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# Teachers, district resolve contract dispute
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/teachers-district-resolve-contract-dispute/
- Published: 2004-07-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:45:33.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Teacher-district committee to explore CalPERS alternatives*

Teachers lose some PPO benefits, receive modest pay raise. Committee to seek alternatives to CalPERS DISTRICT HDQTRS. — After more than a year of negotiations, local teachers and school officials this week agreed to a contract that scales back health care benefits, but provides for a modest 1 percent pay raise. The health care changes are expected to save the cash-strapped school district more than $500,000 a year and help curtail future escalating medical costs. According to the deal, single teachers with the most expensive PPO plan will pay for the portion of their coverage that exceeds the basic HMO plan. Families and couples already had to pay that difference.

Also agreed was the need to look into alternatives to the health care provided by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. An exploratory committee will be set up by teachers and administrators, officials said.

“I’m very pleased with the contract,” said John Deasy, superintendent of schools. “It was a struggle to reach it. People worked hard to reach it. It wasn’t acrimonious or hostile, people just worked really hard.”

The 1 percent pay raise becomes effective in February and is expected to cost the district about $225,000 this coming year. Another 1 percent pay raise became effective July 1, but that pay raise was guaranteed to the teachers, who last year deferred the raise to help with the budget crunch.

Harry Keiley, president of the local teacher union, said the deal reflects an appealing compromise for all sides.

“It’s important to acknowledge that these were some of the most complicated and important discussions in recent memory, due in part to the unprecedented cuts in the last 24 months and the skyrocketing health care costs,” said Keiley, adding the new contract expires next summer. “The settlement is creative in that we were able to find a modest pay raise for teachers, protect the integrity of our health benefits and create some cost containment for the district.”

Though the pay raise offsets much of the savings in health care, Deasy said the deal will help contain future increases.

Keiley is head of the Santa Monica- Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, a union that covers about 750 teachers, counselors, librarians and speech pathologists in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. About 70 percent belong to the HMO plan, while the other 30 percent have some form of PPO plan.

Members of the union work 183 days out of the year. Their package includes medical coverage and routine dental visits, but doesn’t provide for vision or chiropractic care, Keiley said. Though the district kept its budget stable at $102 million for the coming year and avoided any layoffs, it did cut 28.5 teaching positions for next year that weren’t tenured, Deasy said.

Entry-level local teachers are paid $39,000 a year. Veterans with 28 or more years of experience make up to $78,000, with bonuses for higher degrees. Deasy said local teachers are the second-highest paid in Los Angeles County. Keiley countered that while that’s true for veteran teachers, teachers with 10 to 20 years of experience earn a salary below the county’s median.

“The union’s long-term goal,” Keiley said, “is to find a way to have teachers reach the maximum compensation level in fewer years, also known as compressing the salary schedule.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 23, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072304.pdf?ref=smdp.com)