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With its high educational standards, the Palo Alto Unified School District has had no problems attracting qualified teachers. But in recent years, it has been facing problems retaining teachers, who cannot afford to live in Palo Alto on a teacher's salary.

"The PA community values education and has been able to get teachers that are the cream of the crop," said Lupe Garcia, principal of El Carmelo Elementary School. "But I know of teachers who left the area because they could not afford to buy a house."

Ro Davis, President of the Palo Alto Educators Association, agreed, "Teachers don't get into teaching to make money. But worrying about your personal finances can have an impact on your classroom teaching."

The school board and the educators association negotiated a contract to raise teachers' salaries. More than 80 percent of the 700 teachers in the educators association voted in favor of the contract this Tuesday. The board will be voting on it sometime next week.

Under the contract, Palo Alto teachers would get an 8.5 percent pay raise, increasing starting salaries from $40,000 to $43,400 a year, with more experienced teachers making up to $87,643.

"It is in our interest to provide adequate compensation to our teachers," said Bob Golton of the PA school Board.

The money for the salary increases will come from the parcel tax, which was approved in June last year by PA voters.

"The district and community worked together to develop strategic solutions," said Assistant Superintendent Human Resources Marilyn Cook. "One of our goals is to attract and retain teachers. Good conditions and high salaries would make them want to stay."

A parcel is described as a taxable piece of land in the Santa Clara County. Community members will pay $293 per parcel every year for a period of five years. Seniors can get special exemption from the tax. "It is the city's and the citizens' tax on parcels of property," explained Davis. According to estimates the tax will raise about $ 5.9 million.

Along with raising teacher salaries, the district and the educators have also agreed to reduce class sizes. . The new class size will be in place next school year, starting 2002. "This way teachers will be able to give individualized attention to their students," said Cook.

Reducing class sizes to make it easier for teachers to pay attention to each student is not a new idea. It was mandated by the state about five years ago for all classes up to the third grade. "Reducing the class sizes especially in the fourth and fifth grades is a good move as it evens out the playing field," Garcia said. "At the moment classes are kept small till the third grade, but then all of a sudden the student teacher ratio jumps up in the fourth grade. So that there is naturally a difference in teacher attention."

At present the student-teacher ration is 27-1. Under the contract this will be reduced to 20 students per teacher in the elementary schools. In the high schools the student teacher ratio is to go down to 24 students to each teacher.

According to the contract, the district also would hire about 17 new teachers the elementary schools. The district and the teachers associations have agreed to a guideline to help them determine which school needs the teachers the most. According to Golton, the general distribution comes to two teachers per school , one for grade four and one for grade five.

Teachers and the educators association have praised the new contract because they believe it will further improve the educational standards of the Palo Alto schools. "The PAUSD is a lighthouse district for reducing class size," said Davis, "I would like to thank the PA community and the PAUSD for their commitment and support to teachers and learning."