TUSTIN : Letters Due Today on Homework Ban

Zach Stephenson, a 16-year-old junior at Foothill High School, was disappointed Wednesday that word of the homework boycott, announced this week by the teachers’ union, apparently hadn’t reached his instructors.

“I still have homework,” Stephenson said. “It hasn’t affected me so far. But it would be neat if it happened.”

Joyce Rohrbaugh, president of the 320-member Tustin Educators Assn., said that teachers should be receiving letters today advising them to stop assigning homework, boycott open houses and skip school-site meetings. The 420 teachers in the district are in their 10th month with no contract.

“I think a lot of teachers are not going to assign homework,” said Larry Bath, a social science and civics teacher at Foothill for 24 years. Bath said he has not yet decided whether to continue assigning homework, but he does plan to skip his school’s open house scheduled next week.

Columbus Tustin Intermediate School teacher Tom Everly said the decision was reached because teachers’ morale is at an all-time low.

“The attitude of everybody who’s teaching here right now is that maybe the district ought to get what they’re paying for and right now they’re paying for poor-quality education,” Everly said. “We work hard around here. We put in a lot of time working before school, after school and at home, and we are not compensated for it.”

Some students at Foothill High School said Wednesday afternoon that their teachers have already told them that there will be no more work outside class.

“It’s kind of cool because I’m a senior,” said Suzanne Murrieta, 17. “But in my math class, I want homework. You can’t learn math without homework.” She said her civics teacher told the class that he will no longer accept written analyses of current events for extra credit.

Melissa Leupold, 17, said her economics teacher has decided to eliminate essay tests because they take too long to grade and has announced that there will be no more homework.

“If it keeps going on, it’s going to negatively affect the education at Foothill,” Leupold said of the contract dispute. “It hurts the morale of the students.”

Jim Ryan, Foothill’s principal, said that tension at the school has been escalating for about two months since some teachers announced that they would no longer act as advisers for clubs or participate in other extracurricular activities.

“To say it is business as usual would be downplaying the situation,” Ryan said.

Principals at several other schools said they have heard about teachers not assigning homework but have not witnessed it themselves.

“We’re waiting and observing,” said William Wingo, principal of A.G. Currie Middle School. “We would hate to see the students affected by the negotiating process.”