UNION BACK AT THE TABLE TEACHERS SEEK 5 PERCENT RAISE.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Five months after reaching agreement on a contract that ended a yearlong impasse, negotiators from the Palmdale School District and the teachers union are set to start negotiations again with both sides optimistic about avoiding a new deadlock.

While the last contract offered no raise, the Palmdale Elementary Teachers Association is asking for a 5 percent pay hike for the 2006-07 school year.

The cost of providing health benefits also was a stumbling block the last go-round, but this time PETA is proposing health benefits packages that are less costly to the district and offer more choice to members.

``Teachers are working to address district solvency. We are excited about that,'' said Pauline Winbush, director of certificated personnel. ``We are moving in a good direction together. We will take a look at budgetary issues together as a group as well.''

District officials said they were still reviewing budget figures and it was too soon to say whether the district can afford to give a 5 percent salary increase to teachers, who number more than 1,000.

``This time it will be good. The negotiating team has been working well together. We have developed a relationship that will be good,'' PETA President Simone Zulu said.

The first round of negotiations will begin around mid-June.

Palmdale teachers voted by a 4-1 margin in February in favor of a new contract proposal that offered no raise but removed language about limiting health insurance payments, which union members found objectionable in previous versions.

The objectionable provision had opened the possibility that teachers would have to pay part of their health insurance premiums in 2007-08.

Teachers overwhelmingly voted in June 2005 to reject a proposed contract that offered no raise and said that in the 2007-2008 academic year, the district would pay for health insurance coverage up to the highest rate that was offered the previous year.

Teachers wanting coverage above that amount would have had to pay out of their own pocket, choose an insurance plan that costs less, or negotiate a higher maximum contribution.

The district has set $15,550 as the maximum it will pay annually for health insurance for nonteaching workers and management staff.

Both sides acknowledged then that they delayed the inevitable of having to deal with rising health costs, but said settling the contract will give them more time to research cost-saving alternatives, officials said.

``The district didn't give teachers an opportunity to help in that area. That's one thing we said we were going to do,'' Zulu said.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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