More than 40 high school teachers will begin receiving $175 for
each additional student exceeding the 35 classroom maximum,
according to a new labor agreement between the Morgan Hill Unified
Sch
Morgan Hill – More than 40 high school teachers will begin receiving $175 for each additional student exceeding the 35 classroom maximum, according to a new labor agreement between the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education and the teachers union.
The Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers had filed a grievance on the class-size compensation issue earlier this year. After holding several meetings to discuss the issue, school trustees voted unanimously to pay the teachers for the extra students in the classroom, according to MHUSD Assistant Superintendent Jay Totter.
MHFT President Donna Foster said this year the teachers were under contract to have no more than 35 students in the classroom. If they agreed to have more, due to scheduling difficulties, they were to be compensated in some way agreed upon by the teacher and the administrator.
Forms of compensation could be monetary or in the form of time off or the opportunity to have an aide or “reader” in the classroom.
The grievance was filed, Foster said, because they district did not take action early enough to resolve the situation or come to terms with teachers who were affected by the larger class sizes.
Foster said there are usually a handful of classes with overages, particularly when there is a class such as advanced placement physics, which may only have enough students to warrant offering one section but be over the class-size maximum.
This year, however, there were an unusually large number of students exceeding the class-size limit, with at least 147 over the maximum. Because the grievance was settled after the school year ended, the teachers affected will receive the agreed upon compensation instead of the other compensation options. Next year, Foster said, the teachers can choose compensation or classroom assistance.
The union and the district entered into mediation earlier this year, but were unable to reach an agreement. The union requested the process move to the next level, which was a board decision.
In closed session in May, trustees voted to offer the teachers a payment of $175 per student per semester over the 35 maximum per class. The payment level will also be in effect for next year.
The district’s initial offer was a one-time payment of $170 per student, Foster said.
“I am pleased that now we have a decision, but I still feel very strongly that this was a contract violation,” she said. “We negotiated and created a total package three years ago … The district got some things, and we got some things, and this was a part of it. We moved it to this level to come to some kind of resolution.”
