Contract negotiations head to fact-finding committee

Andrew Wainer

A five-month impasse in contract negotiations between the Huntington

Beach City School District and its teachers association has prompted the

state to intervene with a fact-finding panel that will seek to end the

deadlock.

The teachers association, led by chief negotiator Rebbe Bates, and the

board of trustees, represented by Assistant Supt. Kathy Kessler, have

been negotiating for a contract for 1999-2000 and 2000-20001 school years

since Oct. 5. Agreement remains elusive, even after eight negotiating

sessions.

The decision to go to the state fact-finding panel was reached after a

state-appointed mediator failed to bring the two sides together.

Both sides say the main point of contention is a 1% increase in salary

the teachers are demanding for the 2000-2001 school year.

“The board is not putting the teachers first in spending their money,”

Huntington Beach Elementary Teachers Assn. president, Annette Symons said

last week. “They have the money.”

But board members and district representatives stand by their position.

“The offer that the board has on the table is a very good one,” Kessler

said. “It is very fair.”

The district is offering teachers a 4.44% increase for the 1999-2000

school year. The increase consists of a cost of living allowance and a 1%

salary increase. For the 2000-2001 school year, the district has offered

the teachers a cost of living adjustment and any share of additional, new

funds that might appear out of the budget. They have not offered the

teachers a 1% increase for the 2000-2001 year.

That’s where the dispute starts.

Symons, who is also a teacher at Dwyer Middle School, said if the

district doesn’t come around, teachers might start looking for work in

other districts.

“If there is no raise, they’re going to start losing people,” Symons

said. “They could make small cuts in a lot of categories to come up with

the money for the raise.”

The teachers maintain the 1% increase for next year would amount to about

$181,000 -- a small sum, they say, for a district with a $36-million

annual budget.

Symons cites a chart distributed by the teachers association that shows

the district is ranked 18th in maximum salary out of Orange County’s 27

districts.

But the district produced its own salary schedule, which places the

teachers’ pay in the top third of county districts.

The district has also suggested that the additional raise could cut into

funding for other educational programs.

“We have to maintain the district’s programs,” Kessler said.

The rift between the district’s and teachers’ points of view has led the

state Public Employment Relations Board to introduce the fact-finding

panel.

The panel -- which includes a member chosen by the district, one by the

teachers and one by the state -- will investigate the matter and make a

formal recommendation to the board 10 days after it is appointed.

According to the teachers union, the panel will consider “state and

federal laws that are applicable to the employer, the interests and

welfare of the public, a comparison of wages of the teachers with wages

of employees performing similar tasks,” and other issues in formulating

its conclusion.

The panel’s decision is not binding, but it must be made public within 10

days after it has have been presented to the two parties.

The district said they expect the panel to convene in April. The panel is

the last step in state mediation efforts.

If the parties are unable to reach an agreement after the panel’s

decision is issued, the board can implement its contract. The teachers

association, on the other hand, could resort to sick outs, strikes or

other job actions.

Symons said the panel might be the last chance the two sides have before

the teachers take more drastic action.

“Teachers are getting restless,” Symons said.

District officials also want the matter to be decided soon.

“I want to pay them, we just have to be able to see the money in the

budget,” trustee Shirley Carey said. “We have to pay the bills without

totally destroying the educational program.”

Trustee Brian Garland said he is confident an agreement is coming soon.

“I don’t think anybody is entrenched in a position that can’t be

negotiated,” Garland said. “We are very close.”