and welfare proposal. The following is the District’s salary proposal:

• 2022-23: 5% ongoing and retroactive to July 1, 2022
• 2023-24: 5% ongoing and effective July 1, 2023

The District is proposing the following health and welfare caps:

• $10,000 for single coverage premiums
• $17,000 for single plus one coverage premiums
• $21,500 for family coverage premiums

Your negotiations team continues to advocate for a fair living wage increase and for reasonable insurance costs. We ask for your support throughout this process.  

The next Negotiation session will be on May 10, 2023.  

April 27, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on April 27th, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Salary, Health & Welfare Benefits, Professional Growth, and Bilingual Stipend.

Article XI Salary & Fringe Benefits:

Salary:

• 2022-2023: The District continues to offer an increase below the 6.56% cost of living.
• 2023-2024: The District continues to offer an increase below the 8.13% expected cost of living.

Bilingual Stipend:

The District has proposed to do away with our existing bilingual stipend language. Although they want to make it broad for more members to qualify, they want to lower the stipend check. Your negotiators have no intention of doing away with already existing benefits and language. 

Professional Growth:

Your negotiator’s proposal included bringing the existing language in the Professional Growth MOU into the contract, while also improving the language so that members can take any classes – not just those that fall within their classification. The District continues to push for pre-approval from the Superintendent and do away with courses taken through institutes, lectures, workshops, seminars, and conferences. 

Article XII: Health and Welfare Benefits

Your negotiators continue to advocate for fully paid benefits. The District proposed the currently existing insurance caps and has not moved away from that.

• $10,000 per plan year for single coverage premiums
• $17,000 per plan year for single plus one coverage premium
• $21,500 per plan year for family coverage premiums

The next Negotiation session will be on May 5, 2023.

April 26, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed salary, Health & Welfare Benefits, Professional Growth, and Bilingual Stipend.

Today, the District presented its salary proposal. To our disappointment, they did not propose COLA (cost of living adjustment). The following is the COLA for the years we are negotiating:

• · 2022-23: 6.56%
• · 2023-24: expected to be 8.13% (final COLA to be announced June 2023)

CUSD’s classified staff are already some of the least paid in Imperial County. The District expects classified staff to pay for insurance without increasing salaries AT LEAST to the cost of living.

The CSEA negotiations team is hopeful and passionate about advocating for a reasonable Health and Welfare package and a generous salary increase. Now is the time to stand together and united. These negotiations are not only about ourselves; it is about our families and the sacrifices our CSEA brothers and sisters have made in the past. We ask for your support throughout this process.  

UNITED WE CONQUER. DIVIDED WE BEG.

The next Negotiation session will be on April 27, 2023.

April 19, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Tuesday, April 19th, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Salary, Health & Welfare Benefits, and Bilingual Stipend.

Today, the District gave the negotiations team a budget overview. The CSEA negotiations team will present their budget proposal at the following negotiation sessions. We ask for your support and patience throughout this process.  

The next Negotiation session will be on April 26, 2023.

March 30, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Thursday, March 30th, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Bereavement Leave, Bilingual Stipend, Professional Growth, and Health and Welfare and Salary. We continue to have great communication and everything looks promising.

We agreed on Bereavement Leave language that was updated in accordance with the law – which extends bereavement to 5 days regardless of distance. We are close to agreeing on Professional Growth. Your negotiation team will work diligently to advocate for a substantial salary increase and benefits. We ask for your support and patience throughout this process.

The next Negotiation session will be on April 19, 2023.

March 22, 2023

Your Negotiations Team met with the District on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following: Bilingual Stipend, Professional Growth, and the Classroom Supervision Stipend. We came to an agreement on the Classroom Supervision Stipend. We continue to have great communication, and everything looks promising.

The next Negotiation session will be on March 30, 2023.

March 10, 2023

Your CSEA Chapter 399 Negotiations Team met with the Calexico Unified School District negotiation team on Friday, March 10th, 2023 for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We continue to have great communication, and everything looks promising

We discussed the following:

• Bilingual Stipend
• Professional Growth
• Classroom Supervision Stipend

The next Negotiation session will be on March 22, 2023.

February 28, 2023

Your CSEA Chapter 399 Negotiations Team met with the Calexico Unified School District negotiation team on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. This was the third negotiation session for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. We discussed the following changes:

• Article XI Salary & Fringe Benefits: At this time, we have not begun discussions on the salary increase. We discussed increasing the Classroom Supervision Stipend, including Transportation in the Bilingual Stipend, and amending the Professional Growth portions of the article.

The next Negotiations session will be on Friday, March 10, 2023.

February 21, 2023

• Sunshine Proposal

Your CSEA Chapter 399 Negotiations Team met with the Calexico Unified School District negotiation team on Tuesday, February 21, 2023. This was the second negotiation session for the new 2022-2025 contract negotiations. At this time, changes were proposed in the following Articles:

Evaluation Procedures, Safety, and Layoff Procedures. The following were the changes made:

• Article VII Evaluations: When employees receive a “Needs Improvement” or “Not Satisfactory” mark, they will receive a second evaluation on that item prior to June 1st of the same year. The second evaluation will supersede the first evaluation.
• Article XVI Safety: Update contract to reflect Education Code 49001(a) that allows an employee to use reasonable and necessary force when necessary for self-defense, to protect another person or property, to quell a disturbance threatening physical injury to others, or to obtain possession of weapons or other dangerous objects on or within the control of a student.
• Article XVII Layoff Procedure: Update contract to reflect Assembly Bill 438 and the new layoff notice date of March 15

The District and CSEA continue to have good communication. The next Negotiations session will be on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.

Below we will include answers to some Frequently Asked Questions:

• Who and when did you inform the membership is on the Negotiations Team? All committees were announced on January 26th at the Chapter Meeting.
• Based on this email, what proposals were submitted to the District? Where is a copy? The sunshine proposal was presented to the membership in November and was emailed by the Previous Chapter President to everyone on November 3rd, 2022. It was also approved by the School Board on November 28th, 2022.
• Did you survey the membership before submitting a proposal, if so when? The Previous Chapter President emailed the survey on May 19th and gave a deadline of June 1st. Members were also given extensions and surveys were collected until late August.
• When was the membership notified of the Articles that will be negotiated? The sunshine proposal was presented and copies were shared at the November 2022 Chapter Meeting.
• What is the intention of negotiating the Bilingual Stipend? Transportation members submitted negotiation surveys to be eligible for the bilingual stipend. The negotiations team is advocating for them to be included. The goal is to also increase the stipend amount.