San Diego Teachers, District Agree to Interim Accord at Honig’s Urging

With prodding from state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, San Diego teachers and school administrators have agreed to a small pay raise in their long-stalled contract dispute, and have postponed bargaining on other items in order to form a united front on upcoming ballot issues seeking more education funding.

The two sides announced Monday an interim arrangement in which teachers will agree to a further extension of the contract under which they have worked since July 1, 1986, but with a 2.5% pay raise and a one-time, half-percent bonus retroactive to the expiration date. The teachers will drop further bargaining on non-salary disagreements until after the November general election. The contract originally expired June 30, 1987.

Honig had counseled both the San Diego Unified School District’s 6,400 teachers and the administrators to put aside as many of their differences as possible in light of critical ballot proposals to raise money for schools. He stressed that dissension in San Diego--home to the state’s second-largest school district and to the nation’s eighth-largest, with 115,000 students--would be very serious in terms of affecting public perception toward the ballot measures.

“It’s very important for everyone where they can get together (to) get together,” Honig said at a press conference in San Diego to announce the agreement. “This is a critical time for all of us in education.”

Proposition 71 on the statewide ballot in June would adjust the so-called Gann limit on state spending to permit funding increases based on student population growth as well as on California cost-of-living increases. A local June measure placed by the district, Proposition Y, will ask voters to raise property taxes for school construction and remodeling.

In addition, Honig hopes to qualify for the November ballot--with the help of teachers groups carrying petitions--an initiative to provide stable state funding each year for schools, which could bring reductions in class size. The two state measures could make available $700 million or more a year for education.

“We believe that there is widespread support in the public for these school initiatives and the chances for passage are good,” Don Crawford, president of the San Diego Teachers Assn., said at a press conference Monday. “We are also realistic enough to know and to agree with (Honig) that public support could be dissipated if we found ourselves, before the elections, in a teachers strike or other concerted bargaining support efforts.”

The association had asked for an 8.5% salary increase plus additional teacher preparation time and other non-money improvements. But its officials had said that teachers would settle for less money if the district compromised on other matters.

The district had offered only the 2.5% raise plus the bonus, citing budget shortages caused by a cut in state funds because of the Gann limit.

“The leadership of the association is not, frankly, pleased with the current state of negotiations in our district . . . but we agreed that a means had to be found to lay aside immediate differences and take a look at the bigger, long-term picture,” Crawford said.

But he added that success of the ballot measures would mean more state funding, and “teachers would be looking for improvements (in contract offers) next fall.”

District Supt. Tom Payzant ruled out any firm commitment now to more funds for teachers should the various propositions prove successful. “But we do acknowledge that if additional resources become available, then teachers in their negotiations will be buttressed by reality and will have a stronger case for extra money,” Payzant said.

The increase agreed to Monday will cost the district $7.2 million. The remaining issues will be carried over to fact-finding next fall, in which neutral parties examine the positions of both sides and issue a report analyzing them.

Payzant said he hopes to build on the current cooperative atmosphere and reach agreement on a multiyear contract next fall.