‘Negative Tactics’ by L.A. School Board Cited by 2 Members

Two Los Angeles Board of Education members broke ranks with their colleagues Wednesday to criticize “negative tactics” that they said are being used in negotiations for a teachers’ contract.

Board members Julie Korenstein and Warren Furutani, both of whom were elected last year with strong backing of United Teachers-Los Angeles, called for a new “face-to-face” approach to bargaining that they said could help reduce intense animosity stirred by the current negotiation process.

They said they opposed decisions by Supt. Leonard Britton and a majority of the school board to dock the pay of teachers who take part in union-sponsored job actions and to seek a court injunction to stop the job actions.

Seeking a court order to halt the boycott is “another step down a negative path--it’s upping the ante,” Furutani told a press conference Wednesday. “We need to bring a screeching halt” to that type of bargaining strategy because it could lead to a strike.

Dispute Over Salary

The contract dispute centers on salaries. The union recently rejected a district offer to raise teacher pay by 17% over three years, calling instead for a 12% raise this year. Both sides also are at loggerheads over proposals to increase authority of teachers.

Since school opened in September, the union has urged teachers to shun a number of duties, from administering standardized tests to supervising children at recess. Last month the district administration announced it would dock the pay of any teacher who participates in certain boycott actions--notably the refusal of yard duty and failure to turn in 10-week report cards and attendance records to school offices.

Britton and Roberta Weintraub, president of the school board, told another news conference Wednesday that the boycott is hurting students. They cited a statement by Grant High School Principal Robert Collins from a report he wrote to the state that described how the failure by teachers to turn in student progress reports was hindering efforts to give proper academic and personal counseling.

Allegations Refuted

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson strongly refuted the allegation Wednesday, noting that the union has instructed teachers to give copies of the report cards to students, parents and counselors. “No kids will slip through the cracks,” he said.

He accused the administration of trying to cause a strike, which would “get public opinion against (teachers) and put kids in the middle.”

Britton said several thousand teachers may find reductions on their paychecks today as a result of their participation in the boycott.

School district lawyers have filed a request for injunctive relief with the state Public Employment Relations Board, which has the power to request an injunction in Superior Court to end the boycott.

“We seek this with reluctance. (But) we believe a clarification of the legal rights and responsibilities of teachers is necessary at this time,” Britton said.

Korenstein said she and Furutani were challenging union leaders and their fellow board members to fire their professional negotiators and sit at the bargaining table to work out a contract. This type of negotiation has been used successfully in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, she said, and could be effective in a larger district such as Los Angeles.