Plans Mapped to Run Schools if Strike Occurs

Los Angeles school district officials began planning Monday to keep schools open and safe during a possible teachers strike as both sides in the labor dispute scheduled a series of meetings this week aimed at averting a walkout.

“This is a very important week,” said Supt. Sid Thompson. “We are trying to reach some kind of mutually acceptable conclusion. . . . We have to come to some kind of conclusion that can calm the schools down.”

Negotiations have heated up in the wake of last week’s overwhelming vote by rank-and-file members of United Teachers-Los Angeles to authorize a strike if negotiations do not result in a contract that cushions a cumulative 12% pay cut that will take effect Nov. 6.

“If we can get a proposal that is different from the one they (rejected) last week, then we will take that to our people,” said UTLA spokeswoman Catherine Carey. “When all this will be concluded we can’t predict.”

Although two school board members favor shutting down the schools during a strike because of fears of violence, Thompson said he is “leaning toward keeping them open” because youths could be in more danger if left unsupervised at home or on the streets. Also, many children depend on the schools for their main daily meal, he said.

Negotiations this week are focused on what will happen to teacher salaries next year. The union is demanding that no further reductions be imposed. All seven school board members have said that they cannot make such a contractual agreement because of bleak economic predictions that the district will face at least a $95-million budget gap next year.

Several board members said they are hoping to forge an agreement that falls short of a guarantee, in which the district will pledge to give teachers money back if savings can be achieved through other means. The proposals include a teacher hiring freeze, restructuring the workday of kindergarten teachers and reducing teacher absenteeism.

“This is a critical week because all the ideas are on the table now,” said school board member Warren Furutani. “What we are doing now is trying to work out what they mean in terms of dollars.”

School board member Roberta Weintraub said the board would enact employee pay cuts next year only as “an absolute act of desperation” that would be taken if the board’s only other option was bankruptcy or being placed into receivership.

While union and district negotiators were meeting at UTLA headquarters near downtown Los Angeles, school officials began mapping out preliminary plans to cope with a strike.

Officials are surveying their staffs to determine who could be assigned to supervisorial duties at schools. Administrators are reviewing steps to hire additional substitute teachers and keep bus, cafeteria and other services running.

District officials said they are receiving about half a dozen inquiries a day from substitute teachers who have heard that a strike is looming.

In 1989, when teachers went on strike for nine days and won a 24% pay increase over three years, the district dispatched 800 substitutes to campuses.