Inglewood Teachers Plan Walkout Today

Inglewood teachers were planning another walkout today to protest failed salary negotiations.

Union officials said they expect about 95% of the Inglewood Unified School District’s 627 teachers to stay out of their classrooms, judging by the number who participated in a two-day strike on Feb. 11 and 12. Union spokesmen said they had not decided on the length of this walkout.

Supt. Rex Fortune said the district’s 19 schools will remain open with substitute teachers, parents and administrative employees in the classrooms.

The Inglewood Teachers Assn. decided to call another walkout after a second series of unsuccessful bargaining sessions with district negotiators. The teacher’s union is asking for a three-year contract that would provide 7% annual increases. The board was prepared to approve such a contract but backed down when Gov. George Deukmejian disclosed a budget plan that would give the district a 2% increase in state funding rather than the anticipated 5%.

That loss, combined with the elimination of about $700,000 in state-funded programs, means the district could not come up with 7% raises during the last two years of the contract, Fortune said. District officials have offered an alternative three-year contract that provides a 7% pay increase the first year and smaller raises for the next two years based on anticipated increases in state funding.

Union officials, however, say the district should use money stored away for special programs--such as a weekend music conservatory and expanded computer center--to finance 7% raises for the final two years of the contract.