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Teachers will strike without new offer Rogue River Education Association requests higher salary and benefit cap than district says it can afford, while district plans to keep schools open By BUFFY POLLOCK ROGUE RIVER - Teachers voted unanimously Wednesday to strike if the school district fails to offer an acceptable contract within 30 days. The vote was taken among the 69 teachers and professional staff in the Rogue River Education Association. The teachers have been working without a contract since June 30. They are requesting a 3.75 percent wage hike over two years and 10 percent annual boosts to monthly insurance premium caps of $460. But the financially strapped district said it can't offer more than it already has - 2 percent salary increases for two years and a $10 raise in the insurance cap - and is preparing to staff the four schools with as many substitute teachers as they can find who are willing to cross a picket line. Bargaining teams will meet again at 6 p.m. Wednesday and a mediation session is scheduled at 4 p.m. Oct. 23. School board member Johney Myers said the district had been anticipating the strike and would take necessary measures to minimize impact on its almost 1,300 students. "They've (teachers) been threatening for about 30 days, so the district has been preparing by lining up subs. The largest threat to the kids is that they'd have to go to summer school to make it up, but our district will do what it can to keep the schools open for the kids," Myers said. But Mike McEachern, Uniserv consultant for the Oregon Education Association, said attempts to fill classrooms with substitute teachers are an insult to teachers trying to negotiate a fair contract. "Before our strike, we would notify subs in the area that we expect them to respect our strike and not cross picket lines," he said. "Our intent, if we have to strike, would obviously be to force the schools to have to close down. We would definitely be opposed to the district asking subs to serve as scabs." School district Superintendent Charles Hellman did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday. He previously has cited declining enrollment as a major factor in the district's financial problems, which resulted in the district's inability to offer bigger salary increases for teachers. The difference between the two agreements would cost about $60,000 to $70,000 more the first year, according to the union, or about $85,000, according to the district. That amount would more than double in the second year, say district officials. But McEachern claimed the situation was not as much about money as about the school board's "refusal to sit down and discuss the issues." "We've repeatedly made adjustments to try and reach a settlement. He (Hellman) refuses to get involved and no one involved has an understanding of how the district works. All the other districts in the area managed to bargain contracts with their local associations without even getting into the newspapers," he said. The vote to strike follows an unfair labor practice charge the union filed against the district Tuesday. The union claimed the district made untrue statements to the press and that it ignored requirements to discuss offers with the bargaining team representing the teachers. Teachers and administrators declined to comment on negotiations Thursday. But Rogue River High School Principal Dave Orr said he was impressed by the teachers' "continued professionalism." "If you were walking the halls and saw the teachers working, you wouldn't know this kind of stuff was going on," he said. "It's been awesome. The teachers haven't taken it into the classrooms at all. We have great teachers. This is just a bump in the road." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.