A Main Strike Issue Is a Matter of Mathematics

One of the key issues in the Tustin teachers’ dispute with the school board is teacher pay. Teachers claim they are paid less than their peers; the district claims otherwise. The issue is complicated because of the intricacies of the salary process.

Different school districts use different salary schedules to compute teacher pay, and each schedule breaks down salaries according to length of teaching experience and the teacher’s level of education.

Every teacher in Tustin also receives an annual “step” increase of $841 each year the teacher works in the district.

Contrasted with other teachers in the county, Tustin’s teachers have suffered because they have not signed a contract since the 1983-84 school year.

When they last had a contract, Tustin teachers ranked seventh in beginning salary contrasted with teachers in the county’s other unified school districts. Their top salary ranked sixth.

Last in Salaries

By rejecting the district’s 1984-85 offer of a 3.8% pay increase to compensate teachers for increased school days required by the state, the teachers now find themselves last in minimum and maximum salaries contrasted with the county’s other unified districts.

Teachers rejected the district’s offer last year because the district did not include a cost-of-living increase. The district claimed that it did not have enough money for the increase. While other unified school districts received an average 4.8% cost-of-living raise last year, Tustin teachers stayed at their 1983-84 salary levels.

For the past two weeks as the teachers held rallies and gained public attention, the issue of average teacher salaries was confused.

Maurice Ross, Tustin’s superintendent, said that the average pay for teachers in the district is $29,764 a year, which, he added, is among the highest average in Orange County. Hazel Stover, a California Teachers Assn. board member who is advising the union’s Tustin local, said that the average teacher salary in Tustin is $29,009 a year. Stover said that figure ranks 29th out of the 29 school districts in the county.

But there are many different ways to determine average salary. Because older districts often have more experienced--and therefore more highly paid--teachers, the county does not maintain statistics on districts’ average salaries. Rather, the county averages two figures: beginning pay and maximum pay in each district.

Different Systems Used

The different systems used by districts to determine individual teacher’s pay are based on the number of graduate units a teacher has completed. In some districts, a teacher can be held at a lower salary level until the teacher has completed enough units to move up to the next salary threshold.

According to Michael Kilbourn, director of special services for the county’s Department of Education, Tustin’s system of determining teachers’ salaries “is probably the best for teachers.”

Tustin, unlike some districts, gives teachers a $60 salary increase for each unit of graduate study a teacher completes. In other districts, teachers must complete a number of graduate units before they reach the next pay step. In the Garden Grove Unified School District, for example, a teacher with less than 40 units of graduate work would be paid at the 30-unit level until that teacher reached the next salary level of 45 units.

Tustin’s system, Kilbourn said, is “probably more expensive for the district since teachers get that increase for every graduate unit they take.”

Where Tustin Teachers Stand 1984-1985 School Year Minimum Teacher Salary Maximum Teach 1. Irvine $19,084 Laguna Beach 2. Garden Grove $19,084 Los Alamitos 3. Santa Ana $19,084 Garden Grove 4. Orange $18,598 Placentia 5. Newport-Mesa $18,282 Irvine 6. Placentia $17,916 Capistrano 7. Saddleback Valley $17,653 Newport-Mesa 8. Los Alamitos $16,039 Orange 9. Laguna Beach $15,968 Brea-Olinda 10. Brea-Olinda $15,713 Saddleback Valley 11. Tustin $15,023 Tustin

Minimum Teacher Salary 1. Irvine $34,473 2. Garden Grove $34,428 3. Santa Ana $34,146 4. Orange $32,836 5. Newport-Mesa $32,694 6. Placentia $32,166 7. Saddleback Valley $32,046 8. Los Alamitos $31,708 9. Laguna Beach $31,535 10. Brea-Olinda $30,113 11. Tustin $29,564

If Tustin teachers had not rejected the district’s 3.8% salary increase offer during the 1984-85 school year, they would have ranked 10th in maximum salary and last in minimum salary. In the 1983-84 school year, the last year Tustin teachers had a contract, Tustin ranked seventh in minimum salary and sixth in maximum salary. Minimum salary requirements vary from district to district but generally a teacher receiving a minimum salary is in his or her first year of teaching with a bachelor’s degree and no units of graduate work. Maximum salary requirements also very but include at least 60 units of graduate work (a master’s degree may be required) and at least 10 years of teaching experience.

Tustin’s Salary Proposals 1985-86 With Union With District Tustin Teacher Proposal Proposal Salary Minimum: $15,023 $17,186 $16,254 Maximum: $29,564 $33,821 $31,988

Excluding annual step increases

Tustin Contrasted With Other Districts

Irvine and Garden Grove Unified School Districts are the only two districts with comparable final contracts for the 1985-86 school year but both ranked within the five top-paying districts in 1984-85.

1985-86 Irvine 1985-86 Garden Grove Teacher Salary Teacher Salary Minimum: $19,773 Minimum: $20,229 Maximum: $33,874 Maximum: $36,195

Excluding annual step increases SOURCES: Orange County Dept. of Education, Tustin Unified School District and Tustin Educators Assn.