150 Rally to Lend Teachers Support in Contract Fight

More than 150 parents and activists held a raucous rally outside the Orange Unified School District headquarters Thursday night to show support for teachers who are threatening to leave the district this spring.

“I’m here because I’m frightened we’re going to lose good teachers,” said parent Melodee Fahy.

Fahy said she doesn’t believe the district is unable to pay its teachers more. “I know if you want something done, you can get it done,” she said. “Why would the teachers stay here for less money? If nothing else, we have to try to repair the damage to their spirits.”

The teachers, who are the lowest paid in the county, have been working without a contract since July. A survey sent out by the Orange Unified Education Assn. found that about 300 of the district’s 1,200 teachers are thinking of leaving at the end of the school year.

District officials faced the same crisis last summer, when 27 teachers asked to be released from their “letters of intent to return,” which teachers sign each year by June 30, to go to higher-paying jobs. The district for the first time treated the letters as contracts and refused to let the teachers go.

Contract talks broke down early this year when administrators offered widely varied salaries to different groups of teachers.

Older teachers would receive a 1% raise under the district plan, unless they agreed to give up lifetime retiree benefits for a $1,500 bonus. Those hired after 1992, when retiree benefit offers ceased, would receive raises up to 20% over the three years of the contract.

Administrators said the lifetime benefits eventually could bankrupt the district if the situation is not resolved.

The teachers union rejected the plan, and they are now in mediation with the district.

“If they’re trying to divide and conquer the teachers, they are doing exactly the opposite,” said David Reger, the union’s president. “The teachers are more united than they’ve ever been. They have awoken a sleeping giant.”