Compton Teachers Tentatively Agree to 5.5% Pay Boosts

Teachers in the Compton Unified School District, who have worked without a contract since September and who last week authorized a strike, on Tuesday recommended approval of a two-year package that will give them salary increases equal to 5.5% a year.

The recommendation, which was granted on a voice vote by about 700 teachers, was the first step in the contract ratification process. If the contract is also approved by the teachers in a secret ballot Thursday, it will then go to the district’s Board of Trustees next Tuesday for final approval.

“We feel this is the best possible contract we can get or we wouldn’t have submitted it to the membership,” said Jean Curtis, president of the 1,400-member union.

Under the contract, district teachers will receive a 9.1% salary boost for the rest of this school year and all of the next one. Since the increase does not cover the first eight months of this school year, however, it equates to 5.5% over two years.

The teachers were seeking 6% wage increases, while the district was offering 4.8%, when negotiations broke off and a strike was authorized last Wednesday. Salaries currently range between $15,700 and about $29,000 a year.

District Supt. Ted Kimbrough expressed relief that a settlement apparently is near, but said that if the contract is implemented the district will have to “substantially” reduce its 2,850-employee work force to balance its 1985-86 budget. As many jobs as possible will be eliminated through attrition, he said.

The school board met in a special session Tuesday evening to consider ways to balance next year’s budget.

More State Money

Union President Curtis said that much of the money for next year’s salary increases, estimated by the district at $3 million, will come from increased cost-of-living funds supplied by the state.

The tentative agreement was reached late Monday after a 13 1/2-hour bargaining session that Curtis characterized as a last-ditch effort to avoid the first Compton teachers’ strike since 1973.

In recent days, many parents sided with the teachers by keeping their children home from classes. That boycott continued Tuesday, with about 7,350 of the district’s 27,290 students staying home, including about 1,100 of 1,400 students at Compton High School. John Benham, district controller, said that on Friday about 10,000 students, or 38% of the district total, stayed away. Absences usually average about 11%, officials said.