The Benicia Unified School District has been working to address contract negotiations as well as the national teacher shortage, Superintendent Charles Young said.

Last week, the Benicia Teachers’ Association indicated that it was at an impasse with the district over salary negotiations and also acknowledged concerns over how America’s teacher shortage was impacting Benicia. Among the issues cited were the district’s difficulty in hiring and keeping teachers, a high number of teachers teaching extra classes to cover classes without teachers, students learning Spanish through the software application Rosetta Stone rather than through teachers and vacant positions being filled by non-credentialed teachers. Teachers expressed these concerns through social media, holding signs outside schools on Wednesday, Dec. 14 and through public comments at last week’s school board meeting.

The district responded to some of these claims through a post on its website. The post noted that Benicia Unified actually has a high teacher retention rate, with the average teacher longevity being 12 years. At present, the district stated, 25 percent of teachers have been teaching for more than 20 years and 53 percent more than 10.
The district also acknowledged that two resignations at Benicia High School— one in the social science department and another in the world languages department— have created some challenges.

“We have 15 teachers teaching 6/5ths to fill vacancies in hard to fill areas,” the post reads. “This is higher than usual and the result of two unexpected vacancies at the start of the school year. Typically, there is an average of 5 teachers who teach 6/5th each year for a variety of reasons. Teachers choose to apply for these extra sections.”

Additionally, the use of Rosetta Stone was made in response to a vacancy and to keep the Spanish program going. In the history department, the vacancy was filled by a teacher with a state-issued permit who was already teaching a section.

“The two resignations at the beginning of the year created a couple of situations where what we had to do with the credentialing things was a response to that,” Young said. “When people resign, it’s for personal reasons. In these two instances, that was the case. We had to respond to that by putting teachers in place to teach those classes because we wanted to keep the classes going.”

In regards to contract negotiations, Young said the district and teachers association have been working together in a respectful manner. The salaries are still being worked on, but the groups have reached agreement in principle on a number of areas, including reducing the TK-3 student/teacher ratio to 24:1 in 2017-18, developing a memorandum of understanding for the bell schedule at Benicia High, the wording for class size release and an additional stipend for an outdoor educational coordinator. Although none of the items are set in stone, Young is pleased with the progress being made on those fronts.

Young also said the district is still working on salaries and will be meeting with a mediator to discuss the process and work with both sides. The mediator has not yet been assigned.

“We’re still working on hearing from them to let us know when they would be available to do that,” he said.

Overall, Young hopes that the process is one that everyone can benefit from, including teachers, students and parents.

“Negotiation is a process that teachers go through every year all throughout California,” he said. “We always talk about how, as a system, do we continue to get better with the way that we do the work in all areas. We like to talk about how we can strengthen our relationships and strengthen our efforts around the work we do on behalf of the kids. I think we’re communicating with one another, communication’s open, we’re using the process and focusing on how we can continue to make this a smooth, productive process for everybody.”

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