It’s Orange Unified but Teachers Divided

A one-day teachers’ walkout on the books in the Orange Unified School District and what have we learned?

Most distressingly for the teachers’ association is that while the district may be unified in name, the association apparently isn’t. The union leadership called for a blanket walkout Thursday, yet the district says 40% of the teachers still reported to their classrooms.

Not surprising in this dispute where the two sides couldn’t agree if it’s sunup or sundown, the teachers association says that only 30% of the teachers came to school.

According to the school district’s numbers, 40% of the students stayed home Thursday. Maybe parents made that decision, figuring substitutes would be the order of the day. Maybe they feared there might be tension at school between teachers and subs. Or maybe they did it out of some kind of silent support for the teachers.

However you spin it, though, it’s hard to think kindly of a teacher walkout if its most notable result is that thousands of students missed a day of school.

Strikes work only when the other side is hurt. Or can be hurt. With 30% to 40% of your members defying you, it’s hard to inflict much damage.

All that aside, I have even more troubling news for the unhappy teachers. It comes by way of Janelle Chiu, whose family has lived in the same house in Orange for the last 20 years and who has three children attending district schools.

On Thursday morning, we talked in the parking lot of McPherson Magnet School after Chiu dropped off her daughter, a fourth-grader. She and her husband also have a son at McPherson and a daughter at El Modena High School.

The bad news for the teachers is that Chiu is one of their biggest fans. She says none of her three children has ever had a bad year with any of their teachers in the Orange district. She and her husband know how rare that is and credit the teachers. So, what’s the bad news?

Despite her admiration, Chiu wonders if the teachers are being realistic in their protracted salary dispute.

It’s not that Chiu has sided with the district, which the teachers have said has been both unfair and untruthful in negotiations.

It’s just that Chiu feels she doesn’t know what the nuts and bolts of the dispute are and that, perhaps most telling for the teachers, she isn’t moved by their laments that the district doesn’t “respect” them.

Chiu is a physical therapist and her husband is a civil engineer. “We both have degrees,” she says. “Our passion is math and science.” So, Chiu is hardly a parent who takes education for granted.

Three years ago when McPherson opened, she camped out for three nights to make sure her kids got in. She and her husband liked the magnet school’s emphasis on science, math and technology and consider the education their children are getting as vital to their future success.

In other words, the Chius should be in the teachers’ camp.

Instead, Chiu says it’s difficult for parents to know what’s what. The district sends out one set of figures; the teachers argue that the figures are distortions.

Then, Chiu says, she sees teacher association leaders talking on TV about not getting respect from the board.

“I don’t want to hear how they’re not treated with respect,” Chiu says. “Tell me what the teachers want and what the district is offering. We never get the facts.”

Chiu says she knows medical benefits cost money and isn’t sure about the district’s ability to pay. She concedes that some teachers might be underpaid but says she also considers herself underpaid.

“I understand the board’s side and the teachers’ side,” she says. “I’d hate to see teachers leave the district, because my children have had an extremely good education, but we also have to be fiscally responsible.”

The only thing Chiu is certain of is that she wants the dispute settled. She worries that the dispute will pit parents against parents and teachers against teachers, with students caught in the middle.

In its battle for parents’ hearts and minds, the teachers association hasn’t lost Chiu.

But she sounds like a natural ally, and it hasn’t won her over.

And if it can’t do better than 60% or 70% solidarity in its own ranks, it’s time to ask whether it ever will.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com