Moorpark Teachers Seek New Contract : Student ‘Sickout’ Protests Stalled Talks

About half of the Moorpark Unified School District’s 4,200 students stayed home from school Friday as part of a parent-organized protest of stalled contract negotiations between teachers and the district.

Jan Ryden, president of the Moorpark Educators Assn., which represents the teachers, said about 2,100 students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, remained out of class.

Supt. Michael R. Slater said the district did not have attendance figures immediately available, but that judging from reports by school principals, the association’s figures were probably correct.

The student “sickout” was organized by a group of 20 parents called Moorpark Moms, spokeswoman Mari Porter said. Porter and other volunteers began distributing fliers encouraging the class boycott to students and their parents on Monday, she said.

“Our purpose is to make a statement to the district, and the school board that we support our teachers,” Porter said. “We’ve been writing letters, making phone calls and attending school board meetings, but those efforts have been ignored.”

The contract covering the district’s 166 teachers expired in July, Ryden said.

So far, the district has offered to increase teacher pay 2.5% retroactive to the 1987-88 school year and 3.5% next year, plus a bonus of 0.75% of annual salary for each of those years, she said. Teachers are asking for a 5.5% increase for 1987-88 and a 5% increase next year, Ryden said.

The district’s attempt to require that teachers work beyond their 7-hour workdays to meet with parents who also work during the day has been the largest barrier to agreement on a new contract, Ryden said.

“Teachers have already been doing that for years,” she said.

Teachers fear that if the requirement is written into the contract, it will lead to even more after-hours chores for them, she said.