Budget Information & Negotiations Update

The District and GTA bargaining teams met for bargaining today.

While the teams are continuing to make some minor progress,  we did not make as much progress as the District team hoped.

Today the District withdrew our proposal to make one Early Release Wednesday into a collaboration day with site leadership. We withdrew this proposal to bring the teams closer to an agreement.  The biggest gap remains between the District and GTA’s compensation proposals. 

The District’s compensation proposal for 2025-26 has two parts: 1) a 3 percent bonus (off- schedule) and 2) a commitment to GTA members that the District will automatically increase the salary schedule by 3 percent on-going effective July 1, 2026 if the enacted state budget includes the Settle Up Funds owed to the District. This proposal is in addition to the health benefits increase already agreed on by the District and GTA.  

The District’s compensation proposal is structured in two parts because of the way the District was funded by the State this year.  This year’s District budget is significantly impacted by the State failing to fund Gilroy, and other similar districts, with the money that is guaranteed under Proposition 98.  GUSD is currently owed 8.5 million dollars by the state.  We are hopeful that this money will come to the District in the next enacted state budget.  The money owed to the District is called Settle Up Funds.   Our proposal is structured so the 3 percent ongoing salary increase will be automatically triggered for July 1, 2026, if the Settle Up Funds are included in the Enacted State Budget.  This increase will be in addition to what the teams negotiate for 2026-27.

GTA opened and closed the bargaining day re-asserting their proposal for a 6.5 percent on-going increase despite the information shared about the unaffordability of the proposal. 

All of GTA’s proposal costs taken together equate to approximately 10 million dollars in on-going costs. The impact of the cost of GTA’s proposals would mean that the District would run out of cash and not be able to meet payroll obligations by 2027-28 (a negative ending fund balance).  The costs of GTA's proposals would also make the District fall below 3% state required reserve by next year (2026-27) and these costs only account for the impact of GTA’s proposals and do not include any costs related to increases for other employee groups in the District.   

The District team remains committed to reaching a tentative agreement with GTA and we hope to avoid a prolonged mediation and fact-finding process. The teams will come together again on May 26^th for bargaining.

The GUSD and GTA bargaining teams met for our 4^th bargaining session today.

Key Takeaways:

• SALARY. The District previously proposed a 3 percent one-time bonus. In addition, the District proposes converting the bonus into a permanent 3 percent on-schedule salary increase effective July 1, 2026 contingent on the State Budget including the “settle up” money funds owed to school districts.  The teams would also negotiate salary and benefit increases for next year during the next session of bargaining.
• CLASS SIZE. The District proposes maintaining the lower class size of 24:1 in TK through 3^rd grade through 2028.  The District’s proposal extends the current MOU that is in place to run through June 2028.  This extension follows the timeline for which the District receives funding for lower class sizes.  
• COLLABORATIVE MEETING TIME.  The District changed its proposal regarding early release Wednesdays to have just one early release Wednesday dedicated to a collaborative meeting time with site principals. The District revised this proposal in an effort to reach a tentative agreement with GTA.

During the bargaining session today, the teams exchanged proposals and information on Article 12 (Hours and Days), Article 15 (Class Size) and Article 23 (Salaries).  In addition to the key takeaways listed above, the teams are working through proposals related to  special education class sizes and overage pay, collaborative time for meetings during the work day, and coverage for IEPs and 504 meetings.  The District team presented counters on all the open articles and will wait to receive counter proposals from GTA at our next bargaining session on March 30, 2026.

The District team is committed to continuing to work in good faith with GTA to reach a tentative agreement.

Yesterday, GTA and the District team met for our third bargaining session. The session began at 9:30 with the District team presenting counters on all of the outstanding proposals: Article 12 (Hours and Days of Work), Article 15 (Class Size), Article 23 (Salary) and Article 25 (Health Benefits).  

