HOW THEY STAND IN SEVEN SCHOOL DISTRICTS

In the teacher-contract disputes in Orange County, no union is on the verge of a strike. By state law, negotiations go through a series of steps before a strike can be initiated. The first step is a declaration of impasse. A state mediator then intervenes, trying to get both sides to agree. If mediation fails, “fact-finding” is the next step. This involves a three-person team (one named by the union, one by the district and a third mutually agreed upon) that examines the issues and makes a report. The two sides can make a settlement based on the fact-finding, or a union can then decide to strike.

Here are summaries of unresolved disputes over teacher contracts in seven Orange County school districts.

FULLERTON JOINT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Teachers, whose contract expired June 30, and the district have been at impasse in contract negotiations since September. The teachers union, the Fullerton Secondary Teachers Organization, and the district are now scheduled for fact-finding beginning March 18. The district’s 450 teachers want a 4.5% pay raise, but the district’s last offer was for a 2.05% raise, said Deputy Supt. Ken Jones. Teacher salaries average $40,000, he said.

The 2.05% offer “is all we can afford out of the general fund,” said Jones, referring to district funds that are not dedicated to building or other special projects.

Sondra Viorden, president of the teachers union, said she believes money is available for a bigger pay raise. “Our district has money available in both the lottery money and in reserves that are not restricted by state law but by the local board,” she said. “This is my 19th year in the district, and I’ve never seen the teachers quite as angry and upset as they are this year about the way the district refuses to budge.”

HUNTINGTON BEACH CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

This kindergarten-to-eighth-grade district has about 5,300 pupils. Negotiations have been at impasse since Feb. 10, and a state-appointed mediator is scheduled to work with both sides Tuesday. The Huntington Beach Elementary Teachers Assn. is asking for a pay package that amounts to about a 5.5% to 6% increase, said union president Carol Autrey. The district has offered a 3.5% pay raise.

“I think our district should pay our teachers at least as much as the average settlement for other elementary school districts in Orange County, and that’s about 5%,” Autrey said. “I think the district has the money. . . . We are not asking for the world.”

Assistant Supt. Ron Brown said the average teacher salary is about $37,190. He said the district will have to dip into its fiscal reserves, reducing them to 4%, and also will have to cut $500,000 from its budget next year to be able to afford a two-year contract that would give the 3.5% pay raise for the current school year. “Quite frankly, we have reached our limit,” Brown said. “It is all we can offer.”

MAGNOLIA SCHOOL DISTRICT

Negotiations for a new contract deadlocked in early January, said Arch Haskins, superintendent of the elementary district that serves parts of Anaheim and Stanton. Mediation with a state-appointed official began Feb. 29. The district is seeking a one-year contract. A pay raise for the teachers would be retroactive to the first of the school year.

Haskins said the district is financially strapped and its last formal offer was for a 2.5% pay raise, which is what the district gave to its management employees.

The teachers union, the Magnolia Educators Assn., is asking for at least a 5% pay raise. Karen Bisel, co-president, said: “We feel the money is there. It’s a matter of priorities. Similar districts in the county have been able to settle for an average of about 5%.”

In rebuttal, Haskins noted that Magnolia gets lower per-student financing than some neighboring districts. “We get less money than Cypress and Centralia school districts, even though all three of us are so much alike we are like clones,” Haskins said. “There is a disparity (in state funding) that is unjust and which most people simply don’t know about.”

Magnolia is again growing in enrollment after years of decline, and has about 4,400 students and 207 teachers. The average teacher salary, according to district figures, is $33,703.

NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Deadlock over the teachers’ request for a pay raise has put this 16,000-student district, which serves Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, into the fact-finding stage of negotiations. Phyllis Pipes, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, said the union is asking for a 5% pay raise retroactive to the beginning of the school year. “The district is offering zero percent,” she said. “Nothing. They’re trying to say that a change in salary schedules that went into effect last year is our raise, but we never agreed for that change to be our pay raise for 1987-88.”

