Burbank Teachers Union, District Break Deadlock; Faculty Offered 3% Pay Raise

Burbank teachers will receive a 3% across-the-board salary increase for the 1984-85 school year and additional medical benefits under terms of a tentative contract agreement reached between the Burbank Teachers Assn. and the school district, officials announced Thursday.

The teachers requested a 6.5% salary increase when negotiations began last August. District negotiators had asked the teachers to forgo any wage increase.

The agreement, described as a fair compromise by both sides, was reached last Friday after an intense 12-hour negotiating session with a state mediator, the sixth mediation session since negotiators reached an impasse three months ago.

The talks focused on issues that came up for renegotiation this year following the first year of a three-year contract.

In addition to salary and benefit provisions, the two sides agreed to form joint committees to study several proposed changes in district organization that would affect teachers. They also agreed on special compensation when teachers substitute during non-teaching periods.

“We feel that we are receiving the money that is available,” said Bonnie Shatun, negotiating chairwoman for the teachers. Board of Education President Shirley Nelson said in a prepared statement that the district was satisfied with the resolution of “some very thorny issues.”

A public announcement of the agreement’s provisions was delayed until Thursday while negotiators discussed the settlement with teacher representatives, officials said. The district’s 500 teachers are expected to ratify the agreement Wednesday, Shatun said.

The district and teachers were unable to reach agreement on a disputed “split reading” program in the elementary schools that teachers say has reduced the time they have to conduct individual reading instruction. Under the program implemented this year, classes are split in half and students are given group reading instruction for 40 minutes each day. Previously, the instruction period was one hour.

Shatun said the reading program will be a “top priority” in negotiations that begin this spring on the 1985-86 contract.