SIMI VALLEY : District Contract Offer Lacks Specifics

Simi Valley school officials have presented their proposal for a new teachers’ contract that offers no specific recommendations for salary increases.

“We’re taking a different approach this time,” Assistant Supt. Leon Mattingley said.

“We need to stay competitive, but we need to make sure we live within our income.”

The proposal, presented at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, states that the district “is interested in maintaining a fair and competitive salary schedule.” However, the two-page document does not offer specific salary increases, benefits or class sizes because of the uncertainty of the state’s budget, he said.

Representatives of the Simi Educators Assn. have asked that the school district continue to base raises on teachers’ salaries in other Southland districts.

Under the current three-year contract that expires June 30, teachers in the Simi Valley Unified School District have received raises based on a comparison with 10 similar-sized districts in Southern California. The teachers received a 6% raise in 1988-89, a 7% raise in 1989-90 and about 9% for the 1990-91 school year.

Class size is another issue teachers would like to negotiate.

Union officials have recommended that kindergarten through third-grade classes have a cap of 28 students, fourth- through 12th-grade have a maximum of 30 students, physical education and music classes have no more than 40 students and classes such as science and home economics have no more students than classroom workstations.

Negotiations between union and district officials are scheduled to begin Jan. 24.

Meanwhile, Mattingley told the board that management and classified employees--including vice principals, counselors, psychologists and managers--would receive a 3.74% raise this school year in accordance with a district policy that sets raises according to a salary comparison with other districts.

Associate superintendents and assistant superintendents will receive a 3% raise this school year, reflecting the state’s cost of living index.

In other business, the board voted to make Joseph D. Studer principal of Apollo High School to replace outgoing principal Brad Greene.

Studer, who will be paid $59,154 annually, is now assistant principal at Apollo High School and has worked for the district since 1964.

The school board also chose Wood Ranch Elementary School as the official name of a school to be built in west Simi Valley. It is scheduled to open in September, 1992.