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Teachers in Mountain View’s public elementary and middle schools are looking at getting a 5% raise next school year, with additional pay bumps in the following two years, under a tentative union agreement that the school board is set to vote on this week.
The Mountain View Whisman School District and its teachers’ union reached the three-year deal, which the board is expected to vote on at its meeting on Thursday, May 2.
The agreement would give teachers a 5% raise in the 2024-25 school year, followed by another 5% raise in the 2025-26 school year and a 4% raise in the 2026-27 school year.
Teachers currently earn between $77,834 and $139,544, depending on their education level and the number of years they’ve worked in the district. The raises would mean that by the 2026-27 school year, teachers would earn $89,244 to $160,001.
Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph praised district and union leaders for their work to reach the tentative agreement, and said that the district has tried its best to compensate teachers so that they can live and work in the community.
“I’m really happy that we were able to come to this agreement,” Rudolph said. “While I think we all would agree that it never goes far enough, I think it continues to signal how much we value the work that our teachers … do on a day-to-day basis.”
Union President Mick Newman also spoke positively about the deal and the negotiations for the contract.
“I think our negotiations team did a great job in (having) very open and honest and … healthy communication with the district,” Newman said. “It was great. The district was very transparent. I think both sides are very happy with the tentative agreement we reached.”
According to Newman, out of 163 teachers who voted on the tentative agreement, 135 were in favor, which is an 83% approval rate. Newman that he believes if all teachers had voted (the union has about 270 members total) that the percent in favor would have been higher.
District describes smooth teachers’ union negotiations
Rudolph described the negotiations as some of the smoothest in his nine years in the district.
That stands in distinct contrast to the last round of negotiations two years ago.
In 2022, the union declared an impasse in negotiations, citing a lack of agreement over work hours and class sizes. Teachers held public protests and an outside mediator was called in to help the two sides reach a deal.
The final agreement retroactively gave teachers a 5% raise and 2% one-time bonus for the 2021-22 school year, plus 4% raises in each of the following two years. The district then opted in the fall of 2022 to give the teachers a 3% one-time bonus and a year later, the board approved a 4% one-time bonus.
The current contract expires at the end of June this year, while the new one would run through June 2027.
As Mountain View Whisman nears final approval of this new agreement, other local districts have run into disputes with their unions. After reaching an impasse in negotiations in March, Palo Alto teachers held a rally for higher salaries ahead of a school board meeting last week. In the Las Lomitas Elementary School District, educators similarly gathered at a school board meeting last month to call for increased compensation.
The raises in Mountain View Whisman’s union agreement would cost $2.07 million next school year, $2.25 million the following year and $1.96 million in the final year.
“The fact that we are fiscally prudent, (and) even when we have a downturn that we still can offer sizable raises, I think is an amazing thing,” Rudolph said.
The deal includes a provision that if the district doesn’t succeed in passing a parcel tax measure in November, it would have the option to reopen the portions of the contract tied to the raises for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years to “explore, discuss and negotiate adjustments, amendments and options related to total compensation. “
The district is planning to put a parcel tax on the ballot this fall, but polling has shown it could be difficult to pass. Rudolph said that while the district would have the ability to reopen the contract if the parcel tax doesn’t succeed, the decision to do that would be dependent on the district’s fiscal situation.
In addition to pay, Newman noted that the tentative agreement makes other changes, including reducing the maximum middle school class size from 33 to 32 students.
When a class is over the maximum, teachers receive extra pay. According to Newman, it is unusual for a class to hit these caps. He praised the district for trying to avoid overloading classes.
A delay in voting on the teachers’ union deal
The school board was originally expected to review the union deal at an April 18 meeting, but district officials decided to delay the item until May 2 after controversy broke out over a proposal to change the middle school bell schedule.
The district is looking at switching from eight to seven periods for middle schoolers, which would mean more time for core classes but one fewer elective period.
Rudolph told the school board at the April 18 meeting that paying for the raises in the union deal was based on switching to seven periods. Having one fewer period would mean that the district wouldn’t need as many teachers and could save $1.2 million annually, according to the district’s calculations. The district plans to make the reductions through attrition, not layoffs.
If the board opted to keep the current schedule, Rudolph said at the April 18 meeting that the district might need to reopen negotiations, make cuts in other areas or dip into its reserves. Some board members raised concerns about linking the schedule and the budget, instead wanting to consider the issues separately.
Rudolph told the Voice that the decision to delay the vote on the union deal was made because district officials wanted to know if board members were okay with the pay increases moving forward regardless of the schedule outcome. According to Rudolph, district staff got that direction from board members at the April 18 meeting.
The school board is now scheduled to vote on the union contract and schedule change as separate items at the May 2 meeting.
The district is currently in contract negotiations with the union representing non-teaching staff, according to district officials.
“Dip into reserves” – The left-over-funds reserves are continuing to Actually run over the Board Policy percentage. This has occurred at the end of each Fiscal Year for at least the last five years.
There is absolutely no reason to either 1) cut this 5% contact increase, or 2) cut the middle school periods to save $1+ million per year by decreasing the number of middle school teachers THIS COMMING YEAR! There is, based on more than 5 years of fiscal records, enough General Fund reserves to THINK ABOUT POLICY and to LISTEN (better) TO THE COMMUNITY about middle school curriculum choices.
The administration has recommended and Board usually voted: to copy what teachers get as increases and make that what most administrators get.
Apparently over 20 Graham teachers have left the last 2 years!! This is entirely on superintendent Ayindé Rudolph and his poor leadership. He keeps changing up principals annually and now Graham’s principal and vice principal are gone. Rudolph also was caught being repeatedly dishonest and disingenuous around the 7-period change to middle school. It is time for a new superintendent .