The Next L.A. / Reinventing Our Future : Transfers on Hold for Some L.A. Teachers

Nearly half of the Los Angeles teachers facing transfers because of low enrollments won a temporary reprieve Thursday, but about 70 others will be sent to other campuses, leaving schools to reorganize classes and schedules.

Supt. Sid Thompson agreed to leave in place for at least four months about 68 Los Angeles Unified School District elementary teachers--including 23 in the San Fernando Valley--at schools where enrollments fell short by eight or fewer students. The four months would give the affected schools time to see if enrollment increases.

The teacher transfers have become an annual rite in the massive school district, but the January earthquake left campuses with even lower-than-expected enrollments, officials said.

At those campuses, dozens--even hundreds--of students failed to enroll when classes began a month ago; teachers at those schools will be transferred after the district takes its official enrollment tally today. They will be sent to campuses with higher enrollments and not enough teachers.

The news was met with anger at some campuses, which did not meet the enrollment requirements, and with joy at others. Over the past several weeks, parents worked feverishly to try to persuade the district to keep the teachers at all the campuses.

Many Valley parents, teachers and students have held rallies to protest the transfers, saying that more disruption--on top of the trauma suffered by students from the earthquake--would be too much for the children. In an effort to demonstrate that point to the district, school employees and parents have surveyed neighborhoods and talked to contractors and apartment managers.

At Calahan Street School in Northridge, parents, teachers and students held a farewell event for Melinda Prudian, a teacher who will be transferred. “It’s yet another reminder for these kids that the teacher’s gone and that she’s gone because of the earthquake,” said Cheryl Crooks, a parent who organized a protest at the school two weeks ago. “But we have mixed feelings. We did not get everything we wanted but I feel like we stood up and were counted.”

Prudian said she was sad to be leaving the campus where she has taught for nearly five years. “I wish something could have been done,” Prudian said. “We tried everything.”

School board member Julie Korenstein, who tried to persuade the district to keep the teachers at the schools in the hardest-hit areas, said she was delighted by Thompson’s decision. “I am very pleased that we are able to help many of these schools,” she said. “We’re all sighing with relief--especially in the San Fernando Valley.”

“It’s wonderful--absolutely wonderful,” said Lorie Norwalt, the principal at Calabash Street School in Woodland Hills, where one first-grade teacher would have been transferred because the school was one student short. “It’s a relief, really. We’re elated.”

Lori Dupuis, the Calabash teacher, said students were cheering when they learned that she would remain at the school. “I love my class, I love my kids,” Dupuis said. “I’m really happy they gave special consideration to the teachers and the students for this semester.”

Meanwhile, at Chatsworth Park Elementary, parents called neighbors begging them to leave private schools and send their children to the local public campus. “I’m angry, I’m furious, I’m upset,” said parent Janie Walker, who said her son’s first-grade teacher is leaving because the school is two students short of meeting the requirement. “I think it’s wrong to disrupt 27 students’ lives because we’re short two students. It was like a day of mourning over there--the students were crying, the parents were crying.”

School board President Mark Slavkin said parents and school employees should understand that keeping teachers in schools with low enrollments will cost the district money. “People say, ‘What a bureaucratic, typical L. A. school district thing to do,’ ” Slavkin said. “People think because we’re large, we can do whatever we want with people and resources. That’s simply not the case.”

The decision to leave the teachers at the 64 schools, including 20 in the Valley, will cost the district about $800,000. If Thompson had kept all the teachers at the campuses with low enrollments, it could have cost the system $2.3 million, officials said.

Some principals said they remained hopeful that they will receive more students by February, when the district takes its next official enrollment count. Others think it could happen sooner. “We all think that over the weekend, the superintendent is going to find gold in his pot and we’ll all keep our teachers,” said Linda Pacheco, principal at Germain Street School in Chatsworth.