Third Contract: Our values
These guiding principles might look familiar; they are the same three priorities we had when negotiating our second contract. To us, they are the foundation of a school community where everyone thrives.
Preserve Our Student-Centered Mission
Providing our students with an outstanding program is at the heart of all we do - as teachers and as union members.
Fair Compensation For Educators
We envision a school community that attracts, retains and supports the excellent educators our students deserve.
Community Collaboration and Transparency
We believe that thriving school communities ensure that everyone - educators, students and families - has a seat at the table.
timeline
An overview of the last year.
December 2024
Negotiations began for our third contract. The United PCS bargaining team sat down with the head of school and PCS legal counsel to set norms and start the process of introducing articles for bargaining.
January-may 2025
We had productive discussions about a number of items, including instructional standards, technology and resources, union rights and parental leave. We reached a tentative agreement (TA) on several issues.
While we presented a compensation proposal, backed by our team’s analysis of school finances, PCS countered with a 0% increase in pay for 2025-2026. This marked the second year in a row that PCS offered no cost of living increase (COLA).
June 2025
PCS announced its new head of school, Chris Guyer. Faculty had been given an active role in the interview process, and widely supported this hiring decision.
We wrapped up the school year without having settled a new contract. The previous contract’s term, from June 2022 to June 2025, expired.
September-October 2025
The United PCS bargaining team met with our new head of school in September. At his request, we postponed a scheduled October session until November so that he could draft a new compensation counter-proposal.
november 2025
PCS presented a revised compensation proposal of a 1% salary increase for the 2025-2026 school year. United PCS countered with a 3.5% increase. We cited California’s 2.3% state funded COLA for the current school year, the lack of COLA in the previous year’s salary schedule, and our ongoing concerns about PCS teacher retention and recruitment, as our salaries are among the lowest in the county.
January 2026
The United PCS bargaining team, as well as the executive team, sat down with management for a candid dialogue about school finances. This meeting enabled us to elaborate on our budget analysis and projections, and to ask and answer questions with the goal of coming to a stronger mutual understanding.
The dialogue was candid; United PCS appreciated management’s openness to our ideas and concerns.