Burbank Schools, Teachers Agree Quickly on Pact With 4.6% Raise

Burbank teachers and school officials avoided the usual tense and lengthy contract negotiations as they tentatively agreed this week on a contract containing a raise of 4.6% for the year ending June 30, 1988.

The 550 members of the Burbank Teachers Assn. ratified the new agreement Thursday, and the Burbank school board is expected to formalize the contract at a meeting tonight.

Officials of the teachers’ union and district officials said they are happy that the negotiations did not deteriorate, as in past years when the two sides took several months to come to an agreement.

Teachers and school officials were embroiled in a 10-month dispute over a contract a year and a half ago. Teachers withheld grade reports and threatened to boycott open houses. They vowed to strike if no contract was achieved.

Students also became involved in the dispute. Students of John Burroughs and Burbank high schools staged a walkout in May in support of their teachers.

“After the problems of the last few years, I think everyone took a new attitude and procedure, and it worked well,” Maureen Doyle, president of the teachers’ union, said. “It’s nice for us to go back to our classrooms and not worry about any kind of job action.”

Elizabeth Burroughs, assistant superintendent in charge of personnel, agreed. “I think the teachers and the district had gotten to the point where we wanted to try other methods that were less adversarial,” Burroughs said.

Doyle said negotiations were smoother this time because members of the school board were involved in them and the district had no attorneys at the bargaining table.

The contract provides for increased health-care benefits for retirees and open-ended sick leave for some teachers.

The agreement also contained provisions for the potential reconfiguration of Burbank schools. The district is considering the establishment of middle schools, which would create four-year high schools and scale elementary schools back to kindergarten through fifth grade.

The provisions give sixth-grade teachers first priority in filling vacancies caused by the reconfiguration. Second priority goes to teachers inside the district, Burroughs said.