MOORPARK : Board Contract Offer Omits Teacher Raise

Responding to a demand from teachers for a new contract, Moorpark school officials have submitted an offer to the union that--to the dismay of union representatives--does not include a pay raise.

Teachers in the Moorpark Unified School District had sought a 4% pay increase in an offer submitted to the board last spring.

“I think the language in the contract was everything (the union) wanted, but the one thing that they really wanted wasn’t in there and that is money,” board member Tom Baldwin said Wednesday.

The teachers union has already staged two protests, including pickets on the first day of school at six of the district’s nine schools, and a picket at the school board meeting Tuesday night.

“We’re real tired of doing this,” said union President Richard Gillis at the meeting. More than 60 teachers packed the meeting, holding signs with slogans such as “Moorpark, Home of 256 Unhappy Teachers.”

Gillis lambasted the board Tuesday night for not negotiating with the union sooner. But board members responded that the union rejected an offer last spring for a three-year contract that would have covered the two previous school years as well as this school year.