On Friday, May 22, 2009, PVUSD employees received an email with the subject "Budget and Negotiations Update". After careful review, PVFT is compelled to clarify information within the message.

May 22, 2009

Now that the propositions on the May 19 Special Election ballot have been defeated and the State of California has an enormous budget deficit that must be resolved, the question in the minds of many people in the education community is WHAT’S NEXT ???

- What is next is to pressure our legislators to approve a budget that is balanced through progressive taxation instead of draconian cuts alone. To learn more about what you can do to help with the state budget crisis, please visit: http://www.cft.org/index.php/current-issues/245-state-budget.html

Sadly, this District was forced to lay off approximately 143 teachers and is currently, in the process of reducing its classified work force. These actions were taken on the assumption that the budget crisis would be resolved by the passage of the measures on the May 19 election. With the failure of those measures, I am informed that the budget shortfall for our District is between $8.5 and 9.5 million and we will have to make additional reductions.

- Passage of measures 1A, 1C, 1D and 1E on the May 19 Special Election would have guaranteed the long term under funding of education and other crucial social services. In anticipation that Measure 1B would not pass, the California Federation of Teachers filed suit against the governor to recuperate the $9 Billion that rightfully belong to Education. To get more information on the CFT Suit to protect our schools visit: http://www.cft.org/index.php/cft-stories/384-cft-files-suit-to-protect-schools-community-colleges.html

Throughout the year we have been in negotiations with PVFT (the union representing our teachers) and CSEA (the union representing our classified employees). We have asked both unions to consider and come to an agreement to temporarily reduce their work year with furlough days, as State employees have already done, or consider other cost savings proposals in order to preserve jobs. To date, PVFT has refused to talk about these proposals, which forced us to cut the approximate 143 jobs in that union.

- In negotiations last year, the district proposed moving three unfinished pieces of business to the 08-09 school year. The District and the Union signed an agreement in June 2008 that only these three unfinished items would be negotiated in 08-09. The items are Binding Arbitration of contract violations, effects of the increase in the staffing ratio and compensation for only 08-09. Once the 2008-09 items are resolved, the PVFT will be eager to work with the district to assure educational services for PVUSD students in a fiscally responsible manner.

On May 21, the District negotiating team met with the PVFT negotiating team and resurfaced that request. PVFT has been proposing that the parties only negotiate certain limited issues for 2008-09

- Actually, on April 20, 2009, after months of negotiations with the district, PVFT submitted a proposal which did not include a compensation piece. However, the district took over a month to respond to PVFT’s proposal and instead of honoring its agreement with PVFT, the district wants to skip to negotiations for 09-10. Rather than complete 08-09, the district has conditioned settling 08-09 on a permanent increase in the cost of health and welfare benefits to employees and has added an additional item (5 furlough days) to the negotiations. This appears to be regressive bargaining because the district had previously removed this item from the negotiations table.

—District paid release time for the PVFT President,

- Currently, PVFT reimburses the district 100% of the president’s salary. Considering the district has not filled the position left vacant by the President AND continues to receive the funding for that position, PVFT had originally proposed to reimburse the district at a set amount for the President’s salary, rather than at 100%.

no supervision responsibilities for teachers in any class that contains multiple grade level students or curriculum

- Currently, per the June, 2008 agreeement: “Those elementary teachers who teach combination classes shall be excluded from supervisory duties within the work day, provided that other affected teachers approve the schedule by majority rule”. PVFT proposes to negotiate over the effects of this language upon our members.

and binding arbitration. The District has agreed to binding arbitration

- PVFT and PVUSD have NOT finalized any agreement on binding arbitration. Among other issues, is the fact that the PVUSD insists on "a looser pay all" clause. PVFT believes that each party should pay their own costs in case a grievance reaches arbitration level.

but cannot commit to spending money to support the activities of the PVFT President

- In the interest of settling the 2008-09 negotiations and begin to address the district’s financial needs, PVFT has removed this item from the 2008-09 negotiations, since April 20, 2009,

or excusing a substantial number of teachers from supervision duties which would shift that responsibility to other teachers.

- Currently, this is the case due to the June 2008 agreement. The districts proposal to resolve this would leave us without a contractual definition for a combo class and a principal controlled secret ballot election at each site to determine how teachers assigned to “combo classes” are relieved of additional work.

Unfortunately, we have reached a crisis in which these issues seem minor compared to our responsibility to keep the District fiscally solvent and preserve jobs.

- PVFT does not view an unenforceable contract as a minor issue.

Therefore, the District has made a request to bring in a State mediator to assist the parties in reaching a resolution as soon as possible.

- On May 21, 2009 The PVUSD and PVFT mutually agreed that negotiations are at impasse. Mediation is the first step of this process and PVFT is hopeful that the district will reconsider its position and honor the June 2008 agreement.

The District does not have the luxury of time and must, for the benefit of our students, our employees and our community, solve this financial crisis.

- Both publicly and at the negotiations table, PVFT has made it clear that it is ready to begin negotiations over 2009-10 once the 2008-09 items are settled. However, in the course of this negotiation, the PVUSD has TWICE taken over a month to respond to PVFT’s proposals, increasing the uncertainty of the districts financial stability.

I ask for your support and understanding in these very difficult and challenging times as we work with our Unions to achieve financial stability

- Dialogue with students, parents and community, over priorities and the process to establish those priorities will go a long way in securing support from all.