Teachers Air Gripes at Meeting : Fillmore: The junior high staff attends a workshop with administrators and a federal mediator.

Teachers at Fillmore Junior High School--charging that they are being underpaid and harassed while school administrators enjoy special benefits--got a chance Wednesday to voice their complaints to a federal mediator.

The teachers say they are upset that they haven’t received a pay raise in three years while district Supt. David Haney has been given a new car with a cellular phone on top of his $75,000-a-year contract. They complained that other administrators are overpaid.

They also charge that Principal Lynn Edmonds has forced them to work extra hours without pay and to teach classes outside their expertise under threat of retaliation.

Teachers said the growing tensions prompted the superintendent to arrange for an unusual “team-building workshop” involving teachers, administrators and a federal mediator Wednesday that required cancellation of afternoon classes at the school.

Substitute instructors and administrators were asked to oversee classes so that the school’s 23 teachers could attend the all-day workshop at the First United Methodist Church, a few blocks from the campus.

There will be no classes today at the school so the workshop can continue.

School officials insisted that the special seminars are primarily to give teachers and administrators a chance to begin planning for next year. But teachers said they are really intended to improve strained relations.

“There’s some serious labor problems,” said Mary Ford, a teacher at the school and vice president of the Fillmore United Teachers Assn. “Some think this is not the best environment for teachers or for students, either.”

Several of the teachers, who are being asked to go without a pay raise for the fourth consecutive year, blamed Edmonds and Haney for creating the tensions.

“They don’t value their teaching staff,” said Theresa Harper, a health teacher at the school for 10 years.

“I was told if I didn’t sign a waiver to teach science and math, it would show up on my evaluation,” Harper said. “I have a master’s degree in public health.”

Edmonds declined to comment on personnel issues at the school.

Meanwhile, Haney, who took over as superintendent in October, came under attack for expenditures made on his behalf at a time when the district is being forced to cut $302,000 in next year’s budget.

Haney, who barred reporters from the workshop Wednesday, refused comment.

Some teachers, who asked that their names not be used, said they felt that it was inappropriate for the district to provide Haney with a 1992 Plymouth Grand Caravan, complete with a $324 cellular telephone. Haney requested the vehicle, which is available for his business and personal use, as part of his contract, a district official said.

The district is leasing the vehicle for $5,988 a year, said Barbara Spieler, director of business services. The leasing agreement is for three years and does not include an option to buy.

Teachers said there is no reason for the expense because the district already owns a 1987 Chevy Celebrity station wagon intended for use by the superintendent. The vehicle, with 41,000 miles and no phone, is paid for, Spieler said.

Teachers also criticized Haney for convincing the district to spend $4,000 on a new computer for his office because he thought that an older, less versatile model was inadequate for his needs.

In an interview Tuesday, Haney, who arranged for the employee workshops last month, played down their significance.

“It’s no big deal,” he said. “It’s not strange to have a team-building seminar. It’s a healthy thing to do periodically.” He said the reason why the district chose to ask for federal assistance, rather than going to the state, is largely economic.

“It’s free,” he said, “and we don’t have any money.”

Jan Sunoo, of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service, said his role in the workshops is that of a counselor and not a mediator.

“I’m not going to mediate anything,” he said Tuesday. “I will be working as a consultant to improve relations between management and labor.”

Assistant Supt. Robert L. Kernen, who was one of those supervising classes at the junior high school, said he had received calls from some parents concerned that Wednesday’s workshop was taking place while students were taking high school proficiency tests for next year’s class placements.

But Kernen said the testing went smoothly. He said the school’s 450 students were allowed to go home at noon, instead of 2:30 p.m. as they usually do.

The school official said he was uncomfortable talking about the workshops.

“I think there are some morale problems because of salary,” he said. “But there may be other reasons.”

Kernen, a 12-year veteran of the district, said he could recall only one other time when all the teachers at an individual school took the day off to attend a seminar.

“It’s pretty rare,” he said.