Walkout Blues Hit Hardest at Students in the High Schools

Sixteen-year-old Kim Clark, a straight-A student at El Modena High School, sat in a park near her school Thursday afternoon wondering what the strike by Orange Unified School District teachers will do to her plans to attend the Air Force Academy.

She was especially worried about preparing for next year’s grueling calculus course, one of the tough academy requirements. Already, she said, her efforts to maintain top grades are being hindered.

Substitute teachers “are not teaching us anything,” said Clark, a sophomore. “The substitute in my Spanish class is a music teacher. We spent the whole day teaching her how to count to 20 in Spanish. The strike really worries me because I want to go to the Air Force Academy and I’ll never get in this way.”

The strike’s impact is being felt at all levels, but especially hard hit are the four district high schools where nearly 40% of the students skipped school Friday, some to support striking teachers, others believing that work done for substitute teachers will not count toward final grades.

Teachers, in fact, say many of them won’t give credit for assignments done during the strike. But district officials, charging that the teachers are encouraging kids to skip school, say students will get credit for their work.

District officials say the strike has caused few major disruptions and, that paradoxically, the longer the walkout, the less impact it will have on the classroom.

Roger Duthoy, assistant superintendent for secondary education, said the district is working “very hard” to find the most qualified substitute teachers.

“We have science majors teaching science courses, math majors teaching math courses. At first, we were putting them wherever we could. The longer the strike lasts the better we will be at finding the proper substitutes for classes,” Duthoy said.

But teachers charge that district officials lied to students and parents by saying all classrooms were staffed with qualified substitutes. In fact, the teachers claim, parents and even relatives of administrators were called in to substitute when the strike began.

Students like Clark and many parents also dispute Duthoy’s assessment. Danette Strader, 17, and Tricia Womack, 16, both juniors at Orange High School who have chosen to stay in school, say they spend class hours making paper airplanes or watching movies and that none of their substitute teachers has expertise in their classes.

“It’s really frustrating for me because I’m failing some of my classes and had hoped to raise my grades before the end of school, but I don’t see how I’ll be able to do that now,” Womack said.

Janette Stewart, a Santa Ana mother of three enrolled in Orange Unified schools, said they report watching television soap operas in class or doing nothing.

“There is no learning process going on,” she said. “I know that some classes have been combined and many of the substitute teachers are not qualified. Are the seniors and juniors going to graduate? The teachers are saying one thing and the district is saying something else.”

One problem, district officials said, is that many teachers did not leave behind lesson plans, making it more difficult for the substitutes to continue classes.

Responded Dick Gully, a striking teacher at Orange High School: “This is a strike and we are withholding our work. Why should we be expected to leave lesson plans behind? The (substitutes) are getting paid $175 a day and should be expected to come up with their own lessons.

“I think under the circumstances, with what we know about the qualifications of the substitutes, not many teachers are going to accept work done for them (the substitutes). The students are accomplishing nothing in class.”

Officials with the Orange County Department of Education were uncertain about whether teachers must accept work done for substitutes.

“It seems like it would be handled like any other substitute situation, where work done would be counted, especially if the regular teacher were out for any extended period,” said department attorney Jim Aynes. “But I haven’t really researched the particular question of whether the teacher could be forced to accept the work. I would think it would be accepted in a positive manner.”

But Duthoy insisted that students will get credit for the work they do. “We will do everything in our power as administrators to make sure that the kids are not caught in the middle of this thing,” he said. “That means if they are in class doing homework they will get credit for it. However, if they are truant, their work could be jeopardized. It’s just too bad that some of the teachers at the high school level have tried to destroy some of the good stuff we had going.”

District officials also said the strike has not drastically altered most school activities, especially at the elementary level, where extracurricular activities such as music, art and physical education were eliminated by previous budget cuts.

“Teachers do not have to be quite so specialized at this level, so it’s not so much that the classroom has been disrupted as much as the daily routine,” said Harriet Bakenhus, assistant superintendent for elementary education. “The children are confused, they don’t understand why their teachers are on picket lines and not in class. But so far, there has not been too much weeping and wailing.”

High schools have canceled or delayed some events such as dances and field trips, but district officials say most scheduled events will go on as planned.

Duthoy said, for instance, that advanced placement examinations, which provide students with extra credit for high school and college courses, are under way and well attended.

Richard Kirwan, principal at Villa Park High School, said his school canceled a Mardi Gras dance and delayed student body elections that were to begin this Tuesday, but said no other major events were canceled.

The schools are still competing in a number of athletic events, with Canyon and Orange highs both in the softball playoffs until last week. Canyon remains in the baseball and tennis playoffs.

Many striking teachers who wear a second hat as coaches are leaving the picket line to supervise teams.

Jim Prelesnik, history teacher and softball coach at Orange High, said, “Everyone on the faculty staff realizes how hard the girls have worked to reach the playoffs, so there is no animosity toward me.”

Still, he said, “We’re all waiting for the call to end the strike.”

Times staff writer Tom Hamilton contributed to this story.