LAUSD to allow retired teachers to coach

For years, retired teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District have been prevented from being walk-on coaches and getting paid for the work because of the district’s interpretation of a rule in the California Education Code. That is about to change.

Effective July 1, LAUSD schools will be allowed to hire and pay retired teachers as coaches. The move comes after the district’s human resources division changed its rule interpretation and came up with a plan following requests and a presentation by several retired coaches, according to the LAUSD athletics office.

Dave Lertzman, a retired volleyball coach, was one of the lead organizers in getting the rule changed. He said he has spent more than two years on the effort.

“It’s great,” he said Monday. “It never made any sense.”

Other districts had been using and paying retired teachers as coaches.

“Each school is responsible to certify that the coaching opportunity was offered to existing site employees before offering opportunities to retirees,” according to a memo from the LAUSD athletics office.

LAUSD schools have been struggling to find qualified walk-on coaches. By allowing retired teachers to be paid regular stipends, schools are likely to find more candidates to run programs.

Previously, retired teachers were either volunteering their services or getting paid through a third party.

Lertzman said the original rule was written in 1959, according to his research, and was designed to prevent teachers from double dipping in the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

But other districts had found ways to pay retired teachers through creation of a new employment category, and now LAUSD will do likewise, creating a new category known as temporary certificated assignment.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com