Santa Barbara Teachers Association, School District Declare Impasse 

After three months at the bargaining table, the Santa Barbara Unified School District and Santa Barbara Teachers Association (SBTA) have declared an impasse, meaning that they have reached a point in negotiations in which “their differences in positions are so substantial and prolonged that future meetings would be futile,” according to state law. 

The parties have been negotiating over a 2023-2024 contract since November 15, 2023, and have agreed on all issues except for “wages” and “hours and conditions.”

According to the district, it and SBTA jointly declared the impasse on January 19, which almost guarantees the California Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) will certify the declaration. 

“The district’s assertion that they are not interested in ‘incremental bargaining,’ their earlier suggestion of outside assistance, and the significant distance between our proposals made it clear that we were at an impasse and would benefit from mediation,” the SBTA wrote in its bargaining update.

Once PERB certifies the impasse, the parties are assigned a state mediator at no cost to the parties. The mediator generally meets with the parties in a joint session first and then separates the parties and moves between the two groups to try to resolve the issues and reach an agreement.

Should the parties not reach an agreement, they would then move on to a process of fact-finding. Using the resulting advisory report, they would either reach a settlement, or end the negotiation process, at which point the district would have the legal right to unilaterally impose terms and conditions from its last, best, and final offer to SBTA, and SBTA may engage in a lawful strike. 

A legal strike cannot occur before the parties have gone through the entire impasse process.

A first potential mediation date is set for February 23. Typically, the whole process can take anywhere from three to six months.

“SBUSD will continue to negotiate in good faith with SBTA and attempt to reach a final agreement by participating fully and with positive intent in the impasse process,” the district said.

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