Martinez School District Teachers Get 9% Salary Increase

On Monday, the Martinez Unified School District Board unanimously agreed to ratify an agreement with the Martinez Education Association that would provided a salary increase.

Monday was a formality after an agreement was announced back on November 16 which includes a 9% ongoing increase retroactive back to July 1, 2022 for salaries and stipends—this is on top of a previous 10% raise. The district aims to attract and retain teachers.

According to its 2021-22 Salary Schedule for Credentialed Certified, the starting teacher salary at Step 1 is $54,15 to $64,627 depending on education and units.  At Step 27, the salary range is $85,326 to $103,582.

Also included in the agreement,  health benefits will remain status quo, beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, there will be no cap on qualifying prior years of credit for experience and placement on the salary schedule.

Together, the Martinez Education Association and the MUSD District bargaining teams are excited to announce that on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, a tentative agreement was reached. Both teams worked to collaborate, advocate, and problem solve, reaching a tentative agreement that helps address our greatest area of interest, the success of our students.

Both teams agree that the value of teachers and certificated staff far exceeds the available money  provided from the state of California. Both teams agree that to recruit and retain teachers in our district we need to have a competitive salary and benefits package.

Areas addressed in the tentative agreement include salaries, employee benefits, contract year, and work day. A brief summary of the tentative agreement, by Article, can be found below:

Article 11 Salary: 

• A 9% salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2022.  The 9% will be applied to stipends as well. Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, MUSD will accept all qualifying years of experience for new hires.  Additionally, starting in 2023-2024, current MEA members will be placed accordingly on the salary schedule where there had existed an 11 year cap on previous experience accepted by MUSD.

Article 12 Employee Benefits:

• No change to the current benefit structure.

Article 14 Contract Year:

• One additional teacher work day added to the 2023-2024 work year on Friday, August, 4th.  This amounts to approximately a .58% increase in pay.  This will be a pilot for next school year and will be revisited in next year’s negotiations.  The success of the pilot will be determined by teacher attendance on the work day and the PD days before the beginning of the school year.
• Teacher tentative work assignments notifications will be moved up to April 15th from May 1st.  This is to reflect the earlier start of each school year.

Article 15 Workday:

• MUSD has reorganized and reformatted this entire article to make it more user friendly.
• The 6/5s process is being streamlined to ensure classes are being covered and decisions are made in a more timely manner.
• Both teams agree to look at the impact of a new AHS schedule on Article 15 and equitable distribution of extra duty assignments and bargain revisions as needed.