By LESTER CHANG
Disgruntled teachers gave the school board and its lead negotiator, Bebe Sellers, a vote of no confidence at the May 21 meeting of the Fremont Union High School District Board of Trustees.
The petition, signed by more than 200 teachers, came as a only handful of residents attended the first public contract talks between negotiators for the district and the Fremont Education Association held earlier in the day.
Teachers complained about the slow progress of the contract negotiations, which affect about 400 teachers. Earlier this month, citing similar concerns, teachers handed a vote-of-no-confidence petition to district superintendent Mary Panucci.
Board members and Sellers didn't comment on the latest petition.
Earlier in the day, only seven people attended the open meeting at UC-Santa Cruz Extension in Cupertino, where lead union negotiator Jim Dawes clashed with district negotiators over the use of student surveys to evaluate teachers, summer-school pay and use of part-time teachers.
FEA officials, meanwhile, said they weren't fazed by the small turnout for the talks, which ran for 8 1/2 hours, noting "the idea was to just open up the negotiations to the public."
Both sides stayed away from the key issues of salary and health packages, saying they were too far apart on those issues to begin talks.
The union and administration are at odds over how to use more than $9 million in district reserves, which amount to about 20 percent of the district's $43 million budget. The state requires school districts to keep at least a 3 percent reserve on hand.
FEA representatives contend it would take less than half the district reserves to fund the teachers' proposal. The district has said it needs the money for long-term planning and emergencies.
Negotiations will resume May 30 at the same location.
Both sides indicated they want to negotiate a contract as soon as possible. The three- year contract expires in August.
FEA President George Gredassoff was not immediately available for comment.
The trustees agreed to the open meeting to accommodate public demands. They had steadfastly refused a similar request from FEA.
The union had complained that the district was footdragging and wouldn't agreedto meet often enough to hammer out a settlement.
Although the meeting was opened to the public, rules forged by both sides prohibited the public from giving input.
Some of the rules stipulated:
* The public would not be allowed to disrupt, interrupt or influence the negotiating process.
* Neither the district nor the association could use the public to influence the meeting.
* Neither side could talk or meet with the public or distribute written information during the talks.
Not being able to voice an opinion didn't bother Debbie Byron, the president of the Cupertino Union School Board of Education, nor Vivian Low, a parent of a student at Monta Vista High School. Both attended the contract talks.
"I believe the public has no role during the negotiations, except as observers, becoming better informed," Byron said. The guidelines for the meeting were appropriate, she said, adding that the public can make its opinions known to the board at another time.
Low said voicing viewpoints at the meeting would have "bogged" down the negotiations.
"I don't think it is a parent's role to know every little detail," she said. "The negotiations are being conducted by knowledgeable people. The role of parents is to support both sides and support communication."
She said that it might be necessary to change the format of the open contract talks if the process doesn't work in one or two months.
Negotiations moved smoothly but flared at points when both sides talked about the use of student surveys for evaluating teachers.
Dawes said some students aren't mature enough to participate and that their negative comments could hurt the career of a good teacher.
"Too much room for misunderstanding," said Dawes, shaking his head.
Speaking after the meeting, audience member Joe Lattuada, a math teacher at Monta Vista High School since 1980, said a student survey on his performance brought him nothing but headaches.
Seven years ago, Lattuada taught 11 students who complained they couldn't understand him, he said. The problem was not with him but with nine of the students, who didn't have the required lower-level courses for his class, he said.
"The administration was responsible for putting them in my class, not I," Lattuada said.
The episode tarnished his reputation. "I was put under observation every year, instead of every other year, which is normal," he said.
Bebe Sellers, one of the lead negotiators for the district, said similar problems may have their roots in the teacher and the way the teacher delivers lessons.
District negotiators also said student surveys, which aren't required at this time, are important to the district and will help teachers become better teachers.
"This is not a complaint form," said district negotiator Mary Stone. "This could be something very positive for teachers."
The sides also clashed over:
* A district proposal to standardize summer-school pay for teachers, which would keep salaries in line with many other school districts in Santa Clara County. The district proposes to pay a summer-school teacher $125 for four hours of lessons. Teachers currently make an hourly amount based on regular school-year salaries, a condition the association favors.
* Hiring part-time teachers after July 1 and requiring teachers to teach two classes that are more than one period apart.
The district wants the flexibility to have the teachers work in such a fashion. The union said it wanted the district to plan work schedules around full-time, not part-time, employees.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 29, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.