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The Dublin community sits on edge following a meeting between the Dublin Unified School District and the Dublin Teachers Association that did not result in an agreement.
Leaders of DTA and DUSD are set to hold another negotiation session Friday (March 15) as both sides anticipate a possible teacher strike.
No agreement was reached after a fact-finding meeting held on Monday. In a video shared online Wednesday, DUSD Superintendent Chris Funk addressed the results and community concerns related to ongoing negotiations with the union.
“On Monday during fact finding, we were unable to find a final agreement with DTA. Please keep in mind that their requests come at a time where we have cut $4 million from our budget and plan to lay off employees,” Funk said. “The deficit generated by DTA’s proposal would put the district at a negative $5.3 million. Our district’s current offer is a 4.5% increase.”
The complete fact finding report from the March 11 session is expected to be released by March 20.
The superintendent addressed the possibility of an educator strike for the Dublin district.
“We hope a strike does not happen. The last thing we want is for our teachers to go on strike. A strike does not benefit anyone,” said Funk. “If teachers choose to strike, DUSD has a responsibility to keep schools open. We don’t want to use substitute teachers but unfortunately we must be prepared.”
During the video, Funk continued to emphasize that DTA salaries have kept up with inflation.
“DTA is threatening a strike because they say that is what’s best for the kids. We are hopeful we can reach an agreement with DTA at the bargaining table,” said Funk.
On Thursday, DTA also released a video responding to community concern.
DTA member and Dublin educator Monica Lewis shared, “we don’t want to strike, we want to retain and recruit good teachers. The way the district is behaving, it will make our good teachers leave.”
“DUSD can actually afford a 9% salary increase…if (they) offer 9% they would still have $2.8 million left at the end of the 2025-26 school year based on their own second interim budget report,” Lewis said. “DUSD is increasing their use of intimidation tactics. DUSD management does not care about violating the law or using DUSD dollars to defend themselves when they do that.”
Both DTA and DUSD are expected to release more information in the coming days.
