Local News in Brief : Las Virgenes Teachers May Seek Fact-Finding

Teachers in the 7,650-student Las Virgenes Unified School District said Tuesday they may call on a state fact-finding service to check the claim of district officials that the district cannot afford more than a 7.7% pay raise.

Union negotiators and school officials in the district west of the San Fernando Valley ended their fourth state-mediated negotiating session Monday night without agreeing on salaries for a contract. The Las Virgenes Educators Assn. is holding out for a 10.2% raise.

“We’ll decide next week whether to ask for a fact-finder to go through the district’s budget,” said Mary Jane Lee, a Calabasas third-grade teacher who heads the union. “I think the money is there. It depends on the way you want to spend it, just like a household budget.”

But Albert Marley, superintendent of the Las Virgenes schools, said officials have put “all the available money on the table” during the talks.

He said in a statement issued to teachers Tuesday that district employees will have to “cooperatively address the issue of cost containment” for benefits such as health insurance if more money is to be put into salaries.

Las Virgenes teachers now earn an average of $27,444 per year.