Updated MDUSD Negotiations Update: MDUSD and MDEA continue to exchange proposals on a new contract

MDUSD Superintendent Dr. Adam Clark sent the following updated message to District staff and parents/guardians on Feb. 24, 2025:

MDUSD and MDEA Continue to exchange proposals on a new contract

MDEA opens nearly every article of contract with over 200 changes plus new articles from MDEA on Community Schools, Social Justice, Etc.

Over 60 direct compensation items from MDEA with just 7 of these articles projected to cost $159 million over the next three years. Some articles that were not costed out include proposals for 10 hours of compensation weekly to prep instruction for teachers assigned to new grades or courses for the first year, an 8-fold increase for pay for teachers supervising outdoor education, and increased pay with an option to decline to cover classes when a substitute is unavailable. 

An additional number of articles include increased prep time, fewer classes per prep teacher, and no student supervision before or after school, all of which would substantially increase costs for the District.

February 24, 2025

Bargaining teams for the Mt. Diablo School District and Mt. Diablo Education Association met on February 21, 2025 for their fifth bargaining session over a successor collective bargaining agreement to begin on July 1, 2025. The parties have now spent about 30 hours in negotiations this year. A summary from these sessions follows.

MDUSD and MDEA Continue to Exchange Proposals on New Contract: At the February 21 session, the parties exchanged proposals and counterproposals on the following articles:

• Transfer
• Special Education
• Organizational Security/Association Rights
• Work Year
• Payment for Non-Teaching Duties
• Class Size
• Hours
• Teachers on Special Assignment
• Personnel Files
• Safety
• Evaluation
• Effects of Layoff
• Professional Development Advisory Committee
• Salary

The District had prepared eleven additional proposals to give to MDEA, but the parties ran out of time. The District requested and MDEA agreed the District could email these proposals to MDEA before the next negotiations session to continue to move the process forward:

• Teacher Induction and Support Program
• Peer Assistance & Review & Program re Selection for TOSA Eligibility List
• Employee Benefits
• Travel
• Leaves of Absence
• Appendix A Compensation
• Appendix K Additional High School & Middle School Stipends
• Community Schools [New Article proposed by MDEA]
• Department Chair/Elementary Grade Level Lead Selection Process [New Article proposed by MDEA]
• Social Justice [New Article proposed by MDEA]
• Virtual Learning Program [New Article proposed by MDEA]

MDEA Opens Nearly Every Article of Contract With Over 200 Changes Plus New Articles On Community Schools, Social Justice, Etc.: As shown on the above list, MDEA has opened nearly every article of the contract (23 out of 29) and proposed four new articles to add to the contract. Altogether, there are over 200 proposed contract changes within these articles. 

The District opened seven articles. Some of the discussions on February 21 were on the following MDEA proposals:

• Seven Period Day at High Schools: The District’s counterproposal asked to work proactively towards crafting the best instructional schedule for high school students and educators. The District proposed to involve constituent voices in a deliberate and thoughtful process to enable the District to make the best decision in time to implement in the 2026-2027 school year. The District’s proposal emphasized that prior to implementation, it will meet its legal obligations to bargain any negotiable impacts with MDEA.

• Safety: The parties agreed that protecting the safety of students and staff is a paramount priority and explored ways to further this imperative in a meaningful and impactful manner while acknowledging that the actions of all individuals are not completely predictable or preventable.

• Evaluation: MDEA proposes to establish a “Racially Just Professional Evaluation Process” to be recommended by a workgroup convened for this purpose. MDEA’s proposal would change the evaluation process to:

  • move away from white-dominant cultural norms;

  • identify biased metrics and norms in evaluation tools and “de-center whiteness”;

  • eliminate implicit and explicit bias;

  • remove evaluation disparities for those who work in Title I schools;

  • remove evaluation disparities for BIPOC unit members who work in schools with higher percentages of white students;

  • track evaluation ratings for unit members by race, gender, years of experience, including in the District and at a site/program, school site, grade level, and subject; and

  • take steps to eliminate within five years all racial disparities in evaluation ratings.

MDEA’s proposal seeks to limit the evaluating administrator to one assigned to the site where the member works, or one selected by the MDEA member and would prohibit administrators from evaluating unit members unless they are trained annually in the following areas:

• Cultural competency
• Antiracist professional evaluations and school leadership
• Supporting victims of racial violence, stress, and/or trauma.
• Microaggressions
• Overcoming implicit bias

The District discussed with MDEA that it was not agreeable to substantially expand the evaluation criteria of unit members beyond those specified by law in the Education Code. Also, while acknowledging MDEA’s identification of racism and racial practices that exist generally in society, MDEA provided no evidence that such practices are prevalent or exist in the evaluation of MDUSD employees. Finally, the District stated it was not willing to have MDEA prescribe required qualifications and training of District administrators in a labor contract.

Over 60 Compensation Items From MDEA, just 7 of which are projected to Cost $159 Million Over Next Three Years: The District reiterated to MDEA that within its approximately 200 proposed contract changes, there are over 60 proposals that would directly increase compensation, along with many others that would require increased staff to be hired, further increasing the overall cost of the proposal.

In addition  to MDEA’s proposed 18% salary schedule increase over three years, along with ongoing coverage of 100% medical benefits equivalent to be worth approximately an additional 3% compensation, there are numerous proposals for hourly pay, stipends, release time and the like for many professional responsibilities certificated unit members normally perform. 

Thus far, the District has estimated that taken together, just 7 of these MDEA proposals will cost the District (for the MDEA unit only) about $43M in 2025-2026, $53M in 2026-2027, and $63M in 2027-2028, for a total of about $159M over the three year contract. 

For 2025-2026, the cost of a 1% salary increase for MDEA is about $2M, so these costs represent salary increases of 21.5% in 2025-2026, 26.5% in 2026-2027 and 31.5% in 2027-2028, for a total 79.5% increase over three years (based on a non-compounded cost of 1%).

Next Steps: The parties’ next negotiations session is on March 6, 2025.