Subs May Give Final Grades if Teachers Strike

Graduations without diplomas. Proms without teachers as chaperones. Final grades based on the judgments of substitute teachers. College enrollments without official high school transcripts.

Those are some possible effects of a lengthy strike by teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials of the district, union and area colleges said Tuesday. Teachers have threatened a walkout beginning Monday.

None of the important end-of-the-year events would be canceled, said Gabe Cortina, district associate superintendent. Parents would be asked to step in as prom chaperones and administrators and substitute teachers would lead graduation ceremonies, he explained.

“In our opinion, these are not things we can postpone,” said Cortina. “I don’t think an alternative would be acceptable.”

However, Cortina explained that without submission of final grades by teachers, the actual awarding of diplomas might be delayed for several weeks after the graduation ceremonies and a student’s participation in the event might be based on a tentative decision about his or her eligibility. “Crossing the stage will not necessarily give them a diploma,” he said.

Catherine Carey, communications director for United Teachers-Los Angeles, sharply disagreed. She questioned whether graduations could or should be held if a strike begins next week and continues through the end of June. The ceremonies would be “meaningless,” she said, without participation by teachers and the filing of final grades.

Carey said that the union will not sanction voluntary participation by teachers at graduations and proms. And she predicted that the district will use such a stance to unfairly accuse teachers “of holding kids hostage.”

In many cases, the district has no official records of grades for spring semester. So if a strike lasts through the end of June, substitute teachers will be asked to test students on the general goals of a course and help decide whether a student should be promoted or graduated, administrators said. Special attention will be paid to students moving from elementary to junior high and from junior high to senior high, as well as to graduating high school seniors, they said.

District officials urged students not to skip classes in the case of a lengthy strike because evaluation by substitutes during the final weeks of the semester may wind up being as important as, or more important than, all the grades earned during the earlier weeks. The substitutes may have to be “very savvy” in developing final tests, Cortina said.

However, union spokeswoman Carey said she did not think enough substitutes would cross the picket lines to make any such grading system possible.

In response, Cortina said: “I would be kidding you if I told you we had the capacity to replace both the substance and quality of the current program. At best, we will be trying to cover the gaps. But the time will not be wasted and everybody will be making an effort.”

Many high school seniors are worried about the effect of the strike on their admissions to college. Colleges usually make acceptance to the freshman class contingent on successful completion of high school, as proven in a formal transcript.

Yet in interviews Tuesday, admissions officials in the UC and Cal State systems, as well as at independent institutions, said they would not stop any Los Angeles student from enrolling if a transcript is not available by summer’s end.

Administrators seemed most concerned about the impact of a long strike on schools that operate on a year-round calendar; about a quarter of the district’s students attend such schools. July 1 is the start of the new school year for them and a strike of even a few weeks could disrupt planning for the start of classes, officials said.

The district has set up a telephone number for parents and students who need information about school activities during a strike. The number is: (213) 625-KIDS.