P.R. Spending by L.A. Schools

The Times missed the mark in “Ailing Schools Spend $250,000 on P.R., Poll” (April 13) and its editorial “Promote Education Over Image” (April 14), which criticize the Los Angeles Unified School District’s communications efforts.

What is the public to believe? 1) an article written one year ago (March 19, 1991) in which The Times announced, without criticism, our new contract with a communications firm to determine if the voting public and parents of this city would be likely to pass a bond measure “to build new schools and rescue old ones from disrepair”; or, 2) an article written one year later, near the end of the same contract, when The Times chose to be critical of the district for attempting to educate the public about its critical facilities needs.

The LAUSD has an obligation to its students to develop a better public understanding of its need to build more schools and repair worn-out buildings. In an effort to fulfill our obligation and responsibility to get this message out, we employed the option often used by other public agencies with in-house communications departments, which is to contract with outside firms on a single-issue basis. Thus, it was not intended, as you reported, that this firm duplicate the efforts of--nor replace--the Office of Communications.

This district is faced with a unique communications challenge that goes well beyond general public relations. Our communications office provides a public service not only for the district’s ethnically linguistically diverse parents, students and employees, but it also serves the English and foreign language print and electronic media on a local, state and national level.

This district has a commitment to identify and strengthen its communications links with parents, employees, students and media representatives, including our substantial immigrant and minority population, many of whom speak English as a second language or do not speak English at all. To fulfill this commitment the communications office provides translations and interpreting services in many languages on a constant basis--an investment representing almost $350,00 in the “$1 million budget of the Office of Communications.”

Yet this office (whose funding represents less than three-hundredths of 1% of the district’s budget) responds in seven different languages in writing, in person and over the telephone to as many as 1,000 requests a day for assistance and information from parents, district staff, researchers, business, government and the media.

WARREN FURUTANI, President

WILLIAM R. ANTON, Superintendent

Los Angeles Unified School District