Sacramento, CA –  Please see the following message that was shared with district families this afternoon, on Sunday, March 27, 2022: 

Dear Sacramento City Unified School District Families,

Sac City Unified has been working tirelessly on behalf of our children throughout the weekend to do all we can to bring them back to school tomorrow where they belong. Here is where negotiations with each labor partner stand as of now. Expect a communication later today to confirm whether or not we are able to open schools tomorrow. 

Today the district sent SCTA a counterproposal that enhances the proposal sent to SCTA earlier this week. The district is scheduled to meet today at 1:30 with SCTA’s bargaining team. Separately, the district met with SEIU’s team yesterday and this morning, and will continue to meet later today.

Status of SCTA Negotiations

Yesterday, March 26, SCTA provided a written counterproposal in response to the proposals that the district passed to SCTA on Monday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 22. SCTA’s written proposal includes a footnote suggesting that the counterproposal was “made orally through the state mediators on March 22.” The district did not receive the counterproposal from SCTA until yesterday. The district will continue its commitment to transparency by sharing every proposal and counterproposal exchanged throughout this process. 

Enhanced Proposal

Today’s counterproposal to SCTA further enhances its proposals to (a) increase employee compensation, (b) increase the one time stipend for the 2021-22 school year from 2% to 3%, © offer a $3,000 stipend for employees that move from HealthNet coverage to Kaiser, and (d) begin discussions on additional health care plan choices at the same cost as the Kaiser plan. 

The following describes the district’s proposal. The enhancements proposed today are noted in boldface:

• Pay Increases
• Ongoing 2% salary increase starting in the 2021-22 school year.
• One-Time Bonuses
• Enhanced proposal: Increasing to 3% our offer of a 2% one-time stipend for 2021-2022; 
• 1% one-time stipend for 2020-2021; 
• 1% one-time stipend for 2019-2020.
• $2,000 signing bonus for new employees hired into a certificated position on or before September 15, 2022 for the 2022-23 school year.

Increased Pay for Substitute Teachers

• Increase substitute teacher daily rate by 25% for substitutes who filled in for absent teachers during the 2021-22 school year.

More Professional Development

• Offer three (3) additional paid days for professional learning, which increases salaries an additional 1.65% for 2022-23.

Health Coverage

100% health coverage through Kaiser provided for all-SCTA represented employees and all their immediate family members at no cost to employees.

• Enhanced proposal (March 23): For one year, the district will pay eighty (80) percent of the difference between the cost of health coverage offered through Kaiser and the cost of a HealthNet plan for those employees that chose to continue HealthNet coverage.
• Employees that already have health coverage can opt to receive $3,000 per year ($250 per month) in-lieu of receiving this coverage through the district.
• Enhanced proposal (March 27):
  • $3,000 stipend for moving from Health Net to Kaiser 
  • Begin discussions on additional health care plan choices at the same cost as the Kaiser plan. 

In addition, the district has signed and sent back to SCTA two MOUs to address COVID-related issues and staffing shortages that were included in counterproposals sent by SCTA: 

• MOU on Training Specialists, which provides extra stipends for temporarily assigning 28 district-level personnel as Emergency Backup Practitioners to school sites to partially relieve staffing shortages. Included in this MOU are four points noting that regular substitutes will be used first, participation is voluntary, EBPs shouldn’t be used more than one day per week, and will receive an extra $15 per 15 minutes worked.
• MOU on School Nurses, providing an extra $150 per hour for nurses who took on extra COVID-related work beyond their regular 6-hour day during the 2021-22 school year.

Status of SEIU Negotiations

Separately, on Saturday, March 26, our negotiations team met with SEIU’s negotiating team to discuss our proposal to increase compensation for SEIU-represented employees, and met again this morning. The district negotiations team has agreed to meet with SEIU again later today. Here in an overview of the district’s proposal to SEIU: 

Employee Compensation

• 2% ongoing salary increase, effective July 1, 2022
• $1,000 one-time stipend for 2020-21
• $1,500 one-time stipend for 2021-22
• $1,000 one-time stipend for 2022-23

Bus Driver Incentives

• $2,000 Recruitment and Signing Bonus for new bus drivers who complete the SCUSD training program for bus drivers for the 2022-23 school year.
• $2,000 Recruitment and Signing Bonus for SEIU members who refer a new bus driver who provides service to the district in the 2022-23 school year.
• $5,000 signing bonus for new bus driver employees who are fully licensed to drive a bus. In order to receive the signing bonus, the employee must provide service to the District for the entire 2022-23 school year.

After the negotiations session, SEIU shared its counter proposal as follows:

“SEIU Local 1021 seeks equity and social justice for all classified workers recognized by the District having lower paying salaries. To that end SEIU proposes improvements in a total overall economic package that meets or exceeds the agreement with SCTA.”

By offering equal dollar amount stipends to SEIU, instead of the percentage-based stipends we’re offering to SCTA, we are offering our hourly paid employees significantly more money than what they would receive from a stipend based 1-2% of their annual salary. To match the proposed SCTA percentage-based stipend would result in a lower dollar amount for most of our SEIU-represented employees. Contrary to a percentage-based stipends, these dollar-amount stipends reflect our commitment to equity and social justice for all employees. The district’s negotiations team has asked SEIU to please clarify the improvements it wants in the overall economic package in the contract and the equity changes they are proposing. 

The district is committed to continue separate negotiations with SEIU and SCTA in order to reach agreements with both bargaining groups.

Again, you can expect communication later today to confirm whether or not we are able to open schools tomorrow. 

# # #