L.A. Teachers, Fearing Spring Cuts, Voice Concerns at Rallies

An estimated 1,600 Los Angeles public schoolteachers and their supporters rallied Thursday to protest layoffs they fear will be coming this spring to close the school district’s $500-million deficit.

Los Angeles Unified School District teachers gathered in front of four local subdistrict offices in the San Fernando Valley, the Wilshire district, City of Commerce and Harbor City.

“We want to protest the district’s intent to balance this budget by laying off people in the classroom,” said John Perez, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles union, which sponsored the rallies.

Schools Supt. Roy Romer said the district was working on deep cuts in administrative costs in an effort to avoid teacher layoffs. “What we’re trying to do in every way possible is not cut in the classrooms,” he said in a telephone interview.

Many teachers said they wanted to eliminate the 11 local subdistrict offices, which administer geographic regions of the nation’s second-largest school system.

Romer said he would propose that the school board cut administrative staffing in both the local and central school districts by 20% each. One way to do that, he said, might be to reduce the number of local offices from 11 to eight. “I think that debate will be happening,” he said, referring to school board budget discussions scheduled for next month.

During Thursday’s protests, teachers contended that the local subdistricts generate too much bureaucracy and require unnecessary paperwork that does not help students.

“They put more pressure on the teachers ... perpetrating more and more work for us that doesn’t have anything to do with education. It’s all paperwork,” said Barbara Seltzer, a third-grade teacher at Los Feliz Elementary School.

Many teachers said the subdistricts take too much control over how students should be taught. Thelma Walker, a fourth-grade teacher at Rosewood Avenue Elementary School, said, “Decision-making should be at school sites. Share decision-making with the principal, the teachers, the community. We service our kids, we know what schools need.”

Romer said local subdistricts are needed in some form.

“A school cannot function without oversight and support, and that’s what local districts do,” he said. “You just can’t function without some kind of intermediate leadership.”

Teachers at the rallies said the gatherings were not just about budget cuts. Members of the teachers union also urged voters to approve state and local bond measures to help repair and build schools.

On March 2, voters will decide on Proposition 55, a $12.3-billion statewide school facilities bond measure, and on local Measure R, L.A. Unified’s $3.87-billion campus construction bond proposal.

“We really need more schools so every student can have a classroom,” said Marina Salas, a third-grade teacher at Hoover Street Elementary School.

“If we can get these passed, that will go a long way in getting those schools built.”