School Days Resume in Beverly Hills

There were lots of hugs, kisses, flowers and tears Thursday as Beverly Hills teachers returned to their classrooms. But some teachers said they were unhappy with the settlement and called for a recount of the vote that ended the school system’s first-ever strike.

Union officials were polling members Thursday to determine support for a recount of the close 150-133 ratification vote or for a reconsideration of the entire settlement package.

But in many classrooms, the mood was upbeat after 13 days without regular teachers.

“I’m real glad to be back with my teacher,” said Randy Soben, a fourth-grader at Horace Mann Elementary School.

Horace Mann parent Vivian Seigel said that Thursday was “one of the few mornings my kids jumped out of bed” to go to school.

Teachers in this affluent city walked out of their classrooms on Oct. 16, mainly over pay and benefits. On Wednesday, they narrowly approved a settlement that guarantees them a 12% raise over two years--1% more than the district had offered before the strike. Teachers will earn an additional 5% increase over the two years if the district receives more money from a future parcel tax election and from local parents who, in an unusual show of support, have pledged at least $400,000 for teacher salaries.

District spokeswoman Hali Wickner said that almost all of the district’s 300 teachers, counselors and librarians returned to work on the first day after the strike. And student attendance, which had plummeted from the usual 95% to 40% at the lowest point of the walkout, also appeared back to normal, she said.

But some teachers’ minds were still on the strike.

“I’m back here to teach school,” said El Rodeo School’s Joanne Devine, “but we still have a crisis in Beverly Hills. The teachers who came back to school today are different from the teachers who went out three weeks ago.”

At Beverly Hills High School, where on the first day of the strike furniture and books were thrown out of windows, some students complained about the amount of homework they faced now that their regular teachers were back.

Choir teacher Joel Pressman flung handfuls of Halloween candy at one of his classes--his way of saying he was glad to see them. Then, he gently chided them for having “used your talents for creative abuse” of the substitute teachers. “Halloween is over,” he said, “the witches and goblins are gone, and we have singing to do.”

Many students who stayed home during the strike said they watched a lot of television. Some older students went to jobs and others worked with tutors.

On Thursday, some teachers held class discussions about the strike to give students a chance to air their feelings and resolve questions.

The question that El Rodeo teacher Toni Staser said she found most difficult to answer was whether she got what she wanted out of the walkout.

“I said yes and no. . . . We weren’t able to get exactly what we hoped we would. But a definite plus is that now there is a community out there that (knows) that they are just as important a part of the school system as teachers and administrators. And the other plus I saw was that now both students and teachers appreciate each other all the more.”

In teacher Valli Ford’s third-grade room at Horace Mann, one boy asked how strikes come about, and another asked Ford if she had voted for the walkout.

A third student, Ariyan Afshar, simply told Ford, “Don’t go again.”