Capping weeks of negotiations, Los Angeles Unified officials announced Friday they had tentatively reached agreement with the teachers union on a contract that avoids many of the cuts threatened for next year and mandates four furlough days for educators.

Superintendent John Deasy said leaders of the 40,000-strong United Teachers Los Angeles worked with the district "to provide a solution for next year that brings stability - and the majority of our employees - back to the classroom."

The deal, which must still be approved by the school board and by UTLA's members, restores cuts to preschool education, campus libraries and magnet programs and saves the jobs of at least 3,400 teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians, officials said.

Some 1,700 educator jobs are still at risk of elimination, officials said, because of declining enrollment in the nation's second-largest district and the expiration of federal stimulus funding. However district officials though