CAMARILLO : Tentative Teacher Contract Falls Apart

A tentative agreement, reached after a five-month dispute between Pleasant Valley Elementary School District and the teachers union, fell apart Wednesday. No new negotiations have been scheduled.

Teachers and administrators had reached a tentative agreement after an all-day meeting Monday with a state mediator. School board and union members had been scheduled to vote on the agreement today, but union representatives discovered that the contract would not have protected teachers from retribution by the district.

Representatives of the 248-member Pleasant Valley Education Assn. wanted a no-reprisal clause added to the contract.

“If anything, it illustrates the vindictive nature of this school district,” said Bill Gordon, a California Teachers Assn. representative and spokesman for the union’s negotiating team. “For us to agree not to have a no-reprisal clause would be throwing those teachers to the lions.”

In a closed meeting Tuesday night, board members decided to allow the proposed contract to stand.

School board President Leonard Diamond said the clause had not been discussed and was not considered part of the agreement.

“If they did nothing wrong, what the hell are they worried about?” Diamond said. “We were willing to ratify the contract as the mediator presented it.”

The district filed an unfair-labor complaint against the union after about 200 of the district’s 285 teachers walked off their jobs April 4.

Because of the disagreement, the mediator withdrew his proposal from the table. A fact-finding panel, including a union representative, school district official and a neutral person, will be selected to hear evidence in the dispute and make recommendations for a settlement.

Ida Lea Parker, Pleasant Valley Education Assn. president, said Wednesday that she was sure teachers would take some kind of action.

“I’m not sure what they will do, but we’re not going to take this sitting down,” she said.

District teachers make $22,440 to $40,255 a year, which is less than teachers in most Ventura County elementary school districts. Teachers have sought an 8.5% salary increase and full medical benefits. Last month, the school district offered a 5.91% salary increase, retroactive to July 1, plus a contribution of $4,430 a year toward each teacher’s medical benefits, up from $3,900.

The teachers’ three-year contract does not end until December, but salary and benefit sections expired last fall.