On March 29, the Hemet Unified School District announced that the district and the Hemet Teachers Association had reached an impasse in their negotiations of staff salaries.
The next step, which the district said may occur in early May, is mediation.
The difference between the HTA request and the HUSD proposal has not been released.
“The parties have agreed on a mediator to assist the parties in the coming months. The district is hopeful that we will be able to complete negotiations during mediation,” according to the HUSD press release.
The district stressed that an impasse is a disagreement about an issue. It does not reflect the overall tenor of the negotiations or the attitudes of the parties. “Mediation does not necessarily mean that personal relationships among the teams have broken down. In fact, the overall tenor of negotiations has been professional and collaborative,”
Indication of the general mutual agreement on issues is reflected in the agenda for the HUSD Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, April 11.
On the agenda are four memoranda of agreements between the district and the association. These address the following issues: class sizes for the current school year, the teachers’ schedule at Alessandro High School for the next two school years, staffing for special education, and agreement on late start and early release days for administrative meetings for the next two years.
