Santa Ana Teachers to Go Ahead With Talks

Santa Ana teachers and school administrators reported some movement in contract talks Wednesday and plan to resume negotiations Friday, thus delaying any strike for the next two days.

But on Wednesday many teachers said they might call in sick today in protest over contract talks, and school officials were making preparations in case there are any walkouts by teachers over the next two days.

Bill Ribblett, executive director of the Santa Ana Educators Assn., which represents the district’s 1,750 teachers, said the administration Wednesday offered a one-time-only 1% pay raise in addition to the 3% retroactive pay hike previously offered.

Ribblett said the district had also offered some other concessions, including unspecified increases for coaches, department chairmen and teachers who take on extra jobs, such as yearbook adviser.

“What they offered is not much, but it’s movement, and it’s enough to get us back to the table at 9 a.m. Friday,” he said.

The union and the district have been deadlocked since February. The union has asked for a 9% pay raise, and the district’s offer, before Wednesday, was 3%. The union, as part of its negotiation Wednesday, reportedly lowered its request to 8% for this school year but coupled that with a request for a 7.5% pay hike next year.

Ribblett said he knew of no wildcat protests planned by the teachers today, and he said the union has not sanctioned any such action. But others said many teachers are planning to be absent from classes today in an action similar to the sickout of last Friday. That unofficial demonstration resulted in about 300 teacher absences.

Diane Thomas, public information officer for Santa Ana Unified School District, said Wednesday afternoon: “We’ve also heard those rumors (of a new sickout), and we’re gearing up to take care of the situation should it arise. We hope, for the sake of the students, that it does not take place.”

Of the negotiations, Thomas said that “we’re pleased there was some movement, and we hope it continues.”

In anticipation of unusual absences today, Santa Ana Unified officials canceled permission for about 15 instructors to attend a two-day national convention of English teachers in Los Angeles.

“I was one of the teachers at the convention, and we got a call from someone in the district who said we couldn’t attend on Thursday,” said Sylvia Lee, an English teacher at Valley High School.

Lee said she and other teachers were “angry at this unprofessional conduct by the school district.”

Thomas confirmed that the school district has canceled some conferences and conventions involving its teachers “in an effort to free up as many subs as possible.”

She said substitute teachers are needed whenever regular instructors are absent at a conference. “We want to free up those subs for other places we might need them,” she added.

Finding teacher substitutes during strikes, or threatened strikes, can be difficult, education officials have said. Substitutes in such situations are considered “strikebreakers” and are scorned by teacher associations.

The Orange teachers’ union this week notified the Santa Ana union that it wanted the names of any teacher substitutes or administrators from Orange Unified who filled in during the sickout Friday. Unions in other school districts similarly warn their teachers not to work as substitutes in places having labor demonstrations.

School officials in Santa Ana have privately said they expect demonstrations, such as sickouts, both today and Friday. The officials noted that after Friday, the school system has a week of regularly scheduled Easter vacation.

At the teachers’ meeting Tuesday, there were calls for sickouts Thursday and Friday. Gail King-Burney, president of the association, warned the teachers, however, that the union would not and could not sanction such wildcat actions.