GRANADA HILLS : Possible Loss of Teacher Protested

“No More Aftershocks. Keep Our Teachers,” read the pickets held by the 20 parent and student protesters Monday outside of Granada Elementary School in Granada Hills.

The school’s enrollment is down by 30 students this year and, because of that, the school could lose one of its teachers to offset the lower student population. Parents say that would be detrimental to their children’s mental and academic well being.

Enrollment is down at public schools throughout the west San Fernando Valley and parents say it can be attributed to the January earthquake, which forced families to move away while their damaged homes are being repaired.

The Los Angeles Unified School District takes a final enrollment count of schools four weeks after the first day of school to determine if they have a uniform student-teacher ratio. Schools make up for the loss of a teacher by rearranging classes, often by creating split-grade levels.

Parents contend, though, that if their schools lose teachers now, once the displaced families return with their children, classrooms will then be too crowded.

One mother, Susan Schraut of Granada Hills, found that 66 houses in the elementary school’s zone were for sale and 14 more were in escrow. Figures on apartments are still being compiled, said Schraut.

Tish Sternadel, whose child is in the fifth grade, said that since it has been established that an upper-level teacher would be transferred if enrollment does not go back up, her daughter would be affected.

“This is her last year here,” Sternadel said. If the transferring occurs, she fears her daughter’s class “is going to be very crowded.”

School board member Julie Korenstein said that at present one of three things will be done about the possible loss of teachers. “We’ll be letting teachers go within the next couple of weeks, hold teachers in place until the first of the year . . . or the third would be a compromise where some teachers would go and some would stay,” Korenstein said.

Teachers would be sent to overpopulated schools or be put into a substitute teaching pool if they are transferred.

Whether the school board or district superintendent will decide the teachers’ fate has not been determined yet, Korenstein said.