Orange Unified Backs Off Teacher Contract Stance

An offer that Orange school officials called a “dramatic step” toward appeasing unhappy teachers met with a chilly reception from the union as the beleaguered district continued to stew over both contract negotiations and a gay-straight club at one of its campuses.

Describing their move as a peace offering to teachers, Orange officials Monday agreed to back off on their previous stance requiring a buyout of veteran teachers’ cherished retirement packages, but union officials immediately downplayed the offer because it does not meet their salary and benefits demands.

Protests have become a common sight in the 31,000-student district. Teachers unhappy with contract negotiations have picketed at school board meetings, recruitment fairs and their own campuses. Parents unhappy about the Gay-Straight Alliance, which the district sought to ban, have protested outside school board meetings and federal court.

On the day the club first met at El Modena High School, under federal court order, pro- and anti-club forces, including an anti-gay group from Utah, shoved and shouted outside the school until police dispersed the crowd. Since then, masked protesters favoring the Gay-Straight Alliance have made two public appearances--one resulting in a ruckus at the school board meeting last week.

That fracas, which prematurely ended the meeting, led the school board to schedule another meeting for today at 5:30 p.m. The closed-session discussions will include talks about the gay-straight club and a report from the district’s labor negotiating team about progress and options in ending the contract stalemate.

The district’s latest offer includes raises of 8% this school year and 4% next.

“It’s a dramatic step that’s intended to settle the negotiations and bring labor peace to the school district,” Orange Unified spokeswoman Judy Frutig said. “It’s a step intended to bring us back to the business of Orange Unified, which is educating the schoolchildren. . . . We’re extending an olive branch to the teachers in this district.”

Pleased with the buyout retreat but dissatisfied that the proposed raises would not bring Orange teachers up to the county’s median salary, a union official chose a different metaphor to describe the proposal.

“It is the hope and expectation of the Orange Unified Education Assn. that a fair and equitable contract will be bargained and that labor peace will ensue,” union Executive Director Bill Shanahan said. “But the superintendent and her minions are trying to dazzle [teachers] with the sheen on the poison apple.”

Orange’s contract offer would retroactively raise salaries to a maximum of $56,560 this year, district officials said; the union’s last proposal would have raised that to $63,980, union leaders said.

A group of parents supportive of the teachers picketed on their behalf outside Monday’s negotiating session.

The closed session talks scheduled for today led union President John Rossmann to express concern that the district will attempt to unilaterally enact a contract--a move the union believes to be illegal. In a statement, Rossmann said the school board “never had any intention of good-faith negotiations”--a contention Frutig denied.

That sentiment was echoed by 30-year Villa Park High School teacher Patrick Barrett, who said he did not think the proposal was a good-faith effort.

“It’s movement, but that is all I can characterize it as,” Barrett said. “I didn’t go into teaching to get rich, but I didn’t go into it to become a pauper.”

Frutig said school officials were “not there yet” on unilateral action. “At this point in the process, we’ve put a proposal on the table.”

It is sometimes legal to unilaterally impose a contract if school districts and their unions have been at loggerheads and have exhausted avenues of resolution, said Ronald Wenkart, general counsel for the Orange County Department of Education. He said he did not know whether Orange’s situation met the Government Code’s requirement for such a move.

Negotiations have been stalled since May, when the union membership rejected a tentative contract agreement by 24 votes. That agreement would have given a few longtime teachers up to 13% raises and required a mandatory buyout of veteran teachers’ retirement packages. Both sides have questioned the other’s budget figures and accused the other of bargaining in bad faith. On Monday, Frutig said the district could not afford to both give large raises and keep the retirement packages; the union disagreed.

The stalemate comes at an inopportune time for Orange Unified. Like many other school districts, it is grappling with hiring scores of new teachers to fill slots created by booming enrollment, teacher retirements and a statewide effort to reduce class sizes in several grades. Orange Unified expects to hire as many as 300 teachers for the coming school year.

All these factors will serve as subtext for today’s board meeting.

A beefed-up police presence is expected at the gathering because of last Thursday’s incident, in which black-clad, masked protesters who support the student-founded gay-straight club disrupted the meeting and wound up tussling with school administrators. A school principal was bitten on the arm; a 17-year-old girl was later arrested for assault and battery.

Orange police said Monday that the biting incident is not clearly visible on a videotape of the meeting. They are looking for other possible suspects in the incident, police Capt. Art Romo said.

Board members have requested a report on whether they can bar mask-wearing protesters from the meeting--a move that is bound to raise questions about rights of free expression. Removing the protesters was something some trustees wondered about last week, but they did not know their legal standing on the matter.

Romo said masks are illegal if used for the purpose of committing a crime, but are legal in other circumstances. Public agencies, he said, do have the right to make some rules for keeping their meetings orderly.

Attending last week’s meeting with masked protesters was “pretty terrifying,” board President Linda Davis said last week. “It was rather unnerving conducting a meeting in front of people with black masks and raised fists.”

Added Frutig, “We certainly don’t want to stifle anyone’s free speech. Then again, we don’t want anyone coming to our public meetings feeling scared.”

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Times correspondent Marissa Espino contributed to this report.