Teachers Still Fighting for Higher Pay in Anaheim

Teachers at the Anaheim Union High School District, who staged a one-day strike last spring, began the first day of school Thursday still locked in a salary dispute they had thought would be settled with the district during the summer.

“We’re not pleased at all,” said Norma Potter, president of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Assn.

In June, teachers ratified a two-year contract that provides for a 1% salary increase for the school year that just ended, plus at least 3.2% for this school year. But the contract also said higher raises could be forthcoming once it was determined how much extra money the district received from a $2.5-billion state budget surplus.

The district has since learned it will receive about $5 million more than expected this school year. But in negotiations last week, teachers were told that they will not receive any share of the extra revenue.

Employee Benefits Cited

Supt. Cynthia F. Grennan said that teachers were, in effect, earning more money because certain employee benefits, such as medical insurance, have gone up and the district is picking up the extra costs. With that and other benefits, the raise actually totals about 7.2% for this year, she said, a number the teachers dispute.

Throughout the salary dispute, district administrators said they could not afford a teacher pay raise because more than two years of declining enrollment had eroded their financial base.

Grennan said the extra money, which amounts to about $259 more per student, is enough to balance the district’s budget--for the first time in 10 years. But she said nothing is left over for teacher salary increases exceeding 3.2% for this year.

Potter said the new contract prohibits any job actions such as another strike. However, she said, the association has told teachers in back-to-school newsletters to refrain from working any unpaid overtime.

Extracurricular Duties

She said that would mean teachers would be urged to no longer arrive before school or stay late to allow students to talk over problems or ask questions. Or it could mean that teachers would no longer lead extracurricular programs such as a foreign language club or the science club, for which they receive no extra compensation.

“It might be hard on students, and teachers don’t want to do that,” Potter said. “Most teachers will probably do it anyway even if we tell them not to.”

The one-day strike, when nearly 700 of the district’s 900 teachers stayed away from the classrooms, has left bitter feelings in its wake, Potter said.

When she took over as president of the association this summer, Potter said she went to the Board of Trustees to tell them that the teachers were ready to “bury the hatchet.”

“I told them there was a lot of fence-mending to do and hopefully we could get off to a good start and that one way to do that was to offer a fair salary increase,” she said. “Apparently they didn’t hear that.”