Compton Schools Near Teacher Quota Despite Turnover, Higher Rolls

Officials in the Compton Unified School District say they have filled all but five teacher vacancies, despite enrollment figures that are running ahead of previous years and despite the loss of 154 teachers who resigned to take jobs elsewhere.

“At this point we are in excellent shape,” said Thurman C. Johnson, assistant superintendent in charge of personnel services.

However, Wiley Jones, director of the Compton Education Assn., said the union is conducting its own survey this week to determine how many classes are being taught by substitutes.

Long-Term Substitutes

“We have teachers that have reported to us that there are still vacancies at their schools. Some are being filled by day-to-day substitutes, some by long-term subs,” Jones said.

Johnson said long-term substitute teachers have been assigned to five classrooms while the district continues to interview applicants until it finds the most qualified people. Two elementary school classes, a middle school class and two high school classes are being taught by substitutes, he said.

Almost 13% of the district’s 1,185-member teaching staff resigned this year. Three weeks before the start of school Sept. 11, district administrators still had 70 teaching positions to fill.

The union attributed the resignations to low pay and poor working conditions. Many of the departing teachers were drawn to jobs in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where a teacher strike last spring resulted in a pay increase that would give a veteran Compton teacher who switched to Los Angeles about $10,000 more a year in salary.

Although their official count will not be taken until Oct. 6, Compton district officials said student enrollment appears to be up over the last two years. On the 10th day of school, for example, there were 25,891 students, up from 25,084 a year ago. Enrollment totaled 25,465 on the 10th day of school two years ago. This year, enrollment has gone up steadily every day of school, officials said.

‘One of Best Efforts’

Jones said the classroom overcrowding feared by teachers has not occurred. “It’s one of the best efforts the district has ever made,” Jones said of the teacher recruiting and allocation. “The issue is, now can it hire the remaining teachers it needs to cover the classrooms?”

Johnson says he believes the district will be able to hire the teachers. An aggressive recruiting effort begun a few years ago by the district is beginning to bear fruit, he said. “I feel better this year than I have in the past two years because the quality of the people we’re getting is a heck of a lot better.”

The district has advertised heavily across the country for teachers, especially on college campuses. Like other districts in the area, it has also sent representatives as far away as Spain, Canada and the Philippines to recruit teachers.

The Compton district and its teacher union, however, have a turbulent labor history. There was a bitter strike three years ago, and the teachers and the district have been at an impasse for weeks over a new contract. The old contract has expired.

Both sides met with a state mediator Tuesday but no progress was made, Jones said, adding that the district asked for fact-finding. A three-member panel will be formed to take testimony from district and teacher union representatives about wages and the financial resources of the district. The panel will decide which set of facts are closest to the truth. That process could take from one to six months, meaning the teachers will continue to work without a contract, Jones said.