Dublin educators and community members rallied at the district headquarters and Dublin High School last week, with the goal of garnering support and attention for the unionized teachers' fights for proposals that they say would contend with recruitment and retention struggles in the district.

"DTA believes the best student-centered approach is one that invests in the best for student success, and we are calling on management to meet us there to ensure no student gets left behind," Dublin Teachers Association President Robbie Kreitz said in a statement.

Kreitz told the Weekly that a proposal put forth by DTA would allow new employees to transfer in up to 10 years of credit, which would be retroactively applied for current employees.

"This allows for the retention of current (employees) and expands the recruitment of new employees," Kreitz said. "Dublin Unified district management has offered only to allow new hires to increase their amount of service years and leaves current employees behind: a refusal to retain."

The announcement of the April 26 rally from DTA alleges that "management refuses to retain and recruit the best educators for Dublin students" in their proposals, in contrast with the aims of the union's proposals.

Kreitz said that another proposal put forth by the union would increase healthcare funding from 75% to 90% for DTA educators, "to allow for recruiting and retaining folks to come and stay."

Kreitz added that DUSD management's proposal of a 3.25% increase in salary for DTA educators was particularly insulting to teachers living in areas with a high cost of living, such as Dublin and the greater Tri-Valley.

"The lack of effort to retain the teachers who currently call Dublin home is insulting to all employees and a salary proposal of 3.2%, which is 1.8% less than what the board voted to give themselves and imposes some 5% in loss of purchasing power on employees," Kreitz said.

The DTA announcement this week additionally contrasts the union's proposals, aimed at teacher recruitment and retention, with management's, for their focus on the needs of students.

"A student-centered approach involves meeting every student where they are and keeping them a priority on all fronts," DTA's announcement said. "However, DUSD management has unilaterally implemented several of its divisive proposals, such as their work calendar which did not consider what was best for Dublin students."

DUSD spokesperson Chip Dehnert said that the district "look(s) forward to the ongoing dialogue with our union partners," which would resume at their next meeting.

DUSD's fourth bargaining session with DTA was on April 15, during which both parties presented their compensation proposals. DUSD raised its compensation proposal, according to an update from Heather Duncan, assistant superintendent of human resources.

The revised compensation proposal from the district raised their proposed salary increase for DTA educators from 3% to 3.25%. DTA's compensation proposal would also see a 4% salary increase for each salary schedule cell, as well as a 0.5% salary schedule increase to compensate for an increase in collaboration days.

"The District continues its commitment to partnering with DTA and its membership to ensure that all DUSD students benefit from having the best educators," Duncan's April 15 announcement said. "We look forward to our next bargaining session."