L.A. Schools to Slash 800 Teacher Jobs

Faced with a $33-million budget gap, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted Tuesday to eliminate more than 800 teaching positions by adding an average of two students to each elementary class and three to each junior high class.

The increase will mean classrooms with up to 32 children in first through third grades; 34 in fourth through sixth grades and 36 in junior high classes. Board members already had authorized three additional students in each high school class as part of a $241-million package of budget cuts approved in June--to 30 in the ninth grade and 39.25 in grades 10 through 12.

“I think this is one of the most tragic days for public education in Los Angeles,” said board member Mark Slavkin. “We are getting to rock bottom.”

But Supt. Bill Anton told board members that “given the fiscal constraints, we really have no more options.” Only board member Roberta Weintraub voted against the increases, asking that the $33 million in cuts be negotiated with employee unions.

District officials learned last week that lower than expected state funding and higher than anticipated costs had upset financial projections for 1991-92. The increased class sizes will close the gap by saving $34.8 million through teacher layoffs.

It also will compound the misery at schools already reeling from the effects of two years of budget cuts totaling more than $630 million.

“I think we’ve taken all the hits we can take,” said teachers’ union President Helen Bernstein. “How can we absorb this too? Are there enough chairs, are there enough books. . . ?

“It’s more work for the teachers and less contact with the students. It’s getting to the point where you hope someone in your class is absent,” she said.

School board members also lamented the increase, but most said they saw no other option--virtually every area of school operations has been substantially cut back as state funding has dropped.

On the average, California schools already have the largest classes in the nation, and the sprawling Los Angeles district has some of the country’s most ethnically diverse campuses as well. Many of the district’s 625,000 students come from poor families or speak little or no English--both barriers to educational success even with smaller classes.

Teaching “is already an enormous, if not impossible challenge in many classrooms throughout the city,” Slavkin said.

Research is unclear on the effect that class size has on learning, and the grim discussion among board members Tuesday focused more on the increase’s impact on teachers--many of whom will be out of a job just days before they expected to begin work.

Of the more than 800 teaching positions that will probably be eliminated, 500 will come from elementary schools, which are expected to grow by more than 10,000 pupils this year.

Because the district is prohibited from laying off tenured teachers, those dismissed will be probationary instructors and teachers with temporary credentials. Some permanent teachers will have to be reassigned to different schools.

With less than a week before school starts at most of the district’s campuses Monday, school principals will have to scramble to arrange new classes, work out teacher assignments and notify instructors who will not be coming back.

Multitrack year-round schools--which have been in session for a month--will postpone displacing teachers until next month to avoid a midterm shuffle of students.

Under the district’s old staffing formula, schools were allocated teachers on a per-student basis, with an average class size of 27 to 32 students per teacher.

Under the new formula, a typical elementary school with 500 students would lose two teachers, whose students would be absorbed by other classes.

Anton initially proposed a class size increase last spring, but it was later restricted to high schools because the district would have needed a waiver of the state Education Code to add students to elementary classes.

But after months of negotiations with state officials, the district agreed to keep classes below the ceiling set by the state. The increase does not need union approval because the teachers’ contract allows classes to grow by three students.

Although the increase will mean more large classes at all 600 district schools, the board rejected Anton’s recommendation that overall enrollment be allowed to grow at about 100 of the most crowded elementary and junior highs.

Those schools have been closed to new students because there is no more room for them in classrooms, on playgrounds or in cafeterias. The district buses more than 25,000 students from those schools to campuses with more classroom space.

Anton’s plan would have returned 10,000 of those youngsters to their neighborhood schools. But instead, the board voted 4 to 2 to stick with its campus density limits--in effect, allowing the crowded schools to reorganize to create bigger classes, but not enroll new students.

Now, about 2,700 students will be able to return to their local schools, saving the district an additional $1.9 million in transportation costs.

Anton’s proposal would have saved more than $7 million in busing costs, but board member Jeff Horton complained that it would “cram too many kids onto campuses that we’ve already agreed don’t have space for them.”