Contract Fight Imperils Pupil Science Fairs

A bitter contract battle between the Ocean View School District and its teachers’ union has jeopardized science fairs in six of the district’s schools and could cost pupils a chance to participate in prestigious county and state fairs, officials on both sides of the negotiations said Friday.

Science teachers who in past years have coached pupils to county and state science honors are declining to participate in this year’s school-level contests, arguing that they will not donate any time to school-related matters until the contract dispute is settled, said Dane Shepard, an Ocean View Teachers Assn. representative at Harbour View Elementary School.

Science-fair coaching is an unpaid, extracurricular activity in most of the district’s schools.

“We’re saying that we’re giving all this extra time to make our district No. 1 in the county (in science fairs), yet we’re being treated like we’re in last place,” said one science teacher who has coached several first-place winners in county competitions but asked not to be identified. “It’s our way of saying we’re tired of it.”

Shepard said the decision to boycott the science fairs was independently reached by science teachers and was not ordered by the union. However, he added that the teachers’ association had no objection to a similar action recently taken by the district’s physical education teachers, many of whom have refused to coach basketball and other sports during non-school hours.

The boycott has hit both the school and district levels, Shepard said. Most, if not all, science teachers at Crest View, Harbour View, Marine View, Mesa View, Spring View and Vista View elementary schools are refusing to participate in school fairs, scheduled March 26-30. In addition, Ray Jones, a science teacher at Vista View who has coordinated the district fair in recent years, has declined to participate this year.

But Jones, reached at the school, denied

that his decision was related to the ongoing contract dispute. “I decided that I’ve done it for the last six years and that I needed a break from it,” he said.

Gayle Wayne, assistant to district Supt. Monte McMurray, said no other teachers have applied to fill the coordinator’s position.

“My assumption is they are not willing to provide the district with any additional services,” Wayne said. “It’s always been an opportunity for a teacher who wanted to do something extra. It’s a paid spot, and we’ve never had a problem filling it.”

Wayne said she and Spring View principal William Lescher will coordinate the district fair--scheduled April 2-4 at Spring View--if no teacher applies for the job. But administrators noted that there may not be enough participants to hold a fair if teachers aren’t available to help out with projects.

Dr. Robert Vouga, principal of Marine View School, which has had winners in countywide science competitions for the past five years, said he sent out a letter Friday to parents, asking for volunteers to coordinate and judge this year’s school fair. He said the fair will be canceled if parents don’t respond by Friday.

“You can imagine that I’m not real happy about this decision,” Vouga said, referring to the science teachers’ decision not to participate. “While these projects are done largely outside of class time, they reinforce the learning (children) have accumulated, and these students remember these projects for years to come. Without these projects, I don’t believe they internalize this kind of learning.”

Science fair competitions are open to 7th- and 8th-graders. The science teacher who asked not to be identified said the children sometimes spend up to four months constructing their projects, doing most of the work at home.

Asked if pupils were being unfairly used as bargaining chips in the contract dispute, the teacher said: “I prefer not to comment on that,” but added that the teachers’ contract demands will benefit the children in the long run.

“It’s just too bad that education has come to this,” the teacher said. “We’re actually being forced to play games.”

Vouga said that while he “can’t say that the students are being used . . . I do raise questions about withholding any instruction or help for students based on teacher disagreement with the school district.”

Shepard, however, noted that the measures are necessary because Ocean View teachers “have been put down so long in comparison with other school districts.”

“We’re notifying the parents that this (contract dispute) is affecting the teachers,” he said. “Morale is at a crisis level, and this thing has got to be settled. (The dispute) is going to affect teaching in this district, no matter how you cut it.”

Talks are deadlocked over health benefit issues, use of funds from the state lottery earmarked for education, and teacher participation in the decision-making process, Shepard said. A new round of negotiations is scheduled Tuesday.

PROPOSAL: Ocean View School District mails its latest offer straight to teachers.