Reading, Writing and Reticence : Angry Teachers Mum for a Day to Protest Pay Level

Fractions are not the most scintillating topic when you’re in eighth grade, but Margaret E. Wallace found her math students focusing like a laser beam when she strode to the head of the class Tuesday.

They were all ears, but Wallace stayed mum throughout the class, wearing a Mona Lisa smile as she tapped the day’s lesson into a computer linked to an overhead projector at Orange Grove Middle School in Hacienda Heights.

Wallace, who is also president of the Hacienda La Puente Teachers Assn., was one of hundreds of educators in the 22,000-student San Gabriel Valley school district who observed a day of silence Tuesday because they are angry over the district’s unwillingness to meet their demand for a 6% pay increase.

The teachers union estimated that 85% to 90% of the district’s 1,200 teachers did not talk. The district’s superintendent said he would not have figures until today.

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Some teachers said students paid more attention Tuesday than usual, intrigued by how educators intended to teach without talking.

“It was pretty cool,” concluded Alicia Bartko, 13, of Orange Grove Middle School. “We paid attention more because we didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t know what the teachers would do.”

And that varied from classroom to classroom.

Special education teacher Holly Elmer carried around a note pad on which she scribbled messages to thrust under students’ noses. Example: “Why aren’t you working?”

Music teacher Edward Chavez used sign language to lead the school band through “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Students were unusually well-behaved and spoke in whispers to each other and to him, Chavez said.

“Maybe they thought they were supposed to have a day of silence too,” he joked.

Other teachers used monosyllabic grunts, asked aides to relay instructions, showed films or allowed students to get a jump on homework. But not everyone thought the day of silence was a good idea.

Supt. Andy Cazares called it a violation of the teachers’ contract, which prohibits any work stoppages or slowdowns. Cazares agreed that nonverbal communication was a novelty but said he worried that “learning to its fullest degree probably didn’t take place.”

The superintendent said the cash-strapped district has made almost $7 million in cuts in the last two years and finds it hard to meet teacher demands. One possibility under study is closing or consolidating schools.

At La Puente High School, Phuong Nguyen, 17, said several of her teachers opted to talk because they wanted to help students review for final exams. When asked by students if he planned to speak, Nguyen’s trigonometry teacher seemed ambivalent at first.

“He hesitated, and then he wrote something on the board, and then he said, ‘I’m going to talk, but I’m going to talk less,’ ” Nguyen said.

Nguyen thought her teacher did the right thing.

“Finals are coming up, and if he doesn’t talk, we’d be lost. We have to review all those formulas and it’s very important to us,” she said.

Several La Puente High students said only half of their teachers observed the day of silence. But even some staff members who did not said they support their colleagues.

“They’re making a stand and they have every right to do that; we’ve gone a long time without a raise,” said one counselor at La Puente High who did not want to give her name and said she talked during the day.

Raymond R. Lopp, executive director of the teachers union, said teachers used the same tactic in 1988 to draw attention to their demands. They eventually got a raise. Rowland Heights teachers, who are also in Lopp’s union, staged a day of silence in 1992.

Six years after that first action, Lopp says teachers in Hacienda La Puente still are near the bottom of the pay scale for the region. Starting teachers earn $23,056, ranking 43rd among the 44 districts in Los Angeles County. The union and the school district go back to the bargaining table today.

Last week, teachers prepared their students for the silent treatment and the union sent out memos urging teachers to take part.

“We said to them, ‘You have to use your judgment; we’re not interested in jeopardizing anyone,’ ” Lopp said. “If a kid has serious problems or trouble at home, obviously they’re going to have to be talked to.”

The teacher action had some parental support. Julie Economides, who was picking up her daughter, Jessica, 11, at Orange Grove, said teachers should fight for their rights.

“They deserve to have their pay raise,” Economides said, “because if they don’t get it they’ll strike, and then our kids won’t get taught.”