By KATHERINE PETERSEN
High school teachers and district administrators say they've made some progress in contract negotiations with the help of a state mediator. But the Fremont Union High School District and the Fremont Education Association also say mediation has brought them as far as it's going to, and they have begun the process of selecting a fact-finding panel to move contract talks along.
Wages and retirement benefits remain the biggest roadblocks to an agreement.
The FEA wants an increase of 10.5 percent, and the district's latest offer stands at 7.05 percent.
The district and the union will choose one panel member each, and both sides must agree on the third member from a list of neutral people provided by the Public Employee Relations Board.
The district has selected Gregory Dannis, an attorney familiar with educational negotiations, said Bebe Sellers, the district's head negotiator and associate superintendent of employer/employee relations.
The FEA chose Bill McMurray, the association's executive director, said FEA President George Gredassoff.
For selection of the third member, the district and the union are given a list of seven names from the Public Employee Relations Board. Each side takes turns striking names from the list until only one remains.
They had agreed on a person who was unavailable to sit on the panel until mid-March, but neither side wanted to wait that long, Gredassoff said. The union just received a second list, he added.
Talks continue between the district and the union even while the panel is being put together, Sellers said. She hopes the district and the FEA can continue to work together toward a contract as they have all along.
Gredassoff isn't quite so positive. He said the two sides are still off by about 3.5 percent on a salary increase, and the union wants to see improvements in retirement benefits.
"The fact-finding panel doesn't necessarily guarantee settlement," Gredassoff warned, adding that the 400 teachers could strike as early as late February or March.
"Parents need to realize that we may shut this place down."
The contract dispute, which prompted teachers to picket the first day of school and boycott noncontractual services (such as tutoring and writing letters of recommendation for students), continues to be a divisive issue in the district.
"This could settle this afternoon,if there was somebody driving the boat over there who had any idea what was going on," Gredassoff said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 15, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.