The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Deal would have meant 12 percent salary increase

Property tax estimates show how much teachers would have received under the latest offer

By Katherine Petersen

High school teachers passed up a 12 to 17 percent raise last month when union leaders rejected a deal offered by a neutral mediator.

The offer, reported by The Sun in early May, called for a 7.05 percent raise plus a percentage of revenues over $33 million. With property tax estimates that came in last week, that additional increase would most likely have amounted to about 5 percent this year and another 5 percent by the third year of the contract, district administrators said.

The state-appointed, neutral mediator had hoped union members would vote on her offer, but the union's representative council declined to put it to a vote of its 400 members.

Some teachers now say they are offended by the union leadership's not allowing them to vote on the offer.

"I saw a lot of good things in it," said Gary Post, a Monta Vista High School teacher. "I'm resentful that a handful of people could deny us the opportunity to vote."

The union still has the option to vote on the recommendation, said Bebe Sellers, the district's chief negotiator and associate superintendent of employer/employee relations.

Yet Sid Castro, a Fremont High School delegate on the union's representative council, said that even a 12 percent salary increase would leave teachers lagging behind their colleagues in other districts. For instance, he said teachers would be paid 19 percent less than those in the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District.

"Our district is still not able to compete for the brightest young teachers who will go where the money is," he said. "We don't expect to be paid the most, but we do expect parity given our outstanding schools."

At one point in the negotiations, the union had asked that its members receive the highest salary of any faculty in the state.

Differences between the union and the administration are not strictly economic, Castro said. Other issues, such as a one-year contract that the union wants, have yet to be resolved.

Property taxes make up 90 percent of the district's income. An estimated 5.9 percent increase in property values this year translates into roughly $1.5 million more for the district.

If growth continues at this pace, teachers would receive an additional 4.8 percent pay increase in the third year of a three-year contract under the current offer, said Mike Raffetto, the district's associate superintendent of business.

The increase in values affects taxes on property and buildings, which comprise 85 percent of the district's property tax revenue. The district does not yet have information on growth in business equipment values, the other 15 percent of property tax revenues.

The mediator's recommendation also commits the district to giving any excess cash, above what it needs for expenses, to the union as onetime money, Raffetto said.

"Perhaps we're coming out of the district's revenue recession, but I can't speak for the other side," he added.

All the money the teachers would get under the offer could cost the district in terms of programs. Any new programs would have to be paid for out of existing funds, Raffetto said.

Post said teachers are missing an opportunity for a positive settlement. The board seems willing to work with the union, yet the union continues to be confrontational, he said.

"We would still like to vote on this proposal," Post said. "It's difficult for some people in the association to believe there's a fundamental change in the board, and we could look at this from a more positive viewpoint. We've gotten our brains kicked out in every other contract negotiation, and this one could be different."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 25, 1997.
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