Teachers’ Labor Talks Hit a Wall

Contract negotiations between the Santa Ana Unified School District and its more than 3,000 teachers have stalled after seven months, and an outside mediator is needed to resolve the festering labor dispute, district administrators said Tuesday.

But union leaders say they are willing to make further concessions to the district, delaying for now the appointment of a state-appointed mediator.

Representatives from both sides said Tuesday they were confident an agreement would be struck before the June 30 expiration of the current three-year contract. But both sides said they remained far apart on several issues and, with the district facing a significant loss of state revenue, several hundred teachers were expected to lose their jobs no matter what concessions were made.

Keith Breon, the district’s lead negotiator, said the district in June presented the Santa Ana Educators Assn. with a plan to save $6 million by increasing teacher contributions to health care costs, requiring them to take two additional days off without pay and temporarily freezing annual raises.

Union officials refused to respond, Breon said, and insisted instead that the district first negotiate two non-monetary issues involving teacher evaluations and the length of the school day.

District Supt. Al Mijares and Breon said the district offered compromises on the two points but refused to accept a union proposal calling for extensive teacher control over evaluations and a school day that lasted only five minutes beyond the state minimum, 10 minutes shorter than the district’s proposal.

Association President Tom Harrison declined comment on the negotiations, but described Breon’s account as “incomplete” and said the district has refused to make meaningful concessions on the two issues over a year and a half of discussions.

Breon said that with no resolution in sight and with the district’s cost-cutting goal having nearly doubled in recent months to almost $11 million, he felt obliged to declare an impasse.

“We’re so many miles apart, we need some outside assistance,” Breon said.

The talks mark the first serious contract discord between teachers and administrators in more than 15 years, officials said.

The district’s impasse declaration comes as officials with the Orange County Board of Education continue to pressure the district to resolve a projected $29-million budget shortfall.

If the district does not present a balanced budget by July 1, county officials can request that the state Department of Education assume control of the district.

“One way or another, we must have the problem solved this [school] year,” Mijares said. We cannot head into next year with an unresolved budget problem. It will not happen.”

Beyond the July 1 deadline, Mijares said the district must decide in the coming weeks whether it will have to eliminate a class-size reduction program for kindergarten through third grade and, as a result, eliminate 400 to 600 teacher positions. Concessions from the union, he said, might allow part of the program to be saved.

Harrison, however, said he believes the teachers can do nothing to save the program.

“The looming [budget] problem is so great, we could give a lot and it still would not save class-size reduction,” he said. “We’re willing to do our part, but we have families too.”

Jerilyn Gelt, a labor relations specialist with the California Public Employment Relations Board, said she refused to appoint a state mediator because Harrison had indicated he was willing to make further compromises. The two sides are scheduled to meet again Jan. 22.

Harrison said he believed a mediator would not be needed to resolve the dispute. Breon disagreed. “The fact of the matter,” he said, “is that their movement won’t be sufficient.”