ORANGE

The always-contentious contract negotiations between teachers and administrators in the Orange Unified School District are escalating again this year.

With negotiations at an impasse and in the hands of a state mediator, furious union leaders this week filed unfair labor practice charges with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board after school officials made public the district’s contract offer. Officials with the Orange Unified Education Assn., which represents about 1,200 teachers, also contended that the district set a take-it-or-leave-it deadline Wednesday without informing them or giving them a chance to negotiate.

“It should never have been published until we finished bargaining,” said Suzanne Vaugine, president of the union.

The union is objecting to the offer because it mandates a $5,000 buyout of lifetime health benefits and a dissolution of the teachers’ health benefits trust. The benefits downgrade drastically cuts the actual value of the proposed raises, Vaugine said.

District officials said their Jan. 29 offer of 8% to 12.71% pay raises over two years is more than generous. They in turn contended the union with trying to “gag the flow of information” to union members. “Apparently, OUEA does not want people to know just how favorable the district’s offer is,” said James Bowles, the district’s chief negotiator.

The district will have an open informational meeting at 3:45 p.m. Monday to discuss the proposal and answer questions from union members in district headquarters, 1401 N. Handy St.