If the teachers union and school board OK the deal, it looks like the Grossmont Union High School District will have averted a strike. This is certainly good news for everyone involved, but when I was reading the article last night I had different thoughts and unfortunately the article did nothing to answer them.

According to details released yesterday, the new deal is basically this:

SALARY (by school year)
2004-05: No increase
2005-06: 4 percent increase, retroactive to Dec. 18, 2005
2006-07: 5 percent increase

BENEFITS
100 percent employee coverage
80 percent dependent coverage

OTHER
Two fewer workdays per school year, from 187 to 185.

Here's some information that you've got to go digging through the archives to get from a Dec. 10, 2005 story that appeared in the Union-Tribune.

The district proposes:
For 2004-05, a 1 percent pay increase, which is a one-time bonus, and a 1 percent boost for health and welfare benefits.
For 2005-06, a 3 percent salary raise and a 1.23 percent increase for health and welfare benefits. An additional 2 percent increase would be added if teachers agreed to pay higher medical co-payments and to discontinue time taken away from the classroom to chair departments.
For 2006-07, a 1.38 percent increase to cover either an anticipated rise in health benefits or a salary increase.

The union countered with this proposal:
For 2004-05, a 2 percent salary increase.
For 2005-06, a 5.5 percent increase.

Comparing last night's deal with the negotiating positions taken four months ago, which side moved the most?

It's quickly apparent that the District administrators made a huge lurch towards the teachers' numbers. In fact, the gap between what they were offering in December vs. what they offered last night leaves one to assume that the district had either badly misjudged the amount of money they had to spend (a sign of incompetence) or had been negotiating in bad faith (a sign of malice). Of course, there's also the possibility that both those things are true.

So, disaster avoided, but there's still something seriously wrong with district management when it allows things to get to the point of a teacher strike without good reason -- and with this tenative agreement, it's obvious there was no good reason.