TUSTIN : Tension Mounts as Teachers Seek Pact

Tensions are mounting in the Tustin Unified School District as teachers are entering their 10th month without a contract.

A group of teachers picketed outside Guinn Foss Elementary School this week as district and union negotiating teams met unsuccessfully with a state mediator for the fourth time.

Joyce Rohrbaugh, president of the 320-member Tustin Educators Assn., said the group is declaring Monday “Black Monday” because of the grim mood among teachers. Many of the teachers will wear black and will picket at Monday’s school board meeting, she said. They have been working without a contract since July 1.

The district has offered the teachers a two-year contract with a 9.4% salary increase for the first year, said Paul Fisher, chief business administrator.

The teachers say they are asking for an 11% raise, but the district says the teachers have requested an 11.4% increase. The teachers propose making the increase retroactive to early October instead of July 1, when the previous contract expired.

For the first year, Rohrbaugh said, this proposal would cost the district the same as the 9.4% proposal. Fisher said the union’s plan would be more expensive in the long run because the additional percentage would be carried over into subsequent years.

Rohrbaugh said the teachers also revised the salary schedule presented in the district’s proposal to even out step increases awarded for years of experience and post-graduate education.

Although the district negotiating team rejected the union’s proposal on Thursday, Rohrbaugh said the teachers are requesting that it be presented to the school board on Monday.