Board OKs spending opposed by Brewer

Los Angeles school board members voted Tuesday to spend up to $18 million to retain current teacher staffing at schools with declining enrollment, a move that Supt. David L. Brewer said could help thrust the district into financial trouble.

The vote came amid pressure from the teachers union and community groups, which have long argued that a midyear reshuffling of classrooms and teachers unacceptably disrupts thousands of students.

The looming teacher reduction was among several budget-balancing measures adopted earlier this year at Brewer’s recommendation.

That budget was approved by the previous school board. But a new majority, endorsed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, took control in July.

Since then, the board has added expenses and tried to undo key cuts in the $6.2-billion budget. Those expenses include more than $30 million in benefits for part-time cafeteria workers and $37 million that Brewer said was needed to fix the malfunctioning payroll system.

Brewer warned Tuesday against further spending increases, advising board members to wait two weeks until the district’s budget picture was clearer. He warned that a pending analysis could show that the district was running a deficit.

Board of Education President Monica Garcia commended Brewer and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Zeronian for their prudence but dismissed their concerns. Financially, she said, “We are strong. I want our academic record to look as strong as our financial one. . . . My job as a board member is to put resources where they best serve students.”

Tuesday’s debate became entangled with a brewing conflict over a huge influx of state funds through the Quality Education Investment Act. It is meant to pay for class-size reduction and counselors at many of the state’s lowest achieving schools, including dozens in L.A. Unified.

The use of that money, along with the pending teacher reassignments, were rallying points at an afternoon demonstration outside district headquarters that drew about 75 participants from community groups allied with United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union.

The activists asserted that the new state money already was being mishandled because it was being spent to maintain teaching staffs rather than add to them.

At the meeting, Brewer said the district had long planned to use some of that money to pay the salaries of teachers who otherwise would be displaced at midyear. That money, and other funding meant to benefit the poor and English learners, would have decreased the number of displaced teachers to only 10 districtwide, Brewer said. Without that strategy, 447 teachers were at risk.

But the union and its allies insisted that using the new funds that way was improper. And when a board majority agreed by a 6-1 vote, the effect was not the cost of 10 teachers, but the cost of 447, which the district pegged at $18 million. The union estimates the costs at $8.5 million.

After a two-hour discussion, the measure was supported by new and old board members alike.

Only Marlene Canter dissented, saying that it was irresponsible to add expenses piecemeal, especially with a possible impending deficit and without knowing the effect of necessary offsetting cuts.

The board’s vote staved off the reintroduction of an unpopular practice, dropped years ago, of reducing staff at midyear in response to declining enrollment.

The enrollment slippage during the school year is part of the district’s ongoing dropout crisis -- about 50% of the district’s students don’t graduate on time. When enough students leave, the district can displace teachers, dissolve their classes and distribute remaining students elsewhere.

A version of this staff adjustment plays out every October when schools file official student head counts. This fall, Los Angeles High School, for example, lost two science teachers when enrollment came in about 300 students fewer than anticipated.

A month and a half into the semester, the school had to release Eva Becker and Mary Eckel -- young, energetic and talented science teachers, said Felicia Perez, the school’s union co-chairperson.

“As a teacher, you’re starting to make connections with students,” Perez said. “This is our first year of having small learning communities throughout the school, and, poof, these teachers are gone. It hurts students in terms of the trust they develop and the learning relationship.”

Perez said her school typically loses another 300 students over the fall semester.

Making such adjustments midyear is worse, critics said.

Brewer agreed, but focused on finances.

“The issue is: I look at my checkbook; can I pay for it?” he said. “At some point you can’t get any more blood from this turnip.”

Board members insisted that they were not being irresponsible. Rather, they said, their concern was to establish priorities.

“I know this is fraught with danger,” said board member Richard Vladovic, “but I believe, as an educator, we have to do what’s right for kids. . . . I have to represent my constituents.”

In other moves Tuesday with financial implications, the school board unanimously restored the popular honors orchestra program -- a comparatively small budget item at $150,000 -- and voted to consider adding $2.77 million to the district’s translation unit, more than offsetting an earlier cut.

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