Teachers, Bonita School District Officials Strike Accord After 2 Years

Teachers and school district officials in San Dimas and La Verne have reached a truce of sorts after almost 2 years of discord.

In 2 days of negotiations last week with a state mediator, officials from the Bonita Unified School District and the Bonita Unified Teachers Assn. agreed to drop six complaints of unfair labor practices they had exchanged since a bitter salary dispute last year.

As part of the agreement, signed Nov. 3 by Supt. Duane Dishno and union President Dan Harden, the district conceded that teachers have the right to wear pro-union buttons in the classroom. Dishno also promised to remove letters of reprimand from the personnel files of teachers who wore the buttons in defiance of a district order during a March, 1987, salary dispute.

The agreement included an assurance that the wearing of buttons by teachers would not disrupt the educational process.

Reimbursement Due

The district also agreed to reimburse more than 200 teachers for money deducted from their paychecks after a 2-day strike in September of this year. The pay of each striking teacher was docked $65.55 to cover the cost of substitutes retained when the union failed to notify the district of its plan to call off the strike.

In return, the teachers association agreed to drop a lawsuit filed against the district in Los Angeles Superior Court, in which it alleged the salary deductions were illegal.

The district and the union also agreed not to make public a report now being prepared by a state-appointed fact-finder until both sides have received a copy. The district dropped a complaint it filed last year, charging the teachers association had prematurely released the fact-finder’s recommendations to the media as a bargaining ploy.

Despite the number of concessions made by the district, Dishno said he was “very pleased” with the agreement.

‘Important Step’

“At least it puts this part of our differences behind us,” he said. “I think it’s an important step forward.”

Dan Harden, president of the Bonita Unified Teachers Assn., also expressed satisfaction with the agreement, stressing that its purpose was to resolve some long-standing conflicts, not to wring concessions from the district.

“We weren’t trying to balance who was giving up what,” Harden said. “Our approach was, ‘Let’s just clear the slate and get on with business.’ It seemed we were dealing too much with things that had happened in the past.”

While the agreement has no bearing on the current salary dispute, both sides pledged to seek a 3-year wage and benefits package to avoid the annual bickering that has plagued the district in recent years.

In the current impasse, the teachers association is demanding a 6.2% increase in salaries, which currently range between $20,265 and $41,926. Members of the school board say the district is financially strapped and can afford only a 3.8% increase.

Review by Board

Last Monday, the two offers were reviewed by a 3-member board made up of Tom Brown of the California Teachers Assn., Carol Stevens, an attorney representing the district, and Geraldine Randall, a neutral fact-finder provided by the state Public Employment Relations Employment Board.

The three are expected to resume negotiations today, and Randall is due to issue her fact-finding report by Nov. 18.

The teachers association has called on the school board to agree to be bound by the recommendations contained in the fact-finding report. Board members have refused to do so, arguing that it would be an abdication of their responsibilities.

The association’s complaint regarding the wearing of pro-union buttons stemmed from the March, 1987, impasse, when teachers were reprimanded for sporting badges proclaiming, “School board victim on board.” After the district forbade teachers from displaying the slogan, they wore the badges backwards with the words, “We are united,” written on the reverse side.

Hopeful Sign

Dishno said he hopes the agreement reached last week is a sign that the days of such rancor are nearing an end.

“I felt that both sides entered those discussions in a spirit of compromise,” he said. “I hope that this is the beginning of the end of the conflict.”

Harden was cautiously optimistic that the agreement signaled an easing of tensions between management and the union.

“I’m hopeful that it’s a sign that our relationship is improving,” he said, “but that remains to be seen.”