Montebello Teachers Accept 4.2% Pay Cut in ‘95-96 Amid Budget Woes : Education: Pact provides for small increases in next two years, but will still fall short of restoring reductions.

Montebello schoolteachers, who fended off efforts to cut their pay 5.3% this year, have accepted a 4.2% pay cut for the 1995-96 school year.

Teachers agreed to a three-year contract that provides for a minimal salary increases in 1996-97 and 1997-98, but will still fall short of restoring next year’s cuts.

The salary cuts will save the Montebello Unified School District about $8 million over three years, school officials estimated. The board approved the contract Tuesday.

School officials said cuts are necessary to help ease the district’s financial problems. But even with reduced pay, school officials said, the district faces a $900,000 deficit in its $93.7-million spending plan for the next school year. They also predict that the deficit will double in the 1996-97 school year.

Teachers union officials said they believe school officials are exaggerating the district’s financial problems. The union agreed to the pay cut primarily because the district promised to restore the cuts if the financial picture improves, said Clyle Alt, president of the Montebello Teachers Assn.

“We’re not cheerful about any of this,” Alt said. “I expect to get that money back.”

The average teacher, who is paid about $50,200 a year, will lose more than $2,100 next year. Increases over the last two years of the contract will total $350, well short of offsetting the 1995-96 cuts.

Next year’s pay cut will be fully restored if the district’s financial picture improves, but only after the district repays loans and other obligations and sets aside $1.25 million for classroom equipment and repairs, district officials said.

The district first encountered severe financial problems five years ago, when it faced a $14-million deficit. Since then, officials have slashed spending by $49 million, eliminating 481 positions, including teachers, maintenance workers and school librarians.

School officials say salaries, which account for 86% of the district’s budget, are at the core of the district’s recent financial woes. In July, administrators’ salaries were cut 5.3%, and officials have asked non-teaching staff to accept a 2% pay reduction. Negotiations with non-teaching staff are continuing.

“We’ve done the absolute maximum we could,” board member Barbara Chavira said. “We have no breathing space.”

Teachers say the fight over salaries has soured their relationship with the school district.

When the district announced plans to impose a 5.3% cut in teachers’ pay earlier this year, hundreds of teachers and parents flooded school board meetings carrying picket signs. Teachers also voted overwhelmingly to walk out if the cut took effect. The district later backed away from that demand.

“We had a contract that doggone nearly broke the district,” board member Darrell H. Heacock said. “I know they don’t want to hear this, but the state, the county and the auditors said that was our major problem.”

William Santoscoy, chairman of the district’s parent advisory council, said many parents do not want to see teachers give up their pay. But he sees no other recourse.

“Teachers deserve every cent they get. But everybody in the district has taken a cut except them,” Santoscoy said.