Introduced at its March 11 general membership meeting, SRVEA’s ratification voting processes lasted until March 14, when it was announced that the revised contract had won 97.6 percent approval.
March 21, 2019
On March 8, SRVEA and SRVUSD reached a Tentative Agreement after finally concurring on modifications to Article XIV, which addresses class sizes and student-to-staff ratios for counselors, librarians and nurses; caseload maximums, including those for secondary teachers and master scheduling. The modifications to Article XIV were accepted by SRVUSD as initially proposed by SRVEA, with no attached contingencies.
Specifically, counselor-to-student ratios will decrease from 1-to-500 to 1-to-400 in high schools and from 1-to-700 to 1-to-650 in middle schools, a second librarian will be placed in schools with over 2,500 students and the nurse-to-student ratio now rests at 1-to-3,000.
Additionally, secondary caseload caps have been designated at 165 student contacts per teacher at high schools and 192 at middle schools (the performing arts and physical education departments are exceptions). The secondary PE class size maximum has also been set at 50 students.
According to a joint SRVEA-SRVUSD press release, changes to Article XI include an “extended work year and revised salary schedule” for school nurses and speech language pathologists as well as “extended preparation time for elementary teachers.” If ratified, changes to Articles XI and XIV from the Tentative Agreement are to be effective starting next school year.
Also, a March 6 agreement on Article XX is to grant a 4 percent salary enhancement retroactive to July 2018.
After the Tentative Agreement was presented to the SRVEA general membership on March 11, ratification voting took place at members’ respective work sites until March 14. An end count tallied 1,532 “yes” votes out of 1,570 total, meaning 97.6 percent approval by 93 percent of SRVEA members.
At its March 26 meeting, the SRVUSD Board of Education also voted to ratify the revised contract.
Expressing optimism about the Tentative Agreement’s impact on future negotiations, Knapp said, “[The negotiations] are absolutely a step in the right direction … [They’re] a victory in terms of changing the way that we negotiate into a much more collaborative learning environment.”
Citing neutrality, the DVHS Parent Teacher Association has declined to comment on the 2018-19 negotiations.
Contributions from Riya Bindlish, Harshita Neralla, Amruta Baradwaj, Ronit Kumar, Sarah Kim and Caroline Lobel.
Daniel joined the Tribune in his sophomore year upon the recommendation of former editor-in-chief Amanda Su. In his two years, he's written about school events, music and immigration, and deeply enjoyed building...