Brown Predicts That Teachers Will OK Plan, Avert Strike : Education: County’s legislators back his settlement. Speaker will retain role as mediator.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) Tuesday predicted that United Teachers-Los Angeles members will vote to accept his plan to avert a scheduled walkout next Monday.

“I think there will be a better than 50% (vote) . . . to prevent the strike and keep the schools open,” Brown told a Capitol press conference. With him were 10 members of the Los Angeles County Assembly delegation--mostly Democrats--who urged acceptance of the proposal.

The Speaker’s plan calls for the teachers to accept a 10% pay cut instead of 12%, and includes changes the teachers have sought in their running dispute with the Los Angeles Board of Education.

A key element in resolving the dispute, Brown said, is his authority to settle future disagreements. “There also is an ongoing dispute mechanism,” he said of his proposal. “Whenever there is any misunderstanding of any aspect of this proposal, I am the final arbiter of the proper interpretation.”

A prominent Bay Area attorney, Brown was asked by both sides to try to negotiate a solution to the dispute and has been meeting with negotiators since January.

Teachers throughout the giant Los Angeles Unified School District will vote on Brown’s plan today and Thursday. Results are scheduled to be announced Friday.

If the plan is rejected by the teachers, they are set to go out on strike next week.

Los Angeles school board members endorsed the Speaker’s plan by a 6-0 vote with one abstention Monday. Union leaders submitted the plan to a membership vote without a recommendation.

The school board imposed pay cuts of 6.5% to 11.5% on almost all employees this school year, after a 3% cut carried over from the previous year. All of the district’s bargaining units accepted the pay cuts except for teachers, who threatened to strike over their cumulative 12% pay reduction.

At the Capitol press conference, Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles) said, “We think this is a fair settlement. The teachers, the school district and the children all get a fair shake. Chaos would result from a strike.”

Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) called the plan “a win-win situation for the teachers and the students . . . a solution that everyone can live with.”

A proponent of breaking the huge Los Angeles school system into smaller districts, Boland added that she likes the part of the proposed settlement providing for an audit to determine any district mismanagement practices.

Brown’s plan also was endorsed by Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont), who heads the Education Committee.

A letter signed by some of the members of the Los Angeles Assembly delegation and released to the news media said in part:

“We support and encourage the passage of this contract settlement between the Los Angeles Board of Education and the United Teachers-Los Angeles, which we believe is the best plan to serve the children of Los Angeles, the teachers, and the school board.”

“The plan also improves the ability of teachers to control their professional lives. It is a proposal that avoids the trauma of a strike and that lays the groundwork for major reform of the Los Angeles Unified School District.”