Assistant Supt. Carol Berg disputed the contention that there has been no raise. She said the district two years ago negotiated a sweeping change in the teachers’ salary schedule--the chart that determines how teachers get pay raises for each year of service and for added college credit. “That change went into effect last year, and over a two-year period, it is costing the district the equivalent of an 11% pay raise for the teachers.”

Pipes countered that teachers must complete credits, such as taking added college courses, to be eligible for the advanced steps in pay on the new salary schedule. Berg acknowledged that requirement but said it was neither burdensome nor unfair.

According to district figures, the average teacher’s salary in Newport-Mesa is about $35,000 a year.

ORANGE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Court action has resulted from teacher unrest in this district. After unsuccessfully negotiating for a pay raise, the teachers began picketing in front of school board members’ homes. The school district went to court, asking for an order against the picketing, but a Superior Court judge ruled that the teachers could continue.

Ted Bynum, executive director of the Orange Unified Education Assn., said the 1,100 teachers in the district are waiting for a fact-finding report. The district has a three-year contract with the teachers that does not expire until 1989. But under a “reopener” clause, the teachers are seeking an annual pay raise.

The teachers are asking for a 6.3% pay raise split over two years. The school district’s last offer was for a 2.54% one-year pay raise.

“The state gave us only a 2.5% increase in money, so how can we offer more?” Supt. John Ikerd said. “We’ve opened up our books to the teachers. We’ve been as open as we can be.” He said the district just does not have the money.

Bynum disagreed. “The district is spending money. It’s making choices. It has the choice in the matter of pay.”

Orange Unified has had declining enrollment for the past seven years, Ikerd noted, and has had to close six schools in recent years. The average teacher salary, Ikerd said, is $33,307.

SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

The teachers’ three-year contract expired June 30. Talks for a new contract were declared at impasse in mid-February.

Bill Ribblett, representing the Santa Ana Educators Assn., said the union has asked for a 9% pay raise, retroactive to last July 1, for the current school year and an additional 9% pay raise for the 1988-89 school year.

Assistant Supt. Don Champlin said the district’s last offer was for a 3% pay raise for the current school year, retroactive to July 1, and a 3% raise for the next school year.

Ribblett said Santa Ana Unified, the largest district in Orange County with about 38,500 students, is continually growing and thus getting more state money each year. “In a growth school district, there should be more money available to pay the teachers,” he said.

But more children hasn’t meant a bonanza of unspent state funds, Champlin said. “The added students mean that added numbers of teachers must be hired. There are more textbooks to be bought,” he said.

“To provide for the pay raise we are offering, the district will have to cut into its reserve, leaving only 1.5% of the year’s budget for emergencies, and that’s pretty dangerous,” he said. The average teacher salary of about $31,130 has been greatly lowered in recent years because 200 new teachers came into the system at entry-level salaries, he noted.

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL DISTRICT

“We’re getting close to making a declaration of impasse,” said Marty Kahn, a union official who negotiates for the 360 teachers of the Westminster Teachers Assn. Kahn said the association is seeking to reopen the existing contract for pay raises. The association is asking for a 4% increase retroactive to July 1 and an additional 2% retroactive to Feb. 1.

The kindergarten-to-eighth-grade district, which has about 7,500 students, gave teachers a 1.5% raise at the beginning of the year, said Barbara Winars, administrator for personnel services. She said the board has also offered teachers a 2.54% pay raise retroactive to July 1. “That would be a total pay raise of 4.04%,” she said.

That’s not enough, Kahn said. “The district has a larger reserve this year because it didn’t spend all the money it said it planned to.” Kahn said the district can use some other funds, such as from the sale of old buildings and grounds, to pay current expenses and thus free more money for pay raises.

Winars, who said teachers average $33,266 in salary, said the district has already tapped all the financial sources possible. “We are at our limits,” she said. “The district may have to cut programs and contemplate layoffs if we are to consider a pay raise for next year. We have a very serious financial condition.”