Teacher’s 15 Years’ Experience, Degrees Add Up to Frustration

Tustin teacher Terry Tomlinson couldn’t go to the school board meeting this week. He was working that night at a part-time job.

Instead, the oldest of his seven children, Diane, 18, went to the microphone at the board meeting and spoke on behalf of her father, one of the 240 Tustin teachers who had been on strike since Oct. 2.

“I’m the daughter of a Tustin teacher,” she told the board Monday night. “My dad is not here tonight because he’s teaching night school in order to support us. We live in the Orange (Unified) District, and my brothers and sister qualify for free lunches because of the salary my dad receives from Tustin Unified District. That’s pretty sad.”

Terry Tomlinson, a Spanish teacher at Foothill High, said later that he didn’t know Diane would be revealing the family’s tight financial circumstances at the public meeting. But he said it’s true, even though he wishes it weren’t.

Despite Tomlinson’s master’s degree and 15 years’ teaching experience, his family is at the federal poverty level and his children are eligible for school lunch support.

“My wife got these forms from the school district about reduced or free lunches,” said Tomlinson, who lives on Topaz Street in Orange. “She filled it out and found we were eligible. At first, I was shocked and dismayed. I’d always thought that when I got my master’s degree--after making all those sacrifices--I’d find my just reward. But I still have to spend most of my waking hours just to provide for my family.”

Tomlinson, 41, doesn’t speak militantly or angrily when he discusses the strike.

“Quite honestly, I’m not a very strong union man,” he said. “I used to teach history, and so I know the contribution of unions. They have their place. I don’t like to think of ours as a union. It’s an association, like the the American Medical Assn. or the California Dental Assn.

“I do realize we need to stand up, and I believe in our association’s principles. I need to make a stand with my fellow professionals. Actually, when the time came, the thing that pushed me over the wall was the last bulletin from the (Tustin) board of education. That bulletin said the board had always given ‘all the money we could’ to the teachers.”

Tomlinson said that statement just isn’t so. He voted for the strike and stayed out, even though Supt. Maurice Ross has said each teacher who stayed out would lose about $205 in pay and fringe benefits for every day off the job.

Decision ‘Prudent’

Tomlinson was at the teachers’ meeting Wednesday afternoon, when the strikers, by an almost unanimous vote, decided to suspend the strike and return to their classrooms today. “The action, on balance, was a prudent one to take,” Tomlinson said. “I think it’ll be good to be back on the payroll, but that’s not going to help my financial picture.

“We’re all right in October, but we’re really going to be hit in November, when my next check comes,” with deductions for six days on strike. “Ironically, November is the month of Thanksgiving, and that’s the month we’re going to really be hurting.”

Tomlinson said his wife, Sally, “doesn’t have an outside job--she works 25 hours a day taking care of the children and the house.” His is the sole income for the family of nine, and, he said, he has always worked part-time jobs to supplement his teacher’s pay.

Still, Tomlinson said, he allows time in his schedule to work for his church--the Anaheim East Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also is an assistant scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts.

“I tutor five days a week after school, and I teach one night a week at an adult learning center in Orange,” he said. Lately, he said, he also has been a night-class substitute teacher for the Rancho Santiago Community College District.

‘Not Getting Ahead’

He doesn’t complain, but he concedes that he finds it frustrating, as he nears his 42nd birthday, to compare his financial status with those of his contemporaries who have less education and narrower professional backgrounds.

“I look at the way other men can afford big houses and boats and great vacations,” he said. “I’ve worked hard. It took a lot of sacrifices for me to get my master’s degree, and I’m still not getting ahead.”

But, Tomlinson said, he has been lucky to have an understanding and supportive wife and children, especially during the strike. What happened at Monday night’s school board meeting is a good example, he said.

“Since I couldn’t go because of my night-time job, I left a note asking if someone in the family would go for me. I had an idea it would be Diane.”

His wife also attended the meeting, at which teachers and their supporters pleaded with the school board to resume negotiations for a new contract.

Message Applauded

“I was very proud of Diane and that she wanted to speak for her father at the microphone,” Sally Tomlinson said.

Diane Tomlinson’s message was among the briefer ones at the long meeting, but it drew thunderous applause.

She concluded by saying: “My dad was in his room at Foothill High School until 2:30 a.m. Wednesday (Oct. 2) making sure his sub would know what his students needed to learn this week. He is a dedicated teacher. . . . Keep the good teachers you have. Let them know you appreciate what they do for your children.”

Terry Tomlinson said he will stay in education “although the idea has crossed my mind to get into something else.”

He added: “People have told me I’d have been good in business--a perfect salesman, they’ve said. But I want to remain in education and motivate young people. I’m concerned about the future of the world.”