In Article 12, the District withdrew its proposal regarding requiring unit members to complete mandated trainings outside of District-directed meetings. The District maintained proposals related to using some of the early release Wednesdays and one additional site meeting to allow site principals to carve out time to work with unit members collaboratively to improve student learning. The District also maintained its rejection of the proposal to begin compensation 15 minutes after the bell for 504 meetings and IEP meetings.

In Article 15, the District proposed extending the MOU on class size through the 2027-28 academic year. The District also maintained our proposal related to caseload ratios and overages related to self-contained special education classes. The District proposal includes increasing the ratios, connecting the payment of overages to compliance and eliminating second-tier overages that can lead to some unit members receiving up to $44,000 in overage payments per year.

In Article 23, the District proposed a 3 percent off schedule bonus salary increase. The District rejected GTA’s proposal to increase all salary schedules by 7 percent due to limitations in ongoing state funding.

In Article 25, the District and GTA have reached a tentative agreement with the District covering the increased cost to health benefit premiums by increasing the contribution to the District’s portion of the premium payments.

After the caucus, GTA provided a counter on Article 12 and the District team provided a summary of the estimated costs of the GTA proposals.

After the next caucus, GTA presented a counter on Article 15 (Class Size) and the District provided another counter in Article 12 (Hours and Days).

We had hoped that GTA would accept our proposal to extend the class size MOU through 2028 but it was rejected and GTA re-proposed a 24-to-1 class cap TK-3. 

While we reached a tentative agreement on health benefits, the teams are still far apart on most of the other items.

The teams will meet again on March 18.  

The session began at 12:10 p.m. with introductions and a brief discussion regarding the impact of the governor’s budget proposal on Gilroy’s budgeting process in relation to bargaining. The District team then shared its initial counter proposals on Article 12 (Hours and Days of Work) and Article 15 (Class Size).   One of the District’s goals is to negotiate more time for site-led collaboration and professional development to create a systemic way to approach and improve student achievement in partnership with GTA. The teams were able to discuss the counter proposals.

After a caucus, GTA then counter-proposed on the same articles. While the teams did not reach agreement on many items, there was a robust discussion and the District team remains committed to work with GTA’s team to reach a tentative agreement.

The teams will resume bargaining again on February 26.

The session began at 11:00 am with the superintendent welcoming both teams to bargaining and re-affirming the District’s commitment to good faith bargaining with a focus on reaching an agreement. The teams then started the session with some guava strudels and introductions.

GTA then presented its proposal on ground rules. The proposal took a renewed look at our prior agreements and added language grounding the teams in some of our shared values. After a caucus, the District team accepted the initial proposal and the teams signed off on our first tentative agreement.

GTA then presented initial proposals on Article 15 (Class Size), Article 12 (Hours and Days of Work), Article 25 (Health and Welfare Benefits) and Article 23 (Salaries).

Some of the highlights from GTA’s proposals include:

• In Article 15, GTA seeks changes to class size that create per period caps and significant changes in the number of students that a unit member can serve per day at Mt. Madonna Continuation High School. GTA also seeks to revise the support provided by counselors and academic coordinators for SST and 504 meetings.
• In Article 12, GTA proposes to increase the work year for high school activity directors by 5 additional days at their per diem rate and proposes compensating unit members for attending IEPs and 504 meetings that continue 15 minutes after the end of the instructional day.
• In Article 25, GTA proposes an increase to the District’s contribution to health benefits to cover the increased cost of benefits. (The approximate cost is equivalent to a .65 percent increase to GTA members).  
• In Article 23, GTA proposes a 7 percent salary increase across-the-board plus increases in stipends for athletic and activities directors and coaches. We recognize this is GTA’s initial proposal.
• The District team presented information regarding the First Interim Budget and walked the GTA team through the funds received by the District, the significant increases in special education related costs. The District team shared information from the Legislative Analyst’s Office projections for state funding.

The teams are scheduled to meet again on Monday, January 26. The District team looks forward to working with GTA toward reaching a tentative agreement in the new year.