The Region - News from Oct. 10, 1985

Tustin teachers voted to return to classrooms without a contract today. Only about four of 200 teachers at a closed meeting voted to continue their strike, union officials said. About 240 of Tustin’s 397 regular teachers have been on strike since Oct. 2, Sandy Banis, president of the Tustin Educators Assn., said after the vote. “We’re going back to our classrooms, but now we’re going into Phase II,” Banis said. “Phase II is where we work to unseat two (school board members), recall three.” The teachers plan to work for the defeat of two incumbents seeking reelection Nov. 5 and to recall the remaining three members. Key issue in the strike is teachers’ insistence on an 8.1% pay hike for the current year and a 6.3% retroactive pay raise for the 1984-85 school year. The district’s last offer was a flat 8.2% pay raise.