Teachers in Orange OK Pact but Are Still Bitter

After two years of acrimonious contract negotiations, Orange Unified School District’s teachers overwhelmingly ratified the latest offer Monday but at the same time voiced a lack of faith in the school board.

Ending what have been widely regarded as the most contentious teacher contract negotiations in the state, 76% of teachers voted to accept a package that gives raises ranging from 1% for new faculty members to 21% for the most experienced ones.

The ratification by no means signals an end to hostilities, however. While they cast votes to approve the contract, 96% of teachers also cast a vote of no confidence in the Board of Education.

“What the teachers wanted to do was to send a strong message to the district. They felt they had to take what they were given by the board, but it doesn’t mean it’s changed their mind on confidence or respect for the school board,” said Val Steine, executive director of the Orange Unified Education Assn.

“If the teachers did not ratify the district’s last, best and final offer, then the district had the ability to implement any or no part of it,” Steine said.

District officials greeted the outcome with optimism.

“This was an important vote today,” spokeswoman Judith Frutig said. “The three-quarters of the voting membership of the OUEA wants to ratify this contract.”

The school board hopes to set aside the animosity of the labor dispute, heal the rifts and focus on “offering quality education to the schoolchildren of Orange Unified,” she said.

Since March 1998, the district’s 1,400 teachers have picketed board meetings, staged sickouts and demonstrations--sometimes accompanied by students--and waged an often angry fight against their status as the lowest-paid teachers in Orange County.

While trustees have said they see themselves as correcting irresponsible fiscal policies of previous, more liberal boards, the union has been adamant that the district has the money to pay teachers well but that doing so is not a priority. As a result of increased polarization, neither side trusts the other.

If the new contract does not create goodwill between the factions, it at least will provide a lull until June 30, when it expires. The teachers and the school board remain at odds as the union backs a drive to recall three board members in November.

The contract was still a victory, though, and some celebrated Monday night.

“I’m having a beer right now,” said Jack Burke, a 34-year veteran who teaches history at El Modena High School. “The contract means about a $14,000 raise for me, and basically it gets people in my bracket up to being somewhat competitive in the county--to a little over $70,000, which is better than $56,000.”

Burke said he still feels hostility toward the school board.

“Obviously my morale is going to be better now, but now I think I’m going to get actively involved in the recall,” he said. “I think things are still going to be acrimonious as long as you have that board in there.”

Lance Eddy, a math teacher and football coach at Canyon High School, voted against the contract. Although as a longtime teacher he stood to benefit from the package offered to those with the most experience, he believed the contract robbed those at the middle level to reward those at the highest.

“I feel a lot of teachers voted ‘yes’ because they were tired,” Eddy said. “I know the board is going to construe it that the teachers are in agreement with the board, and that’s the furthest from the case.”

The board members “are nice people, they’re very sincere,” he said. “I just think they’re misguided and their priorities are wrong.”