The Fresno Unified School District has reached an agreement with its teachers union, keeping teachers in the classroom and narrowly avoiding a strike.
The district, which serves more than 70,000 students and is the third-largest in the state, and the Fresno Teachers Association, which represents 4,000 of its educators, announced the news in a joint press conference Oct. 31.
“Fresno Unified and the Fresno Teachers Association have reached a tentative agreement that we will be signing this morning right here,” district Supt. Bob Nelson said at the conference. “This tentative agreement provides a wide array of benefits to our teachers and continues to maintain a fiscally strong budget for the district and most importantly provides direct support to our students.”
Manuel Bonilla, the union’s president, said the agreement was a significant step forward at the press conference after 18 months of negotiations.
“This is probably the most historic deal in our association’s history,” Mr. Bonilla said. “Our teachers return to the classroom tomorrow rather than standing on a picket line, knowing that we are charting a different course.”
The union president also touted the agreement’s inclusion of investments in new classroom spaces, smaller classroom sizes, special education, and students’ social-emotional learning and support.
“Ultimately, the students win,” Mr. Bonilla said.
The agreement comes after 94 percent of union members voted to strike on Nov. 1 if a deal could not be reached.
The new contract is expected to increase union members’ salaries by 21 percent over the next three years.
It also includes class size reduction and reduced special education caseload to two grade spans per teacher; and for every elementary special education class that contains more than two grades, the teacher will receive a $2,000 stipend per semester—or $4,000 per year.
It also promises competitive pay for teachers and nurses, lifetime health coverage, and a school nurse on every campus.
Both union members and the district’s board members will vote to ratify the contract this week.
