By Trudy Stephenson Willis
After three years without a contract, members of the Bonsall Teachers Association (BTA) in San Diego County came back to school in August determined to take care of business.
A little over a week later, they had won a 9 percent increase on average through a restructuring of the salary schedule, a 4 percent increase across the board for next year and a $1,500 bonus off the schedule.
Once 21st of 22 elementary school districts in the county, the Bonsall Union School District is now closer to the middle in total employee compensation.
Over the last several years, the district had received increases in revenue from the state of more than 18 percent, but had offered teachers only a 1 percent raise, says bargaining team member Rosella Childers. Every time teachers would bring up the subject of improving salaries and benefits, the district’s business manager would say, “We’re in deficit spending. There is no money.”
Factfinding forced the school board to look at things from a different perspective, says bargaining team member Leslie Burgener. “They learned that maybe they hadn’t been asking enough questions along the way.”
The teachers had tried many ways to get their message across in previous years, including dressing in black T-shirts and attending school board meetings en masse, picketing in front of schools, leafleting parents as they dropped off and picked up students, and placing signs in their car windows.
They had ended the last school year with a flurry of postcards to board members’ homes. Saying “We’re ready to come back,” the cards asked board members to return to the bargaining table in June so that when school started in the fall, the decks would be clear and children could be the focus of everyone’s attention.
When the board did not respond to the invitation, teachers put on their thinking caps over the summer. They came back to school Aug. 23 ready for action. With only a week before a scheduled factfinding hearing, they had to get it together quickly.
When teachers handed out fliers to parents in the school parking lots the day after school started, parents agreed it wasn’t a good way to start off the school year.
The next Saturday the 103-member chapter went all out to alert the community that the factfinding panel was meeting that Monday and it was time to speak up. Members turned out in force for picket lines along the area’s two main intersections and in front of schools. They held up huge signs that said, among other things, “Not on STRIKE yet!”
Teachers handed out fliers to community members at the area’s supermarket and gas station, asking if their child’s teacher was going to be the next to leave the district for higher pay. If parents didn’t want that to happen, the fliers urged them to call the board members and let them know. Even the chief of the local tribe gave board members an earful as a result.
It was not a bluff. A number of Bonsall middle school teachers had left the school district to take teaching positions in neighboring districts where they earn as much as $18,000 more per year.
As community members saw that teachers weren’t backing down, says Burgener, they teamed up with teachers to support them.
The factfinding process took a marathon 12 hours and included a detailed budget analysis from CTA’s Research and Finance experts. It ended with an agreement that both parties could sign.
At the next board meeting, the tension was noticeably absent, says BTA President Jim Bursvold. “I think everyone was a little intimidated by the factfinding process, but it helped us all get on the same page. In the long run, it was a really positive experience for the association.”
It was a learning experience for both sides, adds Burgener. “In the future, the board will look at the budget more closely and ask more questions.”
As for the teachers, they learned the value of being visible to the public, she says. “We raised awareness that when you have a problem like this, you need the community to know what the problem is and stand together to say, ‘It isn’t right!’”
