Las Virgenes Teachers Begin Vote on Pact Amid Cries of Frustration

Teachers in the Las Virgenes Unified School District began voting Thursday on a proposed two-year contract with many of the instructors still unhappy over salary terms.

Raises that will average 8% this year and will start at 4% next year were criticized by some of the teachers who filled the Agoura High School auditorium for the ratification vote as too small.

About three-fourths of Las Virgenes’ 336 teachers cast secret ballots on the contract. The rest will have a chance to vote today at their schools, leaders of the Las Virgenes Educators Assn. said.

Jerry Pearson, executive director of the teachers union, predicted the tentative pact will be approved, despite “anger and frustration” among instructors in the 7,950-pupil Las Virgenes district.

“I don’t expect it to pass by a wide margin, but it would surprise me if it didn’t pass,” Pearson said.

Announcement Due Today

Teachers union officials hurried from the auditorium to count the first-day votes, but refused to comment Thursday night on the results. They said they would announce the outcome at 4 p.m. today.

That schedule caught school district officials by surprise. They had expected a quick ratification by the union and had planned an unusual 7 a.m. meeting of the Las Virgenes Board of Education today to approve the pact.

School Supt. Albert D. Marley said board members would instead be asked this morning to tentatively approve it, making their stand contingent on the union’s ratification.

That appeared to be far from a sure thing Thursday as teachers debated the provisions of the contract proposal with members of their bargaining team.

The pact would grant a 6% across-the-board pay raise, retroactive to the start of the current school year. Teachers at the upper end of the pay scale would receive bonuses that would increase the average raise to 8%.

Bonuses to Be Paid

The 4% across-the-board raise next year would be beefed up with bonuses tied to the average raises that 11 other area school districts give their teachers next year.

“I’m personally not going to vote for it,” one teacher shouted from the rear of the room. He charged that the pact lacked guarantees for raises and would cause teachers to lose “leverage” in dealing with the school district.

Union negotiator Bob Rizzardi, an Agoura High social studies teacher, defended the contract. He said it contains “very clearly identified procedures” for next year’s pay increases.

As ballots were deposited in a cardboard box on the high school stage, teachers remained divided.

‘I’m Not Satisfied’

“I’m not satisfied,” said high school biology and English teacher Douglas Pollock, who is among about 80 teachers who will only receive the minimum 6% raise this year. “This increase is a bare minimum. They can afford much more. I think the school board needs to find out what teachers do and pay them for it.”

If the pact is approved, Pollock said, Las Virgenes teachers “shouldn’t start teaching a year from September until we get satisfactory compensation.”

Middle-school English and social studies teacher Barbara Alaynick supported the settlement.

“It’s the best that can be done. We’ve run through some very difficult times and hopefully we’re at the bottom,” Alaynick said.

She said the contract ratification poses a “difficult, emotional” decision for teachers because they were involved in a bitter 1979 strike. That walkout paralyzed the Las Virgenes district and divided the community, situated between Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks. “I don’t think we’ll every totally get over it,” Alaynick said of the strike.