MAAC Community Charter School teachers are ready to walkout on the job if a contract dispute cannot be resolved with its non-governmental organization the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committiee on Ant-Poverty of San Diego County, Inc.
On April 25, 92 percent – 12 out of 13 MAAC teachers – voted to authorize a strike if the MAAC organization does not accept a state appointed third-party fact finder’s recommended contract.
Teachers and MAAC negotiators are in the fact-finding process with California’s Public Employee Relations Board.
On June 5 a neutral, third-party will review the facts of the case for both sides and suggest a contract that they deem as fair for both parties.
MAAC teachers unionized in 2015, creating the MAAC Community Charter School Education Association, and since then have been locked in a contentious labor dispute with the nonprofit MAAC Project.
Teachers reached an impasse with labor talks last summer.
The MACC Project has never had to collectively bargain with its teachers since its inception in 2001.
Until a contract is agreed upon, MAAC teachers remain at-will employees, meaning teachers can be terminated at any time without cause.
Economics teacher Skylar Roush said a main reason that MAAC teachers unionized was because teachers did not have a regionally competitive salary scale.
Roush added MAAC Charter teachers experience a turnover rate up to 40 percent each year and that teachers leave for other schools with more stability and a pay scale.
The teachers’ union said if MAAC Project does not accept the recommended fair contract by a state appointed fact finder then teachers say they will have no other choice but to go on a work strike.
“We want no part of a strike but this is what we feel we may have to do if a neutral third-party (contract) decision is not accepted by MAAC,” Roush said. “I don’t know what other recourse we have at that point.”
Arlene Gibbs, chief human resources officer and MAAC Project negotiatior, said she is “disappointed” that the union would be willing to strike but said it is with-in their rights.
Gibbs added that the MAAC organization is committed to bargaining in good faith.
The contentious points of negotiations include what MAAC teachers say is a salary schedule, which MAAC teachers currently do not have, and a cap on classroom size.
Although MACC Project has its own board and negotiating team, the school is chartered by the Sweetwater Union High School District.
Roush said that that teachers should have the same salary schedule as their counterparts in the Sweetwater District because they teach Sweetwater District students.
Roush makes an annual income of $55,000 annually.
Next year, he said, he will make the same amount at MAAC Charter School.
But with a salary schedule similar to that of the Sweetwater District, Roush said his salary next year would be close to $70,000 as a sixth-year teacher with a master’s degree.
“We cannot afford to be taking a $15,000 a year hit just because MAAC feels like they have the power to pay us whatever they think they want to pay us,” he said. “We believe that we should be treated with the same respect and have the same protections and salary schedule as the Sweetwater Union High School District teachers do because we’re teaching Sweetwater (district) kids.”
Gibbs said MAAC Charter School serves at-most 300 students this year and that teachers at Sweetwater District get paid more because their student population is much larger.
“We want a contract that enables us to pay our teachers fairly consistent with a school of our size and structure,” she said.
Gibbs said the Sweetwater District serves about 40,00 students annually and each school has hundreds more students than MAAC charter school.
Gibbs said a pay scale to that of High Tech High School teachers would be comparable for MACC Teachers.
MAAC Community Charter School serves students who have fallen behind the traditional path of graduation.
I work at Palomar High School- 2 blocks from MAAC. We have @300 students. We serve the same population as MAAC and in fact swap kids frequently. I make more than $70,000 a year. Ignore their nonsense MAAC teachers. You deserve parity and respect.
Thank you for sharing, our students at MAAC Community Charter deserve well-paid, high-quality educators who can afford to stick around year after year. The crisis of teacher turnover needs to stop and it is MAAC’s obligation to the community we serve to end it. Enough is enough!