Striking Sacramento Teachers, School District Break Off Talks

Striking Sacramento teachers rallied at the state Capitol on Friday as talks broke down with no date for resumption.

More than 1,200 of the Sacramento City Unified School District’s 2,000 teachers remained off their jobs for the fourth day Friday.

Negotiations broke off at 12:30 a.m. Friday.

Paula Caplinger, spokeswoman for the Sacramento City Teachers Assn., said the district walked out of the meeting.

But George Medovoy, spokesman for the district, said the state mediator who has been supervising the talks suspended them “because he saw that neither side was willing to move.”

Medovoy said the mediator indicated he would reconvene the talks when some progress appeared possible, but no date was set.

The mediator would like a cooling-off period for both sides, Medovoy said.

Teachers and management have been discussing a two- or three-year contract that would promise teachers a pay raise for the current year.

The last public district offer was an 8.1% pay hike and a bonus averaging $1,333 for this year and no increase for last year. The union has sought increases of 12.7% this year and 6.5% last year.

Sacramento teachers are paid a minimum of $21,867 and up to $40,000 with an average salary of $32,509.