By Editorial

We salute the Los Altos School District and Marge Gratiot, district superintendent, for the relatively quick agreement last week with the teachers’ union. It was only two weeks ago that district negotiators and union reps first started talking.

The two-year contract, which still must be ratified, calls for a 10 percent raise effective Jan. 1, plus a 6 percent raise and a cost-of-living increase in the 2001-2002 school year. New teachers who make $34,000 a year would make nearly $40,000 by the 2001-2002 school year, and teachers on the top end of the scale, making $65,920 now, would make $76,862 plus a cost-of-living increase.

Contrast this deal with the contentious negotiations earlier this year between the city of Los Altos and the police department. Those negotiations dragged on for months before a deal was inked in August. In fairness to the city, however, the school district was not dealing with the issue of retirement benefits, the sticking point of the city’s labor negotiations.

The reason for the smooth district negotiations could boil down to two main factors: the cooperative spirit of the two parties themselves and the technique used to reach an agreement.

The district uses an interest-based bargaining technique in which each side attempts to meet as many interests of the other as possible, rather than an offer, counter-offer approach.

With all the problems district officials are encountering with their $94.7 million facilities renovation plans, it’s good to know that teacher negotiations are not going to add fuel to the fire. The last thing the district needs is a teacher’s dispute on the order of the one currently raging in the neighboring Mountain View School District.

Considering the shortage of quality teachers, a quick settlement in the Los Altos School District shows the district values its teachers and wants to keep them happy.