San Ysidro situation draws protest
Teachers contract an unresolved issue in district finances
SAN YSIDRO — About 100 teachers, all dressed in red and black, protested vociferously before and silently during the San Ysidro School District board meeting last week at San Ysidro Middle School. They were there to call attention to bogged down contract negotiations between the district and the San Ysidro Education Association, which represents more than 200 certificated employees.
Outdoors before the meeting began, protesters chanted “fair contract now,” and waved signs emblazoned with, among other slogans, “Our Board Thinks We’re Worthless” and “Teachers Should Not Be District Bail Out.” When the meeting commenced, they brought their signs inside, holding them as they stood quietly in the back and along the sides of the large auditorium.
When Dena Whittington, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services, got up to make her presentation on the state of the district’s finances, the protesters walked of the room in a single file.
Teachers want a 1 percent pay raise, down from an initial request of a 6 percent increase. The district says it must make an 8 percent cut in compensation for all employees in the current year and the two subsequent years in order to stave off the financial insolvency that is