HUNTINGTON BEACH : Teachers Won’t Get Pay Raises for ‘94-95

Under a new one-year contract, public high school teachers in Huntington Beach, Westminster and Fountain Valley will not get an across-the-board pay increase next school year, Supt. David Hagen said this week.

The only teachers who stand to get raises are those who advance in education or seniority levels.

Hagen said the school board for the Huntington Beach Union High School District, which governs all the high schools in those three cities, voted 4-1 on Tuesday night for the new contract with the teachers.

“The state gave us no money (for an across-the-board teacher pay raise), so we could give the teachers no more money,” Hagen said.

The superintendent said the one-year contract allows for increases in pay to some teachers who advance in seniority or additional education. Those increases are provided for in the district’s existing contract with the teachers, and that formula is being extended into the new contract.

Hagen said the new contract, which extends through June 30, 1995, provides no increase in health and welfare benefits for any teacher.

In an interview, a teachers’ union official said the high school teachers are accepting the lack of a general pay raise because they know the district is strapped for funds.

“We’re looking at a decline in students and flat state funding” to the schools, said Jim Harlan, executive director of the West Orange County United Teachers, an umbrella group that includes the Huntington Beach teachers’ union.

Harlan said the school board has dealt fairly with the teachers in recent years. “We feel (the school board members) have been reasonable and that when the time comes and they have more money, they will make it available to the teachers in higher salaries,” Harlan said.

The new contract includes a retirement-incentive provision aimed at teachers who are 50 or older. Because of seniority, older teachers usually earn more than younger ones. The retirement incentive would not go into effect unless at least 51 teachers apply for it, thus making it cost-effective for the district, school officials said.

School board member Dirk Voss cast the lone vote against the contract. Voss questioned the cost of existing health-welfare benefits for the teachers, saying he would like a better study of alternatives.