Peninsula Teachers Cut Back on Duties Over Pay Dispute : Contracts: After the school district withdraws a contingent offer of a raise, the instructors stop offering ‘extra’ services such as tutoring and writing letters of recommendation for students.

Teachers from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, embroiled in a bitter contract dispute with school administrators, say they are no longer writing letters of recommendation for college-bound students or spending their lunch hours tutoring and giving makeup assignments.

“They have utilized (those measures) as a strategy to put pressure on the district,” schools Supt. Michael Caston said Wednesday. “It’s a concern, but my hope is we can get back to the table and find a way to resolve some of the issues.”

At issue is a demand by the district’s 400 teachers, represented by the Palos Verdes Faculty Assn., for a pay raise. The teachers, who have been working without a contract since June 30, first asked for a 10% raise, which was rejected by district negotiators.

The district, which serves 8,700 students at 11 schools, had offered teachers a 1.5% raise, contingent on receiving additional state education funds. But when district negotiators were told last month that they would probably not receive the state money because of budget cutbacks, they withdrew the offer.

When classes resumed last week after the Christmas break, teachers began to refuse to write letters of recommendation and stopped offering off-hours tutoring services.

At the board meeting Tuesday night, more than 200 teachers showed up to express their outrage.

In speeches punctuated by thunderous applause, several teachers accused the trustees of betraying them by reneging on a promise to raise their salaries with money saved from the consolidation of three high schools into one last year. They said they had no choice but to stop providing the extra services they usually offer at no cost to the district.

“We have no commitment to the teachers on the part of the district. . . . With no commitment, teachers have to teach (only according) to the contract,” Joe Kelly, a coach and an English teacher at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, told the trustees.

“For me, teaching to the contract means working contract hours,” Kelly said. “It means no longer serving on unpaid committees. It means no longer tutoring students for free beyond contract hours. It means no longer giving makeup work outside the contract day. It means no longer sponsoring clubs and activities. . . . And it definitely means no longer writing the 70 college letters of recommendation.”

David Tanaka, 17, a student representative to the board of trustees, said he is worried about the effect of the teachers’ actions on students.

But he added that the teachers “wouldn’t do that with malice toward the stu dents. . . . The teachers here are excellent and I just hope everything works out for them.”

After the meeting, several trustees expressed sympathy for the teachers but said the district’s financial condition leaves them with few options.

“Our budget is a public record,” said Trustee Jeffrey Younggren, who noted that every salary increase of 1% costs the district about $250,000 a year. “We’re not tossing money away. . . . I truly believe the majority of the teachers know how little flexibility we have and that in reality, there isn’t any secret stash of money.”

In fact, the district’s finances are so tight that the trustees Wednesday decided to freeze spending and some hiring in an effort to set aside an additional $100,000 for the reserve fund. Under state law, the district is required to reserve 3% of its $32-million budget for emergencies. Currently, the district has about $800,000 in reserve, or 2.6% of its budget.

Although district teachers have seen their salaries rise by 17.5% in the last three years, they said they still earn less than 75% of their peers in other unified districts in Los Angeles County. Teacher salaries currently range from $22,430 to $48,530 a year.

The teachers have suggested that school officials seek permission from the state to pay for salary increases with some of the $8 million it has accumulated from the sale of closed school sites. But Caston said the district already earmarks about $600,000 in interest from those restricted funds for general expenditures.

“That (interest money) does help support salaries and fringe benefits,” Caston said. “If we spent the $8 million, we wouldn’t have that interest money to spend.”

Although most districts around the state are struggling to cope with runaway growth, enrollment in the Palos Verdes district has declined by more than half in the last 15 years. Demographers blame the decline on high real estate prices on the peninsula that have priced families with children out of the area.