GLENDALE, CA – Glendale Unified School District has reached a tentative agreement on wages with the Classified School Employees Association (CSEA) for the 2025-26 school year. The tentative agreement, reached after one negotiation session, includes an ongoing 4.5% wage increase effective July 1, 2025. 

This wage increase was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the GUSD and CSEA bargaining teams and the GUSD benefits committee, which includes employee representation from CSEA, the Glendale Teachers Association (GTA), and the Glendale Schools Management Association (GSMA). 

GUSD was able to provide a 2% wage increase based on the cost-of-living adjustment anticipated in the Governor’s May Budget Revision. An additional 2.5% increase will be funded by cost savings from adjustments to GUSD’s healthcare plan, including lowering the benefit cap and moving from a direct market to a risk pool. Both of these changes were made while ensuring full-time GUSD employees do not have to pay out of pocket for their healthcare premiums. Employees will have the opportunity to keep their current Blue Shield insurance with the added option to switch to Kaiser Permanente.

In addition to wage and benefits settlements, GUSD and CSEA reached an agreement on several contract items, including:

• Increasing the salary range for Behavior Intervention Assistants to support recruitment and retention efforts.
• Implementing an employee self-service portal to provide real-time access to illness and vacation balances. 
• Extending the current Memorandum of Understanding on Paraprofessional safety.
• Adding a new Career Advancement Leave provision, which allows unit members with at least five years of permanent service to request a one-time, unpaid leave of absence for up to one calendar year to pursue job-related coursework.
• Increasing the vacation accrual incentive for employees who stay with the district for 15+ years.
• Adding CSEA members to the District Safety Committee.

As a next step, the CSEA membership will vote on ratifying the tentative agreement, after which the GUSD Board of Education will vote on the final approval of the contract. GUSD and CSEA will continue to collaborate to reach an agreement on additional contract items.

“Our Board of Education is committed to strengthening collaboration with our labor partners and supporting a thriving workforce to benefit student learning,” said Board of Education President Shant Sahakian. “The tentative agreement reached expeditiously in the first negotiation session is a testament to the District and CSEA leadership’s shared commitment to our entire school community. I am very proud of our bargaining teams for working together to find solutions and maximize compensation for our valued classified employees, especially in light of current fiscal challenges.”

“I am incredibly grateful to our District and CSEA leaders who worked collaboratively to reach an agreement that provides our dedicated classified employees with the compensation they deserve and to our Board of Education for supporting this process,” said GUSD Superintendent Dr. Darneika Watson. “I look forward to continued conversations about how we can better support our school and district staff to the benefit of all students.”

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