Better relations sought between district, teachers
Averted strike, new contract raise hopes for better atmosphere
BY MAUREEN MAGEE AND ASHLY MCGLONE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 4, 2011 AT 5:40 P.M., UPDATED FEBRUARY 4, 2011 AT 8:13 P.M.
JOHN GIBBINS /P>
Second grade teacher Jolene Vermillion is hugged by her students Friday as they head off to class at Palmer Way Elementary School in National City after a planned teacher strike was called off.
With the threat of a strike over, school opened as usual in National City on Friday with administrators and some teachers vowing to forge a better relationship.
A marathon 18-hour negotiating session ended at 2:30 a.m. — in time to avert what would have been the first teachers strike in San Diego County in 15 years.
Replacing working conditions imposed by the school board in July is a tentative three-year labor pact between the National School District and its 354 teachers. The agreement includes compromises — for both parties — on everything from furlough days to class size caps.
“We’ve come through a very stressful period of time this past year when both sides have experienced great frustrations,” Superintendent Chris Oram said in a prepared statement. “It’s now time to come together, put our differences behind us and refocus on providing the quality of education our parents and others have come to expect from our district schools.”
The National City Elementary Teachers Association celebrated the end to the bitter impasse that has persisted since March.
“We are happy that after many hours of intensive negotiations we were able to come to an agreement for the benefit of our students and the community,” said union president Linda Cartwright.
Teachers and parents learned of the settlement hours before the morning school bell sounded in the district’s 10 elementary campuses mostly through a Twitter feed and word-of-mouth.
But not everyone got wind of the news. More than 17 percent of the district’s 5,800 students failed to show up to class, that’s four times the typical absentee rate. About 93 percent of the district’s teachers reported to the classroom. Even some of the some 254 substitute teachers tapped in case of a strike showed up amid confusion over whether their services were needed. All of them will be paid $250 for the day — more than twice the regular substitute rate, district officials said.
The tentative contract is set to be ratified by both parties next week. Many said they were hopeful that will lead to a new atmosphere in the district.
“The fact that they were able to craft an agreement under these difficult circumstances is a good sign that this could lead to ... the start of a collaborative relationship and not an adversarial one,” said Bill Guy, a spokesman for the California Teachers Association.
But some hard feelings remain.
“We would like to find out when the public apology comes for all the stress that they’ve caused the teachers and the parents and the kids,” said Matt Crosbie, a teacher at Palmer Way Elementary School.
Several parents expressed relief that the dispute is over.
“I’m so excited it was resolved,” said Sherrie Cabarles, a National City parent and school volunteer. “The kids do not have to suffer.”
National City teachers have been working under conditions imposed by the school board in July after the district rejected a nonbinding compromise by an independent mediator. Their contract expired June 30.
The proposed agreement hammered out Friday morning calls for four furlough days in each year of the contract; aligning the elementary school district’s calendar with the Sweetwater Union High School District, which also serves National City; and setting class sizes at 22 students in kindergarten through third grade and 33 students in grades four through six for this school year and next.
If education funding improves, furlough days could be reduced, and 22-student class sizes in the lower grades could continue through 2012-13, according to the settlement.
The district had sought to close a $3 million deficit in its $53.7 million operating budget largely through six furlough days this year under the conditions imposed in July.
Union leaders had argued that the district could have tapped more of its $8.6 million reserve account to help balance its budget. But district officials said much of that money is actually deferred funding from the state. They said it’s not certain that money will materialize, given the state’s budget problems.
“We’re ready to reduce and even eventually eliminate the number of furlough days if the state restores enough funds for us to be able to do so,” Oram said. “Meanwhile, we have no choice but to live within our means and keep expenses in line with revenues.”
The district said it was crucial to establish a three-year contract, even though the union initially wanted a shorter agreement.
Teachers voted Dec. 16 to authorize a strike, and the union’s executive board on Tuesday called for the walkout to begin Friday.
A walkout in National City would have been the first in the county since 1996 when teachers from the San Diego Unified School District staged a five-day strike. It would have be the third teacher walkout in Southern California in less than a year, after La Habra and San Juan Capistrano.
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