Background:

On April 30th, 2023, Oakland Unified School District docked hundreds of teachers pay for taking on sick day on March 24th, 2023. OUSD selectively docked teachers pay and opted not to doc other teachers pay who also took a sick day on March 24th, 2023. In some cases OUSD docked teachers pay and multiple sick days.

On May 9th, 2023 David Byrd, decorated music teacher at Oakland High School filed a class action grievance on behalf of himself and all similarly situated teachers.

Contract Dispute:

Article 11.3.9 of the contract and Appendix 7 has specific processes and procedures OUSD must follow if it wishes to challenge the use of a sick day. OUSD did not follow these procedures which is the subject of this grievance. In addition, Mr. Byrd et. al. ( and others ) also challenge whether or not OUSD had jurisdiction to doc the pay of hundreds of teachers.

Why This Is Important:

OUSD appears to want to define when a teacher is or is not sick. They also it appears, seek to selectively apply the contract for political reasons and to apply discipline without due process which is mandated in the contract. We can not predict success or failure in this grievance, as this grievance was filed on principle. The goal of the grievance is reimbursement of all teachers whose pay was docked. We will keep you abreast of the stages of the grievance as this dispute goes through the process.

In Unity,

Rank & File Caucus