TEACHERS REJECT LAUSD OFFER OF 3 PERCENT RAISE.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

Los Angeles Unified offered its teachers a 3 percent raise on Thursday -- a proposal that was immediately rejected by the union president, who has promised to strike unless demands for a 9 percent pay hike are met.

In addition to the 3 percent raise, retroactive to July 1, the district's offer includes fully funded health benefits through 2007 and $10 million to reduce class size in grades 4-12.

``We believe the offer we have put on the table is extremely generous,'' said Kevin Reed, the district's chief legal counsel. ``We have put an offer on the table that makes a commitment by the district to ensure that all of the additional revenues that the district got from the state this year are being offered to our teachers as compensation.''

But A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the union's 47,000 members -- who earn an average annual salary of $56,652 -- deserve a larger raise to compensate them for improved student achievement.

``Three percent is unacceptable and it's an insult to our teachers,'' he said. ``The district can't have it both ways. They can't say, `This is a district on the move,' because the almighty test scores are going up and then cheat the teachers who make those test scores go up.''

Duffy said he is organizing the teachers behind demands for more money, smaller classes, less bureaucracy and greater local control of schools, and is prepared to strike if the district doesn't yield.

But Los Angeles Unified School District officials maintain there isn't enough money for a 9 percent pay raise, particularly after negotiators agreed to fully fund health benefits, costing an additional $60 million.

According to Reed, teachers' salaries and benefits account for roughly half of the district's $5.7 billion general fund. A 9 percent pay raise for teachers would equate to about $360 million -- close to the $400 million spent on 6,400 administrative positions.

``For Duffy to claim we can cut the bureaucracy to make this pay raise is out of touch with reality,'' Reed said. ``He knows we have a leaner administrative structure than our big-city school district peers. We do not have a fat bureaucracy.''

Duffy said the union would demand that the LAUSD dismantle its eight administrative mini-districts and use the money for raises and class-size reduction.

UTLA has hired its former president, Wayne Johnson, to organize teachers and work as a negotiations consultant. Johnson orchestrated the 1989 teachers strike, which resulted in a three-year, 24 percent contract.

The teachers union is already scheduling events in advance of a strike authorization vote in February.

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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