By Jessie Rosenfeld
News Editor
Jamie Kelleher
Online News Editor
The Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association reached a tentative agreement with the Manhattan Beach Unified School District on Monday for a certificated contract through the 2015-16 school year.
This contract is retroactive to July 1, 2014. It most prominently includes an average 4.21 percent increase in teacher salaries, as well as a new calendar that will begin in the 2016-17 school year. MBUSD teachers will vote to ratify this agreement on Wednesday.
The contract also issues 3.5 percent salary increases to employees with less than 15 years of service and 5 percent raises to those with 15 years or more of service. According to Superintendant and MBUSD head negotiator Dr. Michael Matthews, this raise was implemented in order for employees’ salaries to be competitive with neighboring school districts.
“MBUTA feels a fair deal was hammered out,” MBUTA President Shawn Chen said. “We know that both sides yielded significantly to come to an agreement.”
This year’s negotiations differed from last year’s in that the parties negotiated during day-long meetings instead of the previous two-hour time caps. Matthews believes that these day-long discussions allowed negotiations to be more effective.
“Full-day discussions are more productive because they give the two sides more time to sit down together and work through issues,” Matthews said.
The new agreed upon calendar will include a shortened Thanksgiving break and no February break to allow for a lengthened summer beginning on June 8. According to Matthews, the earlier summer, which was a board goal, will allow students to take advantage of camps, internships and other opportunities beginning in June. The first semester will also be changed to end before winter break.
“We wanted to end first semester before winter break so students can have a break where they are not stressed about school work,” Matthews said.
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