Teaching Aides, Schools Reach Accord

Teaching assistants reached tentative agreement on their first contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District late Thursday, after almost a year of negotiations and a “rolling strike” that briefly disrupted education in heavily immigrant areas.

Terms of the two-year contract call for the 10,000 assistants, 80% of whom are minorities and 70% of whom are bilingual Latinas, to receive 8% raises retroactive to July, 1990, paid time off and medical insurance for assistants who work at least four hours a day. In exchange for other concessions, the teaching assistants, who unionized last year, dropped their demand that all assistants be guaranteed a four-hour minimum workday.

The package, expected to cost $17 million for the two years, will be paid out of state and federal funds set aside to improve student achievement and not out of the district’s general fund, officials said Friday. This eases the financial burden on the district, which must make $88 million in cuts to balance its $3.9-billion budget by July 1. Last year, the budget crunch forced the district to slash $220 million and lay off hundreds of employees.

The contract also sets up a two-track program for assistants, providing more pay and better benefits to those who enroll for 15 college units per year toward a teaching degree. In a concession to union demands, the contract drops a longtime district requirement that all assistants be enrolled in college.

District officials said they hope that up to 5,000 of the assistants will use the job as a stepping stone to becoming bilingual teachers, estimating it will take 10 years to hire enough bilingual teachers to accommodate the approximately 200,000 students in the district who are learning English.

Both sides hailed the contract, which is expected to be formally approved later this month by the school board and the teaching assistants.

“It’s going to stabilize the teaching assistant profession in Los Angeles Unified for the first time,” said John Tanner, an official with Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, who negotiated the contract for the assistants.

“We feel this protects the jobs of all T.A.s and provides meaningful incentives for those trying to finish college to become teachers.”

Diana Munatones, a district spokeswoman, said: “We’re delighted that both sides came to an agreement, and . . . it’s good this was settled at no additional cost.”

Teaching assistant jobs were created in the 1970s. The number of assistants has grown as increasing numbers of non-English-speaking students have entered the school system. Assistants work with teachers in classrooms, translating lessons, correcting homework, helping students who require individual attention and supervising them during lunch and recess.

Under the contract terms, all assistants would receive a 76-cent an hour raise--from $9.44 per hour to $10.20. The district also agreed to pay half the medical benefits of all assistants who work four hours or more daily. In return, Local 99 dropped the minimum workday demand.

Those on the degree track would receive eight paid days off each year plus an additional 75 cents per hour after they pass a bilingual proficiency exam. Assistants not working toward a degree would receive an additional 28 cents per hour for being bilingual, plus two paid days off each year.

Local 99 began negotiating with the district in March. But the talks stalled in the fall, prompting between 600 and 1,200 assistants to walk off the job Nov. 28. The work slowdown sputtered to a halt after about 12 days, although it was never officially called off.