Anaheim Trustees Agree to Reopen Contract Talks With Teachers

Trustees of the Anaheim Union High School District announced Thursday that they have accepted a request from teachers to return to the bargaining table to resolve the contract dispute that led to a 1-day teacher strike May 10.

The strike, the first in the district’s more than 90-year history, disrupted the school day as nearly 700 of the district’s 900 teachers stayed off the job. And because 46% of the district’s 22,000 students reported absent that day, the district could lose as much as $163,000 in state funds that are granted based on average daily attendance figures.

Negotiations between the teachers and the school district--which serves intermediate and secondary students in most of Anaheim, as well as La Palma and Cypress--have been at an impasse since January. The teachers have been working without a contract since the previous one expired in August, and feelings on both sides have grown even more bitter since the strike.

Negotiators for the teachers union have said they are willing to go along with the district’s salary offer for this year, which could mean only a 1% wage increase, because the raise is tied to budget surpluses.

But the district has refused to go along with the teachers’ demand that they receive a 3.2% increase next year, plus a portion of any surplus the district would have after it set aside a 3% reserve. District officials say they cannot meet those wage demands because the district is suffering from rapidly declining enrollment.

After last week’s surprise announcement in Sacramento that the state had a projected $2.5-billion budget surplus, Anaheim teachers wrote to trustees and invited them back to the bargaining table.

At Thursday night’s trustee meeting, Board President JoAnn Barnett said district negotiators accepted the invitation to reopen contract talks. The first new bargaining session will be Tuesday.

“Although the district is faced with many unknowns, there is guarded optimism that (the district’s financial problems) may be alleviated during the next school year,” Barnett said. “Our goal is and will continue to be to live up to the expectations of the community to deliver quality education.”

After her brief remarks, Leonard Lahtinen, president of the teachers union, presented the results of a vote of confidence that teachers had recently taken regarding Supt. Cynthia Grenan.

Lack of Confidence

As Grenan sat red-faced alongside the trustees, Lahtinen said 94%--or 706 teachers--indicated that they lack confidence in the superintendent’s leadership.

“Do not confuse this vote with the bargaining crisis (strike) vote,” Lahtinen said. “Teachers who went on strike 2 weeks ago were voting with their feet to support (the union’s) efforts to get a contract settlement.”

He said the Grenan no-confidence vote is a culmination of 10 years of tense relations between teachers, administrators and board members, beginning with a recall in November, 1979, involving three of five board members.

“Now, 10 years later, we must ask what progress has this district made and where is the district leadership taking us,” he said.

Lahtinen added that the vote “should clearly indicate that in addition to the bargaining crisis that needs to be resolved in this district we also have a leadership crisis.”

A Calmer Meeting

Thursday’s board meeting was calmer than one 2 weeks ago--the day after the strike--when an overflow crowd of teachers jeered trustees and waived protest signs.

The most tense moment Thursday came when Barnett told about 80 teachers present that the board had allowed Lahtinen to speak at the beginning of the meeting so that they could “go home and prepare lesson plans or do whatever teachers do.” Teachers in the audience booed loudly, and one yelled: “You need to go visit a classroom, Barnett!”

Lahtinen has said that Anaheim teachers can’t help but compare their situation with that of striking Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, who on Thursday approved the district’s latest 3-year contract offer of 8% raises over each of the next 3 years.

He said Anaheim teachers are dismayed that while they are asking for a much smaller pay increase than their Los Angeles counterparts, they still appear to be far from reaching a settlement.

“We’re not even in the ballpark of getting what we want compared to what they got,” Lahtinen said.