Will Selma schools end foggy day schedules? It’s among key issues in stalled contract talks
Yearlong negotiations between the Selma Unified School District and its teacher’s union are headed into state mediation after the groups failed to agree on a new contract.
Both sides recently declared an impasse over proposals that would’ve raised educators’ salaries over time but increased their work hours on some days.
The district offered 8% raises in exchange for cutting seven “foggy days” – school days with delayed start times for students and staff. District officials say eliminating the foggy day schedule will prevent lost instruction and student absences on those days.
Union leadership criticized the proposal, saying the school district’s decision to base pay raises on an unrelated issue compromises student safety.
“We don’t feel like we should be negotiating away a safety issue like foggy days without a significant amount of public input,” Selma Unified Teachers Association President Roxanne Garrigus-Case told The Bee’s Education Lab on Monday.
The teachers association, which has worked without a contract since June, also said the district’s offer wasn’t fair and equitable with the increases other employee groups received. Administrators and classified staff received raises on top of salary schedule changes that increased their starting pay.
Wayne Dixon, the district’s chief human resources officer, defended the administrator pay raises, saying the district needed to offer more competitive compensation.
The teachers association says the same competitive-pay logic should apply to them. The district maintains that teacher salaries were already on par with the region.
The district’s proposal would’ve made Selma teachers among the highest paid in the area and upped the amount of money they could earn over the years.
Because of the impasse, a mediator appointed by the state’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) will step in.
Teachers criticize admin raises, citing ‘fair share’ policy
Last school year, Selma Unified paid its teachers an average of $87,797 — more than larger districts in Fresno, Clovis, Central, and Sanger school districts, according to data from the state education department.
Selma Unified conducted a comparative compensation study between its staff and employees in 11 other districts across Fresno County, including those in Fresno, Clovis, Hanford, Kings Canyon, Dinuba, Parlier and Fowler.
The school district found that pay for most non-teaching staff was below the regional median, said Dixon, who is also the district’s lead negotiator.
More than half of the district’s administrators made less than some teachers for their daily pay rate, including program managers, Dixon said, making it difficult to recruit new leaders.
“We had highly qualified (administrative) candidates who were declining to apply or accept a position,” Dixon said.
Selma Unified gave administrative and classified staff 7% raises with 1% increases toward retroactive pay dating back to the 2021-22 school year.
The district also beefed up starting pay for new administrators by removing three pay-step increases from the salary schedule. The move took starting pay for new program managers from $85,927 to $116,384.
Garrigus-Case said the district’s “fair share” policy requires classified, certificated teachers and managerial staff receive the same salary increases.
“We know that we’re losing a lot of teachers to those surrounding districts,” Garrigus-Case said about teachers leaving for $10,000 pay bumps in neighboring districts.
Dixon said that teachers would receive the same salary increases as other staff under the district’s last proposal, making SUSD one of the top three highest-paying districts in the area.
For teachers, the district proposed:
the same 7% increases with 1% retroactive pay to the teachers’ salary schedules
added seven steps to the pay schedule, which increases the amount of money teachers can make over time. Depending on education and experience, a teacher could earn between $54,805 and $99,718 in the district, based on the current salary schedule.
one-time 4% bonuses with the use of one-time funds.
The union says the district’s proposal fails to raise starting pay for all teachers.
Eliminating the first three steps from the teacher’s salary schedule would add about $600,000 to the district’s annual budget, Dixon said, making the move cost prohibitive.
Will Selma schools eliminate ‘foggy day’ schedules?
Selma teachers say the district should treat pay raises and foggy day schedules as separate issues.
Foggy days, which the district must designate, offer a delayed start to allow students additional time to get to school safely. Currently, students must arrive by 10 a.m., with teachers reporting by 9:30 a.m., leaving more than an hour of missed instruction, Dixon said.
Although seven foggy days are available, Selma Unified used four last school year and has used three so far this school year.
To prevent learning loss on those days, daily classes are a few minutes longer. So students don’t lose instruction, the teachers association said.
“We teach longer so we can have those days built in if we need them,” Garrigus-Case said. “We put minutes in, and we don’t ever get those minutes back if we don’t get the foggy days.”
Other districts, Dixon noted, have regular start times, even on those days; schools excuse students whose families said it was unsafe to travel.
As proposed, Selma Unified would adopt a similar model, giving parents the option of bringing their kids to school late and allowing buses to transport students when it’s safe.
Teachers would be expected to report to school at their regular times unless they communicate it’s unsafe for them to drive.
The district has utilized foggy day schedules for over 50 years, Garrigus-Case said, and policy changes should take place after community input, not during contract negotiations.
Altering the policy isn’t a new conversation, as the district has been discussing and implementing changes since December 2021, Dixon said.
Since then, the district has allowed families to drop off their students before the 10 a.m. delayed start.
Still, the district’s proposal ignores student safety concerns.
“Fog in Selma is a weather safety hazard,” the union said. “We do not want walkers or teenage drivers on the streets in the fog. We do not want families forced to drive in the fog.”
District disputes union claim about student’s death
Selma Unified disputed a teachers association’s claim that a student was killed due to foggy weather.
“A major concern is safety for students, especially after a student was killed this year after being hit by a car where fog was a factor,” the teachers union said in a statement, referring to the Dec. 8 collision that killed 17-year-old Briseida Mariscal.
Dixon took issue with the claim, saying police determined the crash was caused by a distracted driver.
“We feel that the inclusion of this statement is intended to incite emotion into the upcoming impasse and mediation process that will be occurring very soon,” Dixon said via email.
Selma Police didn’t respond to a request for comment.
An 18-year-old man was arrested in connection with the fatal collision on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, failure to yield the right of way to a pedestrian and unsafe turning motion.
The contract impasse is just the latest back-and-forth between the teachers union and the district.
The two groups are still in arbitration after the teachers association accused the school district of exceeding class-size maximums in independent study classes and not compensating teachers.
“We will continue to work together,” Dixon said about the upcoming impasse proceedings, “and the main focus is the students in the classroom and supporting our students and staff.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
