Schools Get Good News From State

In the midst of a continuing fight over the structure of its administration and how to make more budget cuts, the Los Angeles Unified School District received two pieces of good news this week.

The state Board of Education approved the district’s application for a one-year waiver of state law so it can begin full-day kindergarten in some schools. And district officials learned that the governor’s May budget revision, announced Thursday, could mean as much as an extra $30 million in funding for L.A. Unified, which already has cut $477 million from its 2004-05 budget to close what it expected would be a $500-million shortfall.

The state board’s 9-1 vote means the district can offer full-day kindergarten this fall at up to 187 schools. Because not all of the approximately 400 campuses offering kindergarten have the facilities to switch to full day, the district estimates it will be four years before it can fully offer the program.

For that reason, the district had to apply for a waiver to state law requiring equitable treatment of all students within the district.

United Teachers-Los Angeles opposed the waiver on the grounds that the district was not rolling the program out equitably. The teachers union contended that the district was favoring higher-performing schools in the initial phase and that moving teachers from half- to full-day kindergarten could represent a violation of teachers’ contracts with the district.

The union has not ruled out plans to file an unfair labor practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board, said union spokeswoman Angelica Urquijo.

But Jim Morris, assistant L.A. Unified superintendent, said the schools on the list for the first year reflect the demographic diversity of the district.

Los Angeles school board member David Tokofsky, who was a strong advocate for full-day kindergarten, praised the state board’s vote.

He said the district’s move to full-day kindergarten was “an exciting change” that would attract families that might not otherwise send their children to kindergarten or to public schools altogether.

The state board required the district to provide an evaluation of the first-year pilot program before it would grant a renewal for the next year.

Yuri Hayashi, principal of Walgrove Avenue School in Venice, one of the schools that plans to begin full-day kindergarten in the fall, said she welcomed the state’s action. “It will allow teachers with creativity to start doing what they had to drop when the mandated programs came in. There has to be time for the arts, science, social studies ... all of the other things that make kindergarten memorable.”

Meanwhile, the state had some financial news that might ease some of the recent budget arguments on the Los Angeles school board.

As they seek the last actions to close the shortfall, local school board members are debating whether to dismantle or reduce the system of 11 administrative subdistricts.

Richard J. Knott, controller for L.A. Unified, said that an initial assessment suggests the district may be “better off to the tune of $25 million to $30 million” than it was in January.

Those gains come mostly from more state money for cost-of-living adjustments and classroom instruction, he said.

John Mockler, a school finance expert and the Los Angeles school board’s budget consultant, said the governor’s budget is “good news for education.”

“The symbolic nature of the governor’s budget is very important, maybe even more important than the details,” he said.

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Times staff writer Jean Merl contributed to this report.