SAN YSIDRO – San Ysidro teachers could strike as soon as Wednesday, union leaders said.
The San Ysidro Education Association, which represents 274 teachers in San Ysidro School District, has scheduled a strike vote for Tuesday. If a majority votes to strike, said union President Pedro Lopez, the strike could start immediately.
|
District details
Students: 4,767, kindergarten through eighth grade
Schools: 7
Teachers: 274
 96.7 percent of San Ysidro students received free or reduced-price meals in 1999-2000.
75.3 percent of San Ysidro students, predominantly Spanish speakers, were classified as English learners in 2000-01.
93.7 percent of San Ysidro students were Latinos in 2000-01, the most recent year for which data is available from the California Department of Education
Strikes: San Diego Unified School District, five days, February 1996. Settled when district and teachers agreed to a 14 percent raise for teachers over three years, with a 5 percent raise retroactive to July 1995.
Sources: San Ysidro School District, San Ysidro Education Association and California Department of Education
|
|
"We don't want a strike but we're prepared for it. School will continue," said Bonifacio Garcia, the school district's attorney. "People should be assured that instruction will continue to occur. The district already has the resources lined up to make sure that happens."
Those resources include lists of substitute teachers from neighboring districts and the school board's granting of emergency powers to Superintendent Jose Torres that would allow him to pay substitutes up to $250 a day.
The teachers union and the district have been negotiating for two years. The main sticking point has been the district's proposal to extend the teachers' workday by 15 minutes as a condition for a 13 percent raise.
Early this month, the school board rejected a state fact-finding panel's recommendation of 4.29 percent more pay for the extra 15 minutes. Instead, the board imposed the 15 minutes as part of a package that would grant the teachers a one-time bonus of 10 percent for the 2000-01 school year and a permanent 13 percent raise retroactive to July 1.
The teachers have already voted 225-4 to authorize the union leadership to call a strike. The Tuesday vote puts the decision to strike directly into the hands of the teachers. Union leaders said they've called for another vote so teachers can decide on the district's latest offer, which is slightly different from the earlier one.
"This vote is either you take it or you walk," said Frank Caso, a spokesman for the California Teachers Association.
There has not been a teachers' strike in San Diego County since San Diego city schools' five-day strike in February 1996. About 85 percent of the district's 6,500 teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses participated in the strike. School continued during the strike.
The teachers union wants to negotiate over the Presidents Day holiday weekend to try to avert a strike.
"The association is dedicated to doing anything they can to get the district to negotiate so there doesn't have to be a strike, and they certainly haven't given up. If things don't change, then the chips are going to fall where they fall," Caso said.
Garcia said there would be no negotiations over the weekend. Torres said that accepting the state panel's recommendations would bankrupt the district.
The district insists that adding 15 minutes to the six hours and 21 minutes of daily class time will improve student learning. The union counters that no research proves that a longer day in itself boosts learning. Union statistics also show that San Ysidro teachers already work more minutes per year than their counterparts, and that any requirement to work longer days should come with commensurate pay.
A strike would affect the education of more than 4,700 kindergarten-through-eighth-graders at seven schools in the San Ysidro district. About three-quarters of them do not speak fluent English, and nearly all of them are poor enough to qualify for government-subsidized lunch.
The labor strife began during the administration of former Superintendent Grace Kojima, who retired late last year.
Torres was hired in November with a mandate to boost scores on the English-language tests required by the state. However, he immediately had to fight to save his own job when trustees met in December to consider firing him after discovering that he did not have a California school administrator's credential. After a community uprising in his support, the board kept him as the district's leader.
Meanwhile, a group of San Ysidro residents helped by Lopez intend to circulate petitions to recall board members Luis Figueroa, Yolanda Hernandez and Ernestine Jones. The notices served on the board members accuse them of providing false information about classroom materials and teacher salaries and showing disrespect to the community. The organizers also faulted the board for allowing San Ysidro's largely Spanish-speaking students to take the English language Stanford 9 tests mandated by the state.
The petitions cannot hit the street until the registrar of voters approves the exact language. The registrar sent the proposed petition language back to organizers this week for revisions.
Maria Ledezma, one of the parents active in the recall campaign, said the school board is wrong to insist on an extra 15 minutes, that it won't improve the education of San Ysidro students. If the district does impose the 15 minutes, though, she said, it should add to the teachers' raise to compensate them for it.
She said she and other parents will be applying for transfers to send their children to another school district, and on Tuesday, when classes resume after the holiday weekend, many parents will keep their children home from school.
"This isn't going to be a teachers strike, it will be a parents strike," she said.
Parent Susana Torres said she was displeased with both sides in the labor impasse.
She said she believes San Ysidro teachers are well paid already but that the district is wrong to impose 15 extra minutes on them.
"They'll be here fighting for 15 minutes. Why don't they fight for our kids' education?" Torres asked. "Our kids are the ones in danger, not the teachers or the board."
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com
