The Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) and the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) have begun labor contract negotiations for the 2024-25 school year.
According to the National Education Association, collective bargaining is a process where employee unions and employer representatives share ideas, mutually solve problems and come to a written agreement. The resulting approved contract binds both groups.
Every three years, the entire contract is open for discussion. For LBUSD, this means the district and TALB can discuss and amend every article of the agreement.
In the intervening years, however, each party can only open a maximum of three articles in addition to compensation — the compensation article is open and up for discussion each year.
The guidelines for how this process works are based on the Rodda Act – known as the Educational Employment Relations Act — which gives California public school teachers collective bargaining rights.
While the process below is specific to TALB, the district is also currently going through a similar process with the California School Employees Association.
The Steps of the Bargaining Process
- The Rodda Act requires that each party’s initial bargaining proposal be presented for public comment at a publicized school board meeting — also known as “sun shining.” This happened at the LBUSD board meeting on Dec. 18..
- To decide on these proposals, TALB surveyed its members on what their priorities are. The bargaining team then meets and looks at the survey data to choose what to prioritize.
- According to Steve Rockenbach, LBUSD’s Director of Employee Relations and Ethics, the district gets its priorities from people who are working at school sites like principals, district senior staff and assistant superintendents of different departments, on items that they think will help better serve the overall school community.
2. What’s next is a series of negotiation sessions where both sides discuss their requests.
- Both sides have to agree on a change for it to be added to the contract. TALB president Gerry Morrison mentioned how typically, negotiations work if there’s something in it for both sides or it can be a bit of a “give and take.”
- The number of sessions varies on the length of time it takes to reach an amicable agreement for both parties.
3. Once both sides reach an agreement, a tentative agreement is released that outlines specific changes that both groups agreed to. This contract needs to be approved by the union and the Board of Education.
4. Once the tentative agreement is approved by the board of education and TALB membership, the process to carry out that agreement begins.
It is all about the money, money
Negotiations are framed by how much money the district has. Whether it’s reducing the size of classes or improving health benefits, it all costs money.
The district is currently facing its first year of deficit spending since 2013, due in part to the end of COVID-19 relief funding and significant budget cuts at the state level.
That is also why enrollment is another key issue of concern. The amount of funding the district receives from the state budget — known as Local Control Funding Formula funds — is determined by how many students are enrolled. Enrollment has been steadily declining in the district which impacts how much money they receive. A little over 66,000 students enrolled in LBUSD during the 2023-2024 school year, the most recent data available, compared to enrollment numbers around 74,000 pre-pandemic.
Who is in these negotiation sessions?
TALB’s bargaining team is made up of 10 members representing different subgroups
within the union, like elementary, middle and high school teachers, counselors and school nurses. The bargaining team is chosen by the president, who then presents who they want on the team for the executive board to approve.
The district bargaining team is made up of 10 district staff members from different level offices selected by the district’s senior team. The team reports to the Board of Education throughout the bargaining process to approve proposals.
Timeline
When it’s not a full contract, bargaining is usually wrapped in a few months. However, since the full contract is currently open for discussion, it will likely take more time. The process started late this academic year to ensure both groups could gather all the information needed.
The first bargaining session was on Jan. 29 and four more sessions have been scheduled so far on:
- Feb. 6
- Feb. 14
- March 10
- March 24
More dates will be announced as bargaining progresses and could potentially go on for the rest of the school year.
The full initial proposals from the district and TALB can be found in the Dec. 18 board meeting agenda (here and here.) These proposals are vague for now, but updates will be made on the TALB and district websites.
