Manteca Unified, by the time 2029 rolls around, will have gone a decade with no dispute over basic pay raises.

No bickering.

No posturing.

No animosity.

No “us” against “them.”

No hard feelings.

No uncertainty.

No using students as pawns.

One would assume that is what every school district wants.

But more often than not it falls way short of that.

The Manteca Educators Association — the group representing teachers who are the key element in a successful school system — and Manteca Unified have a master agreement.

The foundation of that agreement is what might best be called “The  85-15.”

Simply put it means 85 percent of any new state revenue that is cost of living (COLA) funding automatically goes to the teachers to spend on salary and benefits how they collectively see fit.

The remaining 15 percent covers all over inflationary needs related to support services as well as facility upkeep and maintenance.

It is not an arbitrary number.

Historically, it is what Manteca Unified spends on all salaries and benefits, including the essential classified support staff from secretarial staff to paraprofessional to bus drivers, custodians, and more.

Almost every school district has the “sweet spot” where a constant percentage of the operating budget goes to salaries and benefits.

And it is right around 85 percent where most districts fall.

Keep in mind the funding of public schools in California allows for “The 85-15” foundation.

The state basically controls how much money a school district receives.

Yes, if you own property you pay  property taxes as “the local share.”

But that is essentially “taken” by the state with Sacramento.

The state deducts that amount from the general student funding level it determines each district is entitled to using social-economic factors.

The balance is then funded by the state.

That is a simplistic way to explain how the bulk of day-to-day public school operations are funded.

On top of that is categorical funding for specific student needs and goals.

And while salaries and benefits constitute the majority of city and county budgets as you can’t provide services without manpower, how those entities are funded and what they are expected to do is entirely different than schools.

So why is “The 85-15” such a big deal?

 It is because it is rare.

Two examples will give you a bit of insight.

One is the Roseville Union High School District, circa the 1980s.

The other is Western Placer Unified School District from the mid-1970s.

Keep in mind the districts are not what they were back then.

But, on a whole, what they were back then represents two of the biggest generalizations involving the state of school districts and the state of contract negotiations.

Roseville Union High School District played the high-low game.

The district offered a ridiculously low-ball figure such as 2 percent when the district’s overall funding was up 6 pendent.

The teachers union responded to such a move by asking for the moon, such as 12 percent.

They negotiated back and forth.

Both sides got testy and dug in their heels.

The union signaled they were ready to declare impasse.

Informational pickets started going up outside the district office.

Then they went to board meetings and made a lot of noise.

Then after nine months of growing animosity and frustration — along with an unhealthy dash of the community taking sides — the two sides settled.

The number?

Six percent.

Remember 6 percent?

That was the size of the state COLA.

The same scenario occurred every time there were contract negotiations.

It was like a broken record.

Nine months of wasted time and ill feelings.

All to end up, if everyone was honest, exactly where they expected it to end up.

Western Placer, which encompassed Lincoln and Sheridan in Placer County, played the shell game, or If you prefer, hide-and-seek.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I was on the school board at the time.

We had a superintendent who really liked to play games.

And while not all board members once they found what the superintendent was doing disagreed with what he did, it underscores what is wrong with how some districts approach negotiations.

What he did was intentionally hide or “park” money so no one but him and the business manager knew exactly the size of the money pool Westen Placer had to commit to spending growth in the upcoming budget.

In this case, he buried $300,000 in the transportation budget.

He then played the poor card in negotiations.

It was wrong on so many levels.

Western Placer at the time was known as a high tax, low wealth district. People basically taxed themselves to the hilt to support schools even though Lincoln at the time was on the slim side in terms of financial wealth.

This was in the days before Proposition 13.

First, he was misleading five trustees who served as his collective boss.

It was also being dishonest with the taxpayers who, at the end of the day, “own” the district and not the superintendent or the board.

It shortchanged students by squeezing promising teachers by paying them less than the district could afford that prompted them to look elsewhere for a better paying job.

It’s not that they didn’t like their jobs.

But they were put in a position to seriously question whether they could afford to stay in the district.

Perhaps worse, it showed the teachers the superintendent didn’t trust them.

The assumption, on the superintendent’s part, was that the teachers would bleed the district for every last penny.

It was based on the belief teachers couldn’t be trusted with the truth.

Freely interpreted, that meant they would undermine the need to properly fund support services and such to feed their greed.

It goes without saying the truth ultimately got out.

And it poisoned the proverbial well, thanks to the superintendent’s game playing.

Healthy relationships are not built on deceit.

What Manteca Unified teachers, district administration, and school board members did was build trust.

It sent a clear message.

Teachers really matter.

“The 85-15” split is built on that premise as well as trust.

It is also based on reality.

And it doesn’t waste energy on an unnecessarily divisive exercise.

As such it puts what goes on in the classroom — and what is needed to support it — front and center.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com