AGREEMENT REACHED ON TEACHER PAY 2.5% WAGE HIKE INCLUDED IN ACCORD WITH NEGOTIATORS.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

About 40,000 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, counselors, librarians, and health care workers could receive a 2.5 percent pay raise this year under a settlement announced Tuesday by the district and union officials.

The 2.5 percent bump, which comes on top of a 2 percent hike covered in a March 2005 agreement, would be retroactive to July 1, 2005. It still faces approval by the school board and union members.

The union and district reached the agreement after about three weeks of negotiations, a quick turnaround that signals a newfound collaboration between the two groups, officials said.

A.J. Duffy, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, had threatened the district last week that if it did not up its previous offer of 1.5 percent to 3 percent, he would take action in the spring when negotiations for a new contract began.

``We have a new atmosphere between the union and this district. We're going to work together to make education better for students in this district,'' Superintendent Roy Romer said, adding that the salary hike will keep the district competitive in finding and retaining qualified teachers.

The 2.5 percent increase would take the average salary of an LAUSD teacher to $59,432. The minimum annual salary for a starting teacher will be $43,054 and the maximum base pay will be $75,541, said Linda Del Cueto, the district's director of the office of staff relations.

The union and district agreed to reopen negotiations for the third and final year of the contract that was established in 2005 and will expire in June 30, 2006.

Tuesday, Duffy said although 2.5 percent is ``not enough'' given cost- of-living increases, it was ``satisfactory.''

``We believe that it is a fair, if not spectacular, compensation package, given the financial condition of public education throughout the state,'' Duffy said.

The pay raise will cost the district about $100 million annually, which Romer said it will pay out of a reserve fund and cost savings from declining enrollment.

Board members called the agreement fair and agreed it was made possible largely because of the $4 billion construction bond approved by 66 percent of voters Nov. 8. The bond money will allow the district to refinance debt, which will free up some general fund money that could go to operational costs like teacher salaries.

``If Measure Y was not approved by two-thirds of the voters of Los Angeles County, we wouldn't have been here in such a way today,'' board member David Tokofsky said.

The agreement also includes establishing a joint task force that will explore class-size reduction in the lowest-performing schools; a task force on K-12 assessments that will help teachers meet student academic needs; and appointing an outside expert to advise both the district and the union on how to further reduce operating expenses to put more resources in improving classroom instruction.

Duffy, Romer and the school board touted their agreement and presented what they called a ``unified front'' at the press conference, just one week after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stepped up his campaign for mayoral control of the nation's second-largest school district.

``There is a unified front,'' Duffy said. ``We found common ground.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com