CALABASAS : Board Seeks 3-Year Teachers’ Contract

Las Virgenes Unified School District officials hoping for friendly contract negotiations with teachers submitted a proposal this week that grants few of the requests made by the Las Virgenes Educators Assn.

In a response to the teachers’ request for a cost of living increase and a one-year contract next year, the district’s Board of Education issued a proposal Tuesday evening for a three-year contract with “a competitive compensation structure . . . to the extent that adequate resources exist.”

But district spokesman Bob Fraisse said school board negotiators will come to the bargaining table with open minds, in an attempt to avoid the type of impasse reached in the district in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and in the massive, neighboring Los Angeles Unified School District recently.

“We aren’t taking a firm position on some of these items,” Fraisse said. “We recognize that (the teachers) have some issues to discuss and we are willing to hear them out.”

Association Co-president Paul Markowitz said the district’s 440 teachers and counselors haven’t had a cost of living increase for the past two years. They want a one-year contract in case the California economy turns around in the near future and the district is given more state funds, he said.

“We are aware that, with things so undecided at the state level, it’s hard for the district to make any financial commitments,” Markowitz said. “The general attitude right now is that we have some mutual problems. What it will look like at the bargaining table may be a different matter, but we’ll have to wait and see about that.”

The association also is seeking ways to give teachers more input into curriculum decisions. Face-to-face contract negotiations are expected to begin within several weeks and may continue through the summer, Fraisse said.