TUSTIN : Teachers Approve 9.4% Wage Increase

The Tustin Educators Assn. approved a three-year contract on Friday by a margin of more than 2 to 1, union President Joyce Rohrbaugh said.

The agreement, to be considered Monday by the Tustin Unified School District board, was reached after more than 10 months of bitter contract negotiations. It gives the district’s 430 teachers and counselors a 9.4% average salary increase retroactive to July 1, 1989, and guarantees that none will receive a raise of less than 5%.

Increases for the second and third years of the contract would depend on state funds that the district receives for each student. The agreement stipulates, however, that if the average teacher’s salary in Tustin is not in the top five of the 12 unified school districts in the county, salary levels would be increased by up to 1%.

Rohrbaugh said she expects that the teachers will resume participation in extracurricular activities and will again assign homework, which some had been boycotting to protest delays in the contract talks.

But she said that many of the teachers are unhappy with the contract because they think there are inequities in its structure, and she said she doubts that it will raise morale.

“Only when the teachers are made to feel important will the morale improve,” Rohrbaugh said.