Union Members to Vote on Tentative Deal With School District

Some 7,000 members of the San Diego Education Association will begin three days of walk-in voting Sunday to decide whether to approve a tentative contract with the San Diego Unified School District.

The deal, reached Tuesday, calls for teachers to defer scheduled pay raises in order to save the jobs of nearly 1,500 district employees given layoff notices to close a budget gap of about $120 million for fiscal year starting July 1.

Teachers will be given five unpaid days off, with 14 more furlough days to be added if Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to raise taxes fails at the ballot box in November.

SDUSD officials said the union concession was worth $68 million, the amount taxpayers would have saved via the layoffs. School board members promised to grant scheduled raises when funding is available.

The Board of Education could vote on the contract Thursday.

-City News Service