Bonuses, Relaxed Rules Proposed

D.C. teachers are scheduled to vote on the proposed contract at their schools today. Parker said the union should have the results tabulated by tonight. The school will act on the proposed contract if it is approved by the union.

If the union membership and the school board approve the contract, a committee of school system and union representatives will work out the details of the pilot programs.

"We believe this contract is a real breakthrough," Janey said. "You can't move a reform agenda unless you have a genuine relationship with the union."

The contract would provide teachers with an average two-year pay increase of 10 percent. In addition, teachers would receive step increases of 2.5 percent to 5.4 percent.

Starting pay would increase from $39,000 to $42,500 a year, higher than in Montgomery, Fairfax, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties. The salary for D.C. teachers at the top of the scale would rise from $75,000 to $87,000, more than in Prince George's and Anne Arundel but less than in Montgomery and Fairfax.

"We have sent the message to D.C. teachers that you are as important as teachers in surrounding jurisdictions," Parker said.

Under the contract, teachers would be required to work 7 1/2 hours a day, instead of 7 hours, and 196 days a year, instead of 192. The 30 extra minutes would be used for planning, and the four additional days would be for training.

The previous contract expired in September 2004. The proposed contract would be retroactive to October 2004 and expire Sept. 30, 2007. But teachers would not receive a retroactive raise for 2004-05.

Some teachers objected to that. "Why aren't we being compensated for the time we already worked?" said Jerome Brocks, a special education teacher at Anne Beers Elementary School in Southeast.

Brocks said he also opposes the incentive bonuses and the waiving of work rules because they are not being offered to all schools. "You can't have one set of rules for one group of people and another set of rules for another," he said.

But Alfred Hubbard, who teaches social studies at Ballou Senior High School in Southeast and served on the union negotiating team, called the proposal "one of the best contracts that's been negotiated in 20 years."

"There's no question that public education in the traditional system is going to rise in Washington, D.C.," he said.

Staff writers Nick Anderson, Lori Aratani, Daniel de Vise and Maria Glod contributed to this report.