Teacher Wins Honor but May Be Transferred

Marshall High School teacher David Tokofsky was in Sacramento Tuesday to be honored as one of 72 national winners of the prestigious Christa McAuliffe fellowship for his work in teaching government.

But during the ceremony, Tokofsky accepted the $20,400 grant by presenting an award of his own to Gov. Pete Wilson--an enlarged copy of the notice saying Tokofsky may be reassigned next year because of state budget cuts.

Unless the Los Angeles Unified School District comes up with the money to prevent nearly 2,000 teacher layoffs and transfers, Tokofsky may spend his future teaching Spanish.

“It seemed very ironic to us that somebody receiving such accolades for teaching social studies and government . . . may be transferred into an area where he has not received all the accolades,” said Catherine M. Carey, a spokesperson for the United Teachers-Los Angeles, a group involved in hearings before an administrative law judge to try to block the possible layoffs.

Tokofsky, who led Marshall High School to the national Academic Decathlon championship four years ago, managed to draw a chuckle from Wilson with the surprise presentation.

“It was a humorous event,” said Wilson’s press spokesman, Franz Wisner. “(Tokofsky) was just poking a little bit of fun at the situation the state is facing in terms of its projected budget gap.”

Wisner noted, however, that Tokofsky also thanked Wilson for promoting bipartisan efforts to try to resolve the funding shortages.

Tokofsky was one of three California teachers to receive this year’s grant, named for the teacher killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Others from California were Jeanne Hanna of Yolo and Robert Morrey of Sunnyvale.