Talks Near Amid Fears of Mass Exodus by Teachers

ORANGE —  With many teachers already gone, hundreds more are threatening a mass flight from Orange Unified School District as negotiators plan to resume a yearlong quest for a new contract on Monday.

Teachers warn that the prospect of a crippling exodus is growing every day that passes without a settlement. The 29,000-student district serves Orange, Villa Park and parts of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

The contract dispute comes at a time of upheaval in the district. This summer, the district is moving to year-round schooling and proposing to end bilingual education. Next fall, a school board election is expected to polarize conservatives and liberals as a controversial right-of-center board majority faces voters.

Meantime, teachers throughout California are in heavy demand as schools are reducing the size of many classes from kindergarten to third grade.

Some Orange schools already have lost large numbers of teachers, especially those with bilingual training. Administrators are reporting high turnover at Jordan, West Orange and Fairhaven elementary schools. The latter two have scrambled in the past few weeks to hire new faculty as they prepare to launch a year-round schedule for the first time July 1.

“It is very critical that we resolve this contract,” said Gary Campbell, executive director of the Orange Unified Education Assn., the teachers’ bargaining unit. “We do not want to lose our best teachers. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Teachers have until June 30 to decide whether to renew their employment, but district officials said Friday that only about 500 to 600 out of 1,200 have turned in letters of commitment. There were no figures available on the number of teachers who already have retired or resigned. Supt. Robert L. French said about 75 to 100 teachers leave in a typical year.

Many appeared to be deliberately holding out to intensify their campaign for higher pay. The district operated in the past year with an expired contract, which had the lowest overall pay scale in Orange County but one of the most generous benefits packages.

This month, the school board unilaterally enacted what it called an “emergency” pay raise of $6,000 to $7,000 to the lower rungs of the salary scale in a bid to keep its youngest teachers. The beginning salary had been just over $23,000 a year. The union said that action, which did not apply to veteran teachers, was illegal.

A key point in the negotiations is whether teachers should forgo lifetime medical benefits to get higher pay. A majority of Orange school board members says the district will risk eventual bankruptcy unless it scales back those benefits.

Martin Jacobson, the school board president, said the results from a bargaining session Wednesday were “very bad.” He added: “We’re seeing so little movement on the part of the union.” Jacobson said the district is offering some retroactive pay and raises from 2% to 9% depending on how many teachers agree to give up the lifetime health benefits.

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Campbell declined to respond, or to spell out the union’s bargaining position. “We don’t want to get into a situation where we’re taking potshots at each other’s proposals,” he said.

The dispute is angering parents and students who fear schools will suffer.

On Saturday, as a group of Cub Scouts and parents met at West Orange Elementary to begin a camping trip, Larry Goodman said he had heard several teachers were leaving his son Michael’s school.

“If the school is not giving the teachers enough money to stay here, there’s something wrong,” Goodman said. “I just would like to have a little status quo instead of change all the time. That takes away from education.”

At Fairhaven Elementary in Santa Ana, Principal Philip Morse said at least 17 teachers were leaving, out of 37 on staff in mid-June. Seven of those, he said, were leaving for “personal reasons” and 10 to teach in other school districts. Morse also said a handful were still undecided as of last week.

“It’s been difficult to say goodbye to the staff,” Morse said. “They’re people I respected.” Morse said, however, that he had many applicants to fill the positions. Some were without full teaching credentials, but Morse said he was “impressed” by the caliber of his new hires.

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Hundreds of students at Villa Park and El Modena high schools signed petitions supporting their teachers before the summer break.

“We don’t want to lose our teachers,” said Jordan Brandman, a senior at El Modena who gathered signatures. “We do not want bad, underpaid teachers coming into our district. We want to keep the quality of teachers we have in Orange Unified.”

For many, it’s too late. On Monday, Brian Warman, a six-year teacher and former teacher of the year at Taft Elementary in Orange, will be handing in his resignation. Warman said he is moving to the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and will be getting a raise of about $9,000 a year, up from his final Orange salary of $31,500.

Kim Hairston, a four-year teacher, is making the same jump. She said she was fed up with both the teachers union and the school board.

“Nobody’s got kids in mind anymore,” Hairston said. “I want to work somewhere where I can focus on teaching and curriculum and not all the negativeness. There’s so many unhappy people in Orange.”