Board criticizes ‘sick-out’

School board members are criticizing teachers in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District who allegedly took Friday off in protest over their salaries, calling the decision arrogant and unfair to students.

On Friday, Newport-Mesa’s secondary schools reported more than 50 teachers absent, including 29 at Newport Harbor High School and 14 at Corona del Mar High School. Teachers union President Jim Rogers said his group had not ordered anyone to call in sick but noted that a number of teachers had told him they were planning a “sick-out” to send a message to administrators.

While it remained unclear how many teachers stayed home for political reasons, several board members said Monday they were dismayed by the ones who did.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Dana Black, who oversees Newport Harbor High in her trustee area. “Kids are a priority. That’s why we’re here. We’re not here to have children conform to schools. We’re here to have schools conform to children.”

Black and other trustees said they had no problem with teachers voicing concerns at board meetings or demonstrating in public. In recent weeks, teachers have picketed — and dressed in black — outside a school board meeting and during Corona del Mar High’s open house.

“It needs to be adult to adult,” said board President Judy Franco. “It needs to be between teachers and their union representatives and the district’s representatives at the bargaining table.”

Trustee Walt Davenport said he believed teachers could lose public support if their protests impacted the school day. Some students interviewed Friday said nearly all of their classes were overseen by substitutes.

“My feeling is it’s highly inappropriate,” Davenport said. “It’s not putting the interest of the students in front of everything else, which is what they’re supposed to do. I’m sure the substitutes are great, but I don’t think they ever get as much out of a substitute as they do out of a regular teacher.”

In January, a report from a district-appointed committee declared that Newport-Mesa paid the lowest teacher salaries of any unified district in Orange County. The teachers union has been in negotiations with the district since then.

Rogers said he had spoken with teachers on Wednesday and reminded them that the union would not endorse a sick-out.

“We told them, and we were very clear: We do not organize any kind of job action that’s going to affect the day,” Rogers said.