La Jolla Teachers Drop Union Bid

La Jolla Country Day School teachers, who once hoped to unionize after Sharon Rogers was forced off the faculty, have withdrawn their petition filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

A union election for the 75 teachers at the school had been scheduled for Oct. 12, but Mark Saxon, president of the private school’s board of trustees, announced that the petition for union certification has been withdrawn.

NLRB officials said the Country Day Teachers Assn., which applied for the petition in May, gave no reason for dropping its request to be recognized as the bargaining agent in contract talks with the school’s management.

The petition was filed as well as withdrawn by Barbara Judy, the association’s spokeswoman and a kindergarten teacher at the school.

Judy could not be reached for comment Friday. Last spring, however, she said the teachers’ decision to attempt to organize was done in the hope of playing a greater role in school affairs.

Saxon said that, with the petition being withdrawn and the new school year now beginning, it is hoped that the crisis that beset the school much of last year over Rogers is now in the past.

“The faculty, administration and board of trustees are looking forward to working together in a positive atmosphere of cooperation and understanding,” he said.

Rogers, a longtime fourth-grade teacher at the school, was barred after a bomb exploded on the underside of her van while she was driving to the campus in March. Her husband is Navy Capt. Will Rogers III, and officials have speculated that the bombing was done in retaliation for his decision as skipper of the guided missile cruiser Vincennes to fire a missile that mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger jet over the Persian Gulf.

The bombing continues to be investigated by the FBI’s office in San Diego.