In a 25-to-17 vote, teachers at Gompers Preparatory Academy in Chollas View have voted to decertify their union. The decision means they will no longer be members of the San Diego Education Association, which has represented teachers at the public charter school since 2019.
Some teachers said they had been forced to join the union and issued a complaint with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
The Gompers vote comes as the rest of the district’s SDEA employees cast ballots on a new contract that includes a 15% pay raise over two years.
Gompers teachers will not be part of that contract.
The Gompers staff took advantage of a window of opportunity, allowing them to appeal to PERB for a vote on decertification. That window opened because teachers in the San Diego Unified School District had been working without a contract for almost a year.
In 2005, parents and educators came together to convert Gompers from what they considered a failing public school into the successful charter it has become, with a 100% graduation rate.
Cynthia Ornelas is a sixth-grade teacher at Gompers. She was a leader in the effort to oust the union.
"There is definitely a lot more joy that's going to be in classrooms now, instead of a burden with the union," Ornelas said. "The union was making decisions for us, oh my goodness! We never knew what they were deciding because they didn't communicate with teachers."
Teachers who voted in support of the union met Wednesday with an SDEA organizer. They will not appeal the decision.
“Over the past five years, we’ve worked tirelessly with leadership to support our teachers and students. We are proud of the improvements that we’ve made for the staff at Gompers Preparatory Academy. Ultimately, we respect the democratic process and the outcome of this election,” teacher Vallery Campos said in a written statement. Campos was one of the teachers who wanted to keep the union.
Gompers first opened in 1955 as a junior high school. Ironically, it was named after the labor union leader Samuel Gompers.
