An Unneeded Marathon

Jeff Horton, a seven-year veteran of the Los Angeles school board, complained that the Tuesday night meeting was the most dysfunctional the board had ever conducted. Considering how bad some meetings have been, that’s a spectacular claim. Unfortunately, he was right.

No school board meeting should drag on until nearly 2 a.m., holding hostage the superintendent, the school district staff, union officials and others. A meeting that lasts until that hour really can’t even be called a public meeting. The harm was multiplied because it was so unnecessary. Business could have been wrapped up at a reasonable hour if some board members had not engaged in a prolonged, fractious and redundant debate over spending priorities when what they were really trying to do was fund another pay raise for teachers.

The fight was over $70 million in new state money, which Supt. Ruben Zacarias properly wants to spend on reducing class sizes in ninth-grade English and math; instituting summer school and tutoring programs in lower grades; paying for more training for teachers and principals, more computers, more library books and more counselors. He should be supported by the board, not forced to haggle over urgent instructional priorities while federal and state matching money is left on the table.

Zacarias opposes a new pay raise, a reasonable position at this time, because the teachers already received 2% this year, part of a 10% boost over three years agreed to in the current contract. If the teachers union prevails in reopening the contract and winning another raise, all district employees would get the same hike, leaving far less money for long-delayed instructional improvements.

Horton, who admitted he too wanted to make a deal on the raises, refused to steal the money from logical reforms. He berated a majority of his colleagues on the seven-member board, including Julie Korenstein, David Tokofsky, George Kiriyama and Valerie Fields, who initially voted to hold up class-size reduction in the ninth grade. Horton’s ire paid off with a compromise that funded smaller English classes, though not math classes.

During the marathon meeting, Korenstein, a captive of the teachers union, asked the same questions over and over again, stalling items that should have been quickly approved. She nickel-and-dimed, brought up ancient history and complained about Sacramento as she looked out for her No. 1 political ally, the teachers union. Tokofsky, often the most astute board member, also tied the meeting in knots, with nonstop questions, amendments and I-told-you-so pontificating.

When the board returns to the spending issues next Tuesday, the majority should approve the superintendent’s whole list. The politics of majority rule indicate the teachers will probably get their raise instead. But it profits no one to argue endlessly and pointlessly while undermining the superintendent.