State Board Meets Today on Schools Crisis : Education: Officials will determine if codes will be waived to improve L.A. district’s chances in court to impose teacher pay cuts.

The State Board of Education will convene an unprecedented meeting in Sacramento today to decide if an emergency situation exists in the Los Angeles Unified School District that warrants the waiver of several state education codes, a move that could bolster the district’s chances in court of imposing teacher pay cuts.

The 10-member state board, which is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m., has never gathered over an emergency request, officials said. In its own emergency meeting Monday, the Los Angeles school board swiftly held a public hearing, approved the waiver request and rushed it to Sacramento.

The Los Angeles board hopes that a state waiver of three education codes will help sway Judge Stephen E. O’Neil to overturn a preliminary order that forced the district to issue $20 million in supplemental pay checks today to teachers. O’Neil will rule on the case Wednesday.

In seeking the waiver, the district is not admitting that it is in violation of the education codes. Instead, said Richard K. Mason, the district’s chief attorney, the action is designed “to strengthen our case so we can argue before the court that the education codes at issue should not be espoused in this case.”

By waiving the codes, the state board would be sending a strong endorsement of the district’s case, which could affect school districts throughout California, district officials said. Even if the waiver is granted, Mason said, interpretation of the law is left to O’Neil.

Board members and the Los Angeles County superintendent of schools have said that if the court action is upheld and the district is forced to make a second $20 million payment to teachers, the nation’s second-largest school district faces immediate insolvency and county officials will begin taking over district financial operations.

“We don’t want to miss any option that can keep the district out of bankruptcy,” school board President Leticia Quezada said of the waiver request actions.

At issue are three provisions in the state education code stating that salaries for certificated employees--teachers, counselors and administrators--must be set by the beginning of the school year on July 1. One provision states that employees cannot waive their rights to have their salaries set on that day. Another states that salaries may be increased at any time during the school year.

United Teachers-Los Angeles, which initiated the court case, contends that the district violated the law when the school board imposed a cumulative 12% teacher pay cut on Oct. 2 to help bridge a $400-million budget deficit.

The school district argues that laws governing collective bargaining agreements that are enforced by the Public Employment Relations Board supersede the education code. Further, they say, the district had notified teachers before July that cuts were under consideration, but would wait until passage of the state budget before determining the severity of the reductions.

Lawrence Trygstad, the teachers union attorney, said he does not believe that the waiver, if granted, will carry much weight in court because it was granted after the union contends the law was broken.

“It seems to me a violation occurred,” Trygstad said. “We are in the middle of a lawsuit and I don’t think the state board has the authority to take this kind of action.”

Union President Helen Bernstein described the board’s action as “shenanigans, a manipulation, another conspiracy going against the rights of teachers. . . . How dare they try and get rid of a law before the judge decides whether it’s good or not.”

But before the state board considers the waiver, a majority of members must agree that an emergency situation exists within the Los Angeles school district. State board members have been told little about the purpose of the meeting to avoid violations of public meeting laws, said Greg Geeting, executive director of the State Board of Education.

The board can grant an emergency waiver of the codes in a crippling disaster, work stoppage or other activities that severely impair public health, safety or both. Geeting said state staff will advise the board that the potential for insolvency and the potential for severe reduction in programs, including school police, could be viewed as an emergency.

Trygstad, who said he will speak at the meeting, will argue that it is premature to declare an emergency. “The judge hasn’t even made his ruling yet,” Trygstad said. “At this point there is not an emergency.”

The district is requesting that a waiver be granted for three years, including this year. Officials said if they lose Wednesday they will immediately appeal in state court.

Bernstein said she does not know whether the union will appeal if it loses and that the judge’s ruling will be examined before a decision is made. However, she said that she will be more inclined to appeal if contract negotiations continue to stall.

“If I don’t have a new offer on the table, we have nothing to lose,” she said.