The Rocklin Unified School District and its teachers have reached a tentative contract agreement, after more than a year of stalled negotiations and a recent refusal by teachers to work additional hours.
Members of the Rocklin Teachers Professional Association are expected to ratify the new three-year contract in a vote next Tuesday, association President Mary Dick said.
The tentative agreement was reached Sept. 25 before a three-member fact-finding panel that served as a mediator.
The contract calls for a 4 percent salary increase, and an additional 0.68 percent increase that would become effective midyear to coincide with an expected state cost-of-living adjustment, and a $25 increase in the employee monthly benefits cap.
Salary and benefits were a major contention in the negotiations.
"The uncertain nature of the state budget has always been a major factor in shaping our position during these negotiations," Superintendent Kevin Brown said in a district press release issued Tuesday.
The recent passage of the state budget provided a funding increase to schools in the form of a 0.68 percent cost-of-living adjustment, which eliminated a 6.5 percent deficit for Rocklin school district programs, Brown said. The new state funding will allow the district of about 10,000 students to support the new contract.
Last month, teachers picketed outside schools during back-to-school nights, and they recently refused to work more than 30 minutes before and after the last school bell.
Pending ratification by the teachers association, the contract agreement will be considered for final approval Oct. 15 by the school board.
Call The Bee's Lakiesha McGhee, (916) 321-1121.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.