Fullerton : Board Ratifies Contract Raising Teachers’ Pay

Five months of bargaining between representatives of Fullerton teachers and Fullerton Joint Union High School District officials have ended with the board of trustees’ ratification of a 1985-86 pay-raise contract.

The board Tuesday night approved a total compensation package, including a 10.84% salary increase for the 466 teachers, according to Joan Mann, the district’s public information and community development specialist.

The teachers, who had been working without a contract since July, declared an impasse in September because negotiators could not resolve a dispute over salaries and working conditions. Since then, both sides had been meeting with a state-appointed mediator.

Union members ratified the new contract Monday, with the board giving its unanimous approval Tuesday.

Mann said beginning annual teacher salaries will rise from $17,753 to $19,677. Salaries for teachers at the top of the seniority scale--where 72% of the Fullerton teachers fall--will increase from $38,707 to $42,903, she said.

The new contract includes increased seniority pay and extra-duties compensation, as well as improvements in health plans, Mann said.

District Supt. Robert C. Martin said Wednesday that he is “pleased with the results” of the contract negotiations and that representatives of both sides made a “good, fair and equitable settlement.”

Union president Bill Dunton said that while “teachers are satisfied at this stage of the game, we are going to go ahead pushing programs that are concerns of the teachers.”