Teachers in Torrance OK 2% Pay Raise in New Pact : Education: The unions had been seeking an 8% increase. The district school board will meet Tuesday to discuss budget cuts, including the possible elimination of up to 74 jobs.

Torrance teachers concluded months of labor tension Friday by overwhelmingly accepting a contract that will raise their wages about 2% this school year.

The 439-147 vote cheered union and district officials, who had worried teachers would reject the contract outright because it fell short of the 8% raise requested by the Torrance Teachers Assn. The teachers have been without a contract since June 30, 1990.

The contract vote, however, fails to resolve financial problems in the Torrance Unified School District that were brought on in part by state funding cutbacks and made more difficult by the cost of granting raises to employees, school district officials said.

On Tuesday, the district’s board will discuss ways to trim its budget to reduce a $2.3-million deficit in the district’s $79.6-million preliminary budget for 1991-92.

In all, the school board will choose $2.3 million in cuts from a list of potential reductions totaling $3.2 million. If all potential cuts were adopted, they could eliminate 74 positions, including teachers, administrators and clerical staff.

The list is a tentative one, and school board President David Sargent said Friday that he hopes many job reductions can be accomplished through attrition, which would avoid teacher layoffs. But layoffs among the district’s other employees may be unavoidable, Sargent said. He likened the budget cutting to a process of “shall we amputate the left foot or the right hand?”

William A. Franchini, executive director of the teachers association, said the union would have fought for a larger salary increase for the 875 teachers and others in the bargaining unit if layoffs were not a possibility.

Franchini said the union would present its own package of proposed cuts at the Tuesday meeting.

Defending the union push for higher salaries, Franchini said people should consider why teachers would want to “teach in Torrance if you did not have a salary that is competitive with other districts.”

Sargent said it would be unfair not to offer raises. “What is harsher, expecting people to lower their standards of living or expecting a few people to find employment elsewhere?”

Salary levels will rise by 3% this school year, but because the increases are staggered, the actual increase in money paid to teachers will be closer to 2%. A 1% increase is retroactive to July 1, 1990, and 2% to Jan. 28. Starting teachers’ salaries will be $25,620 with the increases; top pay for teachers with a master’s degree, advanced credits and 20 years’ experience will be $49,542.

The three-year contract permits the union to reopen salary and benefit negotiations each year.

The raises contained in the teachers contract, if applied to all district employees, would cost the district roughly $1.2 million this year and $1.8 million next year, Sargent said. The district historically has tried to grant matching pay increases to all employees, he said.

District negotiators last week offered a second union, the California School Employees Assn., the same percentage increase offered to the teachers. Union members will vote on the offer Feb. 26, said Louise Lavallee, president of the CSEA Torrance chapter, which represents 168 clerical and technical employees.

CSEA negotiators had accepted an earlier district offer of a 1% raise and 1% bonus, but the district improved that offer after reaching a tentative agreement with the teachers.

Lavallee said Friday that she is frustrated at the prospect of accepting raises when members of her union may be facing layoffs. The district list of potential cuts would abolish at least five positions in the CSEA unit, she said.

“We’d rather not have a raise and save these jobs,” Lavallee said. “If you lay off these people, their work is still going to need to be done.”

The district’s third union, the Service Employees International Union, Local 99, has declared an impasse in its talks with the district and anticipates that a state mediator will enter the talks next week. The union represents 250 district maintenance and operations workers.

As many as nine SEIU jobs are in danger of being abolished through budget cutting, said Thomas Newbery, SEIU Torrance division coordinator. He said he hopes any cutting could be done through attrition, since 25 of the unit’s members were laid off last fall.

“We’ve been cut to the bone,” Newbery said.

The school board, after reviewing the list of potential cuts at its meeting Tuesday night, will probably hold a special meeting Feb. 25 to take action, Sargent said.

The list of possible cuts includes: abolishing the music program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, which would cut four teaching jobs and save $140,000; replacing eight nurses with health assistants, saving $240,000; and eliminating high school bus transportation, saving $20,000.

Under one proposal, class size for grades seven through 12 would grow from 27 to 29 students, eliminating 24 teaching slots and saving $792,000.

Four administrators would be cut at the high school level and two at central offices in the 19,600-student district.

District spokesman J. Richard Ducar blamed the budget-cutting on several factors, including the state budget cuts.

Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed no increase in the cost-of-living adjustment for education funding next year. The district’s anticipated revenue from the state lottery this year is expected to be $128 per student, down from a projected $175 per student. And Los Angeles County is charging the district $440,000 to collect property taxes, Ducar said.

TORRANCE TEACHERS’ NEW CONTRACT

Here are highlights of the tentative agreement approved by Torrance teachers last week:

* Teachers get a 1% raise retroactive to July 1, 1990, and 2% retroactive to Jan. 28.

* The starting salary goes from $24,869 to $25,620. Top salary, for teachers with a master’s degree, advanced credits and 20 years’ experience, goes from $48,090 to $49,542.

* District contribution for health and insurance benefits will be $3,321 a year, up from $2,961.

* Paid bereavement leave increases from three to five days.

* Combined fourth- and fifth-grade classes will get teachers’ aides. Aides now are available only for kindergarten through third grades.

* The middle school day will be increased by 32 minutes, starting with the 1992-93 year.

* The three-year contract expires June 30, 1993, and permits the union to reopen salary and benefit negotiations each year.