The Long Beach Unified School District and teachers union finalized new tentative contract agreements on Thursday after months of protracted negotiations following union members’ unprecedented rejection of the last proposal in June.
Teachers Association of Long Beach president Gerry Morrison is urging members to vote yes on the new agreements, which cover K-12 educators as well as Child Development Center and Head Start teachers. “It’s important to lock in this deal,” Morrison said, calling it “the best we could get under the circumstances,” referring to the district’s large budget deficit and the threat of layoffs.
The bargaining team believes they have negotiated improvements on the last tentative agreement, Morrison said in a video addressed to members. If passed, the contract would cover members through June 2028, though some articles reopen for negotiation each year.
The new agreements include stronger boundaries around workload, greater protections and clarity for nurses and other specialized staff, improvements in leave policies, changes aimed at equitizing evaluations and relaxing standards for requesting transfers, safety improvements and stabilized health care costs, which keep members and their families from having to pay monthly health care premiums — a priority for members, Morrison said.
The agreements include multiple memos of understanding, including one that establishes a joint committee with the district to address adjunct responsibilities, or work completed outside the school day. These wins address some of the issues teachers raised with the Long Beach Post in September, as well as feedback union members offered in a survey TALB administered, Morrison said.
Annette Quintero, a teacher at Poly High School and co-chair of the TALB organizing committee, said that while she voted no on the last tentative agreement, she will be voting yes on this one. It makes some gains, she said, such as addressing issues related to evaluations and creates “a stepping stone to addressing adjunct hours.”
No educators will see an increase in compensation, an issue that some members said led them to vote no on the last tentative agreement, as they face a rising cost of living.
The lack of pay raises should not come as a surprise. For months, the bargaining team has told TALB members not to expect any salary increase because the district’s “budget outlook is pretty dire,” bargaining chair Mike Day said at a union meeting in October. Day also warned members that, in light of the district’s $70 million deficit, layoffs could be on the horizon.
“For those of you who were around in 2010, 2011, that was a complete bloodbath,” Day said at the October meeting, referencing painful staffing reductions in the past.
The district has already announced cost-saving measures for the next school year, including boosting attendance, reducing library staff and social workers and closing Hoover Middle School. Enrollment-based staff — including teachers, assistant principals and counselors, among others — “is expected to be reduced by approximately $13.0 million,” aligned with projected enrollment, the district said in their December budget update.
Though no teachers have yet been laid off, TALB held a rally Wednesday to express opposition to staff cuts to district decision-makers and school board members. Quintero said her sole focus is on preventing and limiting looming layoffs, and voting yes on this agreement is part of that effort.
If this tentative agreement is ratified, the union bargaining team will be able to begin negotiations with the district for the 2025-26 contract, a process that “will include looking at ways to mitigate any potential position cuts to our membership,” according to an email Morrison sent to TALB members on Thursday. This could include working with the district to improve attendance and generate revenue, Morrison said in an interview. “We also want to make sure that if there are cuts to the district’s spending, that we keep them as far away from the classroom as possible,” he said.
At a December union meeting, Day preemptively encouraged members to vote for this agreement, even if they still have complaints. “This contract is better than the last one. The next contract will hopefully be better than this one. That’s how we get things done,” he said.
Online voting will begin Wednesday morning and continue until Friday at 4:30 p.m., just as the semester draws to a close. Morrison said he feels more confident that this tentative agreement will pass, as it has the full support of the union’s executive board and the bargaining team. “We’re at the end of the line, here,” Morrison said. If the agreement doesn’t pass, the district and union would go into mediation and eventually arbitration to decide the terms of the contract.