IRVINE : Teachers Agree to Job-Saving Plan

During a packed school board meeting Tuesday, teachers agreed to give back $1 million from next year’s compensation package in order to save 68 of their jobs.

But the Irvine Unified School District Board of Education said it will not halt the layoff process until the teachers union makes its offer in a legally binding way. If the school district misses a series of state-mandated deadlines in the layoff process, it would not be able to reduce the teaching staff until June, 1994.

The school district does not want to lay off any teacher, board member Michael B. Regele said, but the board “cannot, and will not, bankrupt this district to avoid layoffs” without a binding commitment from teachers, he said.

A legally binding agreement from teachers would require a membership vote and probably cannot occur until after the board holds layoff hearings this month, Irvine Teachers Assn. president Barbara Dresel said Wednesday.

Dresel said she will ask district officials during contract talks today if they would be willing to accept a less-formal agreement. The teachers have been without a contract since July, 1992, and are trying to negotiate a labor contract covering this school year and the 1993-94 school year.

“I think we need some flexibility from them as far as the type of assurance they need,” Dresel said.

A vote would probably take only one or two days, Dresel said, but teachers will be on spring break next week, and teachers at two year-round schools will be off for three weeks after that.

In the $1-million give-back offer, teachers would not lose any pay or benefits, Dresel said. The money would come, in part, by increasing class size and by freezing the amount of bonuses paid to teachers who in the future take extra college-level courses.

The layoffs have been a hot topic at the school district and in classrooms since the school board voted last month to lay off 68 teachers. The layoffs were needed as part of more than $1.7 million in budget cuts expected to be needed in the 1992-93 school year, the board said. The budget for this year is about $95 million. There are about 1,000 teachers in the district.

As part of the layoff process, teachers given a layoff notice are able to appear before the school board this month to appeal. Teachers on the final layoff list would be notified by letter before May 15 and would lose their jobs at the end of the school year in June.

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, more than 200 teachers, students and parents packed the district’s meeting room and overflowed into the hallway to protest the layoffs. Students gave emotional pleas to save the jobs of favorite teachers, and parents complained that the large number of layoffs would have a devastating effect on the schools.

A student from Lakeside Middle School gave the board a petition with about 200 signatures, asking the board to rescind the layoffs.

Exasperated board members tried to explain their decision to begin the layoff process and that they did not have the luxury of choosing who would receive a layoff notice.

“I want to make it clear to you, this is not a choice,” Board President Margie Wakeham said. “If any of you have stamps and envelopes at home, you should write to the governor and let him know how you feel.”

Board member Greg Smith told the audience that, by law, teachers are selected for layoff based on seniority and specialized teaching credentials. “This is the most brutal, insane process,” he said.