Dublin teachers and district reach tentative agreement after 4 days of striking

DUBLIN, Calif. (KGO) -- After almost seven months of negotiations and four days on the picket line, the Dublin teachers' strike is over.

"It took a long time, but I think it was worth the journey because hopefully this is a new page in our history or our chapter or new era for Dublin," says Brad Dubrzenski, President of the Dublin Teachers Association.

Dubrzenski says the agreement includes guaranteed elementary school counselors and improved healthcare coverage. The teachers asked for 3.5% pay increase but settled for a 2.3% cost of living adjustment, prioritizing smaller class size instead.

"Our teachers' working conditions are the students' learning conditions, so the focus on moving them to the smaller class sizes so teachers can do the job they love, effectively as possible, is really where we stayed with most our energy throughout this process," states Dubrzenski.

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Several days of negotiations went into the early morning. Dubrzenski says that after both sides crunched the numbers, some the of district's budget projections were overly conservative.

"They thought that more people would be joining on to the health care than our members were polled. And wasn't as high as they thought. So, that helped bring some of the costs together," says Dubrzenski. "(The district) projected cuts the last few years. And last year, in particular, they were projecting the loss of 13 FTE, which is about 13 people. But none of those losses actually manifested. But we have noticed it might be a little too conservative on their side."

Matt Campbell is the Assistant Superintendent for the Dublin Unified School District. He was at the bargaining table the past four days.

"We are thrilled with the agreement. We are thrilled that, in particular, that students and the teachers are going to be returning on Monday," says Campbell.

Campbell says one of the challenges was to go through the budget analysis. Especially around reducing class size.

"Our initial analysis of our financial models were different, so then we adjusted those. And I just think we were just able to re-shift, reprioritize some of the existing funding to move it into these categories," explains Campbell.

The school board still has vote to pass the budget at its next meeting.

And the district is already warning of a coming $7 million deficit for the 2027-2028 school year.