Beverly Hills Teachers Set for First-Ever Strike : Education: Union negotiators walk out of mediation session, setting the stage for a Monday walkout.

Beverly Hills teachers walked out of a mediation session Thursday, and union officials said the stage was set for the first-ever strike next week in the district famed for academic excellence and affluent students.

“Only a miracle is going to save us from a strike” on Monday, said Jan Anderson, spokesman for the Beverly Hills Education Assn., which represents 300 teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors.

Saying they were disgusted with the school district’s refusal to significantly improve its salary and benefits offer, the teachers broke off talks shortly after 1 p.m., 3 1/2 hours after the session started.

On Thursday night, about 50 teachers picketed a Back-to-School Night at Hawthorne School. Some of them dropped their placards at 7:30 p.m. and rushed into their classrooms to greet parents.

Parents at the school said they sympathized with the teachers.

Rex Ruparatne called the teachers’ demands “reasonable,” adding that he would not send his two sons to school if there were a strike because “substitutes don’t know the syllabus.”

Tomarken said about 200 substitutes have been hired and that schools will be open if a strike occurs.

The district’s last offer Thursday was an 11% salary increase over two years, up two percentage points from its previous proposal. The teachers are sticking to their demand for an 18% increase over two years.

The district had little or no improvements in its proposals for health insurance and teaching time, according to the union.

A state mediator had been shuttling between school officials and the seven-person union team, who were in two separate rooms.

No new talks have been scheduled, according to the district.

“If (the district) wanted to change its offer, we’d be very glad to listen,” said Bill Gordon, the union’s chief negotiator.

But school board President Dana Tomarken said: “The only talking the district would do would be for a point of clarification. There are no more dollars.”

Schools Supt. Robert French said “the next move is up to them, not us.”

Current starting pay for the teachers is $21,604 a year, with top pay of $46,270 for nine years of experience. The average salary is $42,659.

To stay competitive with other districts, particularly Los Angeles, the Beverly Hills district plans to raise its starting salary more than 25%, to $27,774. But for the big majority of teachers already making more than that, the district’s latest offer is a 5% pay raise this year and 6% in 1990-91.

That would put most Beverly Hills teachers roughly on a par with their counterparts in the Los Angeles Unified School District this year, where salaries range from $27,346 to $50,123, but behind in 1990-91.

Earlier this year, teachers in the Los Angeles district won a 24% salary increase over three years.

The union will be making signs and training teachers in “picket line etiquette,” Gordon said. “We’re out for the duration.”