Antelope Valley Teachers Step Up Pay Demands : Education: They took 7% cuts in 1992 but are now offered a maximum 2% raise. Union votes for impasse and protest.

Teachers in the Antelope Valley Union High School District have had it.

Two years ago they agreed to cuts in their wages and benefits when the district faced bankruptcy. Now that the district has recovered from its fiscal crisis, the high school teachers want their pay returned to previous levels--something they contend was promised when they agreed to the cuts.

District negotiators, however, are offering a maximum 2% salary increase, less than one-third of the 7% cut that was imposed.

Now the teachers are going on the offensive. In a union vote last week, the teachers strongly supported declaring an impasse in their negotiations with the district on July 1 if their wages and benefits are not fully restored by then.

They also voted to demonstrate outside the hotel where a farewell party is to be held later this month for the fiscal adviser assigned to the district after its dire financial position was discovered. Now that the district has repaid an $8-million county loan, the county-assigned adviser is no longer needed.

In addition, the teachers overwhelmingly agreed to support any recall effort mounted against the board’s conservative majority--President Billy Pricer and members Sue Stokka and Tony Welch--because of their refusal to administer the controversial California Learning Assessment System test until ordered by a judge.

“The current board we have, while I believe they’re well-meaning people, (has) done nothing to endear themselves to the teachers,” said Jim Gardner, outgoing president of the Antelope Valley Teachers Assn. “The things that they have done have alienated the teachers.”

His organization is also taking out a full-page ad in a local paper, detailing what teachers have done to help the district through its crisis and assailing the district for poor spending decisions.

Pricer believes the union’s plans will merely make it look foolish.

“I think there’s a mentality that if you put enough pressure you can squeeze the goose that lays the golden egg,” the board president said. “But there’s nothing to squeeze out.”

Supt. Robert Girolamo said there is not enough money in the budget to restore everything that was cut over the past two years. “We’re fiscally solvent now, (but) we’re still fiscally fragile.”

Union officials, however, said the district is spending money inappropriately, such as opening a second continuation school and reinstating high-paying administrative jobs cut during the height of the financial crisis.

Gardner said teachers have also had to deal with class sizes of 45 students along with fewer materials, textbooks and other supplies. “We didn’t do it willingly, but we did it,” he said.

Teachers have even spent their own money to buy toilet paper for student restrooms and paper to photocopy tests. Now, they believe, enough is enough.

“We were promised that everything would return to the prior level once the district’s finances were restored,” said Gardner. “There was a clear, clear understanding that was to happen.”

But Pricer denies that any such promises were made. Although he empathizes with the teachers’ plight, Pricer said they are not being realistic.

“We’ve been advised that we can only do so much,” he said. “Reality dictates you look around on a statewide basis. The money just isn’t there anymore. Our financial situation statewide is only going to get worse before it gets better.”

Even though the district has repaid the $8-million loan, Stokka said the district is not able to restore all the cuts it was forced to make, including the teachers’ pay cut.

“It would put our district right back in a state of bankruptcy,” she said. “It would be totally irresponsible. We’re not going to put the district at that kind of risk.”

The union, however, believes the district does have enough money to restore the teachers’ pay. If an impasse is declared, an independent fact-finder will review the district’s budget.

“It is the opinion of our association (the fact-finder) will find the money, that we can restore the 7%,” Gardner said. “They want to be very cautious and not get themselves back into a hole, and they think not giving the teachers what they deserve will do that.”