Beverly Hills Strike Looms as School Pay Talks Resume

Beverly Hills teachers and the school district will have another go at mediation today under the specter of a possible teacher strike next month if salary and benefit increases are not negotiated.

The discussions, over pay and benefits for the final year of a three-year contract, took a turn for the worse last week when teachers voted 198 to 6 to strike if no agreement is reached by Oct. 16. Turning up the heat further, the Beverly Hills Education Assn. charged this week that the district has condoned union-busting activity by a principal.

The Beverly Hills Unified School District and the union, which represents about 300 teachers, have been negotiating since May. They called in a state mediator in August after failing to agree.

The district has offered to raise teacher salaries 3.05% this year and to continue the contract another year with a 5% increase for 1990-91. Teachers are seeking an 11% raise this year or 20% over two years. Salary negotiations the last two years yielded raises of 3% each.

Calling the district’s offer an insult, union President Judy McIntire said: “The teachers do not want to spend the whole year playing games.”

‘Competitive Edge’

McIntire pointed to the salary increases won by Los Angeles teachers after their spring strike and said that in order to attract quality teachers, Beverly Hills has to “keep salaries at a competitive edge.” Los Angeles teachers negotiated 8% raises for each of the next two years.

The starting salary for Beverly Hills teachers is $21,604, with top pay of $46,270 for nine years of experience plus a master’s degree and training credits. The average salary is $42,659.

Under their new contract, Los Angeles teachers this year start at $27,346 and earn a maximum of $50,123 with 20 years’ experience with a doctorate. The average salary in Los Angeles is $42,460, according to the school district, but United Teachers-Los Angeles said that figure includes benefits. Without benefits, the average is about $38,000, the Los Angeles teachers union said.

In Santa Monica, teachers this week are expected to ratify an agreement for 6.5% pay increases for the year, which would boost starting pay to $27,000 and top pay to $46,427 for 25 years of teaching.

The Beverly Hills district’s offer, which includes raising the starting salary 27% to $27,520, would put its teachers roughly on par with their Los Angeles counterparts this year but generally behind in 1990-91. “We’ll get further and further behind,” said Bill Gordon, chief negotiator for the union.

In addition, Gordon said, Beverly Hills teachers have to foot much of the cost of their health coverage, while the Los Angeles Unified School District pays for full medical and dental benefits for its teachers and their families. The union would be willing to consider pay and fringe benefits that equal Los Angeles teachers’, McIntire said.

But Supt. Robert French said the Los Angeles agreement has had little effect on the Beverly Hills district. Only one teacher has left to work in the Los Angeles district this year, to shorten her commute, and there has been no problem recruiting teachers, he said.

Negotiators will meet with the mediator for the second time today. The district has said an 11% raise is out of the question; the union has said it is merely a question of funding priorities.

Teachers planned to picket in front of Beverly Hills High School and at Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards this morning, handing out brochures called “Trouble in Paradise,” McIntire said.

If the session doesn’t yield progress, McIntire said, the likelihood of a strike is very good.

French vowed to keep the schools open if there is a strike.

Has Come Close

Although the Beverly Hills district has never had a strike, it has come close. In 1987 and 1986, last-minute negotiations staved off threatened teacher walkouts over pay issues and staff cuts.

The $28.3-million budget approved last week by the Board of Education is based on current salaries and takes into account all revenues and expenditures, leaving reserves of about 5%, or $1.3 million, French said. “There’s not 11% there (for a raise),” he said.

French said the teachers’ demands would cost the district its reserves plus an additional $1 million.

The county recommends that reserves be at least 3% of the budget and scrutinizes anything below 1%, French said. Slashing other accounts is next to impossible, he added, because the district has already spent much of its budget, and instructional programs cannot be cut without cutting teachers. State law requires advance notice before teachers or administrators can be laid off.

“We can’t print money; we certainly are not going to borrow it,” French said.

Land Tax Proposed

He said the district is considering a land-parcel tax measure for the June ballot. If approved, French said, it would bring in about about $2 million to the district for the 1990-91 school year, but nothing for this year. “We have very little control over 1989-90,” he said. “We can control 1990-91.”

The district’s last attempt to raise revenue by levying a tax on all parcels of land in the city was turned down by voters in March, 1987.

The union says the district has the money to spend on teachers but has made them a low priority. Union officials claim that French drives a district-provided Jaguar and got a $20,000 raise last year. If there is enough money for those things, Gordon said, there is enough for a decent pay hike for teachers.

French said he drives a 3-year-old Toyota, for which the district pays, and that his raise last year was $9,300, bringing his salary to $92,300.

Teachers are “out there with their tin cups,” Gordon said. “If there are any crumbs left over, they’re scraped off and given to teachers, and we’re supposed to be grateful.”

“I’m not the financial expert in the school district,” McIntire said. But with funds from the state and city, the nonprofit, fund-raising Beverly Hills Education Foundation, the oil wells at the high school campus, real estate and sales of the chic Beverly Hills High T-shirts, the district has plenty of resources, she said.

