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Teachers in the Grossmont Union High School District are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a tentative contract that would avert a threatened one-day walkout next week and a potentially lengthier strike scheduled to begin Jan. 31.

Negotiators for the district and the Grossmont Education Assn. reached the agreement Wednesday, a day after a state mediator seemingly had given up hope that a new contract could be agreed upon before the January strike deadline.

Under the proposed contract, teachers would receive a 5% raise retroactive to July 1 and an additional 1% pay hike Feb. 1. Salaries and fringe benefits would be renegotiated after one year.

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Also, the school district agreed to use up to 35% of the funds it receives from the California Lottery to hire as many as 13 teachers to lessen crowding in 10th-grade English classes.

The district, which initially offered teachers a 2.54% pay raise, earlier this month cut supply budgets and postponed the replacement of departing teachers to make a 5% raise affordable, according to school board President Betty Pengelley.

Teachers at first asked for a 7.75% raise, then lowered their request to 7%.

The association, which represents nearly 900 district workers, had vowed to stage a one-day walkout Dec. 6 and to strike Jan. 31 to dramatize the issues in the contract dispute.

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About 20,000 students from El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley attend the district’s 10 schools.

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