Orange Trustees’ Shell Game With Salaries

* Re “Trustees Vote to Impose Pact” (March 15):

The taxpayers in the Orange Unified School District deserve to know the truth.

The 8% salary increase that the Board of Education is trying to impose on its teachers is not a wage increase at all. Their new plan would require teachers to pay for dependent medical coverage, which has never occurred before.

It would also require teachers to pay exorbitant monthly premiums in order to buy up to a decent medical plan because the district is willing to pay only a 3% increase in premiums when they are aware that insurance premiums are likely to rise by 14%.

It means nothing to them that teachers, whose salaries are far below the county median, would have to make up this 11% difference.

This pseudo salary increase is just one more pathetic attempt by the Board of Education to fake negotiating and try to control teachers by imposing a plan so ludicrous it will drive both new and veteran teachers from Orange Unified.

The outstanding teachers of our district will not rest until we have educated all of our parents about the devastating actions of this board.

VICKI RITTER

Orange

* The trustees of the Orange Unified School District need to answer a couple of hard questions.

Board President Linda Davis says the district is still determined to hammer out a contract that both sides can endorse.

If that’s true, why did the school board choose to stop all contract negotiations by approving a new salary and benefit plan that the board knew teachers could not endorse?

Also, why does the amount of money it will take to implement these new salaries and benefits fall far short of the actual amount that the school board has already budgeted for salaries and benefits for this 1999-2000 school year?

PAUL PRUSS

Lake Forest

* The Orange Unified School District’s board had the audacity to state that they “wanted to get back to providing a quality education for the children of the district.”

As an experienced educator in the district, I can say that the misguided policies, misplaced priorities, utter contempt for teachers and arrogance of the school board members have diluted the “quality education” they profess they are attempting to provide.

The Board of Education recently imposed an 8% pay raise on the teachers, which the public will certainly view as generous. However, what the public fails to realize is that this “raise” is provided by diverting money from our health benefits to help fund the salary increase.

How on Earth can shifting money from one account at the expense of another be considered a raise?

The school board is counting on the apathy and ignorance of the public to continue with its dirty little war against the teachers at the expense of the district’s 31,000 students. Meanwhile, hundreds of wonderful and highly experienced teachers, despite the “raise,” will continue to seek the stability and higher pay of neighboring districts.

The Board of Education does not comprehend that low pay and substandard benefits impact the education provided to the children.

If the school board truly cared about providing a meaningful education for its students, it would strive to be a national leader in the recruitment and retention of quality teachers rather than being the laughingstock of the educational community.

ANDREW MATOS

Orange