By Mike Myslinski
A tentative contract settlement in Livermore protects all health benefits for the current school year, gives teachers a greater voice in deciding district health coverage policy in the future, and extends current early-retirement incentives for another five years.
The agreement in the 14,000-student Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District sets up joint labor-management committees to study the critical issues of employee health insurance, teacher evaluation and educator transfers. The committees will make recommendations to the negotiations team before June 1, says Livermore Education Association President Keith Pickering-Walters.
"We are strongly recommending that our members approve this agreement when they vote on it in mid-December," says Pickering-Walters. "It guarantees that Livermore teachers will face no cuts in health benefits for the current school year. It also improves the relationship between LEA and the district by creating labor-management committees to give teachers a greater voice."
Starting July 1, the financially-strapped district will place a $10,000 cap on what it spends for health benefits per full-time educator, but the funds will go into an account to be used for whatever health plans the 665 LEA members determine the district should offer. "Educators will have greater control over their health care dollars this way," says Pickering-Walters. "Future health providers and pricing decisions will be made by the membership of LEA."
Teachers would not get guaranteed salary increases under the proposed settlement, but both sides will reopen negotiations on salary and benefits for the 2005 and 2006 school years.
The retroactive agreement, which covers July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2007, goes beyond its timeframe on the issue of preserving early-retirement incentives, which would be extended to July 1, 2010.
The agreement, if approved, ends a year and a half of contentious negotiations, during which the district also threatened to keep smaller classes in only first grade.
LEA was successful in its efforts to pass a parcel tax on the Nov. 2 ballot. Measure D will restore a 20-student cap for all kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.