District, UTLA in accord

After months of heated rhetoric, the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union have reached a tentative agreement calling for gradual class size reduction and a 6% raise retroactive to last July, sources on both sides of the negotiations said Monday.

The settlement is part of a three-year contract, but the salary increase applies only to the current school year -- which means negotiations on next year’s pay package are already just around the corner.

“I’m very happy that we have reached a tentative agreement, and we’re able to provide teachers with a salary increase, as well as student-centered class-size reduction programs,” said school board President Marlene Canter.

That sentiment was echoed by A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles: “It’s an excellent tentative agreement overall. It’s good for teachers, it’s good for the district, but more importantly, it’s good for the children of Los Angeles.”

News of the settlement filtered out Monday evening, although there was talk all weekend that the two sides were close. Sunday’s marathon negotiations stretched well past midnight into Monday morning. Perhaps the first confirmation came in an automated phone message from Duffy, which went out Monday night -- even as Duffy was telling reporters that talks were ongoing.

Both sides agreed to withhold details of the settlement until a joint news conference today, but details trickled out from both sides.

If ratified, the settlement would increase the top salary of L.A. Unified teachers to more than $80,000. The average salary would rise from roughly $60,000 to about $63,700.

Salary wasn’t the only major issue in dispute. For months, teachers also had been talking about reducing class size, and under the agreement, sources said, the school district has agreed to lower class sizes gradually over the next three years.

The school system already takes part in the state-funded 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grades and limited reductions in other grades. The proposed deal, which must still be ratified by teachers, will focus on the remaining grades, said a source.

For their part, negotiators for the school district were never entirely persuaded about the union’s commitment to lowering class size -- because every gain in that arena took money off the table for a salary increase.

One UTLA negotiator, who asked not to be named, said that the union team chose to accept 6% so it could achieve smaller classes. The union had recently insisted it would go no lower than 9%. On the other hand, the amount of the increase is larger than what teachers have gained in numerous other districts this year.

To some degree, the improved funding picture for education statewide bailed out both sides. Substantial new state money already is targeted for class-size reduction.

“The bottom line is approximately a $90-million commitment per year toward class-size reduction, targeted at our highest-poverty schools, but with some class-size reduction going districtwide,” said one of the negotiators.

Some of this strategy will have to be brought forward to established oversight groups that include parents, because the district and union hope to rely partly on special federal and state accounts outside of the general fund.

The contract also contains new language governing the involuntary transfer of teachers from one school to another. “We negotiated a more rational process for dealing with teachers who have been transferred and claimed they were transferred because of their union activities,” said a source involved in the talks.

This issue exploded last fall after the transfer of teacher Alex Caputo-Pearl from Crenshaw High. The union and the school district eventually reached an agreement that allowed Caputo-Pearl to return to Crenshaw.

The proposed settlement came on the eve of a strike authorization vote -- although teachers would have had to vote again before union leaders could call a strike.

The resolution ends months of increasing union pressure on the school system and school board members. Two demonstrations drew an estimated 10,000 at district headquarters downtown and a district office in the San Fernando Valley.

The settlement also clears the calendar for union leaders to concentrate on helping two school board allies win reelection. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has targeted both incumbents for defeat. Both had opposed the mayor’s plan to win substantial authority over the school system.

Before the settlement, union leaders had authorized $250,000 for a media campaign to promote their negotiation position. That was more than was initially given to each of their endorsed incumbents, Jon Lauritzen and Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte.

howard.blume@latimes.com

mitchell.landsberg

@latimes.com

Times staff writer Joe Mathews contributed to this report.