Dear Glendale Unified Employees, Families, and Community:
Over the past year, members of the Glendale Unified and Glendale Teachers Association (GTA) bargaining teams have been meeting to negotiate wages and the terms of a new contract. The two teams have held 13 bargaining sessions and made progress on a number of items, including multiple stipends and hourly rate increases requested by GTA leadership, and an offer of a wage increase that meets GTA’s total compensation demands.
Regarding wages, Glendale Unified offered a wage proposal that includes three separate compensation increases for GTA members: a 4.5% one-time compensation increase for the 2020-21 school year, a 3.5% ongoing raise retroactive to the 2021-22 school year, and a 5% ongoing raise in the current 2022-23 school year.
Glendale Unified has negotiated in good faith the issues raised by GTA leadership and has agreed to many of their requests. Several issues included in Glendale Unified’s original proposal in January have been rejected by GTA leadership without the offer of any counter-proposals. Glendale Unified has repeatedly modified its own proposals in attempts to reach agreement on important issues related to elementary campus safety and security, secondary teacher prep periods, and school-based voting procedures. You can find specific details about these important proposals here.
On November 10, GTA leadership informed their members and Glendale Unified that they declared an impasse in the negotiations. “Impasse” is a mechanism in the negotiations process by which a state-appointed mediator becomes involved in helping all parties reach an agreement. As Glendale Unified strongly believes there is a good faith contract offer on the table, we look forward to the transparent review of the outstanding items by a mediator and are hopeful that this process will bring this nearly year-long negotiation to a swift close. Glendale Unified remains committed to continuing to work in good faith throughout the next steps of this process.
Sincerely,
Vivian Ekchian, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
