Board to Meet on Talks With Teachers

Trustees of the Ventura County Community College District will meet in closed session at 6 tonight to discuss contract negotiations with the teachers union.

The public is invited to an open response period before the meeting starts at 71 Day Road in Ventura.

Board member Allan Jacobs said the meeting will allow trustees to more fully discuss the status of negotiations underway with the American Federation of Teachers Local 1828.

Union members have been without a contract since June 30.

“We decided at our last meeting that we needed to spend some quality time on the contract. We want to see what was put on the table, what was proposed,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said the board gave the district’s negotiations lawyer, Richard Currier, authorization to add certain new proposals, which he declined to identify.

But the board has yet to approve Currier’s ideas, which were handed over to the union during a state mediation session last week.

The teachers union, led by President Larry Miller, said the new proposal is even worse than the district’s last offer.

The updated proposal eliminates a salary formula that union leaders say is essential. The formula increase would give teachers half of any new state money allocated to the district.

Instead, the district’s proposal would give teachers a 1.5% increase if “growth monies” come through. Currier has said there is no money in the budget for a salary formula increase.