HUNTINGTON BEACH : Teachers and District Can’t Settle Dispute

A long-awaited fact-finding session this week failed to quickly resolve the Ocean View School District teachers’ contract dispute, as district and union officials had hoped.

While negotiation leaders from both sides said Thursday that they hope that two marathon meetings will forge a pathway to a settlement, they acknowledge that it appears increasingly likely teachers may end the school year without a 1989-90 contract.

“A lot depends on what comes out of the fact-finding report,” said Jim Harlan, the union representative on the fact-finding panel. Arbitrator R. Douglas Collins, who met Monday and Wednesday with Harlan and a district administrator, is scheduled June 6 to release his report on the session.

“If the report is not palatable to the teachers, and we go without a settlement through the summer, there could be some real problems come this fall,” Harlan said.

Carol Halbach, president of the Ocean View Teachers Assn., said if no agreement is reached by the time classes recess for the summer, teachers would “seriously consider” not showing up for classes when school resumes in the fall.

Supt. Monte McMurray said he is concerned about that possibility, “but both the teachers association and the district are eager to continue trying resolve this, even if it takes us through the summer.”

The fact-finding session, the last resort in the collective bargaining process, was scheduled after a series of meetings with a state mediator earlier this year proved futile.

At issue are teachers’ salaries and health benefits, in a district that has proposed closing three of its schools to help shrink a budget deficit estimated to be as large as $1.8 million. Based on the most recent proposals released, the union is demanding a 9.3% pay raise, while the district is countering with a 5.5% offer.