By LESTER CHANG
Expressing frustration over stalled contract talks, Fremont Union High School District teachers withheld extracurricular services for a week, provoking criticism and support from students.
From Sept. 23-27, most of the 400 Fremont Education Association teachers refused to tutor students before or after school, advise after-school clubs or activities, and write letters of recommendation during free time for students bound for college.
District officials, meanwhile, said they were unaware of any activities that violated the union contract.
The work slowdown was staged in reaction to negotiating teams from the district and union failing to reach an agreement over the teacher salaries and benefits after nine months of talks at the bargaining table.
The withholding of services by teachers lasted only a week but may recur in the future, warned FEA president George Gredassoff.
"Doing this is harder on teachers than people can imagine," he said, "because none of us wants to turn down kids who need help. But that is what has to be done. We are making a statement about the negotiations."
The FEA also instructed teachers not to take home extra work and not to work on any school committees.
Luis Gutierrez, a 17-year-old senior at Fremont High School, said he needs a letter of recommendation to help him kick-start his career in the movie industry.
"I want to major in the film and acting business, and that letter of recommendation will definitely help," said Gutierrez with an anguished look on his face when told some teachers weren't writing them as freely.
Major universities the district has been in contact with indicated they wouldn't hold it against students if they didn't send letters of recommendations with college applications, said Joe Hamilton, the district's associate superintendent of administrative services.
"We would also make sure that if a teacher didn't write a letter recommendation, that one would be written by an administrator," he said.
Gutierrez, who heads the 40-member Student Organization of Latinos and the school's video club, said the absence of advisers has hurt after-school clubs.
"They aren't run as smoothly," he said. "I like the challenge of running the club, but not all the time."
Tali Braun, a 17-year-old senior at Cupertino High School, said math is her weakest subject, but she has maintained a "B to C average" with the help of tutors over the years.
"Without the tutors, it is like we can't get the proper help we need," she said.
Sonja Dahl, a 17-year-old senior, said she needs the help of tutors to do well in chemistry and math. "I go to the classes to look up chemicals for my classes. It's, like, the only place where you can the information from. This week, the room was closed off. That doesn't do me any good," she said.
Many other students at Cupertino and Fremont high schools said the slowdown didn't bother them.
Cindy Ly, a 15-year-old sophomore at Fremont High School, said the slowdown tactics are "annoying."
"It hasn't affected my education right now, but if it keeps going on, that would be something else," she said.
Hamilton said he believed teachers were doing their jobs and that he "couldn't imagine that teachers are in violation of the contract." "I would really be disappointed some if something like that happened, and I don't believe that they would do that," he added.
Contract talks between the FEA and the district broke down in August.
The FEA's proposal includes a 12.3 percent salary increase, a one-year contract, full health benefits and better retirement benefits.
The district's proposal includes a 6.38 percent salary boost, a three-year contract, a health benefit plan in which teachers can select which services they want and a ceiling on retirement benefits.
With no resolution in sight, the district's school board declared an impasse in the talks on Aug. 21, to which the FEA agreed.
The declaration opened the way for a mediator to step in to try to resolve the contract squabble.
The FEA later vigorously asked that the impasse be put aside and that both sides head back to the bargaining table, a request the district has not responded to.
Bill Haire, a mediator from the California Conciliation Service, was scheduled to start holding closed meetings on Sept. 30 at the district's administration office in Sunnyvale.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 2, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.