The Glendale Teachers Assn. has scheduled the vote May 24 through 26, expecting to know the results before the May 27 deadline to avoid a pay delay. But union President Tami Carlson said she repeatedly told district officials that the current scenario was inevitable.
“I told them that if we didn’t do it the week of May 4, 5 and 6 that we’d have to . . . delay for two weeks,” she said. “I tried to get it done earlier, but because the district did not call me back . . . we could not get the materials ready in time for our planned vote.”
Carlson said the circumstances mirror last August, when school board members terminated the contract in a symbolic action that they said was meant to add urgency to negotiations.
“They are doing what they always do, they are trying to turn it around and blame it on me,” Carlson said.
On April 16, both sides reached a deal requiring teachers to take one furlough day this year, and 15 during the life of the three-year contract. It also calls on teachers to make additional contributions to their health-care benefits.
The tentative contract generates about $12 million in savings toward the district’s $18.5-million deficit by 2011-12. State law requires school districts keep balanced budgets every year for three consecutive years.
“I’m not aware of a tentative agreement not being ratified, however, I have never seen this much anti-ratification grassroots fever, so to speak, from our membership either,” Carlson said. “Is it a good deal? Each and every teacher is losing a few hundred dollars out of their paycheck every month on this.”
