OXNARD : Teachers Pact With Pay Freeze OKd

Trustees for the Oxnard Elementary School District have approved a one-year contract with teachers that freezes pay but increases the district’s contribution for health benefits.

The agreement, approved Wednesday, had won the support of 90% of the district’s 500 teachers in a vote several weeks ago, said Ann McCarthy, president of the Oxnard Educators Assn.

Under the terms of the new contract, the district will make a $210,114 increase in its contribution to a teachers health-care fund set up two years ago. The additional money is the equivalent of a 2.7% salary increase, said Kent Patterson, a district contract administrator.

But pay raises were not possible, he said, because the district received no cost-of-living increases from the state for a second consecutive year. Teachers, whose annual pay ranges from $22,000 to $47,000, have not received a raise in three years, McCarthy said.

The contract also allows the teachers to create pilot programs--such as teaching reading to larger groups of students than usually allowed--without rewriting the basic terms of the agreement, Patterson said.

McCarthy called the new contract the best that could be expected in light of the state’s poor economy.

“Just about everybody wishes we could have a raise, but the teachers have been reading the papers and know times are tough,” McCarthy said. “They are relieved that they did not receive any cuts in pay.”

McCarthy said the health fund established two years ago has reduced hostilities between the district and the teachers. “We now receive the same health benefits as administrators,” she said.