LOS ANGELES : School District Makes New Proposals on Pay Cuts

Negotiators for the Los Angeles Unified School District gave final contract offers to its bargaining units Thursday, reducing a proposed pay cut for teachers and most district employees to 9% for this year, according to sources close to the contract talks.

The proposed pay cut, which initially ranged as high as 14% for this year, would be taken through unpaid furlough days rather than reductions in base salary, officials said. The district’s lowest-paid employees would sustain cuts ranging to 6.5%, although some would not be cut at all; its highest-paid administrators would see their pay reduced 11.5%. The cuts would come on top of a 3% pay reduction imposed on all full-time employees last year.

The school board will decide today whether to approve additional budget reductions to soften pay cuts, which were proposed to help make up a $400-million budget shortfall.

Representatives of the district and its largest union, United Teachers-Los Angeles, had set Thursday as the deadline to complete contract negotiations. Discussions are expected to continue if no agreement is reached.