Teachers Hit High Schools With Boycott : Substitutes Conduct Huntington Beach District Classes

Teachers in the six high schools of the Huntington Beach Union High School District on Friday staged a massive boycott of classes, apparently to show unhappiness with contract negotiations.

Contract talks are snagged on the major issues of pay and the teachers’ union demand for an agency shop, under which union membership would be required for all teachers. Some teachers at two of the high schools staged a “sickout” protest on May 10. But the action Friday was the first districtwide demonstration by teachers during normal class hours.

The district estimated that 58% of regular teachers were absent Friday from the six schools: Huntington Beach High, Fountain Valley High, Westminster High, Edison High, Ocean View High and Marina High.

Classes were held at all schools by using teacher substitutes. But widespread student absenteeism and some incidents of class disruptions, such as a false fire alarm at Huntington Beach High, added to the unusual classroom situation.

‘Chaos All Day’

“It’s been chaos all day,” said one Huntington Beach High student. However, Ann Chlebicki, the school principal, later said that Huntington Beach High had generally been orderly despite the high faculty and student absenteeism.

The student truancy, ironically, will add to the district’s money problems, which are the root of the snagged contract talks. The state pays a school district on the basis of average student attendance, and the absences Friday will mean lost state money. No figures on total student absences were available, but estimates ranged from 33% to 50% at some schools.

A teachers’ union spokesman said the Huntington Beach Union High School District Educators’ Assn. did not condone the teacher boycott of classes and had previously warned members against such action.

“The association (union) has gone on record as opposing any such action by the teachers,” said Bill Bianchi, executive director of the West Orange County United Teachers, the umbrella union for the Huntington Beach Union High School District teachers.

Contacted for comment about the teachers’ absence, Bianchi said, “We’ve had some reports of massive numbers (of boycotting teachers). My understanding is that this is in support of (contract) negotiations, but I don’t know.”

Substitutes Recruited

Catherine McGough, administrative assistant to the district superintendent, confirmed that the district had been recruiting large numbers of substitutes in recent weeks.

“Earlier this month--on May 10 --large numbers of teachers called in sick at Fountain Valley and Edison high schools,” McGough noted. “In anticipation of further absenteeism, the district has been conducting a large scale search for qualified substitutes.”

She said that “by mid-morning today (Friday), all but 13 classes in the district had been covered (by substitutes).” She said that the absence of regular teachers meant hundreds--an exact figure was not available--of classes in the six schools had to be filled during the day. McGough said a regular teacher averages teaching five classes a day.

The teacher boycott came on the Friday before the long, three-day Memorial Day weekend. “Absentee rates are often higher on Friday before the Memorial Day weekend--typically 13%--but today (Friday) about 58% of the teaching staff stayed home,” McGough said. She said she didn’t have school-by-school figures on absenteeism. Student absenteeism, she said, reportedly was higher at Huntington Beach High.

Fire Alarms Sound

Chlebicki, the principal of Huntington Beach High, said that attendance started normally but that “about one-third (of the students) were absent” later in the day. She said that a false fire alarm at the school caused classes to be evacuated at 10 a.m., and that as maintenance people tried to reset the alarms, they accidentally triggered a prolonged second alarm. One student said the result seemed like several, separate fire alarms and that more and more students left school after the false alarms.

“About 50% of the kids in my classes were absent,” said the Huntington Beach student. “The substitutes mostly showed movies all day.”

At issue in the contract talks between the teachers and the school district are pay increases and the union’s proposal for an agency shop (required union membership). Bianchi, of the teachers’ union, said that the union has proposed a two-year contract with a 3% cost of living increase retroactive to last July 1 for the concluding school year and a 5% pay raise next year--in addition to state money provided for longer teaching days and a longer school year. He said the district is offering less than that because it wants to include the longer day, longer year money as part of the pay package and also wants only a “modified,” or partial arrangement, for compulsory union membership.

There are about 750 teachers in the district, Bianchi said, and the average pay is about $31,200.

The school district has threatened to punish teachers who are absent without valid excuses, such as a confirmed medical appointment. McGough said one punishment would likely be loss of pay for the missed day of teaching.