Las Virgenes Teachers OK Pact Pegging Pay to Other Districts

A lengthy salary dispute between the Las Virgenes Unified School District and its 322 teachers has been resolved six weeks after teachers first approved a new contract, school officials said Wednesday.

Teachers union officials ratified the three-year pact after the school district agreed to add a clause that promises to raise Las Virgenes salaries to those of comparable school systems in Los Angeles County within two years, officials said.

Las Virgenes Educators Assn. leaders had refused to sign the contract without the clause, which they said was promised in negotiations but omitted from the district’s final version of the contract.

The basic pact was approved by 50.6% of the teachers March 8.

The contract gives instructors a 7.7% raise retroactive to September. District officials said the new pay scale went into effect April 1, even though the contract had not been made final then.