Eureka City Schools

The District and the Eureka Teachers Association (ETA) met for the first day of 2024-2027 contract negotiations on March 21. Both parties are interested in a multi-year agreement—the parties exchanged package proposals on a number of items and engaged in meaningful conversation to help gain an understanding of both party’s needs going forward.  

Proposed Contract language changes: 

• Article 3 – Children’s Center – The District proposed changing the Children’s Center work calendar and salary schedule to 205 work days, eight hours a day, for a full-time teacher and addressing administrative coverage when the Director is offsite with a stipend. 

• Article 5 – Complaints Against Teachers – The District proposed language to address circumstances when the teacher may not be notified of a complaint in five days.
  
  
• Article 10 – Evaluation Procedures – The parties discussed the creation of a joint ETA and District Committee to review/revise the Teacher evaluation process and establish a system to create evaluations for Nurses and Speech Language Pathologists with 2024-25 as a pilot year for all changes.
  
  
• Article 15 – New Teacher Support – The District proposed additional paid days (likely 2 or 3) for professional development prior to school starting for all unit members who are new to the District.
  
  
• Article 23 – ETA proposed language to further outline teacher preparation time, covering another teacher’s class, and eliminating the on-site committee for collaboration. Further discussion is required.
  
  
• Article 24 – Teacher Safety – Both parties shared proposals to address safety.  The parties will work to combine the best aspects from each proposal.  
  
  
• Article 27 – Peer Assistance and Review Program (PEER) – The parties agreed in concept to remove this language with an agreement the language will be implemented if the state funds PEER in the future.
  
  
• Article 28 – Specialized Instructional Services – ETA proposed $55 for the teacher hourly rate and a method to help stabilize income for two Home & Hospital Teachers. 
  
  

The parties meet for a second day of negotiations on April 2, 2024.

Contract negotiations are currently closed through June 30, 2024.  The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees offered a 5% total compensation increase for certificated employees effective July 1, 2023 with a one year extension on the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, extending the Contract through June 30, 2025.  The 5% increase included a 4.05% increase to the salary schedule with nearly 1% (0.95%) applied to the first few steps, bringing the starting rate of pay for a new teacher to $50,000.  It also included recognizing unlimited years of teaching experience for initial placement on the salary schedule including an updated placement on the salary schedule for teachers who were previously hired with more than 10 years of experience and started on Step 11 (the former maximum for a new hire).  ETA requested and the District agreed to remove the extra 12 daily instructional minutes from the 2023-2024 school year.

After surveying their membership, and taking it to a vote, ETA reported that the majority of ETA members voted to reject the offer.  The current Collective Bargaining Agreement is in effect through June 30, 2024. 

The District and ETA did reach agreement with respect to recognizing unlimited years of teaching experience for initial placement on the salary schedule.  This includes current teachers who were previously hired into the District with 11 or more years of experience being moved to the appropriate steps (recognizing all years of teaching experience) effective July 1, 2023.  This agreement was memorialized in a Memorandum of Understanding and sunsets for employees hired after 7/01/25 unless the parties negotiate and agree to continue.  

The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees offered and approved a 5% rate increase for certificated employees effective December 1, 2022.  The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Board and the ETA is closed through June 30, 2024, so this increase is outside the normal negotiation cycle. 

The District and the Eureka Teachers Association met with the mediator from the State of California Mediation and Conciliation Service June 22, June 29, July 2, 2021, September 9, September 10, September 21, October 1, October 25, and November 4.  The parties met outside of mediation November 12 and reached a Tentative Agreement.  The Tentative Agreement was signed November 15, 2021.  

The District and the Eureka Teachers Association (ETA) met June 29 and July 2, 2021 for continued mediation. The mediator is unavailable most of July, so mediation will continue in late July or early August once a date is confirmed.

The District and the Eureka Teachers Association met with a mediator from the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service on June 22nd.  We are scheduled for a second mediation session Tuesday, June 29, 2021.