Teachers Call In Sick After Rejecting Offer : Huntington Beach District’s 6 High Schools Remain Open; Board Had Proposed 3% Pay Hike

About 200 of the Huntington Beach Union High School District’s 700 teachers called in sick Friday after rejecting the district’s “last and final offer” of a 3% retroactive salary increase for the 1984-85 school year earlier this week, district officials said.

All of the six high schools were open and conducting classes, according to Glen H. Dysinger, assistant superintendent of administrative services.

Substitute teachers and district administrators taught classes, but 66 teaching positions were not filled, he said.

Fountain Valley High School was the hardest hit with 105 of 139 teachers calling in sick, followed by Edison High with 55 of 110, school principals said.

Spokesmen for Westminster High School and Ocean View High School reported an absence rate a little higher than average. Only two teachers called in sick overnight at Marina High School, and Huntington Beach High School had average attendance on a pupil-free day, principals said.

Dysinger said that an average teacher absence for a Friday at the end of the school year ranges from 50 to 90 but added, “We don’t think illness caused this today. People don’t suddenly catch a flu. (Yesterday) we had a normal absence day.”

‘Lot of Frustration’

Doug Scott, president of the District Educators Assn., which represents 586 of the district’s teachers said the union did not support or instigate a sick-out. “It was news to me,” he said. “I know that teachers are feeling a lot of frustration.”

District teachers have been picketing at the high schools in the early morning hours for the past few weeks, said William Bianchi, the union’s executive director.

Teachers have been without a contract since January, 1985, and 83% of union members rejected a pay increase of 3% on Monday, Scott said. Scott said he was contacted Friday by district officials and agreed to set up a time to meet.

Dysinger said teachers who called in sick will follow normal procedures for a sick day absence “unless the board wants us to check out the absence.” He said that the board has the option to make teachers verify an illness, and that “if somebody turned in a fraudulent statement, we’d have to look at that as a form of insubordination.”

Scott said the dispute centers on the district’s refusal to negotiate. “This is the shoddiest treatment we’ve received. There has been this vindictiveness at the table,” Scott said.

Dysinger disagreed. “I’ve been at the (bargaining) table for 15 years, and I would characterize (this year’s) exchange as similar to those of the last 15 years,” he said. “We listen to their requests, and we give what we can afford. Invariably, the association wants more.”

District Losing Students

George Bloch, director of certificated personnel, said the district gave teachers a 6% salary increase for the 1983-84 school year and only 3% this year because the district has been losing students. The district, which has 17,000 students, lost about 400 this year, he said.

“We agree that things have been tight in our district, but we get the feeling that they won’t always be tight,” Scott said. “We don’t buy their picture of dire poverty.”

At Fountain Valley High School, about 500 students did not have teachers in the early morning hours Friday and were sent to study halls in the gymnasium, media center and outdoor amphitheater, Principal Dave Hagen said. Hagen said any students who left the campus early will be required to bring a note from parents explaining their absence.

At Edison High School, 500 to 600 students were without first period teachers and were sent to the gymnasium during first period to watch a film on the history of the Olympics, Principal John Kennedy said.

Almost all classes were filled by mid-morning as substitute teachers arrived, he added.

“It’s a safe, secure environment,” Kennedy said. “But I can’t say it’s been business as usual.”