FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Panel Created to Aid Stalled District Talks

In a move to restart negotiations between Fountain Valley’s school district and the teachers’ union, a special fact-finding panel will meet this week to listen to testimony from both sides of the contract dispute.

“Essentially, the panel will listen to testimony and determine if anybody is lying,” district Supt. Ruben L. Ingrim said.

The three-member panel, scheduled to meet Wednesday, will include representatives from the teachers’ union, the school district and the state Department of Education.

After the meeting, which could last up to three days, the panel will present its findings to the school district’s governing board. However, the panel’s findings are strictly advisory.

Jim Harlan, executive director of the West Orange County United Teachers’ Assn., which represents Fountain Valley’s 262 elementary-school teachers, said these fact-finding panels are generally purposeless, especially in Fountain Valley.

“The last time this sort of thing happened was three years ago,” Harlan said. “Then, when the fact-finding panel reported to the governing board--recommending a larger pay increase--the board completely ignored them. I have no reason to believe the board will not act similarly.”

Fountain Valley’s teachers have gone a year without a new contract. The main stumbling block is the district’s proposed 2.57% pay increase, which the teacher’s union says is well below the 6.75% proposed by the majority of Orange County school districts.

While Ingrim admits that the proposed pay raise is below the rest of the districts, he said Fountain Valley’s pay scale is one of the highest in Orange County and the rest of the districts are catching up.

But Harlan contents that if the union agreed to the school district’s proposal, Fountain Valley teachers would then be in the bottom half of the county’s pay schedule. In addition, he said the school district’s health benefits are among the poorest in the county and should be considered in the bargaining package.