GLENDALE : Board Approves Pay Raise for Teachers

Glendale teachers have won their first pay raise in four years.

The Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a revised contract between the Glendale Unified School District and Glendale Teachers Assn. for a 3% raise over two years.

Board members cautioned, however, that while the district has some extra dollars now, it may not be able to continue pay increases when the contract expires in 1995.

“If things are as bad next year as educators predict, we would not be bound to give another increase we just don’t have,” said Jane Whitaker, board president. She said the district does not expect to receive enough money from the state to meet its needs in 1995. “This is a guard against a time when we don’t have the money.”

Glendale Teachers Assn. President Sandy Steinberg said the association will review the district’s budget and what its projected deficit is before asking for another raise in 1995.

“We’re not going to go after things that will break our district,” Steinberg said.

Association members voted last month to accept the revised two-year contract, which calls for a 1.5% pay raise each year for 1993-94 and 1994-95. The wage hike is retroactive to July 1.

Teachers last received an increase at the beginning of the 1990-91 school year.

The raises, which will be reassessed when the current three-year contract expires in 1995, will cost the district about $785,000, officials said. The average salary for a Glendale teacher is $40,500 per year, while starting salaries are about $28,000.

The district’s 1,200 instructors, a majority of whom are union members, had been working under a contract that did not include cost-of-living adjustments.

Association representatives and district officials began negotiations for the amended contract in October after the district received a $1.5-million windfall from lottery revenues and savings on health care expenses.