HUNTINGTON BEACH : Salary Package for Teachers Approved

The Huntington Beach City School District board this week approved a two-year salary package for teachers, who have been working without a contract since last July.

The pact gives teachers a 5.35% salary and benefits increase retroactive to July 1, 1990. For 1991-92, teachers are scheduled to receive a 1% or 2% pay raise, depending on the state education budget.

A cost-of-living adjustment would also be added to teachers’ salaries next school year if that increase is included in the state budget. Gov. Pete Wilson, however, has recommended eliminating that annual adjustment.

Including the new pay hikes, teachers in the district earn between $22,331 and $50,227 a year.

The latest contract stems from a four-month negotiation process that district and union officials agree was the most conciliatory in years. Bitter negotiations have marred contract talks in past years, prompting a one-day teacher strike in 1989 and a protest campaign last year marked by picketing, work slowdowns, letter writing and speeches assailing board members for stalled negotiations.

“It’s quite a difference from a year ago, when there was rancor and mayhem,” said Jim Harlan, executive director of West Orange County United Teachers, an umbrella union representing the Huntington Beach Elementary Teachers Assn.

“This time, we were working together to solve problems and maintain the level of education. Everyone remained in a cooperative or collaborative mode . . . and there was no mistrust, which brought about a good settlement,” he said.

Harlan and Alan Rasmussen, the district’s lead negotiator and assistant superintendent for personnel services, credited the friendlier negotiating mood to the “mutual-gain bargaining” process introduced this year.

“Instead of focusing on positions that each side would not move from, we focused on issues that each of us was concerned about and worked toward reaching an agreement on those issues,” Rasmussen said.