Huntington Beach : Teachers to Vote on Offer of 3% Salary Increase

Teachers and other white-collar workers in the Huntington Beach Union High School District will begin voting today on a new contract offer that includes a 3% salary hike.

District administrators proposed the contract last week during a mediation session, calling it the “last, final and best” offer. Negotiations between the district and the Huntington Beach District Educators Assn., which represents 782 teachers and other white-collar workers, stalled months ago and a state mediator was called in. Until Thursday, the district had offered only a 1% raise while teachers were demanding 5%.

Association President Doug Scott said Thursday that union leaders were recommending that the rank-and-file vote no on the offer. “It should be rejected,” he said. “The offer is something (administrators) mandated and did not bargain on. They didn’t negotiate a word of it,” he said.

Voting will take place all day today and Monday. If the offer is rejected, Scott said, “we’ll be looking at some sort of action, but we’re not talking ‘strike’ at this time. I think the teachers will vote to reject it. The feelings are running pretty high that the offers are nothing but a smoke screen.”

The teachers will actually be voting on two district offers. One calls for a 3% salary increase retroactive to July 1, with the otherwise unchanged contract scheduled to expire in February, 1986. The other also calls for a 3% salary hike retroactive to July 1 and another 5% for the 1985-86 school year.

Assistant Supt. Charles A. Hess agreed that more money will be available next year but said the district’s offers to teachers are based on its financial condition. In the past two years, the district has used up most of a $5.6-million reserve fund, much of which went toward salaries, he said.