Trustees Vote to Impose Pact

Frustrated by long-stalled contract talks and difficulty attracting and keeping new teachers, Orange Unified school trustees voted Tuesday to impose a new salary and benefits plan on the district’s 1,500-member educators association--a move the union vowed to fight.

The unilateral action came at a surprisingly mellow school board meeting, one that was called after a previous gathering morphed into a mini-melee. At least three uniformed police officers attended Tuesday’s session to keep the peace in a district riven by hot-button issues.

The new contract, unanimously approved without union consent by the five board members present, gives an 8% raise this school year and drops a controversial demand to force veteran teachers to sell out their cherished lifetime medical benefits. However, the raises and benefits are short of those union leaders were advocating; they supported a proposal that would have brought Orange teachers close to the median county salary.

Board President Linda Davis described the reasons for the action, including fruitless contract talks, a failed tentative contract agreement, long-delayed raises for teachers, difficulty recruiting and seemingly irreconcilable budget projections by the district and the union. She added that the district is still determined to hammer out a contract that both sides can endorse.

“We have given the teachers everything we can legally afford,” Davis said after the meeting, from which board members Robert Viviano and Kathy Ward were absent. “I think most of the teachers will welcome this pay raise.”

Reached late Tuesday, the union’s president said the action was anything but welcome. Orange Unified Education Assn. President John Rossmann and other union officials also said it may be illegal.

“When they unilaterally impose something, that’s not a contract,” Rossmann said. The board members “don’t negotiate, they issue ultimatums. If we don’t go along with their ultimatums, they impose. This should reveal . . . to the community that they never, ever had the intention of bargaining in good faith.”

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.

The tense contract negotiations have been stalled since May, when union members narrowly rejected a tentative agreement. That pact would have given a few longtime teachers up to 13% raises and required a mandatory buyout of veteran teachers’ retirement packages. Each side questioned the other’s budget figures and accused the other of bargaining in bad faith.

It is sometimes legal to impose a contract unilaterally if school districts and their unions have been stymied and unable to resolve a contract, said Ronald Wenkart, general counsel for the Orange County Department of Education. He has previously said he did not know if Orange’s situation met the legal requirements.

Bill Shanahan, executive director for the union, said he planned to consult today with attorneys for the massive California Teachers Assn. to discuss legal options. “I don’t see any sense in [returning] to the bargaining table at this time,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we have to do.”

Orange spokeswoman Judy Frutig said the union could have viewed the offer as “a victory all around.” She added, “It’s time to stop the verbal sniping and to start moving forward with the business of this district, which is educating children.”

The atmosphere at Tuesday’s Orange Unified meeting was subdued compared to last week’s gathering, where a principal was bitten during a ruckus between school administrators and masked protesters who support a Gay-Straight Alliance club at El Modena High School. A 17-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery.

Before the trustees adjourned to closed session Tuesday to discuss the teachers contract, several parents addressed the board on that issue and the gay-straight club.

Melinda Derloshon and a few other parents came, signs in hand, to urge the board to resolve the dispute with teachers. “We’re deeply concerned about the effect the stalemate is having on our schools and community,” she said.

Other parents spoke against the Gay-Straight Alliance, although board members did not take any action on the club or on whether masked protesters should be allowed to attend trustees meetings. Board members said they are still weighing those options.

Given last week’s fracas, parent Sherry Lewis said, “America must come to grips that the ones lacking tolerance are the gays, lesbians and homosexuals.”

But club founder Anthony Colin, an El Modena student, and one of his lawyers urged the board not to penalize the club for the melee. He said the protest was not an action approved or condoned by the club--a contention some parents disputed.

“The [club] would not give up six months of fighting on a dumb protest,” Colin said before the meeting. “We’re not here to scare people. We’re here to promote acceptance, dignity and respect.”

The club, first proposed in September, is now meeting at El Modena under a federal judge’s order until a lawsuit filed by student founders can be heard this summer.