TUSTIN : Teacher Contract Talks at Impasse

With teachers and the Tustin Unified School District ensnared in an eight-month dispute over a contract for this year, officials on both sides of the bargaining table agree that talks are deadlocked and that no end is in sight.

“We’re at an impasse,” Paul Fisher, the district’s chief business administrator, said Friday. “We’ve been at a stalemate, and we now have a call in to the mediator.”

Despite months of negotiations, the two sides remain far apart on the district’s proposal for a new pay schedule that would raise salaries by about 9% but would penalize some teachers who have not received master’s degrees. Under the district’s proposal, starting teachers would see their salaries increase from $20,000 to $23,730, and teachers at the top of the salary scale--those with 20 years’ experience and a master’s degree--would get raises from $40,967 a year to $49,065.

The raise is actually higher than what teachers have proposed, but it would link pay increases at the upper levels to master’s degrees.

Previously, teachers could receive the district’s top salaries based solely on units of graduate work. They did not need to complete a master’s program.

“They’ve changed the rules of the game, and haven’t given us any grace period,” said Joyce Rohrbaugh, a first-grade teacher and president of the Tustin Educators Assn., which represents 323 of the district’s 420 teachers. “We just feel that the contract is not one that we can humanely accept.”

With negotiations stretching over months, patience is wearing thin. Teachers at several Tustin schools have engaged in picketing and work slowdowns, and several teachers said other labor actions are under consideration.

Complicating the talks, according to teachers, is the impending departure of District Supt. Maurice A. Ross, who has already resigned his post, effective June 30. Teachers are hoping to negotiate a one-year contract to cover the year now under way, and then hold new talks for next year once a new superintendent is installed.

“Ever since this superintendent came into our district, we’ve had lots of trouble,” said Liz Kelly, a third-grade teacher at Marjorie Veeh Elementary School. “He’s decided that before he leaves, he’s going to break this union.”

Ross would not comment on the teachers’ disagreements with him, referring calls to Fisher. Fisher insisted that the superintendent is playing no significant role in the contract talks.

“The board is directly responsible for the contract negotiations,” Fisher said, adding that the district prefers to negotiate a two-year agreement not out of spite for the union but so that contract talks will not have to be reopened immediately.

“We’d like to have a more congenial atmosphere when a new person comes on board,” Fisher said.