Teachers Protest Handbills That Back Settlement

Claiming there has been “a deception” about a proposed contract settlement made last week, about 75 Santa Ana Unified School District teachers picketed in front of Saddleback High School on Sunday afternoon and urged rejection of the pact.

The 1,750 teachers in the district are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to ratify a new three-year contract. The demonstrating teachers said Sunday that the initial information they got about the contract last week about how much money they would get was misleading.

“We think we’ve been deceived by both the (teachers’) association and the school district,” said one of the demonstrators, Doug Dyer, a Santa Ana High School social science teacher.

The agreement hammered out by the teachers’ union and school district management Thursday night calls for a 5% one-time-only pay raise for the current school year and a 7% permanent pay raise for the 1988-89 school year.

But announcements that went to teachers’ mailboxes Friday did not specify that the 5% pay raise for 1987-88 would be a one-time bonus, rather than a permanent pay hike.

‘No Attempt to Deceive’

Spokespersons for the teachers’ union and the school district management said Sunday there had been no attempt to deceive. Both said it was an oversight. “We wrote up a fact sheet about the settlement at 8:30 Thursday night after we had been up all night negotiating the previous night,” said Bill Ribblett, executive director of the union, the Santa Ana Educators Assn. “We were tired. We made a stupid mistake. The teachers are right to be angry, but it wasn’t meant to be deceptive.”

Santa Ana Unified Asst. Supt. Don Champlin said Sunday that lack of explanation in the flyers Friday was an oversight. “We were working on this (information flyer to teachers) late Thursday night, and we failed to put the information in (about the 5% being a one-time bonus),” he said. “It was just an error.”

Ribblett reiterated his support for the proposed new contract: “I think it’s the best we could get under the circumstances.”

However, the demonstrating teachers said the contract should be rejected.

One of the signs carried by the teachers read: “Bogus Bonus.” Another sign read: “All of Saddleback Does Not Agree. Vote No.”

Nick Lima, a history and government teacher at Santa Ana Valley High, was among the demonstrators. He said he is urging all his fellow teachers to vote against ratification. “I’m opposed to it because of the deceptions presented to the teachers,” he said.

Karen Conlay, a math teacher at Valley High, said: “Our district badly needs respect, and this contract is not the kind that would give us respect. Our (teachers’) association gave up too many things.”

Demonstrators chose Saddleback High for the protest because a reception was being held there Sunday afternoon for an accrediting team visiting the district.

Santa Ana Unified teachers have been without a contract since July 1, when their last contract expired. Spokespersons for the teachers’ union and school district have said that the major point of disagreement before Thursday was how much of a pay raise the teachers should get. The proposed settlement Thursday night came as a strike threat hovered over the 38,500-student school district. The teachers, at a mass meeting March 22, had voted authorization for a strike but set no date for a walkout.

According to school district figures, the current pay in Santa Ana Unified ranges from $20,670 for a beginning teacher to $41,383 for the most senior instructor. The average teacher’s salary, according to the district, is $31,800. Some of the teachers picketing Sunday, however, said that figure is too high.

In the meantime, teachers in the adjacent Orange Unified School District are scheduled to go on a one-day strike Tuesday. Teachers in Orange Unified are seeking a 3.15% pay raise for the current school year; the school district’s offer is for 2.54%.