By Jamie Kelleher
Online News Editor and
Diego Marcucci
Staff Writer
The Public Employment Relations Board charged the Manhattan Beach Unified School District of “failing and refusing to meet and negotiate in good faith” with the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association on Sept. 3, following a 2013 complaint that was lodged by MBUTA during teacher negotiations.
MBUTA filed the initial complaint after MBUSD withheld documents requested by the union during the 2012-13 school year. PERB held a series of hearings throughout the past year before issuing its decision, which called for increased transparency and faster responses to future document requests, along with updated versions of the requested documents.
“Hopefully this changes the district’s understanding that they are required to provide information to the union when the union makes these requests,” MBUTA President Shawn Chen said. “Essentially over the past two years they have told us, in response to our requests, that they are not required to give us this information.”
Although the request was initiated during the 2012-13 school year, PERB found that the district had not yet fulfilled the request through the 2013-14 school year.
MBUSD has 30 days from the time of the charge to complete the request and 20 days to appeal PERB’s decision. If their appeal is not accepted or if the district does not choose to appeal the decision, they are required to inform the public of their violation of the law in all work locations where notices are customarily placed.
“We’ll make every effort to communicate about what we are doing with documents in the future,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said.
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