Teachers May Cease Volunteer Activities : Labor: Union, upset over contract impasse, asks that members give up duties for which they are not paid. Some have begun picketing.

Frustrated by an impasse in contract negotiations, some Simi Valley teachers have stopped volunteering for extra activities outside of their normal working hours and others have begun picketing at schools.

The work slowdown in the Simi Valley Unified School District could affect all activities for which the teachers are not paid, including chaperoning dances and field trips, leading volunteer choirs and sports clubs, and participating in committees to start up a magnet school and switch to four-year high schools.

“It is our opinion that our teachers have done volunteer work for so long that the district has forgotten it’s volunteer work,” said Ronald Myren, Simi Educators Assn. president and elementary teacher. “The teachers are now expected to do it.”

The union formally asked teachers to give up volunteer work this week after the school board failed to act on a state mediator’s contract proposal.

Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said that the district always encourages teacher involvement in issues affecting students, but that it would respect the individual decisions of the teachers.

“I haven’t noticed any dramatic drop-off in any of the activities I’ve been involved with, but it has the potential of making the school year very difficult if we can’t work together,” Wolford said.

Teachers, who have worked without a contract for a year, have also been forming picket lines in front of the district’s schools before and after school hours this week, hoping to let parents know about the contract dispute.

“We work hard and deserve consideration,” said sixth-grade teacher Barry Modell, who participated in an early morning picket line in front of White Oak School. “We’re part of the district as well as the students.”

Meanwhile, parents have mixed emotions about the pickets. Several honked and waved in support as teachers marched in front of the schools this week. But many are wondering how the dispute will affect their children.

“I really understand both sides,” said Colleen Duncan, a parent who heads the Sycamore School PTA. “Teachers already put in a lot of extra time to help kids. If they’re not able to volunteer extra time, it will hurt the kids. But I think they have a justifiable reason to protest.”

Donna Prenta, whose children attend Atherwood School, said she supports the teachers picketing this week. She said the school district should spend its money on the teachers, rather than on planning a “pie in the sky” magnet school.

“It tells teachers that they’re not real high on the priority list,” Prenta said. “But teachers are the backbone. A good teacher is a gift.”

The teachers union is requesting a 2% raise this year starting in September, an improved early retirement plan and a fair share agreement, which would require all teachers--not just those in the union--to pay dues to the association that represents them.

Wolford said the district’s latest proposal--which includes a 2% raise for 1995-96 that would not take effect until January, a 2% raise in 1996-97, an early retirement package and no fair share agreement--would cost the district $6.8 million through 1998.

Myren said the work slowdown was triggered by the board’s delay this week in approving yet another proposal, this one presented by a state mediator called in when negotiations reached an impasse last spring.

On a close vote, the association approved the package--the details of which were not released--but the board refrained in order to examine more closely its costs to the district, union officials said.

The union has asked a state fact-finding board to evaluate the situation and recommend the appropriate resolution to the negotiating impasse.

Meanwhile, students may see a decline in their extracurricular activities as teachers refrain from volunteer activities.

At one school, the leader of a volunteer choir is dropping the program until an agreement is reached. Others, such as fourth-grade teacher Max Lipsky, were trying to strike a compromise. He showed up for an early morning parent conference, but has withdrawn his membership in the school’s curriculum committee.

Pat Hauser, principal at Sinaloa Junior High School, said her school’s volunteer music and sports programs are continuing as scheduled for the time being.

“There are no real organized ongoing programs that I have seen that have been affected to date,” she said.

Hauser said the only effect she has seen so far has been the resignation of a teacher who served on the school’s advisory committee to the superintendent.

Some teachers, such as Stephen Jancovich, a fifth-grade teacher who led a picket line at White Oak School on Wednesday afternoon, said honoring the association request is tough when it comes to programs involving students.

“It’s very hard to withdraw services to the extent that they want us to because it hurts kids,” Jancovich said.