Talks on Schools Dispute Resume

After two weeks without talks, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown resumed mediation sessions Monday with Los Angeles school officials and the teachers’ union and said the meetings will intensify next week as a Feb. 23 strike deadline grows closer.

Brown, who has ordered negotiators not to divulge details of the sessions, met separately with both sides for about two hours each at his Los Angeles office.

“Basically, he asked us for more information and assured us he is aware of the timeline,” said Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles. “We are suggesting a number of areas where we feel there is flexibility.”

Bernstein said she is prepared to present to her membership any offer forged through the Brown mediation. While continuing to organize for a strike, she said that union leaders would move swiftly to organize a vote if a new offer is drafted, and that strike plans “can be scuttled in a second.”

School board President Leticia Quezada, who with Supt. Sid Thompson met with Brown first, called their session with the Speaker productive, aimed primarily at laying the groundwork for a face-to-face meeting with the union.

Both sides, which met separately with Brown twice in January, say they view his intervention as the last chance for heading off the strike, which would be the second by teachers in three years. No other negotiations are taking place.

The teachers’ union has been fighting a cumulative 12% pay cut imposed by the board in October to help bridge a $400-million budget deficit. A key union demand has been for a district guarantee that teachers’ salaries will not be cut again next year.

Last December, 78% of 21,000 union members voted to reject the district’s last offer. The offer included a conditional promise not to trim teacher salaries next year if state funding remains even, an incentive program to reduce the number of sick days and an agreement to conduct a management audit.

On Monday, the school board made good on that provision by taking the first steps toward hiring the management consulting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co., one of three companies to submit bids. However, some board members expressed concern over the $500,000 audit price tag and voted to conduct a public hearing on the selection of the firm next Monday.