Placentia’s Teachers to ‘Slow Down’

Angered by an impasse in pay-raise negotiations, the 752 teachers in Placentia Unified School District plan to start “a work slowdown” on Thursday.

The teachers said the action will mean not taking school work home, such as papers to grade, and not performing unpaid extra duties, such as supervising school clubs.

“The work slowdown will be in effect until a settlement is reached,” said Donna Frizell, a committee chairwoman for the teachers’ union, the Placentia Unified Education Assn.

Not a ‘No-Show’

“This is not a work stoppage or no-show,” union president Wendell Bainter said. “All the teachers will be at work. It is an effort to show the district and the parents all the work that teachers must do in addition to their regular teaching.”

The teachers’ union is asking for an 8% pay increase this year. The Placentia Unified School District’s last offer was for a 5% boost. Both sides declared an impasse in January. In California labor negotiations, that means the state now must provide a mediator--a neutral third party--to try to bring the two sides together. No sessions with the mediator have yet been held.

At issue is the third year of an existing three-year contract that has been reopened to negotiations. Two other issues being negotiated are the union’s demand that maximum class sizes be reduced by one student and that teachers have more say about additional duties they are assigned.

Said union president Bainter: “The direction we are going to give to our teachers is to refrain from taking papers home to grade, lessons to prepare and so forth. We are telling teachers to leave their schools as soon as they are prepared for the next day, which is what our contract calls for.”

Timothy VanEck, an assistant superintendent for the district, said: “Our only comment is that we don’t know what to expect in terms of a work slowdown. The concern of the district is that the teachers don’t do anything to hurt the welfare of any of our students.”

VanEck said the district “is a little surprised” that the union launched the protest move before any meetings were held with the state mediator.

Teacher pay in the district now ranges from $20,050 for a beginning teacher to slightly more than $38,000 for the most senior, experienced teacher. VanEck said the average teacher’s pay is $32,500 “and that does not include the benefits.”