Tentative OK Reached on 6% Raise for Teachers

Ending a sometimes acrimonious 3 1/2-month impasse, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and its teachers union reached a tentative settlement this week in contract negotiations for the coming school year.

The settlement gives teachers what they had been holding out for: a 6% salary increase for most teachers effective Feb. 1, 2000. The school district’s original offer was a 5.75% raise.

School administrators estimated the raises will cost the district about $1 million in the coming year and about $2 million annually afterward. To pay for the raises, school officials said, cuts and layoffs are likely.

Still, the amount of the raise depends on how one considers the numbers, and the two sides have been looking at numbers differently throughout the process.

Jim Jaffe, negotiations chair for the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Assn., interprets the raise at 5.6%, since the agreement extends teachers’ work year by one day. The impasse was marked by sometimes bitter accusations by both sides, and included the first major

picket demonstration in years in late May. Union plans to demonstrate outside Santa Monica High School’s graduation were eventually scuttled by union leaders after internal and external criticism.

The tentative agreement must be ratified by the teachers and the school board.