School Policy Change Favors Administrators

In a strong victory for principals and other administrators, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday night rescinded a policy that would have required them to go back to the classroom periodically.

The policy requiring every administrator to teach for at least 45 hours every other year was aimed at easing teacher complaints that many principals and other managers are out of touch. And it would have made the Los Angeles Unified School District the first big school system in the nation to require administrators to return to the “front lines.”

But on Monday night, on the recommendation of Supt. Leonard Britton, the board voted 5 to 2 to rescind the never-implemented policy.

Britton, who had been bombarded with complaints from administrators ever since the board adopted the back-to-the-classroom policy last May 8, told board members that the timing was lousy and the policy unneeded.

Britton wrote in a memo to the board that administrators will be involved in a number of time-consuming activities over the next several months that will be “demanding of their leadership and their energies.” He cited looming budget cuts, the district’s shift to a year-round calendar and the implementation of programs for low achievers and for students who speak little or no English.