Posted by After months of negotiations, the teachers and district came to a conclusion for their new three-year contract.
By Sarah Santoyo
Editor-in-Chief
Teachers voted 89 percent in favor of the new contract created by the Saddleback Valley Education Association (SVEA) and the district last Friday.
The only change that will take effect this year is the three furlough days on June 7, June 11 and June 14. Next year, the changes will include nine furlough days, salaries decreased by 2.85 percent, and class sizes for grades 4-12 will increase by .5 students meaning, there will be an additional student in every two classes.
“More than being ‘in favor’ of cuts, I think that the teachers and guidance counselors who voted for the proposal did so out of resignation,” said Janet Henry, union site representative for El Toro. “I think that most are keenly aware of the current financial strife at the local, state and national levels.”
In addition to the revised contract, the district took off several items from the cuts list including opportunity clerks in middle and high schools, academic adviser stipends, elementary principals at every school and a reduced cut for adult education.
Some items that were on the cuts list were reinstated because they are the ones that affect most students and are most vital to keep around, according to Tom Turner, Assistant to the Superintendent.
“All the teachers work hard at what they do and deserve to be compensated, especially for the extra hours that they put into their subject,” Dave Roberts, choir teacher, said. “It’s an honor to have to have the stipends reinstated to show that the district appreciates the extra work these teachers do.”
One item still on the district’s cut list is the department chair positions. Their duties, such as planning and leading department meetings, ordering supplies and materials for the department and consulting with teachers and developing the schedule of teaching assignments for department members, will be added to the administration’s agenda if the positions aren’t filled next year.
“The administrators will now have even more on their lists to do, and unfortunately, many of the things just will not be able to get accomplished,” Henry said. “This will be another area of erosion.”
The agreement happened only a couple weeks after the Capo district and teachers settled, and Henry believed the Capo strike affected SVEA’s and others’ negotiation process.
"The message is that the contracts must be negotiated between the two parties," Henry said. "Teachers have a right to bargain their working conditions."
The district was relieved to come to a final conclusion and was happy to avoid a situation like Capo's.
“We’re very excited that we have come to a conclusion with the teachers, and that we didn’t have the same controversial atmosphere that Capo had,” Turner said. “Both sides saw that as something they didn’t want to go through.”
After the next three years, there will be another round of negotiations and everything is subject to get better or worse.
“We can only hope that these financially strapped times pass quickly before too much more erodes from education,” Henry said. “Our future as a state and as a democratic nation depends upon an educated populous. We owe it to the next generations to get this right.”
