LOS ALAMITOS : 2% Pay Increase for Teachers OKd

Teachers of the Los Alamitos Unified School District will receive a 2% increase in pay beginning July 1.

School district trustees unanimously approved the increase Monday after just two weeks of negotiation between district officials and the teachers union.

“It was a judgment call,” trustee Keith Polakoff said. “All things considered, we thought it would be good for the district to have a quick settlement.”

The district had also begun negotiating with non-teaching employees, and there was some fear that the quick settlement with the teachers could influence those talks.

The increase would boost salaries of the district’s 307 teachers by about $700 to $1,300 a year, according to Assistant Supt. David Hatton.

In addition to the 2% across-the-board increase, teachers’ salaries will be adjusted based on teaching experience and for continued studies beyond a bachelor’s degree. The most senior teachers now could make about $59,300 a year, Hatton said.

He said beginning teachers would receive about $27,000 a year.

The teachers are in the second year of a three-year contract that was signed in 1993. The agreement called from negotiating salaries this year, with no salary increase last year, officials said.

Hatton said the pay increase would cost the district about $600,000 for the 1994-95 fiscal year.

“It was fair for both sides,” said school board President Virginia Wilson. She added that a quick settlement is not unusual, particularly if it does not involve negotiating a new contract.