Collapsed Talks Raise Tough Question : Simi Valley: Contract impasse leaves trustees faced with having to slash $6 million from the budget. Teachers fear they will probably be affected.

Contract negotiations between the Simi Valley Unified School District and teachers’ union collapsed this week, leaving educators wondering how a gaping $6-million deficit can be reduced without cutting teachers’ pay or jobs.

“We thought we were coming together in these negotiations, but apparently we were not,” Assistant Supt. Leon Mattingley said. “It’s frustrating to not have the money for everything you want to do.”

In the next month, school trustees must find a way to slash $6 million from the district’s $75-million budget. Since 88% of the budget is spent on personnel costs, officials say teachers and other employees will probably be affected.

But teachers warn that their wages and benefits have been already been cut back severely in recent years, and last year 26 teaching positions were cut. Union leaders say their ranks will not accept further reductions without a fight.

Last week, the Simi Educators Assn. polled its 587 members to determine just how far teachers were willing to go to protest additional budget cuts.

“This is the first time we had a substantial (number) . . . say they would be willing to strike,” said Ron Myren, president of the Simi Educators Assn. “That, of course, is the absolute last thing we would do.”

Contract negotiations between union and district officials ended in an impasse on Monday. Both sides will meet with a state-appointed mediator in two weeks to determine whether stalled negotiations can be resolved.

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In the meantime, the union plans to launch an aggressive drive to garner public support, Myren said.

“We’re planning a parade, we’re planning different functions to tell the community that we the teachers of Simi Valley are in trouble financially with the district,” Myren said. “We don’t want to start a second year without a contract.”

The teachers’ three-year contract expired June 30, 1994. It was extended when union and district officials were unable to settle negotiations last summer, Myren said.

This year, however, the district’s 700 teachers are determined to start classes in September with a new contract, Myren said.

“To us, every time we go into a three-year contract they are always claiming they are broke,” he said. “I have never seen them come to the table and say, ‘We are financially sound.’ It’s positioning for bargaining.”

But school officials say they are broke. The district lost more than $800,000 in state funding this year when enrollment dropped by 279 students, a loss that has compounded already dwindling revenues.

“We’ve had difficult years,” Mattingley said. “But the bigger culprit is the loss of enrollment . . . that is a severe cut to our budget.”

Under state rules, the school district must eliminate its $6-million deficit over the next three years or lose control of its budget to the county superintendent of schools office.

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The district is expecting a 2.2% cost-of-living increase from the state this year, but Mattingley said the money will be needed to offset the projected $6-million deficit.

But the teachers want part of that money shared with them. “We are asking the district to pass some of that (funding) onto the teachers,” Myren said.