Strike averted for students: Fresno Unified, teachers reach ‘historic’ contract

Less than 24 hours before a strike by thousands of educators was scheduled to start, Fresno Unified School District and its teachers union agreed on a tentative contract, the two announced during a joint press conference Tuesday morning. 

The “historic” agreement, which was still being revised as late as this morning, brings more than a year of negotiating to an end and prevents a divisive strike that would’ve undoubtedly harmed the Fresno community and the district’s over 74,000 students. 

“Our students have been the innocent bystanders waiting through the difficulties of negotiations,” Superintendent Bob Nelson said. “This deal is really about you (students): it’s our joint commitment to avoid a strike because there’s really nothing more important than making sure our students have the opportunity to be in school every day, all the time.” 

District and union leaders as well as board members touted the contract for investing in teachers, supporting students and maintaining the district’s fiscal solvency. 

To Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla, the contract meets and exceeds the four requests that emerged as sticking points throughout negotiations: reducing class size, reducing special education caseloads, keeping educators competitive in pay and maintaining certain health care benefits. 

Bonilla and Louis Jamerson, executive director of the teachers union, highlighted key provisions from the offer, including: 

• Class size reductions for all grades with investments for new classrooms to continue to reduce class size.
• A comprehensive guideline for special education caseloads – the first time such guidance has existed in contract language.
• Competitive salaries.
• Lifetime medical benefits.

“Soon a child will walk into their classroom and have the closest connection ever with their teacher, rather than competing for attention and assistance,” Bonilla said about one of many “wins” for students.

What does the contract offer? 

Class size

The teachers union came to the bargaining table with a request to cap class size while the district proposed maintaining class size averages but reducing the number of students over that average for a teacher stipend.

Starting next school year, the district will reduce class size averages to ratios of 1 teacher for every: 

• Eight students for prekindergarten.
• 12 students for transitional kindergarten.
• 23 students for grades K-three.
• 28 students for grades four to six.
• 27 students for grades seven and eight.
• 28 students for high school grades. 

The contract language provides guidelines for class size, which say the district will reduce individual class size even more each school year and will reassign 75 non-classroom educators back to the classroom to lower class size. 

Benefits

The agreed-upon offer includes what Fresno Unified previously called a bridge to Medicare to meet the same goal as lifetime retiree benefits: 

• At age 57.5, if an employee has worked in Fresno Unified for at least 20 years, they’ll be offered the same health care plan, and at the same rate, as current employees.
• At 65, when employees become eligible for Medicare, they will have access to a district health plan that acts as a secondary coverage to Medicare.

The contract guarantees seven and a half years of the coverage, even if the Medicare eligibility age changes. The contract also includes provisions about the district’s contribution to employees’ health care fund, which, in part, determines health care benefits. The district will contribute less to the health fund, but, according to the contract, it will automatically increase to the previous contribution level within a couple of years. 

More than 20% in raises and bonuses

Over the next three years, Fresno Unified educators will receive 21% in raises and one-time payments – up from the previous 11% and 19% offers – which include: 

• 8.5% raises this school year.
• 3% raises in the 2024-25 school year with a 2.5% one-time bonus.
• 4.5% raises in the 2025-26 school year with a 2.5% one-time bonus.

Educators will also receive a $5,000 one-time payment as part of a side letter agreement to the contract. 

A win for teachers and students

The contract allows educators and students to thrive, Bonilla said. 

“As educators and as a community, we’ve made it clear (that) students thrive when educators thrive,” he said. “And educators thrive when leaders value their hard work — when they value that tireless dedication to adequate support.” 

While negotiations have ended, many said that the work of building a better Fresno starts now. The district and the union agreed to act as partners in a “collaborative shared decision process (that) will ensure the partners work together in a meaningful way within a timely manner.” Four district leaders, including the superintendent, and four union leaders will be a part of the partnership. 

Don Raczka, author of a fact-finding report, recommended that Fresno Unified and its teachers union work closely to find solutions so they can address the “transformational student and teacher support systems the (Fresno Teachers) Association believes essential.” 

The partnership, said school board member Andy Levine, will enable the district and union to continue to work on issues over time, not wait three years for the next contract negotiations to come around. 

“It’s not over; we start from a different place today,” trustee Valerie Davis said. “Today, our students win.”