A monthslong negotiation between the Hart District Teachers Association and the William S. Hart Union High School District may finally be over after the two sides reached a tentative agreement on Thursday.
The tentative agreement is now set to be sent to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the HDTA membership and the Hart district governing board for ratification. Details of the tentative agreement were not immediately available.
“The district and HDTA negotiating teams have reached a tentative agreement to conclude contract negotiations for the 2023-24 school year,” reads a memo from Collyn Nielsen, assistant superintendent of human resources, and Michael Copenhaver, HDTA chief negotiator, to district staff.
The HDTA and the district have been negotiating since May 2023, with the HDTA contract expiring at the end of June. Teachers have been operating without a contract since then.
In a statement sent to The Signal, Superintendent Mike Kuhlman said that this is a “good day” for the district.
“Today was a good day,” Kuhlman said. “Both HDTA and the Hart district negotiating teams came to the table and secured a tentative agreement on a number of contract issues, including increased compensation. Our incredible teachers are united and have made persuasive arguments about our need to continue striving to recognize their outstanding work. The board and district staff have also done their part to reduce expenditures in our budget to make this tentative agreement possible.
“We respect (that) the (HDTA) still needs to bring this to their membership,” Kuhlman continued. “Nevertheless, we look forward to a fresh start with our united focus on ensuring every one of our students graduates opportunity-ready.”
On Wednesday, more than 800 HDTA personnel rallied outside the district’s administrative office prior to and during the governing board’s meeting to voice their displeasure over the district seemingly refusing to negotiate on higher salaries for teachers and other certified employees.
Board member Bob Jensen, representative of Trustee Area No. 2, said in a phone interview that he was pleased to see all of the teachers united.
“I always like when they come and I enjoyed seeing so many people there last night because, truly, you can’t have a great district unless you all work together,” Jensen said. “And you’ve got to have wonderful teachers and fantastic classified personnel. It’s really a team effort that makes the district be what it is.”
Jensen added that, while he was not speaking for the whole board, he expects the tentative agreement to be ratified.
“I think that the negotiators for the bargaining units do a great job and they’re hard-working,” Jensen said. “They put a lot of time and effort into it and and I would think that if they feel good about it then others are gonna feel good about it.”
The district has been working to get its finances under control over the past few months, with LACOE directing the district to develop a fiscal stabilization plan to correct some of the reserve spending that officials have said would be necessary to satisfy all of the expected expenditures over the next three years.
That plan was approved in January and has the district spending $43 million less over the next three and a half years, allowing the district to certify its second interim financial report on Wednesday with reserves of at least double the state-mandated 3% of expenditures for this year and the next two school years.
The fiscal stabilization plan also includes layoffs for 61 certified positions and 29.14 full-time equivalent classified positions. District staff has said previously that the hope is to address this through retirements and other means of voluntary leave.
The district is expected to have about $92.3 million in its reserve after this school year, with $30.5 million of that being restricted, according to the financial report presented on Wednesday, just under $25 million less than what the district had in its reserve at the end of the last school year.
An HDTA representative was not immediately available for comment Thursday evening.
