Brea-Olinda Teachers Vote to Strike on Feb. 6

Teachers in the Brea-Olinda Unified School District have voted “overwhelmingly” to strike beginning Feb. 6, the teachers’ union announced Tuesday.

John Zoeckler of the Brea-Olinda Teachers Assn. said that only a session scheduled Feb. 5 with a state labor mediator could prevent the strike. “Unless there is successful mediation, we go on strike . . . , “ Zoeckler said, adding: “The strike vote was not tentative. It was overwhelmingly in favor.”

The 158 union members in the north Orange County school district took the strike vote Monday night. Zoeckler said the association would not release exact vote totals.

At issue in the dispute is the third year of a three-year contract that has been reopened for negotiation of a proposed pay raise for the teachers.

The 4,400-student district has offered a 5% increase. The teachers’ association has rejected that, saying that the 5% offer must be coupled with a guarantee that the teachers will get 50% of the district’s share of California Lottery revenues and also $500 annual salary additions for the most experienced teachers.

Emergency Session Called

District Supt. Edgar Seal said the school board met Tuesday morning in emergency session because of the strike threat.

“We basically discussed different strategies on how to go back to the (bargaining) table and try to settle this contract dispute,” Seal said. “We’re trying to get back with the (state) mediator, sit down with the association and come up with a compromise position.”

Seal said the district will offer something new at the session with the mediator next week, but he declined to disclose what it will be. Seal said that in case of a strike, the school board voted to authorize paying up to $200 a day for substitute teachers. The district currently pays substitutes $65 a day, he added.

Seal said the district has already pledged about $200,000 of the $400,000 it expects to get in lottery money toward all employees’ salaries. He said that tapping that much of the anticipated lottery revenue was necessary for the district to be able to offer a 5% raise to the teachers.

Rachel Sweet, president of the teachers’ union, contended that the district’s offer to the teachers does not amount to $200,000 of the lottery money.

‘We Want Half’

“The teachers would only be getting about $100,000 of the money, and the district is talking about using the other half of the $200,000 for classified (non-teaching workers) and other salaries,” Sweet said. “So the district is really only offering us one-fourth of the $400,000 it says it will get. We want half of the lottery money. And we don’t agree with the $400,000 estimate; we think the district will get much more than that in lottery money.”

Pay in the district ranges from $19,021 for beginning teachers to $34,912 for the most experienced instructors.