Santa Ana Teachers, District Can’t Even Get Together on How Far They’re Apart

Union and school district spokesmen had widely divergent views about Tuesday’s teacher-contract negotiations in Santa Ana Unified School District.

Officials for the district, which has had no teacher contract for its 1,750 teachers since July 1 and has been working to avert a strike, said considerable progress took place during daylong negotiations with a state mediator. One district official said both sides are focusing on a possible 5% pay raise for the teachers.

However, a union official said that little progress had been made, that the 5% proposal had been rejected by union representatives and that the union was “discouraged” with negotiations.

Both spokesmen agreed on one point: More negotiations are scheduled tonight at 8, following a special, closed meeting of the district’s school board.

District Assistant Supt. Don Champlin said Tuesday that the day’s negotiations had been encouraging. “We’re very pleased with the progress that’s been made,” he said. “Both sides are now talking about a 5% increase (for teacher pay this year).”

About two hours later, Bill Ribblett, executive director of the teacher union, the Santa Ana Educators Assn., said the union had in no way focused on a 5% figure.

“We are back to asking either an 8% pay raise for this year, or the 6% package we last offered,” he said, referring to the union’s March 24 proposal for a 6% pay raise, retroactive to July 1, for the current school year and a 6.5% pay raise for next year.

Ribblett added: “We totally rejected the 5% offer, and frankly I am discouraged about the way negotiations are proceeding.”

Champlin said both the union and the district had focused on 5% as the possible settlement figure but had disagreed as to how the 5% should be paid.

Champlin said the union wanted a 5% pay boost that would be continued in future years. He said the district proposed a 3% continuing raise, to be coupled with a 2%, one-time-only raise.

Teacher pay in the district ranges from $20,670 for a beginning instructor to $41,383 for the most senior teacher. The average teacher’s salary, according to the district, is $31,800.

Frequent Contradictions

Union and school district officials have frequently disagreed in telling reporters how contract talks have fared.

In February, both sides declared that an impasse had been reached, and a state-appointed labor mediator began working with the negotiators. On March 22, the teachers voted to authorize a strike but set no date for a walkout.

The district has repeatedly noted that the state gave schools just a 2.54% raise in funds this year. Thus, district officials have said, any pay raise greater than 2.54% is “deficit spending” and would require dipping into reserves and cutting of school programs.

Union officials have countered that the district has accumulated more in financial reserves than is needed. Those reserves, including money saved to buy land for new schools, can and should be tapped, the union has said.

Besides the raise dispute, Champlin said, the question of an “agency shop” remains a major hurdle. In such a shop, teachers must either join the union or pay a fee to the union, in lieu of membership, for its services as the teachers’ labor representative and negotiator. The school board has strongly resisted past efforts for an agency shop.

Agency Shop Question

Ribblett, in a later interview, agreed that the shop is still a major demand by the union. He said the district is “one of the few school districts remaining in Orange County not to settle on this.”

The district reported Tuesday that attendance this week has been about normal for both teachers and students.

By contrast, high teacher absenteeism and some student walkouts occurred in the district in the two weeks before Easter break.

Although union leaders warned against such actions and said the union does not condone them, individual teachers in March urged “sickouts” as a way of pressuring the district.

Two major sickouts were staged by teachers last month, and there were several other days of high teacher absenteeism.