GLENDALE : Teachers Voting on Contract Proposal

Glendale teachers began voting Wednesday to amend their contract with the Glendale Unified School District.

Neither union officials nor union officials would disclose the terms of the agreement, but Glendale Teachers Assn. President Sandi Steinberg said union officials were urging members to support it.

“I think the offer is a good one, and I think our teachers are going to go for it,” Steinberg said.

If approved, the new contract would take effect from the remainder of this school year until June, 1995, district officials said.

“They were seeking a salary increase,” said district spokesman Vic Pallos. “They agreed to a contract settlement for an undisclosed amount.”

Pallos would not say whether the new contract includes a pay raise. Currently, a starting teacher in Glendale makes $27,884 per year and the district average is $40,500.

Although the previous contract has not expired, representatives of the Glendale Teachers Assn. formally asked district officials in October to go back to the bargaining table under a clause in the agreement that allowed salaries to be renegotiated if the district had higher-than-anticipated revenues. At the time, teachers were in their third year of a contract that called for no cost-of-living adjustments to their wages.

Negotiations lasted for three months, and a tentative agreement was reached at the end of January, Pallos said.

A majority of the district’s 1,200 instructors are union members. They will have until 5 p.m. Friday to cast their votes. Results will be determined by late Friday or Monday morning, Steinberg said.