Long Beach Teachers vote yes on Tentative Agreement

By Daniel Rivera

On April 22, the Teachers Association of Long Beach, or TALB, voted to ratify a tentative agreement with the school district. 

This decision was reached after several months of haggling over raises and the addition of what was originally planned to be four professional development days. During the negotiations, an impasse was briefly declared until bargaining resumed, reaching the current deal. 

In the case that the impasse stayed in effect and no agreement was reached, that would open the potential for a strike similar to the recent Los Angeles Unified School District faculty strike a few weeks ago. 

TALB has settled for a 9% raise and only two additional professional development days, which the teachers will have some input with also, depending on “on-site” conditions. 

“We weren’t really very far apart, we’re were looking for 10, they were offering eight, so we ended up at nine,” and “originally they wanted us to work four extra days and we didn’t want to do any because we don’t think the things they want us to do are worthwhile,” said Gerard Morison, TALB board member. 

Gerard explained that while the raises were a large concern, the bigger sticking point was the additional days. Professional development days are essentially days where teachers go to take lessons, workshops or just network with other teachers, which means they are not in the classroom. 

The vote would happen over the weekend, with teachers receiving emails asking whether they accept or decline the current agreement with the district and according to executive members of the TALB, they expect roughly a 70% turnout. 

“In my entire time at working for this district, people were energized to take action more than ever and I believe it would have been one of the only times we could have gone to a strike vote,” Corrin Hickey, bargaining chair for TALB said when asked about the potential for strike during these negotiations. She explains that in the last 20 years of her time working there have only been three impasse votes and that energy was there in a way that it wasn’t before. 

During a TALB meeting on April 18 to discuss the tentative deal, many staff expressed confusion and concern over how the two additional days would be implemented. 

“The district has their priorities and will give those to the sites but in that realm of district priorities, sites will be surveying their teachers on what they want to work on … so the decision will be between the teachers and administration,” Corrin said. 

Some members of TALB think they are not being heard by their leadership. 

“I am very disappointed, they seem to have focused on the number of PD days and salary but yet at work as a special ed teacher I’m drowning, I feel like there is nothing in this contract that helps me with my greatest problem which is that they give us more and more to do and never any support,” said Sara Roselli, a special education teacher at Poly High School. 

Corrin explains that “we are not far enough along in the negotiation process … it is not subject to this bargaining cycle.” She said that the bargaining process for special education is separate from the bargaining process for the TALB general population and that those negotiations are still ongoing. 

Special education is a high-demand field with a lot of burnout and turnaround. Several teachers who didn’t want to be identified expressed desire to get out of special ed and pursue other careers. 

A decision from the Board of Education is expected around May 3, when they also vote on the agreement.