Members of New School Councils Barrage Weintraub With Questions

More than 100 east San Fernando Valley parents recently elected to school councils bombarded Los Angeles school board member Roberta Weintraub with questions Wednesday on how the newly created management teams are supposed to work.

“I hope you put me out of a job, but not right away,” joked Roberta Weintraub in opening remarks to parents attending a breakfast she hosted in Studio City.

From the apparent confusion of many parents there, Weintraub need not worry about losing her job soon. She said afterward that it will probably take two years before the school councils run smoothly.

The councils--made up of parents, teachers and administrators--were created after the May teachers’ strike and have power over such matters as scheduling, student codes of conduct, use of office equipment and the spending of lottery money. Elections to the councils for most Los Angeles schools were held last month.

Parents at the meeting Wednesday said they were confused about the most fundamental aspects of the councils.

“Everybody’s saying, ‘What are we supposed to do?’ ” said Marcee Ortiz, a parent and school council representative at Burbank Boulevard Elementary School in North Hollywood. “When we make decisions, how are we supposed to implement them? It’ll be great when it starts working, but I can’t imagine that happening right away.”

One-day training sessions for school council representatives have been scheduled over the next two months, district officials said.

Once the councils are working, Weintraub said, they will create “a fundamental shift of power to local schools.” She told parents that “this is our big chance” to improve flagging test scores and stem the growing dropout rate in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest.

Although some districts in other states have tried similar experiments at a few schools, only Los Angeles has tried the so-called shared decision-making districtwide.

District officials say the school councils are taking the first step toward assuming a lot of power over matters such as budgets, curriculum and hiring.

Half of the school councils’ membership, which ranges from six to 16 members depending on school enrollment, is reserved for teachers. The remaining seats are filled by the principal, parents, community representatives and other school employees.

Although some councils have already held their first meeting, parents on Wednesday wanted to know whether the councils’ alternate members were allowed to speak at the meetings and whether the meetings are open to the public. District officials answered yes to both questions.

“Everyone’s role is still being defined, it is evolving and no one seems to have all the answers yet,” said Cecelia Mansfield, president of the 31st District PTA.

Mansfield is one of 24 members serving on the district’s central council, which is supposed to monitor school councils and decide on guidelines to give councils even more power--possibly even to hire and fire school principals. She told parents that after three meetings, central council members cannot agree what their job is.

“There’s already a controversy over what does it mean to ‘monitor’ councils at local school sites,” Mansfield said. “It’s probably going to have to be resolved at the negotiating table.”