School Contract Offer Links Pay, Performance

Interim Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines on Tuesday formally presented labor contract proposals that for the first time would tie teachers’ and administrators’ pay to students’ performance.

The initial bargaining proposal, scheduled to be voted on by the Board of Education April 11, would establish the Stanford 9 standardized test as the primary measure of teachers’ performance.

The labor proposals were presented to the board a day after Cortines laid out his plan for reorganizing Los Angeles Unified into 11 mini-districts.

The linkage of pay and performance is the cornerstone of the increased accountability envisioned in that reorganization plan, chief operating officer Howard Miller said.

The teachers union, United Teachers-Los Angeles, adamantly opposes rating teachers’ performance with test scores.

In addition, the proposed contract asks teachers to give up other privileges they hold dear, including extra pay for bilingual credentials and the power to decide which classes they want to teach. The district is also offering considerably less than the 15% raise the teachers are seeking.

Union officials made no public comment when the proposals were submitted to the board Tuesday.

However, in an interview, union President Day Higuchi said the membership is “appalled and very angry about the initial proposal. This is probably the most hardball proposal we’ve seen in over a decade, if ever.”

The current three-year contracts with all 10 district bargaining units expire June 30. In the past, terms negotiated with teachers have became the standard for the other units.

The district is offering a base raise of 6%, with bonuses for teachers and principals based on a school-performance pay plan. It would provide one-time bonuses of as much as $2,000 apiece to teachers and administrators at schools that significantly exceed targets for improvement.

The district would also pay bonuses of as much as $3,000 apiece to teachers and administrators in low-performing schools that improve their scores.

A teachers’ incentive plan would provide unspecified rewards for individuals or groups of teachers whose students show outstanding, sustained or improved performance.

Principals would be able to add to their salaries by obtaining advanced degrees.

Many of the district’s demands strike deeply at teachers’ emotions because they would strip privileges won either by strike or as compensation for other concessions.

The teachers, for instance, are strongly attached to their right to choose their assignments. They gained that right in exchange for agreeing to take a 10% pay cut in the early 1990s.