6-Month Contract Dispute : Las Virgenes Sweetens Salary Offer to Teachers

The Las Virgenes Unified School District has moved closer to resolving a six-month contract dispute with its 319 teachers by raising its salary offer during state-mediated wage talks, district and teachers union officials said Wednesday.

The district, which has an enrollment of 7,625 pupils in Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, offered a 7.7% pay raise during an all-day bargaining effort Tuesday. Last month, officials’ highest offer had been 7.2%.

The Las Virgenes Educators Assn. has demanded a 10.2% increase. Teachers union leaders have argued that the Las Virgenes faculty is among the lowest paid in Los Angeles County. The average salary is $27,444 a year.

As part of their offer, school officials promised to help the union compile salary schedules from comparable area school systems. In a letter Wednesday to staff members, Supt. Albert Marley said the district’s goal is to achieve salaries comparable with those systems by the 1987-88 school year.

He said he remains “confident an agreement can be reached in a positive and constructive manner.”

Association president Mary Jane Lee, a Calabasas third-grade teacher, said more mediation sessions will be called after teachers review the comparison lists.

“We made progress, but it will be hard to tell how much progress until we get clarification as to what a ‘comparable’ district is,” Lee said.

In the meantime, teachers will continue to work without a contract, she said.