The School Board has passed and adopted a new teachers salary schedule for 1975-76. The teachers unions have not yet ratified the agreement. Salaries range from $9553 for a first year teacher to $19,918 for a teacher with extra college credits, including an MA.
Parents with children in the EMR (Educable Mentally Retarded) program in the Arcadia schools have written letters to the state, county and local school officials outlining the difficulties EMR teachers are having controlling their students without help from aides (lost due to Prop. 13).
The California Teachers Association has advised the Arcadia Teachers Association to reopen negotiations on salaries for the current year. The 3-year Arcadia contract has no provision for increases in local teachers' salaries.
The Arcadia Board of Education will ratify a contract with the Arcadia Teachers Association. Still to be settled are contracts with classified employees and with the Arcadia Pupil Support Services Association.
The Arcadia Teachers Association has objected to the Board of Education's counterproposals to the teachers' contract proposals. Article indicates what the proposals of both groups are.
With the tax base increase having been approved by the voters on April 15, both Unions representing teachers in Arcadia presented new contract terms to the School Board.
As it now stands, there will be no busing service for Arcadia students this fall due to Proposition 13 cutbacks. The Superintendent and School Board are still seeking a solution to the problem.
A public hearing to air teachers' contract proposals was well attended by an angry public. Some expressed the view that teachers were out to get everything they can.
The local chapter of the California School Employees Association has made an initial proposal to the Arcadia Board of Education. The CSEA chapter is requesting a 21.5% raise in salaries.
Howard Jarvis, the father of Proposition 13, spent an hour in Arcadia, knocking down the "straw man" arguments he said were being put up against the property tax initiative. Prop. 13 would reduce property taxes in California to 1 percent of what market value was in 1975-1976, plus whatever is necessary to pay off current bonded indebtedness. A 2 percent annual inflation rate is written into the constitutional amendment.
The Arcadia Police Department has decided against a strike at this time, but vowed to fight City Hall over a contract dispute. A 5% salary increase was approved, but not the extensive retirement benefits which were sought.
Overall enrollment for the Arcadia schools was down by 470 on the first day of classes. The drop in enrollment coupled with Prop. 13 has resulted in a very small number of new teachers this year.
30 people were injured on opening day at Santa Anita Park when two men became involved in an altercation. One dropped a gun and this was enough to cause a wave of panic which spread through the crowd.
A mixed reaction has greeted a bill that recently passed the Senate and is being debated in the Assembly. It attempts to prohibit splinter movements toward secession from an existing county.
The City's contract with the City Refuse Service Company is being renewed. Proposals will be solicited from other disposal firms and a decision will be reached by mid-July. City Refuse is asking for a rate increase of 30%.
Several plans to add additional parking spaces to the downtown area were outlined to interested businessmen. The proposals included re-striping of the existing area and narrowing Wheeler Street, permitting that section to be added to parking lots.