S.D. School District, Union Close to New Teachers Pact

The San Diego Unified School District and the union representing its 6,000 teachers inched close to a contract settlement Wednesday, exchanging proposals at least twice during the day through a state-appointed mediator.

The two sides have agreed to a two-year pact offering teachers an 8% salary increase the first year and an 8.5% raise in the second year. But at a 4:30 p.m. rally at the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park attended by about 800 teachers, San Diego Teachers Assn. President Gail Boyle said there was no agreement on the use of California Lottery revenue to reduce the number of students in city classrooms, another of the union’s major demands.

The district is offering to spend 20% of its 1985-86 lottery funds to reduce class sizes in 1986-87. The union wants the same provision for the following year.

The district expects to receive $9 million to $10 million in lottery funds this year, while the teachers union estimates that the lottery will produce $11 million.

Earlier in the afternoon, the district’s chief negotiator said that only a few sentences of contract language remained to be settled. “We’re so close that you can hardly see the difference between the sides,” said Ann Stombs, the district’s chief negotiator.

The breakthrough in nearly a year of talks came when the Board of Education retreated from its position requiring that lottery proceeds could be offered to teachers only in the form of salary bonuses. The SDTA had demanded that lottery funds be included in scheduled salary increases.

The proposed pact eliminates bonuses and does not specify where the district will find the money for $33.7 million in salary increases and health benefits.

But Stombs and schools Supt. Thomas Payzant said the requirements of the proposed contract could not be met without using some lottery money. The pact will cost the district about $15.6 million the first year and $18.1 million during the second year.

“There would be the need to either use some of the lottery money or move money already earmarked for something else and replace that with lottery money,” Payzant said.

The board on Tuesday modified its policy on how it would spend lottery money, changing a requirement that any money given to teachers be in the form of salary bonuses.

Stombs said the board has been “extremely reluctant to modify that position. They did it after some real agonizing in closed sessions and some realization of what has been happening around the state.”

“Basically, everything’s a compromise,” said Susan Davis, president of the school board. “And sometimes you do things that you originally don’t want to do.”

Under the proposed agreement, teachers would receive less than they could have under the district’s original offer, which provided for a 9% salary hike the first year and 8.5% to 9.5% in the second year if lottery funds reached certain levels. But the teachers traded that opportunity for guaranteed salary increases.

“We wanted the money on the schedule, and we had already been prepared that it might have been less than with bonuses,” Boyle said. She said teachers would recoup the difference within two or three years as salary increases are compounded.

The teachers union agreed not to strike during the two-year contract, and gave up a demand that all teachers be assessed a fee to fund the union’s activities, Stombs said.

Stombs said the new contract will raise the average teacher’s salary from $29,335 to $31,738 during 1985-86 and $34,436 in 1986-87.

“I think it will be as good as or better than any district in California,” Payzant said. “It’s very competitive. For the first time, teachers will really make some gains against inflation.”

Salary increases in contract settlements in large school districts around the county have been averaging 5% to 6%, according to Robert House, director of human resources for the County Office of Education. Only the Spencer Valley Elementary District, which has a single teaching principal in a one-room schoolhouse, negotiated a larger increase, of 10%.

Increases for teachers in other unified school districts included Borrego Springs, 6.5%; Oceanside, 6.5%; Vista, 5.7%, and Carlsbad, 5%.

The district also agreed to spend about $350,000 on health benefits for teachers who retired after July 1 of last year.

Boyle said negotiations will continue on language governing teacher transfers and a district proposal that teachers drop several grievances they have filed.