LVUSD contract talks progress

In an 11th-hour decision, the Las Virgenes Unified School District and the Las Virgenes Educators Association, the union that represents teachers, have settled on a tentative contract agreement.

"The superintendent and school board are pleased to have a tentative agreement," said Dan Stepenosky, assistant superintendent of personnel.

Paul Markowitz, co-president of the LVEA, said the agreement was recommended for approval by the teachers' Representative Council on Nov. 21. The council consists of one or more teachers from each school within the district. The group makes policy decisions for the LVEA, except in the approval of a contract, at which time all teachers must vote.

"However, nothing is official until both sides ratify it," Markowitz said.

"It is a bit tricky since it is a conceptual agreement at this point," Markowitz said. One more negotiation session is planned in early December to tie up "loose ends," he said.

The two groups had been wrangling for months over teacher salaries and health and retirement benefits. When both sides refused to budge, a permanent impasse was filed.

Teachers, discontented over stalled negotiations, protested at a school board meeting. Teachers from every school returned puzzle pins Superintendent Sandra Smyser gave them when she was hired in 2005. The pins were given as a token of unity, symbolizing district employees as integral pieces of the educational puzzle.

That united front broke down over salaries and benefits. Teachers wanted 3 percent pay hikes to be retroactive to July and an 8 percent increase in health and retirement benefits.

District officials wanted salary increases to start in January 2007, with no medical benefit at all. Instead, the district offered to set up Internal Revenue Code 125 accounts, creating a funding bank to pay for healthcare costs with pretax dollars.

The plan didn't fly with union representatives.

Details will be released after teachers vote on the contract, expected before winter break.

"If that (vote) occurs, the school board could review it at the Jan. 9 meeting," Stepenosky said.