Teachers Protest District Declaration of Contract Impasse

A large crowd is expected at the June 9 meeting of the Menifee Union School Board because of stalled contract negotiations.

The last week of school is supposed to be a time of celebration for students and teachers alike, but that is not the case this year.

Oh, the students are excited for summer break to start, as usual. But teachers in the Menifee Union School District? They certainly are not in a mood to party.

Elementary and middle school teachers in Menifee have been working under the terms of an expired contract for a year. Their hope for a satisfactory resolution after months of negotiations came to an end Monday night, when district officials declared an impasse. According to a notice posted on the district website the next day, officials plan to request a determination from the Public Employment Relations Board, meaning a state mediator likely would be brought in.

District Superintendent Dr. Steve Kennedy said Wednesday via email that because of the pending legal process, he could not comment on the situation other than to refer to the website statement. It says, in part:

Despite being the lowest funded district in Riverside County, on a per pupil basis, MUSD has offered a 5 percent increase to the salary schedule retroactive to January 1, 2015. The District believes this compensation is fair and reasonable. The District remains hopeful to reach an Agreement with MTA and address specific language concerns in the current collective bargaining agreement which will bring the provision of the collective bargaining agreement into full compliance with applicable law.

Yes, salary is a major issue. In fact, members of the Menifee Teachers Association have produced a document based on their research, and provided to Menifee 24/7, showing that MUSD teachers are the lowest paid among all districts in Riverside County. But the dispute over contract language may be the real reason the district walked away from the table, say the teachers.

"We negotiated all day," said MaryAnn Jacobs, a teacher at Ridgemoor Elementary and president of the MTA. "We stayed past 9 p.m. and were willing to keep negotiating, but the district suddenly got up and declared an impasse. We tried to talk about the contract language, but the district wouldn't hear it."

Jacobs confirmed that the district has offered a 5 percent raise to the teachers. This might appear significant in light of the fact that a document shows MUSD teachers with a bachelor's degree plus 30 units -- the lowest step in the salary scale -- earn an average of $46,100 annually -- far behind county-leading Corona-Norco ($57,200) and even behind local districts Murrieta and Temecula ($47,900 each). When teachers advance to Step 2 on the salary scale, the gap widens -- $72,800 for Temecula, $71,000 for Murrieta and just $65,800 for Menifee.

However, Jacobs said the district's insistence on changing contract language unrelated to salary is really what has kept the sides from coming to an agreement. Because of the nature of the negotiations, she wouldn't discuss the language in question, but Bell Mountain Middle School teacher Shelli Sullivan said the district's demand to alter certain contract language "makes it clear they want to be the power holders in the district. We feel it should be shared."

Although the contract language may be the biggest sticking point at this time, Sullivan said the low pay of teachers continues to put pressure on them to perform at high levels while incorporating common core curriculum and adapting to a new computer system.

"It's been an extremely difficult year for the teachers," she said. "It's kind of been the perfect storm of negative things. Morale is pretty diminished.

"We have a lot of teachers who have well over 15 years in the district. Their ability to move to a district that pays higher is limited because they would have to start over (on the salary scale)."

Sullivan said this is the case because other districts don't count as many years' credit when calculating salary. Thus, she said, a lot of newer teachers choose to move out of MUSD before they get in that position.

"If we're constantly the minor leagues, where we train teachers just to go elsewhere, something is wrong," she said.

In response to the district's announcement of its intent to request a determination of impasse, some teachers are protesting outside area schools before and after classes. Teachers and parents also have taken to social media to air their concerns.

Sullivan said teachers are urging members of the public to support them by attending the next MUSD Board meeting, set for June 9.

"The district tells us we're so good and they're proud of what we've done," Jacobs said, "but they can't agree to the things we want. I'm not a disgruntled teacher; there's just an overall feeling among all the teachers that this isn't right. Teachers are prepared to leave, and some already have."