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Show : Still no contract as school begins 11 Teachers in the Alpine School f District were on hand Monday to i ueet students for the opening of the a school year - even though they ha ve yet to sign a contract for the new school year. ,,. Leaders of the Alpine Education Association, currently negotiating 1 or new teacher contracts, and the mi American Federation of Teachers, urged their members to be in the classroom on Monday to begin class . work. Negotiations for both the teachers and school district were declared at ii in impasse, and federal mediator ' lorn Curdy will be in the district "' Friday, Aug. 30, to begin talks with i, bothsides. Dr. Clark L. Cox, district J superintendent, said mediation is generally successful. "' He had mediation with the tlssified employees last year, I, and an agreement was reached in a couple of hours. We hope that will be the case this year, ' ' he said. The role of the mediator, it was explained, is to reach a compromise. Curdy has no power to force either side to accept a proposal, according to an agreement drafted by the teachers and school district in 1973 which outlines official negotiating procedures after an impasse is declared. Dr. Cox contradicted rumors circulating in the district that administrators ad-ministrators have received a , 11 percent increase in salary while teachers have been offered four percent. "We haven't even discussed administrative ad-ministrative salaries yet, and we won't until classified salaries are settled," Dr. Cox said. Last year, he said, district ad ministrators received the same increase as that of classified employees. em-ployees. Nick Franklin, AEA president, says in addition to salary increases, benefits such as insurance, sick leave and personal leave are among items being discussed in the negotiations. Mr. Franklin said Friday, "We have encouraged all teachers in the district to be in the classrooms on Monday. In fact, all of them have been in their classroom either yesterday or today, depending on when their contract would have called for." He added, "We are continuing to negotiate with the district and since we are still negotiating in good faith and there still appears to be hope for settlement, we are going back to the classroom." "We have a group of very dedicated teachers in the district. They want to do what is best for the students." Mr. Franklin said when -mediations begin, one of the issues to be settled is sick leave. Teachers now have seven days of sick leave for each of their first three years in the district with leave cumulative. Beginning the fourth year in the district, a teacher may take as many as 180 calendar days of sick leave. The district wants to change that policy, he said, so teachers would not automatically get the 180 calendar days of sick leave after four years of teaching. Mr." Franklin said teachers do not take that much sick leave -but "we feel it is important to have it in case it is needed." |
