The Santa Barbara Teachers Association is holding a strike authorization vote this week in case a contract agreement cannot be reached with the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
The voting began last Friday and will conclude this Friday.
A strike authorization vote would give the executive board the authority to set a strike date and then call a strike.
Hozby Galindo, president of the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, said the union’s goal is to reach an agreement.
“Our goal has been to settle, but it takes two teams to come to the table and reach a settlement and compromise, and I can say that our side has worked hard to reach that compromise,” Galindo told Noozhawk.
The union is conducting double envelope votes, with a person’s vote inside one envelope within a second envelope. The votes are anonymous. Galindo said the goal to call a strike is to reach a super-majority, or two-thirds of the membership.
“Our hope is to get above 90%,” Galindo said.
Site representatives from each school are managing the vote, which is taking place outside of work hours in the morning, at lunch time or after school.
The district and the teachers association are far apart on a new contract.
The union wants a 15% increase next year and 8% the following year. The district has offered 9% next year and 4% the following year.
For several months, teachers and students have packed Tuesday night board meetings to express their support for a new contract and criticize the school board members and the district.
Washington Elementary School teacher Kim Baron spoke Tuesday night, noting, “These are my own words. They are not AI generated.” Two weeks ago, the district put out a ParentSquare statement that when run through AI software showed that it was 92% AI-generated.
Baron accused the school district of stalling on a new contract, which contributes to anxiety for the staff.
“The board can direct the district to settle with us,” Baron said. “Fifteen percent is barely covering the cost of inflation. Other districts that pay more than us have already settled with the staff.
“The atmosphere in this district is toxic,” expressing disappointment with a board member who criticized the union on social media.
As it stands now, an independent party is scheduled to hold a hearing on June 12 at the district headquarters. The district and the teachers association will present their sides, and the third party is likely to try to force mediation and an agreement that day. It is unclear how long that process would take, but that it would take several hours, possibly overnight.
If an agreement cannot be reached, the neutral third party would issue a report within 20 days, and then the district would have 10 days after that to make the report public.
Ed Zuchelli, a spokesman for the district, had no comment on the fact that the teachers are holding a pre-authorization strike.
“Right now, we are just focused on preparing for the June 12 meeting,” Zuchelli said. “We are hopeful in the process and that we can find a resolution sometime this summer.”
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the board voted to appoint Steve Venz, the district’s chief operating officer, as an alternate negotiator, in the event that John Becchio, the assistant superintendent of human resources, is unable to attend the negotiations.
Becchio has a vacation planned for this summer.
“We are all interested in getting to an agreement,” said Superintendent Hilda Maldonado at Tuesday night’s meeting. “We are very hopeful. But in the case we don’t get to it right way. Dr. Becchio has some time off planned for himself. Well-earned for his vacation time. So we want to make sure we have somebody in place.”
Galindo said the district has been underestimating the amount of revenue it receives and in doing so has been underpaying the teachers. His goal is to reach agreement on a new contract.
“It takes two teams to bargain in good faith and get the job done,” Galindo said. “I know our bargaining team has tried to settle at every possible point.”
