School District, Teachers Strike Tentative Agreement

By Susan Reines

July 23 -- After more than nine months of negotiations characterized as some of the most challenging in the School District's recent history, district officials and the teachers' union have reached a tentative agreement that scales back health benefits while slightly boosting salaries.

In a settlement accepted by both sides last week, teachers would receive full coverage for either HMO or the least expensive PPO plan. Those who choose to select pricier PPO plans would pay the difference between those rates and the cheapest rates.

The district would use the savings from not fully covering the more expensive plans to fund a 1 percent salary increase effective February 2005. In addition, a 1 percent pay raise the teachers had previously deferred went into effect July 1.

At a board meeting Thursday, Board member Julia Brownley said all of the board members, including the three who were absent from the meeting, had reviewed the settlement.

"The entire board is in support of the agreement," she said, adding that the deal would "leave us fiscally sound."

Because schools are out for summer recess, the members of the Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association will not ratify the agreement until September.

Union President Harry Keiley said he would express full support for the settlement when he brought it to the members in the fall.

In addition to "protecting the integrity of healthcare," the settlement "provides a modest pay raise for our teachers while simultaneously creating some healthcare savings for the district,” Keiley said. “It's a creative solution."

The agreement comes after protracted negotiations that dragged on for more than 20 sessions.

The district was adamant that it would have to freeze its payout for health benefits -- which would saddle teachers with the cost of any rate increases – due to budget shortfalls.

The union, on the other hand, maintained that its number one priority was to preserve
the current level of benefits, which provided full coverage for about 70 percent of
teachers and partial coverage for the other 30 percent.

The teachers had forgone pay raises the past two years for the sake of keeping that level of coverage.

A glimmer of hope for settlement arose in June, when CAL PERS insurance revealed that benefit rates would actually decrease slightly in the coming year, rather than further inflating, as expected. The district and the union came to their tentative agreement soon after.

Keiley said the negotiations were "some of the most difficult and challenging in recent history" because of state budget cuts and high healthcare costs.