Parents Say Vote on School Calendar Doesn’t Add Up : Education: They find balloting in exercise of local power weighted in favor of teachers. Principal says it’s fair.

The leaders of Euclid Avenue Elementary School--exercising their newly given power from the Los Angeles Unified School District to make their own decisions--have redefined the meaning of a democratic vote. And parents are fuming about it.

When the time came in March to decide on a school calendar for next year, parents turned out strong and believed their overwhelming vote would be enough to win a traditional summer vacation schedule. But they were wrong.

After the ballots were collected, the school’s leadership council established the “ratio of equality” system: Each teacher and staff member counted for 6.32 votes, each parent for one.

The final tally showed that 386 parent votes for the traditional calendar lost out to 65 staff votes in favor of year-round school, touching off a heated campus debate over the definition of fairness.

At a time when a sweeping restructuring effort in Los Angeles is taking power away from district administrators and giving it to schools, the episode at Euclid stands as a case study on how a school community--principal, teachers and parents--can hit bumps on the road to reform.

“These are the kinds of growing pains that every school, not just Euclid, are going to be going through,” said Angie Stockwell, the regional administrator for Euclid whose job will soon be phased out in the name of reform. “Schools are going to have the absolute right to make decisions for themselves. They are not going to have mamma or papa do it for them.”

For now, this Boyle Heights campus is at odds.

The principal insists the ratio system is fair. Most teachers and staff members are pleased they won the election, although a handful believe the vote counting process was unjust. And many parents feel powerless and angry, calling anything but a democratic vote hypocrisy at a time when the Board of Education is touting parent involvement as being essential to school reform.

“Do they think we are stupid?” asked Mary Montez, who went to Euclid and has a grandchild there. “They are used to parents acting in a certain way, not getting angry at things, but do they think they can fool us like this?

“This is our community, these are our children, and this is the ultimate insult.”

Some parents, stunned by the results, have hastily organized to fight for permission to conduct a new vote. A group intends to distribute copies of its letter to Principal Esther Castruita in front of the school this afternoon.

“For a school that purports to teach democracy--one person, one vote--what lesson does this send to our children?” the letter says. “For a district that promotes parent involvement, what lesson does it teach us? That parents don’t count. And neither do our children.”

A handful of teachers also oppose the ratio system. “I teach my children that America tries to bring democracy to other countries,” third- and fourth-grade teacher Henrietta Willis said. “But here at Euclid, I have to tell them my vote is worth 6 points more than their parents’. . . . This is not the American way.”

To their surprise, parents are finding out that the democratic system is not universally accepted as a fair way of conducting business in the reform-minded Los Angeles schools.

In the idealized world of the district’s LEARN reform plan, the principal will be the ultimate decision-maker on campus but will have to work in collaboration with teachers, staff members and parents. Consensus building is the rule--but figuring out just what that means is left to schools.

At Euclid, Castruita first convened an evening community meeting and told parents and staff members that falling enrollment at the overcrowded school would let them abandon year-round classes and adopt a traditional calendar. A vote would be taken, she announced.

Castruita was following the practice used last year when elections were held throughout the district and two-thirds of all schools returned to a traditional calendar. Under last year’s guidelines, the majority ruled in one-person, one-vote elections. About 200 schools, including Euclid--most in the inner city and east San Fernando Valley--did not vote last year because crowding made year-round classes necessary.

Castruita sent ballots to Euclid parents and teachers by March 21. But three days later, Memorandum No. 19 arrived from district headquarters. In the name of school empowerment, the bureaucrats were not going to order principals to conduct calendar elections this year.

Instead, the memo commanded that “a locally determined process for reaching consensus among stake-holders, which includes sign-offs” from teachers, all other staff and parents, must be developed.

Castruita locked the uncounted ballots in the school safe and called her leadership council together to discuss the memo. The council--another creation of reform--includes nine teachers, one other staff member, the principal and five parents.

During three council meetings, teachers and staff members said they should have an equal voice in school affairs and should not be outnumbered by parental votes. Castruita said she could not recall who thought up the ratio of the equality system. But she said that despite some misgivings, the consensus of the council seemed to support the idea.

Letters were sent home to parents explaining how the traditional calendar lost.

“A ratio means that every vote is equal,” said Emilia Tinoco, the teacher union representative at Euclid. “I understand what the parents are saying, but you have to understand that from the point of view of staff, it was not fair the other way.”

Two weeks later, as word of the outcome spread, parents are trying to figure out where it all went wrong for them. But the process for some is a frightening one that they fear could lead to reprisals.

“It’s fear that keeps our mouths shut,” parent Lucy Kurokawa said. “What if my child gets in trouble that brings them into the principal’s office. Then, because I opened my mouth, I worry that it will affect the outcome of my child’s problem. Parents don’t like to admit it, but that’s what comes out when we talk to each other.”

Castruita said she welcomes the opinion of any concerned parent.

“The lesson to be learned here is for all of us to get involved. This is a learning process for all of us,” she said.