HUNTINGTON BEACH : Teachers, District Reach Tentative Pact

The Ocean View School District and its teachers union have reached a tentative settlement in their contract dispute, the longest and bitterest labor feud in the district in more than 15 years.

The two-year agreement would end a 14-month union campaign marked by picketing, a boycott of extracurricular activities and demonstrations at board meetings.

It also would avert a strike in the fall, which teachers had promised if no settlement was reached by the beginning of classes then.

The tentative pact, which both sides called a fair compromise, was forged during a marathon, 14-hour arbitration session that ended late Wednesday night, officials said. It culminates a monthlong effort by a state-recommended arbitrator to settle the two sides’ differences, which centered on teachers’ salaries and medical benefits.

If teachers approve the settlement proposal during mail-in balloting over the next two weeks, the school board will consider adopting the contract at its July 17 meeting, Supt. Monte McMurray said.

“We’re quite pleased with this settlement,” union president Carol Halbach said Thursday. “The school board has showed that it intends to address the needs of the teachers in this district. It was a long process, but it did finally bring about a resolution to the problems that existed.”

McMurray said he is satisfied with the agreement, which was reached amid a mounting budget crisis in the district. The school board must make between $1.3 million and $1.8 million in cuts before approving its 1990-91 budget, due in September.

“We recognize that situation,” McMurray said, but the new teachers’ pay raises “will be included in next year’s budget.”

Under terms of the settlement, teachers will receive an average pay raise of 5.81%, retroactive to Jan. 1, as well as a one-time, 1% stipend, Halbach said. The one-time payment may be doubled, depending on how much the district receives this year in state Proposition 98 funds, Halbach said.

The union had asked for a 9.6% raise, with back pay dating to last July. District officials agreed to boost the teacher salary schedule to the level that the union demanded, but on the condition that retroactive pay be limited to six months, Halbach said.

A key element of the package was that the salary schedule provides the highest pay steps for teachers with the most experience, Halbach said. The union considered that a crucial issue, since many of Ocean View’s teachers are nearing retirement age, and their pensions will be based on salaries earned during their last year of teaching, she said.

“This isn’t everything we asked for . . . (but) this does help the experienced teachers a lot,” Halbach said.

The settlement also meets teachers’ demands for increased medical benefits, an improved retirement plan and paid lesson-planning time for teachers in 4th through 8th grades. In addition, the contract limits class sizes to an average of 30.5 students for kindergarten through third grade, and 32 students for grades 4 through 8.