Hello Everyone,
The District and the Sierra Plumas Teachers’ Association (SPTA) held another negotiations session on Wednesday, April 29th. During this meeting, we reached a tentative agreement on Article 4. After continued discussions, the parties were unable to reach agreement on Article 4, as the District remained firm in its position that class size overage compensation be based on ADA rather than enrollment, and that ISP contract compensation for elementary teachers remain at $10 per day rather than $10 per core subject, due to concerns regarding impacts to the current fiscal year’s budget.
The District stated that current class size overages were only affecting one teacher. However, this does not fully reflect what is happening at our sites. While the District identified only the third grade class at Loyalton Elementary as being over the agreed upon limits, the kindergarten class at LES also exceeded the class size maximum at the end of the second trimester. This means at least two teachers have been impacted this year alone, not including the overages from last year, reflecting a difference in understanding regarding the scope of the issue.
Recap of Specific Areas of Discussion
Article 4: Class Size
4.4- Current discussions focused on the District’s preference to compensate class size overages based on Average Daily Attendance (ADA), while SPTA’s preference was to use actual class enrollment. CTA Representative Jon Halvorson noted that enrollment is the measure used in the majority of the districts across the state.
4.11- Discussions continued regarding compensation for elementary teachers with ISP contracts. The current structure provides elementary teachers $10 per student for preparing work for all four core subject areas in a self-contained classroom, while middle and high school teachers receive $10 per student per class for preparing work for just one subject area. It was discussed that middle and high teachers may have the same students across multiple class periods, which raises concerns about equity. The District acknowledged this inequity.
While SPTA was not in full agreement with the District’s position, the teams agreed to accept the current terms for now in order to continue moving negotiations forward, with the understanding that Article 4 will be revisited next year. While this concludes negotiations for the current year, both the District and SPTA expressed hope that next year’s negotiations will continue in a productive and collaborative manner and avoid some of the challenges experienced in previous negotiations.
We will continue to provide these updates next year to keep staff and the community informed.
Sincerely,
Sean Snider, Superintendent and Miranda Prakash, SPTA President
