Teachers Begin Walkout in Cerritos Area District : Education: Union wants pact renegotiated since extra $1.8 million was found. Officials say money is allocated.

A prolonged, bitter dispute between the teachers union and management erupted into a strike Friday in the ABC Unified School District, a Cerritos area school system that has long enjoyed a reputation for high student achievement.

The union is at loggerheads with district officials over a contract that the school board imposed on teachers Tuesday. The board action came one day after teachers overwhelmingly rejected the pact, which would lower teachers’ pay by 1.5% and increase class size.

Union leaders had said they would postpone the walkout if the district returned to the bargaining table, but Supt. Larry L. Lucas responded that the district could offer nothing more.

A tentative contract agreement unraveled after the district--which serves Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens and parts of surrounding cities--learned that it had about $1.8 million more than originally estimated. At least some of that money should be used to restore contract concessions, said Laura Rico, co-president of the ABC Federation of Teachers.

The surplus is illusory and the money is already committed to other areas, said Lucas, who volunteered to open district books for an independent inspection.

District officials said 47% of the district’s 973 teachers were absent from class Friday. The union’s estimate was 60%.

Administrators converted the school board’s meeting room into an employment office, where they hired substitutes for $200 a day--twice the normal rate.

A conference room also had a hot line for parents’ questions. Six workers fielded more than 190 calls in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean between noon Thursday and 1 p.m. Friday.

The district stationed a uniformed security guard at each elementary school, and many substitutes arrived for work before dawn to avoid confrontations with striking teachers. One substitute concealed her identity with a Halloween mask. Some teachers urged working colleagues to join them on the lines.

The union held an 11 a.m. rally at a Cerritos park that drew about 500 teachers and supporters who sang “Solidarity Forever” to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Their supporters included trustee David Montgomery, one of three on the seven-member board who support the teachers’ position.

Montgomery belongs to a slate of union-endorsed candidates. If the slate wins in the Nov. 2 election, its members will form a new board majority. Striking teachers plan to lobby door to door for votes this weekend.

Montgomery kept two of his own children out of school Friday on the grounds that they would learn little from substitutes.

Districtwide, about 19% of students stayed home, compared with 5% on a normal day, officials said. Cerritos High School senior Lisa Bishop said the day was wasted.

“In Japanese, we had one work sheet on stuff dealing with U.S. history,” Bishop said. “It had nothing to do at all with Japanese. All of my classes were useless. All of it was busywork.”

Many students reported similar dissatisfaction with lesson plans that were left by teachers or prepared by district curriculum coordinators.

The strike marks the low point of a deteriorating relationship between the teachers and the administration. In the last two years there have been heated disputes over contracts, budget cuts and administrative salaries.

“We’re striking over the attitude, the lack of respect, the lack of dignity,” history teacher Dave Bohannon said.