Teachers Strike Set in Orange

Teachers union representatives walked out of contract negotiations Monday with the Orange Unified School District, all but ensuring that a two-day walkout will begin Wednesday as planned.

In a related development, a Superior Court judge has dismissed a $75-million class-action lawsuit filed against the school district on behalf of retired teachers.

Representatives of the 1,500-member Orange Unified Education Assn. left the bargaining table Monday after district negotiators refused to participate in mediation on 1998-2000 contracts, said the union’s executive director, Bill Shanahan.

Orange teachers have been planning a walkout on Wednesday and Thursday since trustees of the 30,000-student district retroactively imposed a 1998-2000 contract in March without union consent.

District officials hoped to avert a walkout by coming to an agreement Monday on a contract for the next academic year.

But union negotiators would not broach that topic until they could be heard on the 1998-2000 contract, Shanahan said, which led to the impasse.

District representative Judith Frutig said the two sides have already been through mediation on the 1998-2000 contracts.

“We’ve been there and done that,” Frutig said. “We want to move ahead and negotiate a 2000-2001 contract.”

The contract approved by the board in March gives the district’s 1,500 teachers a retroactive 8% pay raise over the 1998-2000 school years, bringing the salaries of the most experienced teachers to $56,560.

The union’s last proposal would have included higher raises for veteran teachers, with salaries ranging from $32,000 at entry level to a maximum of $63,980.

The last-minute meeting between the two sides came as the district prepared for staff absences Wednesday and Thursday by offering more than double its usual daily rate for substitute teachers and hiring private security guards for campuses.

By late Monday, more than 500 teachers had responded to ads placed by the district in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties offering $250 per day for substitutes who passed background checks, said Robert Howell, the district’s director of human resources.

Howell said at least 800 substitutes will be ready to report to schools during the walkout, which the district expects to keep 850 to 1,000 Orange teachers out of the classroom.