LEARNING THE HARD WAY : Exodus of 2,100 Teachers Has L.A. Unified Seeking Answers

By BETH SHUSTER

Sept. 4, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Ask Lauren Hartford why she quit teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District and she gives two answers. The first is the official one--her commute was too long.

Second comes the unofficial version--the district is too mired in annual labor strife and bureaucracy.

When Hartford tells the unofficial story, she is at turns regretful and passionate. Here she is, a bilingual teacher at San Fernando Elementary, a product of local schools, quitting in frustration after seven years to take a job in another district.

She says the Los Angeles district has cut money for supplies, increased class sizes and refuses to make the classroom the priority in budgetary and other decisions.

“I feel like if I had stayed with this district, I would have just burned out on my profession,” she said. “And I love teaching. But the way L.A. city schools are now, I wouldn’t send my daughter there.”

Hartford is one of more than 2,100 teachers--8% of the teaching force--who quit or retired this year. More teachers left the system this year than in any of the past seven years, records show.

Most of the teachers resigned, a trend that the school district and teachers union say is disturbing. Of the 2,127 who left the district, 1,452 quit and 675 retired.

Although district officials find the numbers worrisome, they said this year’s exodus was expected. The earthquake and the sluggish economy forced many to move, and the teaching staff is getting older and closer to retirement age, officials said. Those factors, along with the 10% pay cuts instituted two years ago, all contributed to the departures, officials said.

Some Board of Education members said they had anticipated even more resignations.

“I expected a huge turnover this year,” said board member Leticia Quezada. “But even 2,000 is a lot, and as long as we’re in these economic conditions, it would take a miracle to turn this around.”

Union leaders say the teacher turnover does not bode well for reform efforts at local schools. “We have to keep starting all over again every year,” said Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles. “Every year they’re retraining and indoctrinating teachers. The district could provide adequate wages and some stability so people think they have some reason to stick around.”

The turnover leaves the school district struggling to fill classroom vacancies. The district expects to have nearly 2,000 openings, despite projections showing that about 1,500 fewer students are expected to enroll this year.

Hundreds of substitute teachers are expected to fill vacancies this fall. In the subjects that are hardest to staff--such as English, special education, math, science and social studies--officials said long-term substitutes could be assigned until permanent teachers are hired.

Assistant Supt. Irene Yamahara, who oversees the personnel division, says the district is recruiting teachers, particularly in the so-called shortage fields. But she said not enough teachers are leaving graduate schools to fill the vacancies.

Teachers such as Hartford are hot commodities. Hartford is a fully credentialed bilingual teacher; the district needs 234 more teachers like her this year.

“Pretty much, teachers like that can go anywhere,” Yamahara said. “They can write their own ticket.”

But by far the greatest need for teachers is in special education classes, where the numbers of students are swelling. The district anticipates needing more than 300 special education teachers and probably will have substitutes fill most of those positions.

The annual labor disputes with the teachers union are hampering efforts to attract teachers to the system, union and district officials said.

Bitter and protracted contract talks culminated two years ago with teachers taking a 10% pay cut, narrowly averting a strike. This year, the union again threatened to strike if teachers’ pay was not restored.

But under a new contract proposal, negotiated last weekend, the district is offering teachers an 8% restoration of the 10% cut.

The union has set a strike vote for Sept. 13-14, when teachers will decide to either accept the contract offer or walk out. Union leaders have recommended teachers accept the offer.

During the last few weeks, district personnel offices received numerous calls from prospective applicants asking about the labor situation and whether they should sign contracts or even interview at school campuses.

District spokesman Bill Rivera said he believes the latest salary offer could entice teachers to the district. If the offer is accepted, a teacher without any experience would make $29,131 this year, up from $26,573 last year.

And a teacher with 25 years of experience could make $53,003, up from $48,349 last year, according to district data.

“Why go somewhere else when you can make as much or more here?” Rivera said. “The salaries will be higher.”

But the ongoing labor dispute led many teachers, from the newest to the more experienced, to leave the system this year. Pat Hillis, the librarian at Pacific Palisades High for 24 years, said she would have liked to retire later, but she believed that she could no longer work for a salary that had been cut to help subsidize the district.

“If working conditions had been better, I would have liked to have stayed,” she said.

Hillis and the 674 other teachers who retired this year were eligible for a onetime 10% bonus negotiated with the teachers union two years ago, designed to help restore the salary cut. But to the surprise of the union and the district, fewer teachers than expected took advantage of the offer.

Many said that the money turned out to be negligible, and had little, if any, effect on their retirement pensions.

Jon Lauritzen, a math and computer science teacher at Canoga Park High, said he is considering retiring in the winter, when he still would be eligible for the retirement bonus. Nonetheless, Lauritzen said that although he wants to return to school in September, there are few incentives to keep him at the campus where he has taught for a decade.

“They’re not giving me any motivation to stay,” Lauritzen said.

Even teachers who feel they were treated well say the pay cut and the continuous labor strife have led to job dissatisfaction. “I think most teachers are just saying, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Don Palmer, who retired recently from Madison Middle School in North Hollywood. “I enjoyed the school; we’ve had good administrations, and I always felt I could walk into their offices.

“But we’ve certainly had our problems, and I can’t help feeling--and many of the teachers feel this way--that there’s tremendous mismanagement in the district. It’s just increasingly frustrating dealing with the district.”

TEACHER TURNOVER

The following shows the teacher turnover in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

* 1986-87

Resigned: 1,323

Retired: 574

* 1987-88

Resigned: 1,301

Retired: 554

* 1988-89

Resigned: 1,228

Retired: 545

* 1989-90