Most Schools to Open Tuesday; 97 Remain Shut : Education: 100,000 students will stay at home. Thousands will have to use makeshift classrooms.

The mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District, struggling mightily to recover from the quake that pummeled about 300 campuses and kept all schools closed for a week, will reopen all but 97 of its hardest-hit campuses Tuesday, Supt. Sid Thompson announced Friday.

Those 97 schools--all in the San Fernando Valley west of the San Diego Freeway--are closed indefinitely and their 100,000 students will stay home until further notice. School authorities are hoping that safe portions of those campuses can be opened soon.

Although at least 1,000 classrooms have been lost to quake damage, officials believe that no school site will be permanently closed. But thousands of children are going to find themselves in makeshift classrooms--such as offices and auditoriums--or, as a last resort, transferred to another campus.

Thompson cautioned that these plans can change as fast as the jolt of the next aftershock. More tremors will force inspectors again to survey schools, possibly leading to changes in school opening plans.

“We really need you to keep your patience. I know it is trying. You want to get your kids in school, you want to get them some good supervision,” Thompson said of the district’s weeklong shutdown. “But our No. 1 priority is safety, and then getting kids back for an education. What this is about is safety.”

On Monday, all school employees--even those who work at the 97 severely damaged West Valley schools--are to report to work at the district’s 800 sites, including 640 elementary and secondary campuses, adult schools, day-care centers and continuation schools. Teachers and staff are preparing quake-related lessons and may be asked to help with light cleanup work before the schoolyard gates open Tuesday.

“We want the classrooms to be ready for the children. These young people have been through a terrible trauma already. We don’t need to bring them into surroundings that show that trauma,” Thompson said. “We will try to make it reasonably secure and reasonably attractive.”

Staff at West Valley campuses, which take in thousands of students from overcrowded, inner-city schools, will meet with inspectors to discuss how long it may take to get at least a portion of their schools in shape.

“The damage in the central and West Valley is severe, but we believe that we will be able to operate parts of those campuses,” Thompson said. “We do not believe at this time that we have a school (that is) totally inoperative.”

Reopening plans will be confirmed Monday afternoon.

The decision to reopen schools Tuesday came as district officials received their first public pledges of aid from state and federal authorities.

In other developments:

* About 400 portable classrooms are being rushed to the district from state warehouses and about half can be in place within two weeks. The state will pay for the delivery and installation.

* About $168 million in school construction bonds may be available to all hard-hit school districts, including schools in the Santa Clarita Valley and Ventura County. Los Angeles has the option of diverting up to $30 million slated for school construction to rebuilding efforts, state education officials said.

* The U.S. Department of Education has made $10 million immediately available to Los Angeles and other districts to help cover emergency operating expenses, such as transportation, counseling and food service.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley is scheduled to tour damaged schools Sunday. In Washington on Friday, he promised that his department “is fully committed to making sure that we do everything necessary to help restore the Los Angeles schools.”

In addition, he said he is prepared to ask for more federal school money. “The earthquake has disrupted our lives, but we cannot allow it to disrupt our children’s education,” he said.

* Both federal and state officials promise to bring more inspectors and architects to the school district for continued inspections and longer-term reconstruction plans. The Department of Water and Power has sent 20 structural engineers to help the district, which has only six inspectors.

* Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt told the Los Angeles Board of Education that his agency “will do everything we can to expedite funds to schools. . . . I’m here to reassure you we are here for the long haul.”

He could not say what portion of the district’s estimated $500 million to $700 million in damage the federal government will be able to meet, but said schools will be figured prominently in recovery plans.

The rush of aid to schools comes after educators expressed concern that freeway repairs were receiving higher-level attention than school reconstruction, raising fears that an already battered public education system would be shortchanged in the quake recovery effort.

“We hope state and federal officials will hold to their pledges to the children of this city,” said school board President Leticia Quezada.

Despite a spirit of cooperation that school authorities are trying to promote during this emergency, cracks have emerged as leaders of two of the district’s employee unions complained about their members having to report to work the day after the quake.

Eli Brent, head of the principals and administrators union, said managers were treated “insensitively and unfairly” when they were ordered to conduct inspections of their schools in potentially unsafe buildings.

The leaders of the union representing clerical workers, janitors and other staff called their members the “unsung heroes” and complained that their efforts were not appreciated.

Several parents who attended the board hearing were upset by the comments, saying that now is the time to put aside labor strife and concentrate on the welfare of the children.

“Self-interests have to be secondary now,” said Deidre Simien, 43. “If the structures are safe, if the schools are safe, we need to get our children back in school.”

Thousands of needy and traumatized students and teachers will flow back to campus next week. For many who lost homes, classrooms will offer them their first shelter in more than a week and the cafeteria will serve up their first hot meal.

“This is affecting everyone, even some of my teachers are homeless now,” said Jay Peterman, principal of Frost Middle School in Granada Hills.

At least 400 teachers at Valley campuses have been left homeless by the quake and may not be able to return to work. School officials estimate that about half the teaching force lives in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, which may mean delays in getting to school or missing work altogether.

Help has begun to pour in from businesses and other school districts. Aetna Government Health Plans donated $50,000 and BASS, a ticket sales firm, has given $5,000 for books lost in the quake.

Thompson said the Las Virgenes, Alhambra and Montebello school districts have offered to take in students until the damaged Los Angeles schools are fixed.