A financial analyst with the California Teachers Assn. is examining the district’s budgets for this year and previous years, McIntire said. Even so, said Gordon, “it’s (the district’s) job, not our job, to find the money.”

Katherine Carey, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles teachers union, said the union evaluated an independent audit of the Los Angeles district’s budget and information from legislators about state funding to challenge that district’s claims about what it could and could not afford and ultimately settled the strike.

The union’s experience has been that “it’s not that the money is not there; it’s what they want to spend it on,” Carey said.

Shorter Hours

French said comparisons with Los Angeles are unfair unless they also note that Beverly Hills teachers teach shorter hours and smaller classes.

The average class size in Beverly Hills is 28, McIntire acknowledges. In Los Angeles it is about 35, according to the teachers union there. Beverly Hills teachers teach 1,250 to 1,350 minutes per week, whereas Los Angeles teachers teach 1550 minutes.

“You can’t have both” Beverly Hills’ working conditions and higher salaries, French said--a claim the union rejects. “If our teachers taught the same amount of time and had the same class size (as in Los Angeles), we could offer much higher salaries.”

Teaching time has also been in dispute since the 1987-89 contract was ratified. Teachers say they agreed to a maximum of 1250 minutes a week, with 1350 under extraordinary circumstances. The district says the agreement was for a range of 1250 to 1350 minutes.

Charge Filed

Meanwhile, the Beverly Hills teachers union Monday filed a charge with the Public Employment Relations Board accusing Hawthorne Elementary School Principal Ann Picker of trying to undermine the union and accusing administrators, including French, of backing her.

McIntire, who teaches at Hawthorne, said the faculty complained about Picker to French and the school board but to no avail.

Picker, who was appointed principal in July, 1988, has told teachers that the Beverly Hills Education Assn. does not represent them, the union said. She also tried to meet with teachers individually and create a faculty advisory council to settle grievances and discuss job conditions, functions for which the union has exclusive authority, said union lawyer Robert Lindquist.

The union charges that Picker targeted the union’s representative at Hawthorne, teacher Robert Bailey, by increasing his duties, reprimanding him and keeping a separate personnel file on him. The union also says Picker refused to meet with Bailey to discuss teachers’ concerns, in violation of the union contract.

‘Reign of Terror’

Bailey, who has been a union representative several times during his 14 years at Hawthorne, said Picker has carried out a “reign of terror.” Bailey said he has filed a worker’s compensation claim for stress caused by what he says is harassment and intimidation.

Picker, formerly principal at Culver City Middle School, was the subject of teacher criticism at a school board meeting in 1986 in that city. At that time, teachers accused Picker of lowering morale.

Picker refused to comment on the Beverly Hills charges and referred inquiries to French. The superintendent declined to discuss Picker, saying it was a personnel matter.

Both the union and the district, however, are hopeful about today’s mediation.

“I’m very optimistic that we’ll have a successful meeting and can reach agreement,” French said.

McIntire said: “Maybe they’re really going to be getting down to business.”

BEVERLY HILLS SCHOOL DISPUTE Key Issue--Money. Teachers, represented by the Beverly Hills Education Assn., threaten to strike, possibly as early as Oct. 16, unless the Beverly Hills Unified School District provides acceptable increases in pay and benefits. Background--Teacher pay and benefits are the only issues on the table now. The basic contract between the teachers and the district was signed in 1987 and runs until June, 1990, but it provides for interim negotiations on salaries and fringe benefits. District’s Offer--To stay competitive with other districts, the Administration proposes to raise the starting salary level more than 25%, to $27,520. For teachers making more than that, however, the pay increase for the 1989-90 school year would average 3.05%. The district also seeks a one-year extension of the overall contract to 1991, with a pay increase of 5% next year. Union’s Demand--Citing the 8% raises won by Los Angeles teachers for this year and next, the Beverly Hills teachers seek an 11% raise for the current year or a total of 20% over two years if the contract is extended. SALARY COMPARISONS

Until an agreement is reached, Beverly Hills will continue to be paid at last year’s level. Here is how they stack up against teachers in the Los Angeles and Santa Monica-Malibu unified school districts. The figures are provided by the school districts:

District Beginning Average Maximum Beverly Hills (1988-89) $21,604 $42,659 $46,270 Beverly Hills 27,520 43,960 47,681 (1989-90, if district’s 3.05% offer takes effect) Santa Monica-Malibu (1989-90) 27,000 41,481 49,445 Los Angeles (1989-90) 27,346 42,460* 50,123

The Beverly Hills district has 4,700 students. The contract covers about 300 employees--teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses and others.

The Santa Monica-Malibu district has 9,300 students. The contract covers about 500 employees.

The Los Angeles district has 600,000 students. The contract covers 32,000 employees.

* The Los Angeles teachers union disputes this figure, contending it includes benefits; without the benefits, the union says, the figure is about $38,000.