Stalled Pay Talks Anger L.B. Faculty

An estimated 400 teachers packed the regular meeting of the Long Beach Board of Education on Monday to protest stalled contract negotiations with the district.

They also criticized the $90,000 salary the board will pay its recently hired superintendent, E. Tom Giugni. His district includes Catalina.

Giugni, head of the Sacramento City Unified School District, was appointed at a special board meeting last Thursday. His four-year contract, effective Feb. 1, calls for an annual salary of $90,000. Giugni currently makes $70,000 a year. Francis Laufenberg, the Long Beach superintendent who retired in July, earned about $77,000.

District officials have justified Giugni’s salary as comparable to that paid the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, which is about the same size, and by explaining that it represents financial compensation for benefits Giugni will lose by coming to Long Beach.

Don Goddard, president of the Teachers Assn. of Long Beach, said members of his organization are disturbed that the board has given such a hefty raise to the superintendent when it has taken nearly eight months of negotiating to get the school board to offer a modest wage increase to the teachers. The union has rejected that proposal.

‘Angry and Frustrated’

“I know that the teachers are angry and frustrated,” Goddard said. “More and more are (talking about) leaving the district.”

The Public Employee Relations Board in Los Angeles ruled earlier this week that an impasse exists in the negotiations and assigned a mediator to work with negotiators toward reaching a settlement. The contract expired three months ago.

Goddard said representatives of both sides will meet with the mediator Monday.

Long Beach teachers earn $19,749 a year to start. The top of the scale is $36,985 for teachers with master’s degrees and 24 years of experience. Under the district’s last proposal, salaries for beginning teachers would go to $20,600, with the most experienced teachers earning $39,155.