San Diego Unified School District and Teachers reach new contract

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – After over a year of bargaining, the San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Education Association came to a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract.

The highlights of the new agreement includes increased enrichment opportunities for elementary students, lower class sizes and special education and counselor caseloads, more support services for students, a fair compensation package including maintaining health care benefits, a five percent pay increase over the course of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, additional staff for schools with high percentages of students with the greatest disadvantages, and lowering kindergarten to third grade maximum class size to 24 students.

SDEA President Lindsay Burningham stated that, “This agreement finally helps to restore services to students following years of devastating cuts to public education. While it took longer than we hoped, this agreement uses the increase in state funds to put resources back to where our students need it most.”

The agreement still needs to be ratified by both the SDEA members and the District before going into effect.