CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES

Teachers have accepted a new contract that includes no pay raise for last year, this year or next year, but will allow them to take formal contract grievances public.

The leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles had insisted to members that they could do no better on salary issues during tough economic times, and, in the final tally, 81.4% voted yes, with about a third of the 48,000 members voting.

Other touted elements of the deal include new contract language meant to enforce better safety conditions at schools, more say for teachers in teacher-training efforts and a panel to study how to make teacher salaries more competitive.

More than 2,500 UTLA members could be laid off as of July 1.

District officials are scheduled to take up new budget-cutting measures next week, but aren’t expected to send out more teacher layoff notices.

Even amid the layoffs, the district is hiring teachers. This week the district said it needed to hire 108 math teachers, 100 science teachers and 130 special education teachers.

-- Howard Blume