A well-deserved raise for teachers

In past weeks, news from neighboring school districts has been far

from the kind most administrators hope to see in the newspaper. In

the South Orange County Community College District, the faculty gave

a no confidence vote to Chancellor Raghu Mathur. In Westminster, the

school board has been bitterly and publicly divided over state

antidiscrimination laws that protect transsexuals and others who do

not conform to traditional gender roles.

And then there’s the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

On Tuesday night, without a fight, without shouts, without a

seeming complaint, the board of trustees approved a labor agreement

that gives teachers a raise of more than 5% over the next two years,

putting their salaries in line with others in the county. In the

fall, starting pay for credentialed teachers will go from $38,062 to

$40,000 a year. Salaries for teachers with a master’s degree, 75

additional credit hours of study and at least 28 years at the

district will top out at $82,878. The previous high salary was

$81,173. For the 2005-06 school year, salaries will start at $40,104

and go up to $83,978.

The goal is to raise pay to the top quarter of schools in the

county, said Jim Rogers, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of

Teachers.

Our teachers deserve it. As is so often said, though perhaps never

enough, teachers fill crucial roles in our community: They are in

charge of shepherding our children to adulthood. Many spend long,

extra hours to make sure they can give their best in the classroom.

They comprise, by and large, a dedicated group who have our

children’s best interests at heart. They deserve the compensation for

their hard work.

The school district deserves praise for a fine bit of shepherding

of its own. Often, negotiations over contracts create fault lines

that are difficult to repair. There is no indication of any such

breakdown here.

It isn’t that there’s a lack of money -- typically the central

cause of such conflict -- involved. Overall, under the new contract,

salary and benefits in 2004-05 in Newport-Mesa will increase by 3.54%

and cost the district $2.6 million. In 2005-06, they will increase by

1.82%, or $1.4 million.

And it all is happening smoothly and all to everyone’s benefit.