A strike by teachers in Dublin entered its third day Wednesday but both sides said they moved a little closer to an agreement during late night negotiations.
Hundreds of Dublin Unified School District teachers hit the picket lines again following contract talks that lasted until about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, but union and district leaders expressed some optimism that discussions were headed in a positive direction.
“Management provided us with a proposal for the first time in quite some time, and it was the first and most hopeful thing we’ve seen in a while,” said Dublin Teachers Association President Brad Dobrzenski. “So really and truly thank you to our community and to our educators for staying strong and demanding that our district invest in our students.”
District officials called the talks “productive” and said they have now proposed some class size adjustments at elementary and high schools, adding a high school librarian, adding one counselor at each TK-5th grade campus for two years and “defined a process for equity in staffing elementary classes.”
The district’s offer on salary remains at 2.1% with some health care contribution increases.
The teachers have asked for a 3.5% salary increase, health benefit improvements and class-size reductions, including a “hard cap” of 20 students for Transitional Kindergarten classes, College Prep teacher totals reduced from 165 students down to 150 students per teacher, and high school PE classes reduced from 250 students to 200 per PE teacher, among other things.
Negotiations were scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.
“We’re really hopeful that the movement that started last night will continue on throughout today,” Dobrzenski said.