Out-of-Touch School Board Has Teachers Exiting Orange Unified

* Re “Orange Teacher Salary Talks Hit Snag” (July 28):

Orange school board President Linda Davis has once again demonstrated how out of touch she and the rest of the school board are concerning the parents, community, teachers, the contract and the recall.

The parents and community members (not the teachers) initiated and are directing the recall of school board members Davis, Martin Jacobson and Maureen Aschoff. The parents and community are tired of watching hundreds of experienced teachers leave for other districts, only to be replaced by emergency-credentialed people. The quality of education in the neighborhood schools has gone down and the parents are determined to reverse this trend by recalling some of the board members who are responsible for the decline.

Despite how many times Davis says that test scores in the district have not gone down, the reality of the situation is that they have.

The district talks about how its proposed top salary for a teacher with a master’s degree is $68,000 a year. What is not being said is the teachers have to teach for 30 years to get that wage. By contrast, Santa Ana Unified will pay a teacher with a master’s degree and 16 years’ experience $70,221.

If you were a teacher, which district would you work for? More than 500 of my experienced colleagues have made that decision. As one of them told me: “I’ve gone to the promised land.”

PAUL PRUSS

Vice President,

Orange Unified Education Assn.

* Re “As Orange Teachers Walk, the Inexperienced Step In” (July 30):

The Times article on the Orange Unified School District accurately highlights some important challenges facing the district, but there are a few causes you should look at. These causes are actually individuals, Orange Unified school board trustees who refuse to work with the union, the public and recently even themselves.

The level of incompetence present on the Orange Unified school board is unrivaled in any local governmental body. California school districts are facing tough problems, but the Orange school board consistently makes its own problems worse. I hope other voters will join me in signing the recall order.

CHRISTOPHER KOONTZ

Orange

* As a parent in the Orange Unified School District, I was saddened, but not surprised, to read that 241 teachers have resigned from the district.

I hope the school board is ready to accept the consequences of its shortsightedness. Imposing a contract is no way to negotiate, and teachers ended up with their backs to the wall, as evidenced by their strike last spring.

My child has five more years to go in this district and I am very concerned about the quality of her teachers in the years to come.

I am planning to ask them at “Back to School Night” this fall about their credentials. I am a teacher and a beginning teacher-mentor in a neighboring school district and know how difficult beginning teaching can be, even with the required training.

At present, 30% of new teachers in California leave within the first two years and 50% call it quits after five to seven years. With one-fourth of the teaching staff untrained, I can only view this as a recipe for disaster.

Orange Unified has had its troubles over the years, but nothing has touched students and their education like this sorry state of affairs.

KAREN DAVIDSON

Orange