Teachers in Tustin Vote 2-1 to Stay Out; Strike Is in 6th Day

Tustin’s teachers voted by a 2-1 margin Tuesday to continue their five-day-old strike, despite a recommendation by the union leadership that they return to classes today.

The strike, the only teacher’s walkout now going on in California, involves about 240 of the 397 classroom teachers in the Tustin Unified School District.

A proposal to return to the schools was voted down at a Tuesday meeting attended by about 150 of the striking teachers. By a show of hands, about 90 to 100 teachers voted to continue the strike. About 45 to 50 teachers voted for the union leadership’s proposal that the strike be temporarily suspended.

The strike, which began last Wednesday, thus enters its second week today. Sandy Banis, president of the Tustin Educators Assn., said that the strike will continue “until there is a motion made, and passed, that we go back to our schools.”

Maurice Ross, superintendent of the Tustin Unified School District, said after the vote: “I’m disappointed. I wish we had the teachers back in the classroom. I don’t know what the teachers think they can accomplish.”

But teachers who voted for continuing the strike said they believe public opinion is strongly swinging to their side. These teachers repeatedly referred to an outdoor school board meeting Monday night attended by about 1,600 persons, almost all of whom supported the teachers vocally and booed the five school board members from time to time.

“The school board meeting on Monday night was overwhelming,” said Dave Horowitz, a teacher at Foothill High School, who urged fellow teachers to vote against suspending the strike. “There was every sign of community support.”

Horowitz, like several other speakers at the teachers’ rally, emphasized that the Tustin school board has refused to reopen contract negotiations. “We’ve had five days of work stoppage . . . but we have nothing to show for it. There is no contract.”

A majority of the teachers at the Tuesday rally, held in the Tustin Civic Center, broke into cheers as Horowitz made his plea. “Two more days, two more days,” they chanted.

While no vote was taken on how much longer the strike would continue, some of the teachers Tuesday urged that the work stoppage not end until after a proposed boycott of classes on Thursday by students at Tustin High School. The “two more days” chant apparently referred to the sentiment that the strike not end before Thursday.

At Monday night’s school board meeting, Craig Castellanet, 16, a junior at Tustin High, warned the board members that he had the signatures of 1,000 students at the high school who “will not attend school on Thursday” if the board refuses to resume negotiations with the teachers.

Ross said Tuesday that steps will be made to prevent massive truancy at Tustin High and all other schools on Thursday. “Mainly, though, it depends on the parents,” Ross said. “We rely on the support of the parents in keeping their children in school.” Ross noted that truancy is against state law, and he said that the district would try to prosecute anyone who encourages the students to stay away from classes.

In an interview after the Tuesday teachers’ meeting, Ross said that school board members “were disappointed by the behavior of the people in the stands (at the outdoor meeting Monday night)--the rudeness and the general decorum, not only by some of the teachers but also by some of the students.”

Ross also said that he doesn’t think the large turnout favorable to the teachers Monday night represents overall public sentiment in Tustin. He added that about 700 of those at the outdoor meeting were students and contended that many of the adults were relatives of teachers and supporters who live outside the Tustin area.

Banis, in a separate interview Tuesday, took issue with Ross’ statement. “He (Ross) refuses to see that the reaction of the community is against him,” Banis said. “Parents are now telling us ‘to hang in there.’ We’re getting strong support from both the community and the students.”

Banis said she was not surprised or disappointed that the teachers, for the second time in a week, had rejected the association’s recommendation about temporarily suspending the strike. The union leadership initially recommended that the teachers go back to their classrooms after the first day of the strike, but it was overwhelmingly voted down last Wednesday afternoon.

“The teachers of Tustin are making their own decisions,” Banis declared.

Banis, in a speech to the teachers before they voted, said that “it’s now time to move into Phase II.” That phase, she said, would involve temporarily suspending the strike and instead working on political action to oust all five members of the school board.

The association, she said, wants to defeat two of the incumbents seeking reelection Nov. 5 and to recall the remaining three board members.

The association’s recommendation was for teachers to return to classes today but authorize a sixth day of striking to be called at any later date “as necessary.” Banis pointed out that yellow ribbons had been passed out to all the teachers. She said that wearing them “will symbolize that we’re hostages, without contracts, in our classrooms.”

But one teacher, in a fiery rebuttal loudly applauded by other teachers, denounced the yellow ribbon proposal as well as the suggestion that the strike be suspended.

“I’m not anybody’s hostage,” said Liz Gecsey, an art teacher at Foothill High. “I’m not going back there (to the classroom) as a hostage. I can’t face my students; they’ll ask, ‘Did you get a raise,’ and I’ll say, ‘No.’ ‘Is Ross negotiating?’ ‘No.’ I’ll wear a black armband, signifying the death of education in Tustin, but I won’t wear a yellow ribbon.”

Rick Falk, a teacher at Tustin High, was among those who spoke for the proposal that the strike be suspended. “I’m concerned that we don’t get into the position of striking for striking’s sake,” Falk said. “I’ve heard a lot of our students saying: ‘We want our teachers back . . .’ I think it’s a practical decision to go back (to classrooms) while the public support is what it has been.”

Another supporter of returning to classes was Cheryl Spivey, a teacher at Nelson School. “I believe our job now is to get back into the classroom and work like heck in the political arena to get a new board and a new superintendent,” she said.

One teacher asked for a secret ballot on the return-to-classes vote, but the motion was rejected by a show of hands.

Ross said Tuesday that slightly fewer regular teachers are now absent from the schools. “It started off with about 61% of the teachers absent, and today it’s down to about 55%,” Ross contended. He said that pupil attendance remains about normal.

The union could not be reached late Tuesday to respond to Ross’ absentee figure. But the union has accused Ross of using lower figures than the actual number of teachers absent.

The school district broke off negotiations on Sept. 26 after making a “final offer” of giving the teachers a pay raise this school year of 8.2% and “not less than 4%” as an increase in 1986-87. There was no retroactive pay increase proposed for 1984-85.

The teachers’ association is asking for a retroactive pay hike of 6.3% for 1984-85 and an 8.1% increase for the current school year.

According to the district, the average teacher’s salary in Tustin is $29,764. A California Teachers Assn. board member, Hazel Stover, has placed the Tustin average at $29,009. Orange County Department of Education officials have said that Tustin’s 1983-84 pay scales were competitive with other districts in the county. But Department of Education officials caution against comparing other county districts with Tustin, which has not had a formal contract since June, 1984.

The union has claimed that its teachers are among the lowest-paid in the county. The district has maintained that they are among the highest paid in the county.