Board, Teachers Edge Closer but Outlook Dim

The Los Angeles Unified School District board and its teachers’ union on Sunday night narrowed their differences on salary increases in a year-old contract dispute.

But what was to be non-stop bargaining between top officials for both sides broke off late Sunday on a sour note after eight hours of talks at district headquarters.

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson emerged from a face-to-face meeting with school board President Roberta Weintraub to say “absolutely nothing was resolved” and the possibility of a teachers’ strike this spring is increasing.

Weintraub told reporters a few minutes later that the sharply divided board, after much internal debate and agonizing, had presented “our very best offer . . . I think it’s our last offer.”

The announcements were a disappointment.

In the wake of student protests in support of teacher pay demands and against the union’s withholding of midyear grades from the district, board members had hoped for significant progress.

Both sides agreed to continue talking through staff and professional negotiators. A state-supervised mediation session is scheduled for Wednesday.

The new offers had been informally explored a week ago at one in a series of secret meetings between Johnson and Weintraub. The union, which has sought a 12% raise and a single-year contract, reduced its demand to 11%. It also proposed a two-year agreement, with a 10% raise the second year. Johnson charged that the district can easily afford the request. The union estimates there is $300 million in the current $3.5-billion budget for salary increases, he said.

The district raised its offer to 20% over three years, and possibly as much as 24%, with an 8% increase the first year. It had been proposing about a 6% raise the first year and 17.4% over three years.

Weintraub said the board’s new offer would raise beginning teachers’ salaries to $28,000 and the top teacher salary for a basic assignment to $50,000. Supt. Leonard Britton said the board will have to make more than $100 million in cuts, such as library aides and classroom computer purchases, to pay for it.

Johnson said the union might be willing to come down on its salary demands if the district makes concessions on other issues, such as power-sharing in the management of neighborhood schools and paid class preparation time for elementary school teachers.