Beverly Hills Teachers Walk Off the Job : Education: Faculty members were angry, parents were upset and students didn’t learn much during the first day of the first-ever strike by teachers in the city.

Confusion reigned at Beverly Hills schools Monday as nearly all the district’s teachers stayed out of the classroom in their first-ever strike against a school system renowned for its academic excellence and wealthy students.

Demanding better pay and benefits, all but 15 of the district’s approximately 300 teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians struck the 4,700-student system shortly after 6 a.m.

While teachers picketed outside Beverly Hills High School, some students inside a second-story classroom hurled books, papers and even a chair out an open window. One class ordered pizzas. Some students sneaked off campus to go shopping while others planned a rally today in support of striking teachers.

No new negotiations have been scheduled since talks between the Beverly Hills Education Assn. and the Beverly Hills Unified School District broke off last week.

The union’s chief negotiator, Bill Gordon, said striking teachers found support from parents, students and classroom aides. United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that led Los Angeles teachers on a successful strike last spring, sent officials and members to help on the picket lines.

“We feel that we made our point. We feel the strike is strong, the teachers are strong, and we’re going to accelerate our activity,” Gordon said in an interview.

Beverly Hills School Board President Dana Tomaken, who spent most of the day at district offices, said she got about 25 telephone calls from upset parents. Most were unsure which side to blame for the strike, she said.

Supt. Robert French said about 200 substitutes hired at $185 a day were able to provide a “normal” school day.

In urging parents not to keep youngsters home, French said attendance was down. Only 78.9% of enrolled students showed up for high school, while 79.7% of youngsters attending the district’s four kindergarten through eighth-grade schools were present. The district normally averages a 96% attendance rate, he said.

“Send your children. Education is going on,” said French, who spent much of the day fielding telephone calls from anxious parents.

But he acknowledged during a midday briefing that there had been some “minor problems of control,” mostly at the high school.

Despite the presence of several extra security guards, students began leaving the campus shortly after school started.

“We’re being baby-sat,” complained one senior as she waited for her boyfriend to pick her up. She said her mother had urged her to go to school so the district would not lose state funds, “but I’m going to ditch and go shopping.”

“It’s crazy, it’s chaos, it’s havoc,” said junior Chris Wegener, who left class to join his teachers--and his school counselor mother--on the picket line. “I have a feeling (the substitute teacher) is not going to make it through the day,” he said, describing how students were playing football in his history classroom.

Emotions ran high among strikers at the high school, where 50 to 70 picketers glared and shouted at substitutes and others crossing the line.

French teacher John Wielmaker, a 29-year district veteran, yelled “Detestable!” in French. “It’s disappointing for (substitutes) to utilize the situation as a means of employment. It’s almost unconscionable.”

Many of the substitutes who arrived at the high school were put aboard four tour buses and driven to other schools in the district. There were several sharp exchanges--but no incidents of violence--between the two groups.

“How do you get out of bed in the morning without a spine?” taunted history teacher Steve Taylor.

“I’m just trying to make a living,” said one nervous-looking substitute who refused to give his name. “I’ve subbed before and I was not treated well by anybody so it doesn’t matter.”

In addition to helping on picket lines, Los Angeles union officials showed up to monitor attendance to ensure that UTLA members on vacation at year-round schools did not take substitute jobs. By midday, only one Los Angeles teacher, a substitute, had been discovered among the ranks of those hired to take the place of striking Beverly Hills teachers, but that person was not a union member, according to UTLA spokeswoman Catherine Carey.

“We’ve asked Beverly Hills teachers to find out the names (of those substituting) and we run them through our computer as soon as we get them to see whether any of them are Los Angeles Unified teachers,” said Carey, adding union leaders will decide later what to do about any such cases.

“We will let them know we are not pleased, especially if they are (UTLA) members,” Carey said.

Noting that “our people went through an awful lot” during the Los Angeles teachers’ nine-day strike, Carey said she doubts that most union members would help prolong the Beverly Hills strike and undermine picketing colleagues by taking their places in the classroom. Just in case, the union set up a telephone network over the weekend to contact vacationing teachers in year-round schools and put a message on its hot line urging Los Angeles teachers to stay away from Beverly Hills except to picket.

But at least two Los Angeles district substitutes and one retired teacher applied Monday to work in Beverly Hills.

Despite the presence of uniformed police officers Monday, there were no arrests, although one striking teacher got a ticket for allegedly deliberately stepping in front of a vehicle that was trying to enter the campus.

Parents who arrived at the schools seemed worried.

At Horace Mann School, one parent, who declined to identify herself, watched anxiously as her kindergartner entered class.

“This is Beverly Hills, California. I feel this is a place (where) this should not happen. I want my little girl going to school in a sanity situation,” she complained.

At the high school, some students worried that they would fall behind in their classes, but many others said they approved of what their teachers were doing.

Teachers, who earn between $21,604 and $46,270 a year, want an 18% pay raise over two years. The district is offering 11%. They also want better health benefits, while the district wants the teachers to work more hours per week.

Beverly Hills teachers earn less than their counterparts in Los Angeles, who make between $27,346 and $50,123, but they also have slightly shorter work days.

While Beverly Hills spends $5,000 per student, more than any other district in Los Angeles County, its officials have said they cannot afford to pay the teachers want they are asking.

“I would like to be able to pay more,” Supt. French said. “I would like to be able to be competitive. We feel that the salaries we have, and the working conditions, make it competitive.”

Once one of the wealthiest districts in the state, Beverly Hills’ fortunes shifted after voters passed the sweeping property tax-cutting initiative, Proposition 13, in 1978 and the state Supreme Court ordered California to equalize spending among its school districts. To help it make ends meet while keeping up its academic programs, the district solicits donations, rents out its facilities and sells sportswear that bears its famous high school’s logo.

Times staff writer Jocelyn Stewart contributed to this story.

BACKGROUND The contract between teachers and the Beverly Hills Unified School District runs until June, 1990, but allows for interim negotiations on pay and benefits. The teachers want a 10.5% pay raise for this school year, or 18% over two years if the contract is extended. The district has said it can afford only 11% over two years. Some benefits and the length of the teaching day also are in dispute.