Tentative Agreement Reached on 2024-25 Reopener 

OUSD and OEA have reached a tentative agreement on improvements to the final year of our 2022-25 contract. We've created a document showing exactly how the current contract language would be improved thanks to our reopeners. A summary is below. Membership voting on the TA will end on June 6th at 4:30 pm.

Early Childhood Education

• Fighting for an across-the-board raise for our lowest paid unit members is in line with our union values and with the goals of this reopener.

• Though we weren’t able to get across-the-board raises for our entire bargaining unit, we did win an across-the-board raise for our ECE teachers during this reopener -- $2,080 for CDC and $1,860 for State Pre-K on every cell of the salary schedule

• Our settlements last May and yesterday are a huge step towards the pay equity that our ECE teachers deserve. In November 2022, the starting salary for CDC teachers (with a BA) was $35,168 and for State Pre-K teachers (with a BA) was $31,554. In November 2024, the starting salary for CDC teachers with a BA will be $55,159 and for State Pre-K teachers with a BA will be $49,863. 

• Raised Teacher in Charge and Open/Close stipends by over 25%. These stipends haven’t been raised since 2008:

  • Teacher in Charge at centers with 5 or more teachers: $2,100 

  • Teacher in Charge at centers with less than 5 teachers: $1,250 

  • Open/close: $2,000 per year

• We also updated safety language in our ECE article (Article 22) to reflect the values of restorative practices that we won in TK-12 safety language last year 

Early Childhood Special Education

• Increase in prep time to complete IEP paperwork, lesson planning, etc

• HARD caps for the very first time in our contract for itinerant special education teachers, serving inclusion students in ECE classrooms

• Integration of ECSE into Workload model 

Early Elementary, Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten

• 2 weeks of culture-setting plus 1 reset day after every extended break, reflected in district pacing guides

• Release time for TK-K teachers to complete one-on-one assessments with students, as well as additional release for TK assessment data entry

• TK and K students exempted from developmentally inappropriate mental health screeners (AKA Sown to Grow) through the 2025-26 school year.

• Requires site admin to create plans for students who have accidents or are not potty trained. (REMEMBER: assisting students with diapering, bathroom accidents, etc. is NOT in our job description and you cannot be required to perform that work)

• Students from elementary classes that are split due to an absence will not be added to TK classrooms in excess of ratios (except for emergencies)

• 1:10 adult to student ratio for TK, starting in the 2025-26 school year

• TK teachers who took their 24 units of ECE coursework at a community college will get full credit for those units on the salary schedule

• TK/K teachers will not be required to do an orientation/meet the teacher event. If they do one before the first day of school, they’ll be paid at the extra duty rate for the event and prep for the event.

Special Education Workload Pilot

• Will continue as a pilot for two more years

• Updates workload considerations to include doing work (ie assessments, meetings, etc.) in languages other than English

• Explicitly includes Early Childhood Special Education teachers in workload model

Newcomer Supports

• Clarifies how newcomers are counted which will lead to more robust staffing

• Explicitly states that secondary FTE will be newcomer social workers whenever possible.

• Lowers thresholds for Newcomer supports from:

  • 50 for .5 FTE to 40 for .5 FTE

  • 100 for 1 FTE to 90 for 1 FTE

  • Lowered thresholds will go into effect for the 2025-26 school year, but the District will make every effort to meet them during the 2024-25 school year (settling so late in the year makes fully meeting those thresholds at every school next school year more difficult)

• Extension of Newcomer Joint Committee, with a focus on exploring additional funding opportunities for newcomer programs 

Compensation

• Extra duty (extended contract) rate increased from $38.50 to $47.50 for next school year

• School nursing credential reimbursement up to $5000 from coursework completed July 1, 2023 - Jan 1, 2026

• Per diem pay for additional hours of work for specialists (including ALL social workers) and SPED teachers 

• Special Education stipend for credentialed (clear or preliminary) SPED teachers - $2000 (paid as one-time bonus in June 2025) 

• Psych/SLP Doctoral equivalent stipend - $1800 (paid as one-time bonus in June 2025)

• Additional language fixes and contract integration of previous MOUs including adding the senior nurse stipend into the contract.

• The elimination of “dead zones” in our salary schedule during the strike means that almost every TK-12 teacher will get a step increase for 2024-25.