Principals Closer to Collective Bargaining

Published: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 5:25 PM PDT

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Principals and other school supervisors are one step closer to winning collective bargaining rights in San Diego Unified. The Administrators Association of San Diego has submitted a petition to the Public Employment Relations Board, said attorney Bill Shaeffer, who is representing the association.

Roughly seventy percent of certificated employees eligible to participate signed up, as did roughly 60 percent of eligible classified employees, Shaeffer said. Overall, 472 employees signed up in support of the switch, which leaders have shied from calling unionization. Currently, the association is a professional group that does not have a contract, though they do work under a memorandum of understanding written into district policy.

The petition is publicly posted throughout San Diego Unified through June 18, after which the district will decide whether to accept the association as a collective bargaining unit, said Shaeffer, who believes the question will likely be resolved by the summer's end. Shaeffer said the district could potentially contest the inclusion of specific jobs within the new bargaining unit, delaying their acceptance of the new group.

Even if the association successfully converts into a collective bargaining unit, the change will not affect transfers or demotions of principals made this fiscal year, as San Diego Unified tries to cut back $53 million from its budget in anticipation of state cuts.

-- EMILY ALPERT