School Talks Collapse in Beverly Hills : Education: Hopes for a quick settlement are dashed and attendance sags at campuses.

Contract talks between teachers and school district officials in Beverly Hills broke down Wednesday an hour after they began, dashing hopes of a quick settlement to the school system’s first-ever strike.

State mediator Drasha Mrvichin called the meeting at district headquarters, but the two parties did not meet face-to-face at the bargaining table, school district and union officials said. No further talks were set in the walkout, which began on Monday.

“It’s a very unpleasant time for our district, but the board has negotiated all the dollars we have,” said Beverly Hills school board President Dana Tomarken.

Bill Gordon, chief negotiator for the Beverly Hills Education Assn., which bargains on behalf of the district’s 300 teachers, counselors and librarians, said the union had hoped to use Wednesday’s session to explore some “innovative” proposals that could end the dispute.

But the district wants “total surrender,” Gordon said. “We are not willing to surrender on that basis.”

The school district, which spends the most per student of any district in Los Angeles County, has offered teachers an 11% raise over two years. The union is asking for 18% over two years, or 10.5% for the current school year.

Teachers currently earn between $21,604 and $48,270, no longer the highest salaries in the county. Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, for example, who waged a nine-day strike last May for higher pay and more authority, now earn from $27,346 to $50,123.

Also at issue in Beverly Hills is the amount of medical benefits to be paid by the district for teachers and the length of the school day.

Attendance at the district’s high school and four elementary schools dipped to its lowest point since the strike began. Supt. Robert French said only 41% of the district’s 4,700 students were in school Wednesday, down from 53% Tuesday. Attendance was 24% at the high school and 53% at the elementary schools.

On Wednesday, spirits remained high among teachers on the picket lines. Many students walked with their teachers, and some pupils lent support by supplying cold drinks and running to delicatessens for sandwiches.

At Beverly Hills High School, students who stayed away from classes found many ways to show their support. Many enthusiastically honked their horns as they drove past the teachers on the picket lines.

Teachers interviewed Wednesday said they do not resent their students’ affluence, even though teaching in Beverly Hills brings daily reminders that many pupils own nicer cars and wear more expensive clothes than most of the faculty.

“I don’t begrudge them,” said Dixie Zovak, head of the high school’s physical education department and a 32-year district employee. “Their parents worked hard for the money. I just don’t want to earn less than their housekeeper does.”

Jeri Ruben, who teaches at El Rodeo Elementary School, said: “Kids come with money in their pockets (and ask), ‘Can you change a twenty?’ They have their money and they have their (Sony) Walkmans. But most are here to learn.”

Other teachers said the stereotype of Beverly Hills students as spoiled children who flaunt their wealth is simply not true.

Joel Pressman, a music teacher at the high school, said he has had students who cannot afford the shoes or clothes required to play in the band or sing in the madrigal group.

School district spokeswoman Hali Wickner said she had no overall figures on the income level of students, but she said that 2.3% of them qualify for the federal free lunch program. One Beverly Hills High student, who did not give his name, said he lives with his secretary-mother in a $600-a-month apartment near the high school. “We are not rich,” he said.