District, Teachers Declare Impasse : Escondido Talks Break Down Over Assignment Provision

An impasse in the negotiations between the administration and teachers of the Escondido Elementary School District has been declared, and a state mediator will be called in to unsnarl the bargaining talks, district officials announced Friday.

At issue, according to the district administration, is a provision in the contract that discusses the manner in which kindergarten teachers are assigned duties to complete their workday after their kindergarten pupils are dismissed.

But the president of the teacher’s union says his group had agreed to a district offer to resolve the issue and that he is now confused, frustrated and disappointed because the district changed its position on the matter.

The contract snag is the first significant labor problem in the 10,800-pupil district since teachers went on a 13-day strike in January, 1984. That strike occurred after the teachers asked for a contract provision calling for grievances to be resolved by binding arbitration and the district refused to go along with the idea. The teachers relented and returned to work, and the question of binding arbitration on contract disputes has not resurfaced as a bargaining issue.

Associate Supt. Elmer Cameron said the current talks broke down Thursday afternoon solely over the issue of work assignments for kindergarten teachers. They, like other teachers in the district, are required to put in a 300-minute workday even though their pupils are in school for only 200 minutes.

The current contract calls for kindergarten teachers to work their last 100 minutes by helping in other classrooms, as mutually agreed by the teacher and school principal.

Cameron said the district wants the principal to have the authority to assign a teacher to a particular classroom even if the teacher disagrees with the choice.

“It can come to a standstill on where the teacher has to work his last 100 minutes if they don’t come to an agreement,” Cameron said. “Ultimately, the principal has to have the responsibility in assigning the teacher.”

Cameron said there have not been any problems in this regard, “but an issue has come up recently which caused us to consider this.”

Rob Robinson, president of the 342-teacher Escondido Elementary Educators Assn., said Friday that the district has created a contract snag where none existed.

“On Aug. 21, they proposed language on the kindergarten day which was acceptable to us. We told them we would sign it, but then they didn’t sign it,” he said.

The teachers learned Thursday that the district wanted to change the language in the contract to give principals authority in deciding kindergarten teachers’ work assignments. The teachers suggested a compromise in which the district superintendent, as opposed to the principal, would rule on work assignments not agreed upon by teacher and principal, Robinson said.

“They left the bargaining table, came back an hour later and threw on the table a whole new document” that included changes in contract provisions that had been discussed and agreed upon, Robinson said.

“The district wants to go to an impasse over an issue involving just one incident?” Robinson asked rhetorically. “The kindergarten teacher should have some input on where that last 100 minutes should be spent, and since that’s already in the contract, it would be foolish for the association to give it up.”

Salaries are apparently not an issue in the current contract talks; Robinson and Cameron said the two sides have agreed on a 6% pay raise for teachers, although it is not among the 14 tentative agreements already signed.

Cameron said the declaration of an impasse “is not ominous. It’s just another tool to help us settle our differences.”

The teachers are continuing to work under a contract that expired in June. The current contract talks began in April.