Newhall, Saugus School Talks Polarize : Education: Contract talks reach an impasse over a Newhall school’s schedule; Saugus teachers want a 12% pay hike.

Contract negotiations grew more polarized at two Santa Clarita Valley school districts Monday, with Newhall teachers and administrators declaring an impasse and teachers in nearby Saugus announcing plans to picket a school board meeting tonight.

About 50 teachers from the Newhall School District carried picket signs outside district headquarters late Monday afternoon, declaring that they are working without a contract.

Although teachers reached an agreement with the district over pay, talks broke off over a year-round school calendar for Meadows Elementary School. The district has proposed a calendar that would give teachers three weeks off for every 12 weeks of instruction, plus a month off in the summer and holiday vacations, said Supt. J. Michael McGrath.

However, teachers are asking for a calendar that would give them four weeks off for every 12 weeks of instruction, plus holiday periods, with no summer vacation. Teachers also want binding arbitration written into the contract, to which the district is “adamantly opposed,” McGrath said. The district has agreed to give teachers a 9.5% raise, McGrath said. The two sides will seek help from an outside mediator to resolve the dispute, he said.

Meanwhile, Saugus Union School District teachers are asking for an additional 12% pay hike this year.

Saugus teachers are in the second year of a three-year contract. They received a 6% raise automatically this year, and exercised an option to reopen negotiations when the district received additional funds--$2 million from Proposition 98, a state school funding initiative passed last year.

The district has offered nothing above the 6%, said Jo Ann Pryor, president of the Saugus Teachers Assn. District officials were not available for comment Monday.

Negotiations between teachers and the district reached an impasse Sept. 21. The two sides are scheduled to meet with a mediator Oct. 31. Pryor said at a news conference that teachers will form an informational picket line at 7 p.m. today outside Rosedale Elementary School, where the Saugus school board will meet at 7:30 p.m.

The starting salary for teachers in the Saugus district is 10th of 11 elementary school districts in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, Pryor said. Among 33 elementary school districts in Los Angeles County, Saugus ranks 28th in salary. Pay for principals in the district is third from the top, she said.

Pryor said teachers also have mailed an informational pamphlet to all registered voters in the district. She said teachers have not taken a strike vote.