Conejo Valley Teachers OK Pact With 6.2% Pay Hike

Making up for a budget hit two years ago, Conejo Valley teachers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday night to accept a 6.2% salary increase this school year.

By a margin of 188 to 4, members of the United Assn. of Conejo Teachers backed the one-year contract that calls for a 4.2% raise paired with a 2% one-time bonus and beefed-up benefits package.

“Most teachers seem pretty happy” about the new contract, former union president John Uelmen said. “We’ve been flat for about three years because the California economy has been in the dumps . . . and our funding is tied to the state.”

Trustees of the Conejo Valley Unified School District are expected to approve the 1996-97 pact at tonight’s meeting.

Faced with a budget shortfall in the 1994-95 school year, Conejo Valley teachers reluctantly agreed to a 3% drop in salary and to working fewer days during the school year--effectively a 4% cut. When the financial picture brightened somewhat the next school year, teachers’ salaries were restored to 1994 levels.

“We have a really good relationship with our teachers,” Trustee Dorothy Beaubien said. “In a time when money was very tight, the teachers were willing to work with us.”

With a robust $82.1-million budget--bolstered by a 3.21% cost-of-living increase from the state--the time has come to return the favor, she said.

Perhaps because of such sentiment, negotiations between the 753-member union and the school district have been, by all accounts, amicable.

The 4.2% raise is retroactive to July 1; the bonus will take effect when the district’s 830 teachers receive their next paycheck at the end of the month.

After the two increases, a beginning teacher’s salary--now $29,551 a year--will rise to $30,792. Teachers at the high end of the pay scale--those with a master’s degree and at least 14 years of experience in the Conejo Valley--will see their salaries jump from $53,317 a year to $55,556.

The one-time bonus--which does not appear on the salary schedule--is in addition to those amounts.

Teachers with college-age sons and daughters were cheered by a clause added to the new contract that reinstates medical benefits for 19- to 24-year-old full-time students. That perk, too, was cut a couple years back.

Giving teachers a raise is a concrete way to show gratitude, Beaubien said.

“I think one of the things we do in this district is appreciate teachers,” she said. “One of the reasons we have good teachers and one of the reasons those good teachers stay with us is that we do have a good salary scale. As in any other business, the way you show appreciation is with monetary” rewards.

The 18,574-student district is expected to spend a total of $2.36 million for the raises and bonuses.