Trainees Step Into Middle of Teachers-Schools Battle

Britta Sandelman wants to be a teacher. Luckily for her, the Los Angeles Unified School District faces a chronic shortage of teachers every fall, with up to 3,000 open positions. Under a 4-year-old teacher-training program, qualified college graduates can start teaching full time after some quick instruction, earning a credential after two years on the job.

But as Sandelman walked into an orientation meeting at the district’s downtown headquarters Saturday, the 22-year-old UCLA graduate stepped into the middle of an acrimonious feud between the administration and the teachers’ union.

In the latest chapter of a tense yearlong contract dispute, about 40 teachers from the United Teachers-Los Angeles union met hundreds of aspiring teachers, greeting them with charges that the district might seek to use the neophytes as “union-busters.” Flyers warned that new teachers who become “scabs” will be “identified and tracked” by the union if it strikes and be subject to “extremely strained relations with union teachers.”

The district denied the allegations, and one administrator said it would be “logistically impossible” for the interns, who don’t start training until August, to replace striking teachers.

Many Admit Ignorance

Many job aspirants in the standing-room-only crowd downtown and at two other locations sheepishly admitted only a cursory knowledge of the dispute. While teachers earlier voted overwhelmingly to strike, the union plans to announce Monday the results of a second election called to affirm the May 30 walkout date.

Sandelman, while sympathetic to the union, said her immediate concern is “helping kids to learn.” “When I’m a teacher I’m sure I’ll be supportive of the union,” she said. “(But right now) I’m more concerned with getting into a classroom and teaching.”

To some, being a “scab” was less of a concern than earning a living.

“I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, if there was a strike I’d be crossing the picket lines,’ ” said Mary Smith, 32, of Sun Valley. “But I’d do it anyway because my husband is working two full-time jobs to keep me and the children fed.”

Union member Ed Burke, at Holmes Junior High School in Northridge, said teachers do not trust district officials. They have “no record for being straightforward--you just wait and see what happens if we walk out,” he said. “They’ll put in a whole bunch of inexperienced people.”

Union representatives charged that the trainee recruiting was beginning earlier than previous years; district officials countered that it always begins about this time.

“The purpose of this program was not and has never been to replace potential striking teachers,” Personnel Administrator Michael Acosta told the job candidates.

After tests and interviews, those selected for the program get three weeks of instruction and then go into a classroom. Weekly instruction continues for two years. A state teachers’ commission concluded that the program prepares teachers as well as yearlong university programs do, Acosta said.

Nevertheless some union representatives and students challenged how quickly someone could become a teacher.

“They take them fresh out of college, give them no help and shove them into a classroom,” teacher Chris Mucke asserted. “From a sheltered university, they’re plucked into an inner-city school.”

Times staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this article.