Grade ‘Crisis’ Leaves Vague Tension in Schools

Assistant Principal Stannis Steinbeck was juggling assignments Wednesday to cover for two teachers snowbound in Valencia. Principal John Haydel was trying to hire a new math teacher and then round up a few stray students lingering in the quad. Students were laughing and socializing and sorting out their new books and new classes on the second day of the spring semester.

“Just goin’ along with the program,” said senior Cedric Taylor, settling into his second period history class.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials, union leaders and the news media call it a “crisis” and outwardly, at least, the whirl of recent campus protests and escalating labor strife would appear to be sucking in just about everyone in the nation’s second-largest school district.

But at John C. Fremont High School in South Los Angeles, where the current “crisis” began three weeks ago with an impromptu, volatile student demonstration, the storm seems to have passed. At least for now.

The pulse of the 2,500-student campus, regulated by bell schedules and nutrition breaks and public address announcements, is back to normal. “Life as usual,” said college counselor Helene Vachet, who was working Wednesday morning with a group of college-bound students, the Black Scholars. “The rain’s had more effect than that” contract fight, she said.

Home of the Pathfinders, owner of the slogan “Find a Path, or Make One,” Fremont led the way for students across the city who were growing increasingly anxious about a year-old contract fight that had included a boycott of non-classroom duties by teachers and sluggish progress at the bargaining table. Without warning, about 200 Fremont students on Jan. 18 staged an impromptu walkout, protesting teacher plans to withhold midyear grades from the district, as well as the school board’s refusal to meet teachers’ pay demands.

Thousands of students at dozens of schools from Chatsworth to Carson soon followed the lead of the Fremont students, and within days the city’s largest student protests in 20 years were in full swing.

Things are quiet back at the epicenter of the student unrest. But a discernable tension, an anxiety, remains beneath the surface for students, teachers and administrators. Many students are still confused and suspicious about the handling of their midyear grades. Most teachers, as a bargaining pressure tactic, issued grades last week directly to students on union report cards but did not file the grades in the district computer.

Despite repeated assurances that few, if any, students will be adversely affected by the action, students on Wednesday were still complaining. “They still aren’t in the computer,” said Edwin Pertomo, a senior.

Part of the problem is confusion caused by the fact that while some students got their grades last week on the union report cards, some teachers filed grades with the school office on the regular computerized forms. Those grades will not be mailed home for a few weeks. “I know they say that,” said one 11th-grade student. “But all I know is I didn’t get all my grades.”

Students also are worried about the possibility of a teacher strike. The union authorized a strike vote Wednesday night. Union leaders, however, told teachers to turn in student grades if the union is unable to get a court order blocking the district’s threat to withhold pay from all teachers who did not file grades in the normal manner. “If they strike, it could affect graduation and screw up everything,” said senior Albert Hernandez.

Teachers are both angry and uneasy, not knowing if they will get paid next month or be out on the streets. “It has really affected us here,” said Don Barber, a health and driver education instructor, putting a finger to his temple.

Turmoil Takes Toll

Fremont’s teachers and administrators try to keep things positive, moving ahead, despite the distractions. But Principal Haydel, at least, believes that the contract turmoil is taking its toll. He said it appears that some students may have had more failing grades, but he does not yet have the data to know for sure.

Many Fremont students take pride in the fact their school helped push the issue into the public spotlight. But now, as bargaining drags on, the grades still are not filed with the district, the two sides remain far apart and teachers are threatening to walk out of classes, some are viewing the protests as a hollow victory.

“I think we’re still in the middle of the whole shuffle,” said Oscar Montoya, one of the protesters.