IRVINE

Dozens of teachers and students--dressed all in black--converged on the school board meeting Tuesday to protest the district’s stand against issuing double-digit salary raises to its instructors.

Gail Rothman, Irvine Teachers Assn. president, told the board the district’s current salaries are near the bottom of the scale for Orange County. It’s a problem, she said, that has resulted in an exodus of good teachers, who leave local classrooms for better-paying jobs elsewhere. She told the board that it’s time the teachers received double-digit raises.

Tim Jamison, a sixth-grade teacher at Brywood Elementary School, said it would take a raise of 17% to bring the earnings of mid-level teachers up to the median range for Orange County. School board members made no comments during Tuesday’s meeting. Board and school district officials reached Wednesday also had no comment.