Board OKs Teachers Contract : Burbank: The union trades small salary increase for job security. The one-year agreement was negotiated without rancor or controversy.

The Burbank Board of Education has approved a one-year union agreement under which teachers agreed to forgo pay raises in return for keeping their jobs.

The agreement was approved by the board late Thursday night and ratified by the union last week. It allows the city to skip the 1.25% pay raise due the teachers in the second year of a three-year contract, which school administrators said would have required them to make $500,000 in cost cuts elsewhere.

The teachers received the raise last year, but “that would have been impossible this year without layoffs,” said Assistant Supt. David Aponik.

The school board, in turn, promised that no teachers would be dismissed to save money.

The district had earlier cut more than $1 million in costs, eliminating three music teaching jobs and nine non-teaching jobs when the board approved a $51-million budget in June. But administrators feared they would have to cut more jobs if the union did not agree to a pay freeze.

Burbank employs about 700 teachers, who earn between $26,000 and $49,000, with the average pay about $40,000, Aponik said. The district serves about 13,000 students.

Unlike those of other local school districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, the agreement was reached without rancor or controversy, according to administrators and union representatives.

“The process was very harmonious,” Aponik said. “We consulted with the unions at every step.”

At Thursday’s meeting, union representatives and administrators traded compliments, not accusations. “We were able to accomplish this because of our close relationship,” said Arne Pearson, president of the Burbank Teachers Assn.

During negotiations, union members were allowed full access to the district’s books.

“It’s like trying to get blood from a turnip,” Pearson said. “We certainly looked over the budget carefully and there was simply no money. The district has cut back administrative staff to the bare bones.”

Over the past three years, the district has eliminated 40 jobs, half of them administrators and their aides. The district saved $2 million in the process and except for the music teachers, none were fired and the average classroom size of 30.5 students was not increased.