S.D. School District, Teachers OK Pact With 16.5% Raise

The San Diego Unified School District and the union representing its 6,000 teachers ended 11 months of often acrimonious bargaining Thursday, agreeing to a tentative contract settlement that will boost teacher salaries 16.5% by July.

The two-year pact gives teachers an 8% pay raise for the 1985-86 school year--retroactive to July 1--and an 8.5% increase for the 1986-87 school year, effective July 1.

The contract also requires the Board of Education to spend 20% of its 1985-86 receipts from the state lottery--expected to be $9.5 million to $10 million--to reduce the number of students in the schools’ most crowded classrooms. A committee of teachers and administrators will advise the school board on how to spend the money.

Both sides said they were satisfied with the agreement, which was concluded at 11:45 a.m., and relieved that the bargaining is over. Teachers, who had staged pickets and curtailed extracurricular work in recent months, were scheduled to take a strike vote next month.

“We, of course, are very pleased to see the contract negotiations concluded,” said Bertha Pendleton, special assistant to Supt. Thomas Payzant, who was out of town during a news conference held Thursday to announce the settlement. “It allows us now to devote all our energy to our primary mission, which is providing educational services to our students.”

Negotiation delays ultimately helped the San Diego Teachers Assn. by allowing it to learn what the district’s first lottery payment would be, union President Gail Boyle said. “I feel like we got something,” she said. “I think it was worthwhile to see what the lottery would turn loose for the district.”

Boyle said she expects the union’s board of directors to approve the settlement and predicted that teachers would ratify the pact. Voting should be completed by March 10, she said.

The settlement also commits the school board to pay increases for its approximately 480 administrators, who have “me too” clauses in their current agreement with the district, school board President Susan Davis said.

About 379 administrators are entitled to a 1.5% raise for the 1985-86 school year, because language in their agreement requires that their lowest salary category be 5% above the teachers’ highest category, said Irvin McClure, executive director of the city schools administrators’ association.

McClure said 100 more administrators should receive a 3% pay increase--the difference between the teachers’ 8% increase and their 5% raise--according to language in the agreement.

But McClure said Payzant has refused to discuss whether administrators will receive the increase, when asked by the association in recent weeks. “I wouldn’t dare to say with any authority that we’re going to get it, but we can see no reason why we wouldn’t,” he said.

Leaders of the school district and the teachers association characterized the tentative agreement as a victory for both sides, with each forfeiting long-held demands to gain ground on others.

Teachers agreed not to strike during the two-year contract; gave up a demand that 20% of 1986-87 lottery funds be used to reduce class sizes the following year; backed off on a demand that all teachers be assessed a fee to pay for union operations, and abandoned a bid to win vision and dental benefits.

In return, they won a pay increase that will raise the average teacher’s salary to $31,682 this year and $34,375 next year. Teachers at the top of the salary scale will be earning $40,000 next year. Teachers will receive retroactive paychecks averaging $1,400, said Ann Stombs, the district’s chief negotiator.

Teachers also won the establishment of a $350,000 fund to help pay retiring teachers’ medical benefits and some security for teachers at schools converted into magnet programs.

John Felicitas, executive director of the teachers union, said San Diego teachers did better than their counterparts in Oakland without having to resort to a strike. “When you look at 3,000 to 4,000 teachers going out for 20 days, and losing 20 days’ pay for a 20% salary increase over three years, we did a hell of a job,” Felicitas said. Oakland teachers approved a 21.4% salary increase earlier this month.

The San Diego pact will cost the district about $35 million in salary increases alone, and will force administrators to pay teachers lottery money intended for other uses.