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With nearly 200 Berkeley public school teachers facing layoffs, union leaders are rejecting a call for all district employees to take a 10 percent pay cut to save the jobs. 

“We will not accept any cuts in pay or benefits,” said Stephanie Allan, a union official with Local 39, which represents bus drivers and food service workers. “We are not going to fund the [deficit] on the backs of our members.” 

Board of Education Director Shirley Issel called for the wage reduction Friday in an interview with the Daily Planet. 

“Our solutions have to come out of our paychecks,” she said. “There are no solutions in Sacramento. There are no solutions in council chambers or at school board meetings.”  

About 85 percent of the district’s $99 million budget is wrapped up in salaries and benefits. Unless workers accept a pay cut, Issel said, the schools, which face a $4 million to $8 million deficit next year, must proceed with heavy layoffs. 

The district issued pink slips to 220 of Berkeley’s 652 teachers by a preliminary, state-mandated deadline of March 15, hoping to rescind as many as 145 by the end of the year as the budget picture cleared up. 

The district has taken back a handful of notices since then and watched an administrative law judge toss out several more on technical grounds, leaving about 180 teachers eligible for layoffs.  

According to state law, the Berkeley Unified School District must issue a final round of pink slips by May 15 to any teachers it cannot guarantee a job next year. With the state budget still in flux and California $34.6 billion in debt, the schools have no choice but to give all 180 teachers notices at a special Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, said district spokesman Mark Coplan. 

“If we don’t have the funds allocated for these people, we have to lay them off,” he said. 

District officials say they hope to take back as many as 100 of the 180 notices by the start of the next school year and plan to take back 30 to 40 as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, said the numbers don’t add up. If the district only plans to lay off 80 to 100 teachers, he argues, it should not give notices to all 180. He said it will only leave more teachers worried their futures and seeking jobs elsewhere. 

Fike, who declined to take a public position on the 10 percent pay cut, ripped Issel for suggesting the reduction, calling it inappropriate and potentially illegal to negotiate contracts in public. 

Robert Thompson, general counsel for the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, said the case law is unclear on whether a public call for a wage cut violates negotiating rules. 

Officials from several unions said the district administration had not proposed a pay cut at the bargaining table and criticized Issel for stepping into the process. 

“It’s preposterous,” said Richard Hemann, a field representative for a California Federation of Teachers union that represents 350 secretaries and teachers’ aides. “If Mrs. Issel might like to join the bargaining team at the table and see what’s going on, it might be edifying.” 

“I don’t think the unions will support it,” added Associate Superintendent of Human Resources David Gomez.  

Board director John Selawsky said it would be difficult to extract a 10 percent wage cut from district employees, but defended the idea as a worthy one. 

“It’s certainly something we should all consider,” he said.  

Issel said the proposal marked a genuine attempt to save the jobs of dozens of teachers and other employees. 

“This is Berkeley, for heaven’s sake, we’re supposed to care for each other,” she said, arguing that the layoffs have had devastating impacts on schools like Washington Elementary, which saw 14 of its 19 teachers receive pink slips, two of them rescinded at this point. 

One union official said he is willing to discuss a possible pay cut. 

“We’re open to anything the district wants to negotiate,” said John Santoro, president of the Union of Berkeley Administrators, which represents 37 principals, assistant principals and other managers.