Pact Blocked; Threat of Teacher Strike Renewed : Education: Judge delays the contract until $36 million is found. May 5 court hearing is scheduled on the issue.

Renewing the threat of a teachers strike, a Superior Court judge Monday forbade the Los Angeles Unified School District from adopting the contract with its teachers until the cash-starved school system can find the $36 million needed to fund the deal.

The contract--which was agreed upon by the Los Angeles Board of Education and United Teachers-Los Angeles in February, just days before a scheduled strike--has been challenged by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. on the grounds that it violates state law and state constitutional prohibitions that restrict local governments from spending more money than they have.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne set a May 5 hearing and blocked the district from signing the contract before then unless contingencies are added. Wayne said the agreement should be amended to make the partial restoration of the teachers’ pay cut contingent upon the district receiving more money or permission to spend restricted funds.

That ruling was blasted by union President Helen Bernstein, who called it “cruel and unusual punishment” that will probably lead to a walkout by teachers next month.

“I am going to recommend--to strongly recommend--that we go on strike,” she said Monday. “To have somebody at the last minute, at the eleventh hour, go running into court to stop a contract that was negotiated with a lot of blood and a lot of sweat and a lot of tears . . . it’s as if there’s a plot to destroy the teaching force in this city.”

The contract was crafted by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who was asked by both sides to mediate after a months-long deadlock pushed the district to the brink of its second strike in four years. Brown forged a deal that would scale back the size of the cumulative pay cut teachers were being asked to take from 12% to 10% and give individual campuses more decision-making power.

The package would cost $36 million this year--money the district said it could only get by raiding its emergency reserve fund and several accounts restricted by the state for purchasing textbooks and other supplies.

When the deal was approved by both sides, Brown promised to help the district get permission to use the restricted funds or seek additional state or federal money. But neither the waivers nor the extra money has materialized.

School board President Leticia Quezada said the district will now try to negotiate with the teachers union to add “contingency language” to the contract, which would make the 2% salary pay-back conditional upon the district finding the necessary funds.

“I understand the anxiety . . . on the part of the teachers. But this (temporary restraining order) prohibits the board from adopting this contract without contingency language that ensures that the district has the financial resources to meet the cost,” Quezada said.

Brown contended Monday that the district needs neither waivers nor additional funding to pay for the contract, and accused district leaders of trying to sabotage the pact.

“A sweetheart arrangement has obviously been made between the Board of Education, as represented by its administrators, with the Jarvis people, and obviously their goal is to force a strike upon the district,” Brown said in Sacramento.

The Speaker believes that the district can find ways to fund the deal within its budget.

“I’m obviously outraged that that district would pull this grandstanding stunt in a cooperative fashion with people who genuinely want a strike,” he said.

But Joel Fox, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Assn., said his group has no intention of forcing a strike on the beleaguered school district.

“If they add the contingency language right now, they could sign the contract today,” he said. “If they don’t . . that means that we, the taxpayers, could face a school district that’s bankrupt that we have to pay to bail out.

“I’m sympathetic to the teachers. I don’t want to see them get (more of) a pay cut. And it’s not up to me to tell the district how to come up with this money. But as soon as this contract is signed, this district is $30 million in debt. And the Constitution of California says they cannot run this kind of debt.”

Fox and Quezada denied Brown’s assertion that district leaders sought the Jarvis challenge. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Quezada said. “Clearly we want this contract adopted; we want to put this behind us.

“It is difficult and it is complicated, but those of us who want to keep things together are going to stay with it,” she said. “Our only other choice is to go bankrupt or to have a teachers strike and I don’t think anybody wants that. The assertion that we are finding ways to delay is far from the truth.”

Supt. Sid Thompson said district lawyers joined attorneys for the union in opposing the temporary restraining order. District lawyers contended that the action was unnecessary because the district did not intend to make any pay-back to teachers until the money was identified.

“We’ve been maintaining all along that we can’t pay for it without the money . . . and we’re still working with Willie Brown to see if we’re going to get it,” Thompson said.

But Brown said that he does not believe the district needs additional money to fund the deal, maintaining that several possible sources within the district’s $3.8-billion annual budget have been identified.

“You would be shocked if I told you that this district is trying to return to the state of California $40 million in (state) desegregation funds, and we’re trying to find the means by which to keep them from doing that because clearly that $40 million is more than enough” to underwrite the pay agreement.

County schools Supt. Stuart Gothold said his office has been working with the district to try to find ways to pay for the contract and has identified several possible sources, including the desegregation money and a possible increase in lottery revenue. Thompson confirmed that district officials are examining those and other accounts.

UTLA spokeswoman Cathy Carey said teachers will vote early next week on whether to approve a new contract with the contingency provision or go on strike May 7, two days after Wayne rules on the contract proposal.

“If there is any contingency language in this contract, I don’t think they’ll approve it,” Carey said. “They have absolutely no trust in this district; they’re going to believe the district will do everything it can to get out of paying them that 2%. That’s what makes a guarantee so important. Our negotiators knew it was the only way we could sell that contract from the start.”

Brown said he has no intention of letting the deal fall apart and strongly criticized district officials.

“They’d like to undo the deal I suspect, but we’re not going to let them, in spite of themselves,” he said. “I’m beginning to believe that an appropriate audit of that district may cost some people their jobs. . . . I’m talking about the people who run that district. The level of incompetence that’s being demonstrated is frightening.”