Local News in Brief : North County : Anaheim Union High Teacher Protest Called
A union representing Anaheim Union High School District teachers has called for picketing today by instructors at every school in the sprawling district.
The protest is aimed at underscoring teacher unhappiness and solidarity over stalled contract negotiations, according to Leonard Lahtinen, president of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Assn.
Lahtinen said that Anaheim Union High School District and the Centralia Elementary School District are the only two in Orange County that have not concluded current-year contracts with their teachers.
District officials have said they cannot act until a state labor mediator meets with both sides. The mediator is scheduled to confer with district and union negotiators on Friday.
The union has asked that a new contract include contingency language to give teachers money from any year-end surplus or from state funds that may come from the passage last fall of Proposition 98, which requires proportional increases in state funding for schools each year.
The district so far has offered no new increase. Board president Jo Ann Barnett has said, “We just do not have any money.”
The 20,000-student district includes high schools and junior highs in most of Anaheim and for the cities of La Palma and Cypress.
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