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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 79
Santa Monica Daily Press
MAKING A PLEA SEE PAGE 1
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE BIG PAY DAY ISSUE
Teachers to get a pay raise BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SMMUSD HDQTRS In a public school district where the high cost of living can burn a hole in the pocket, teaching gigs could become more financially attractive as a pay raise is soon expected to be on the books for certificated educators. The negotiating teams for both the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association (SMMCTA) reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement in December, both parties settling on a potential contract that would grant a 3 percent salary raise to the teachers in the 2007-08 school year while maintaining health benefits. The contract will result in an average increase of about
$2,000 per employee. The union’s Board of Directors ratified the terms of the contract last week while the district’s Board of Education expressed its general support for the collective bargaining agreement during a meeting last Thursday, signaling a formal ratification of the contract at the board’s Feb. 21 meeting. Last year, the board approved a 5 percent teacher salary raise that initially became entangled in a larger issue of financial accountability when the AB1200 — a financial outlook report submitted to the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) — showed the district could have difficulty sustaining the pay increase. Those issues were later resolved after a consultant’s report showed the district could accommodate the pay raise if it adopted several adjustments, which it subsequently did.
Officials at both ends are calling the agreement a “winwin” situation, granting a fair salary raise for teachers and keeping up with the compensation level of other local school districts, helping with not only retention of existing educators in the district, but also recruitment. “When you talk to the vast majority of teachers, you’re really impressed by their dedication and also by their skills,” School Board Vice President Jose Escarce said. “There is a teacher shortage everywhere in the country and we need to make sure we retain the kind of teachers we have and are able to attract teachers like the ones we have.” Both parties entered negotiations in the fall and reached a tentative agreement on Dec. 19. SEE RAISE PAGE 12
Tech ‘baby’ grows up with merger BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
MID-CITY Santa Monica entrepreneur Roger Mabon was only two years into building his technological “baby,” involved in a business of producing computer hard drives, when a mega deal inked with Apple gave birth to an empire. It was that 2006 deal that brought Santa Monica-based G-Technology’s products into every Apple retail store in the country, spawning the name recognition the company has today in the creative industry, supplying hard drives and storage space for post production houses. It was that empire, which nearly doubled the company’s size overnight, that made G-Technology an attractive option for Fabrik, a San Mateobased maker of storage systems, to acquire last month. “We see this as a significant win-win type of situation for them coming in and buying us,” Mabon said on Monday. “They get the Apple community and we get the resources behind them.” The acquisition means that the company, which is located on Stanford Street and will be renamed “G-Technology, a Fabrik company,” will now have the means to meet demand, Mabon said.
Kevin Herrera kevinh@smdp.com
SCREWED: Bradley Vibes at G-Technology assembles one of the Santa Monica-based company's SATA external hard drives on Monday. GTechnology, which was founded in 2004, was recently purchased by Fabrik, a San Mateo-based maker of storage systems.
“Their resources behind us will enable us to produce more product to meet the demand we’re seeing,” he said. G-Technology was founded with humble beginnings in 2004 when Mabon opened shop in Santa Monica, just blocks from his
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home, after a previous company he cofounded, called Medea Corporation, was sold to Avid Technology. Mabon purchased the rights to one of Medea’s products, a hard-drive system also used by creative professionals, and spun it off as a founding
product for G-Technology. The vibrant local creative community, filled with post-production houses, was the reason why Santa Monica was chosen as the
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