Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 9:46 a.m.
Contract negotiations between Clark County teachers and school district administrators broke down Wednesday and the two groups may end up in arbitration for the first time ever, negotiators said.
Both sides, who have been meeting with a mediator since an impasse was declared in December, agree the biggest sticking point is pay raises.
District officials have offered teachers a 3.5 percent increase, plus a 1 percent bonus for this school year, and a 3.25 percent increase, plus a 1 percent bonus, next year. Over two years, that would cost the district about $56 million, said the district's chief negotiator Edward Goldman.
Teachers want 4.75 percent a year for two years.
"It's disappointing to us that the district talks about the need to keep and to get new teachers, and they have the opportunity to put this money in the salary schedule and they don't," chief teacher's union negotiator John Jasonek said. "That has a devastating effect on a teacher's career earnings."
The union represents about 10,500 teachers, Jasonek said.
At issue in the talks are the 1 percent bonuses, which the district calls "soft money." Jasonek said teachers wanted that extra 1 percent every year, not just as a bonus this year and next. Over a teaching career that could amount to between $30,000 and $40,000, Jasonek said.
"If they couldn't afford it, they wouldn't have offered it," Jasonek said. "But they've offered it as soft money."
Goldman, also expressing regret about the breakdown in negotiations, said the district could afford only the soft money bonuses, given what the Legislature passed on to school districts.
"We're disappointed the CCCTA could not see their way to accept the same package offered and overwhelmingly accepted by two of our other associations," Goldman said.
The administrator's union agreed to the district's offer, and the board approved the deal, in February. The support staff union agreed to the district's offer last month, and the board approved the deal Wednesday, just shortly after negotiations with the teachers broke up.
Negotiations with school police, the district's fourth union, are essentially on hold until the teachers settle.
School police, support staff and administrators will be closely eyeing what kind of deal the district strikes with the teachers. The other three unions have a "me-too" clause that requires the district to re-negotiate with them if another union gets a higher pay increase.
Teachers union representatives and district officials are now trying to agree on an arbitrator, who may not be available until September. Hearings with an arbitrator could take several weeks.
The arbitrator may try to mediate an agreement. If that fails, the arbitrator must choose either the district's offer or the teacher's offer, but the arbitrator cannot strike a compromise.
Ultimately, members of the elected, seven-member school board must decide whether to accept a union deal. Officials like Goldman negotiate on their behalf. On Wednesday, board member Lois Tarkanian said she had not decided whether the district could afford to pay teachers what they want.
"There's nothing more important than competent teachers," Tarkanian said. "I would like to give them as much as we can give them. I wish we did have the money. But (district officials) are going to say we don't."
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