LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Negotiators with the Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles met Thursday in an attempt to reach agreement on a new contract for the district’s teachers, psychologists, psychiatric social workers and counselors.

The district presented what it called “a historic offer,” with a 19% wage increase — 7% retroactive to July 1, a 7% increase on July 1 and 5% on July 1, 2024; an additional $20,000 increase for nurses; an additional $3,000 ongoing increase for school psychologists, psychiatric social workers, counselors and other special services providers; an additional $2,500 ongoing increase for special education teachers; and an additional $1,500 ongoing increase for early education teachers.

Arlene Inouye, a bargaining co-chair for UTLA, the union representing the district’s teachers, told City News Service, “the district’s current proposal still falls short of meeting our needs and the needs of our communities, but it is apparent that they are feeling the heat of actions taken by LAUSD workers in the past month, including the boycott of all afterschool faculty meetings that began this week.”

“Educators remain united in our demand that the district agree to all of the elements outlined in the Beyond Recovery Platform,” Inouye said.

The platform includes calls for salary increases for all educators and accelerated advancement to their highest salary; salaries for school nurses that are competitive with private sector positions and will allow the district to meet its current contractual obligation to provide a nurse in every school five days per week; greater pay equity and better working conditions for adult education, early education, state preschool and substitute educators.

The platform also calls for expanded compensation for extra duty work; expanded and increased differentials for advanced degrees, special education educators, bilingual and dual language educators, coordinators, counselors and coaches; expanded access to salary points to incentivize individualized professional development; premium-free high-quality health care for all employees; paid planning and preparation time for elementary and early education program educators; structural support for members responsible for dependent care; and “targeted investment in the recruitment and retention of BIPOC educators and service providers,” referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color.

The district’s offer also includes a reduction of two students in all academic classes from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade and an additional counselor to provide college counseling in all high schools with 900 or more students.

The offer also includes staffing incentives for high-needs schools — an additional $7,500 stipend for national board certified teachers working in identified priority schools who agree to serve as demonstration teachers, up to $6,000 per year in stipends for teachers working in identified priority schools who earn district microcredentials in race and equity, equitable grading, English learners, early literacy and “STEAM” (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics); $2,000 per year for mental health support providers working in identified priority schools.

The offer also includes staffing incentives for dual language and American Sign Language programs — $5,400 per year for qualified dual language program teachers providing content instruction in the target language — including those providing content instruction in ASL — $1,000 per year for dual language program teachers providing content instruction in English, $1,000 per year for dual language program teachers earning a district dual language microcredential.