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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Five-day Orange County teachers strike comes to an end | California Watch

Five-day Orange County teachers strike comes to an end | California Watch

Five-day Orange County teachers strike comes to an end

After a five-day standoff, teachers in Orange County finally put down their pickets Tuesday and returned to the classroom.
Teachers and school officials at the Capistrano Unified School District forged an agreement around 11:30 p.m. Monday that would keep a hotly contested 10 percent pay cut but allow for salaries to be restored as "revenues increase."
Capistrano is the second largest school district in Orange County, serving approximately 52,000 students. Student attendance dipped as low as 30 percent, as up to 89 percent of Capistrano’s 2,200 teachers participated in the strike, according to the Orange County Register. During the strike, after-school sports were canceled and other programs curtailed.
Union president Vicki Soderberg said their strike sends powerful message to all.
We made a statement to every school district in California that we are not going to allow collective bargaining rights to be destroyed and trampled in Capistrano. We’re an example across the state. We’re a huge school district, and yet we got 90 percent of