A board of teachers and parents are trying to settle a portion of the Special Education Contract.

The portion that is focussed on right now described by Mrs. Crowe includes “caseload limits,” “training,” “make sure teachers have access to curriculum,” and if “students in elementary level if they were pushing into the classroom or counted on the general edge teachers roster for class size pieces.”

The “teacher union” and people involved in the district are continuing to look and work for solutions to the contract.

Ideas and important issues that need to be settled in the contract include how to respond to an email about a special education student but the distinct needs to clarification.

The teachers and district “tentatively agreed” on a special education article, change in the “leaves of absence,” a safety agreement, and association business.

Issues that Crowe describes that are “outstanding issues” still are not settled. Some “outstanding issues” still needing attention include salary benefits, class size, issues at prep time especially at the elementary school level, hours of employment and transfers.

Salary is a large goal set by many people, but the goal is for “all teachers, counselors, speech and language pathologists, and psychologists to make more money.”

Workers at Rocklin are transferring to surrounding districts because of the higher salaries elsewhere. Rocklin would like to be competitive with the surrounding schools and raising the salaries would fix the main issue.

A question Crowe asks is “what is going to keep teachers in Rocklin?”

The hope is to increase the salary by 12.5 percent from where they are now in order to become a more competitive salary.  

Not only raising the salary but “change or compress the salary schedule.”

Top salary for workers in the Rocklin District are made at 25 years, but teachers are fighting to make the top salary in 17 years.

By raising salaries, the “benefits cap” would like to be raised too because the district pays a flat amount for every person.

“We would like them to raise that amount for every person.”

The goal was to acquire an article in the contract “in regards to special education.” It has taken them over three years to get this.

The contract is now a “tentative agreement” so next steps they are taking include finish the rest of the negotiations and then the “teachers union would need to ratify and the board would need to ratify the agreement.

This board has now resolved one piece of this “overarching picture.”

The next meeting will be Tuesday, December 18.