FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Tentative Teachers Contract Reported

After working a year without a contract, Fountain Valley teachers have reached a tentative contract agreement with the Fountain Valley Unified School District, a spokesman for the teachers union said Tuesday.

Neither union representatives nor district officials would disclose specifics of the agreement until union members vote on the proposal.

The union was scheduled to consider the contract proposal later Tuesday.

The tentative agreement was reached during a meeting with a fact-finding panel that met last week in hopes of breaking stalled contract talks between the school district and the teachers’ union, said Jim Harlan, executive director of the West Orange County United Teachers Assn. That union represents Fountain Valley’s 262 elementary school teachers.

The three-member panel met last Wednesday and included representatives from the teachers union, the school district and the state Department of Education.

Fountain Valley teachers previously rejected the district’s offer of a 2.57% pay raise, claiming the proposal was below the 6.75% increase offered by the majority of Orange County’s school districts.