COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS, DISTRICT IN DEADLOCK.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

The Ventura County Community College District and its 1,200 full- and part-time teachers are a world away from finding common ground in what is now a yearlong struggle to negotiate a contract.

With state-appointed mediator Curtis Lyon throwing in the towel Tuesday after 10 futile months of trying to resolve the dispute, it appears a settlement will not be reached until the early summer.

``He called me in the morning and said he didn't see how he could further the process,'' said Elton Hall, chief negotiator for the Ventura County Federation of College Teachers. ``I think it's very sad because I think we should be trying to settle. Dragging out this dispute hurts the students and the educational job of the colleges.''

The matter now is headed to fact finding, a nonbinding arbitration process, as required by the state Public Employee Relations Board. A fact-finder will attempt to bring the two sides together on salary, part-time employment, security and benefits.

Lyon could not be reached for comment.

But Richard Currier, chief negotiator for the district, said the district has made a fair three-year contract proposal and that fact finding was the only logical move.

``It's appropriate to go to the next step,'' he said. ``The union has been saying that it's the district that's been delaying negotiations, but it's the union that did not give the district a proposal for three months. This new proposal that we got on Monday does not show any significant movement.''

The state Employee Relations Board will send the district and the faculty a list of what is usually seven fact-finders. One by one, each side will eliminate three candidates and the last individual remaining will get the job.

Hall said it will take up to a month to hire a fact-finder and up to three months for both sides to put together their presentations.

If either side rejects the fact-finder's report, the district may legally impose what contract terms it wants and the teachers, in turn, may legally strike.

Teachers already have staged sickouts and given Chancellor Philip Westin a 99 percent ``no confidence'' vote.

The teachers at the Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark community colleges have been without a contract since July 1.

District teachers make an average of $58,000 annually.

Hall, a philosophy and sociology instructor at Oxnard and Moorpark colleges for 23 years, said he makes $62,100 a year.

Several major issues separate both sides:

Teachers want a salary hike of 4 percent to 5 percent while the district has offered less than 1 percent. Hall said the district's offer would total only about $300,000 out of roughly $5 million in additional funding the state allotted the district for fiscal year 1997-98.

The district wants to abolish a seniority system that Hall said offers job security for part-time teachers.

Teachers want to continue evaluating each other while the district wants administrators to handle the task.