The ongoing contract battle between the Santa Maria-Bonita School District and its teachers’ union has been ongoing for more than a year and continues to rage. Issues in dispute include salary raises and class preparation time.

The teachers in the district have been working under an expired contract since June of 2016 and have been in negotiations since December 2015. There have been 16 actual days of bargaining, as well as two day-long mediation sessions during this time, but the two sides have been unable to reach even a tentative agreement. The most recent mediation session occurred while teachers dressed alike and stood outside the building holding picket signs and offering support to one another.

At the end of the day, Union President Jose Segura left the building to address the crowd outside and told them, “We swapped several proposals this morning, just trying to come to a consensus to all the items that were in impasse, and we made some movement, but following further discussion, we ultimately couldn't come to an agreement with the district.”

The mediator overseeing the process will have jurisdiction until the latter part of June. The next step is for district personnel to discuss their options at a board meeting and report back to the mediator. If no progress is made, the mediator can move into the fact-finding phase of the process, which provides an opportunity for both sides to speak. After, a three-person panel would issue their recommendation for a settlement.

Seguro reports he is disappointed no settlement had been reached and he was hoping a tentative agreement would have been put to a vote by this point.