New Haven Teacher Strike: Talks To Resume After Heated Board Meeting
HAYWARD (CBS SF) – Officials from the New Haven Teachers Association and the New Haven Unified School District will return to the bargaining table Wednesday afternoon looking to reach an agreement that would end a teacher's strike that started on May 20, according to teacher's association officials.
The 11,000-student district declined to continue negotiations until Wednesday, teachers association officials said, and educators responded by crashing Tuesday's evening school board meeting with rallying cries and protests, causing the meeting to end early.
"Parents, community members and teachers shut down the New Haven Unified School Board meeting, forcing members to leave without voting on the new board districts," union officials said.
Video on the association's Facebook page showed the school board meeting being shut down due to the protests.
"NHUSD managers' bad behavior and lack of movement devalues and disrespects teachers. All of these cuts are being made unilaterally without teacher input, and have never been brought up before," said NHTA President Joe Ku'e Angeles in a statement. "Once again, NHUSD managers showed how little they care about our struggling teachers, who are on strike for professional pay and respect."
The teacher's association, which had previously sought a 10 percent pay increase over two academic years, instead requested a 3.7 percent for the current year and 3.26 percent for 2019-20.
"Our members pay all healthcare costs out-of-pocket," the teachers association said in a release Monday. "We know the district can afford to give their teachers COLA (cost of living allowance) to help us keep up with the rising cost of living in the Bay Area."
The district, however, says meeting that offer "would cost the school district approximately $17.7 million over three years and would increase the amount of cuts in 20/21 by $11.7 million more than the planned $4.6 million, totaling $16.3 million."
Hopes were raised Monday afternoon when the teachers association said there was progress in talks and that there was hope an agreement could be reached, but that hope fizzled with no deal late Monday.
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