Would Include 4% Pay Hike : Tentative Pact Reached in Chicago Teachers’ Strike

Negotiators reached a tentative contract agreement Saturday that would end a 4-week-old teachers’ strike, the longest on record in the nation’s third-largest school district.

The agreement must be ratified by the 28,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union, who are scheduled to vote today. They have been on strike since Sept. 8.

If they approve the pact, the teachers will return to schools Monday for a day of preparation before the district’s 430,000 students begin class on Tuesday, Mayor Harold Washington said at a news conference at City Hall.

Parent Pressure Cited

“Parent pressure had a big role to play in resolving the strike,” Washington said. He had been criticized earlier by parents and teachers for not getting involved in negotiations.

The two-year agreement calls for a 4% salary increase in the first year, with raises in the second year contingent on funding received by the Chicago Board of Education.

The agreement also calls for reductions in class size in some schools. The board had said previously it could not afford to reduce class size because that would require hiring more teachers.

“We did not get all of what we wanted, but it’s the first step in returning professionalism to teachers,” union President Jacqueline Vaughn said.

Schools Supt. Manford Byrd said the agreement will mean the immediate layoff of about 500 school employees, and eventually could mean 1,272 layoffs. Most hard hit will be assistant principals and counselors, followed by teachers’ aides, engineers, custodians and administrative office employees, he said.

Although the agreement does not call for teacher layoffs, some could result as certified teachers in administrative positions are reassigned to classrooms, Byrd said.

“I wouldn’t say the agreement savages the school district, but it will hurt,” said Frank Gardner, school board president. He said the agreement calls for a 180-day school year, with all 18 school days lost to the strike to be made up. The agreement will cost the district $43.8 million, he said.

Washington said the pact was reached at 7:30 a.m. after all-night negotiations.

Earlier Offer Rejected

The teachers on Friday had rejected an offer by the school board of a 3% raise in a one-year contract, which also offered full pay for work days canceled by the strike.

Elsewhere, strikes by more than 3,500 teachers affecting 44,100 students continued in Little Rock, Ark.; Elizabeth, N.J., and two small districts in Pennsylvania.

At Youngstown, Ohio, a 3-week-old strike by 1,043 teachers ended Saturday when members of the Youngstown Education Assn. and the Board of Education ratified a three-year contract.

The pact provides for a 3% pay raise retroactive to Sept. 9, when the strike began, plus increases of 4% in 1988 and 6% in 1989, a spokesman for the district said.

Classes for the district’s 15,500 students are expected to resume Monday.