Community College Agreement Reached : Six Instructors Would Be Retained, but Athletic Programs in Peril

At least six of 13 physical education instructors scheduled to be laid off will be retained under an agreement tentatively ratified Wednesday by the L.A. Community College District Board of Trustees. Intercollegiate athletic programs in the nine-college district, however, are still in jeopardy.

Formal acceptance of the agreement, which was reached by district staff and faculty representatives over the last three weeks, is expected at the June 11 board meeting, district spokesman Norm Schneider said.

Under the agreement, cash payment for coaches would be eliminated in favor of reduced teaching loads. The move would remove at least six of 13 physical education instructors scheduled for layoff effective June 30. Thirty-five other instructors in 29 subjects also are designated for layoff.

The agreement, however, will do little to ease the impact of the layoffs on the district’s intercollegiate athletic programs.

Five coaches face layoff. Additionally, to comply with state law, 23 part-time coaches will be fired before the layoffs take effect. In all, coaching positions for 28 of the district’s 76 athletic teams will be eliminated--a 37% cut.

Thirteen other instructors who coached teams in 1985-86 have been reassigned to other subject areas to avoid layoff. Their availability to coach next year is still in question.

Lingering doubt over the future of athletic programs in the district led Pierce College in Woodland Hills and West Los Angeles College in Culver City to eliminate their football programs this week. Prospective football coaches at Los Angeles City and Southwest are scheduled for layoff, meaning Valley, East Los Angeles and Harbor may be the only football programs in the district in 1986.

“We had waited too long to make a commitment to football,” Pierce Athletic Director Bob O’Connor said. “Football is something you have to start in November, not June. Plus, our budget is $90,000 next year, which meant we either had to have football and nothing else or no football and nine other sports. I had to recommend for the nine other sports.”

At West Los Angeles, Athletic Director Jim Raack was forced into the same decision.

“We felt it would be almost impossible to bring in enough quality football players at this time,” Raack said. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but we felt that if we couldn’t maintain quality programs, it would be more detrimental to have them than to drop the sports altogether.”

West Los Angeles, which also eliminated its baseball program, will lose about 110 student-athletes, Raack said. Both schools hope to field football teams again within the next two years.

Further cuts in athletic programs may follow if physical education teachers who were transferred to other subjects to avoid layoff are not eligible to coach teams next year, according to Trade Tech Athletic Director Courtney Borio.

“The major factor now is our ability to use physical education teachers who have been reassigned to other disciplines as coaches,” Borio said. “That is in question right now.”

In the past, outside instructors have been allowed to coach athletic teams. The proposed layoffs, however, may eliminate that practice in 1986-87, a faculty representative said.

“The district has decreased the number of people in physical education,” said Marty Hittelman, executive secretary for the faculty union. “If they then bring in people from other areas to coach, they would increase the number of people in physical education, which would make it questionable as to why the layoffs were necessary in the first place.”

The state community college athletic commission has set a Monday deadline for the Los Angeles district to report the status of its intercollegiate programs. Borio said the deadline mandates that final decisions on coaching be made soon.

“We need some resolution,” Borio said. “But we’re also hoping that the state will extend its deadline until the middle of June.”

State Athletic Commissioner Walt Rilliet said the deadline was flexible but that decisions on statewide conference alignment await.

“We want people to compete, but we can’t put the deadline off for very long,” Rilliet said. “The ripple effect, when you talk about outlying colleges affected by schools in the Los Angeles district, is very large.”