Panel Called to Break Impasse in Teachers Contract Talks

A fact-finding panel has taken over labor talks between the Culver City teachers union and school district administrators in an effort to move forward stalled contract negotiations.

Culver City teachers, who have been working without a contract since September 1995, want a 7% salary increase over the next two years. The school district is offering a 4% salary increase and a 3% one-time bonus.

“The district feels [a 7% increase] would not be fiscally prudent,” said Gladys Phillips-Evans, assistant superintendent. “It would be tantamount to borrowing from the future to pay for the present.”

The fact-finding panel, led by a neutral facilitator, began hearing arguments from the union and administration last week after mediation failed at the end of the summer. The panel is expected to issue a report by the beginning of January. If a settlement acceptable to both parties is not reached, the teachers could go on strike in the middle of next month, which would be the first job action taken in the district.

“It’s a quiet little community that likes to think that everything is hunky-dory at the little schoolhouse,” said David Mielke, president of the Culver City Federation of Teachers. “But that’s not what is happening. We have a lot of angry, bitter and disillusioned teachers.”

Although salary increases are the main sticking point in the contract negotiations, the union and the administration also are debating extended workdays for school counselors and psychologists, high school coaching stipends and extended sick leave compensation.