School District Cuts Take Big Toll on Teachers’ Morale

At Millikan Junior High School, there was not money to buy maps this year. So in Maribeth Kelly’s social studies class, Serbs and Croats are still united in one nation, and the Berlin Wall has yet to fall.

Across town at Raymond Avenue Elementary, the crayons have not arrived. But teacher Lavada Robinson can no longer afford to buy them on her own. So her students will have to wait.

“My heart says buy them,” Robinson said, “but my pocket says I can’t. I’m going to have to save my money for hard times. I’ve never seen a school year like this.”

On Tuesday, the majority of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 640,000 students return to class. As they prepare to settle into a routine of homework and exams, school officials, teachers and parents say what may be the most trying school year in memory is about to begin.

Morale among district employees has plummeted since the school board announced money-saving measures of unprecedented magnitude. Workers from the superintendent on down are being asked to accept days off without pay and salary reductions of up to 10.5% this year. Some people talk of not being able to pay their mortgages and having to search for part-time jobs if the cuts come to pass. Teachers--whose income may drop 17% from a combination of furlough days and two consecutive years of salary cuts--are threatening to stop supervising extracurricular activities and possibly go on strike.

A proposal to balance the state budget by cutting as much as $2 billion from education still looms, threatening even more assaults on the district’s beleaguered budget. And there are renewed cries by some parents and politicians to break up the nation’s second-largest school system, which expects 6,000 to 11,000 new students this school year.

“It’s probably one of the most difficult (years) we’ve faced in recent history,” said Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias. “We’ve stripped this district down to the marrow.”

Of the largest school districts in the nation, including those in Chicago and Miami, none are considering pay cuts as drastic as Los Angeles, according to the American Federation of Teachers.

The district is reeling from four years of spending reductions that cut its budget by more than $1 billion, eliminated more than 4,000 positions and increased class sizes. The latest step in the slashing cycle occurred in June, when the Los Angeles Board of Education cut $400 million from the district’s $3.8-billion budget.

As a result of those cuts, there will be fewer staff members and programs available to give support to the schools. And it may take longer to get a leaky roof fixed or a broken window repaired, as the district struggles to maintain upkeep with fewer people and less money.

But as the school year begins, the most immediate casualty of the cuts appears to be employee morale.

“People used to hang, talk to kids, finish up the day’s loose ends,” said Cynthia Augustine, an assistant principal who recently was transferred from Maclay Junior High School in Pacoima to Birmingham High in Van Nuys.

But Augustine noticed a different attitude in July, when school started at Maclay. She found herself asking: “Where is everyone? Who rolled up the sidewalk? More and more teachers are walking out with the kids when the bell rings.

“It’s getting harder and harder” to keep up the staff’s enthusiasm, she said.

Many longtime teachers say this is the first year that they have considered leaving the district or the profession altogether. Some say the proposed pay cuts send a message that the district does not appreciate its employees, making it especially difficult to start this school year with enthusiasm.

“It’s going to make it hard for me to greet my kids with a smile when I know the bill collectors are pounding on my door,” said Millikan’s Kelly, who earns about $42,000 annually.

She says she would strike to avoid cuts that would reduce her monthly income by $900. “When they put me in the position of maybe having to declare bankruptcy because I can’t pay all my bills, it makes me feel very alone, like there’s no one out there that cares about me as a person.”

Dolores Street Elementary School teacher Jarlath Samaha, who returned to teaching eight years ago after taking time off to raise her children, said: “This is the first year in my life I have not wanted to go back. We’re scared about losing our homes. We feel they’ve taken away our dignity.”

Helen Bernstein, president of the 32,000-member United Teachers-Los Angeles, has pledged to launch an aggressive campaign to battle the proposed cuts, enlisting the support of civic leaders and the public. There has been talk of a strike if negotiations do not result in an agreement between the district and union come September. Many teachers are pledging to heed a union call to stop all extracurricular activities, whether chaperoning a dance or supervising an after-school club.

“I’m not going to volunteer for anything extra,” said Samaha, who used to oversee various after-school activities at her Carson elementary school. “I’m not going to kill myself anymore.”

About 185,000 students started school in July because of the district’s year-round schedule. Many say they have felt the apprehension clouding this school year.

One day last week, a group of seniors gathered in an office at Belmont High School downtown and spoke to a reporter about their fears. They said they were worried that their education had suffered from studying in crowded classrooms supervised by overburdened teachers. And, they said, they worried about the students they will leave behind at the end of this school year.

“My Spanish class has 40 students,” said Juan Rivas, 16. “How can all those kids get individual attention? How are the kids in the neighborhood going to compete if we have limited supplies and teachers?”

Helton Perdomo, 17, remarked on how his French teacher wanted to take the class to a museum but could not because there was no money for it in the school’s budget.

“Because of the cuts,” Perdomo said, “our education is being limited.”

In the past, many teachers say they have dug into their pockets to pay for field trips and classroom supplies. Schools are given a budget every year for necessities such as chalk and paper, but many teachers say that even in better financial times, the money did not stretch far enough.

With the pending salary cuts, many teachers say they can no longer afford to make their own extra purchases. And their students may just have to do without.

“If I have to buy something, I will,” said Carol Richardson, a teacher at Raymond Avenue in Los Angeles who purchases such extra items as popcorn and oil to teach her kindergartners about the five senses. “But for some teachers, buying things for their students means they can’t buy their (own) child a dress, (or) make a car payment.”

Kelly, who has taught at Millikan Junior High in Sherman Oaks for 30 years and chairs its social studies department, said she has seen her department’s budget drop this year from $800 to $300. That was spent on maps for students, paper clips and staples. There was no money left for anything else, despite some obvious needs. So the old world order remains intact on the outdated maps hanging on classroom walls.

She views the lack of money for supplies with resignation. “Last year, I used to complain there wasn’t any toilet paper in the teachers’ restroom,” she said. “This year I know it won’t do any good to complain. I’ll just have to bring my own.”

Administrators, teachers and parents are bracing for the year in myriad ways. Counselors say they will advise parents that they will need to pay extra attention to their children’s studies because teachers may not be willing or able to give students more time than is required.

“Somebody’s going to have to help us out here,” said Rosemary Rubin, local representative for the California School Counselor’s Assn. “A lot of it is going to have to come from the parents.”

Pamela Cowing-Caruthers is one parent who says she is ready to do her part. She has told her 18-year-old son, starting his senior year at Banning High School in Wilmington, that she will fill in wherever his teachers leave off.

“I’m going up to the school tomorrow to talk to his counselor and say I’m there to help,” Cowing-Caruthers said. “I feel for them.”

In the meantime, teacher Lavada Robinson says she is going to start searching for ways to bring home extra money. “I’ve started looking,” said Robinson, who has taught in the district for 16 years. “I’ll be reading the want ads, checking with people and different places to see if they’re hiring part time.”

Despite the looming hardships, there are those in the district who say they understand that the budget cuts were necessary. “I believe the district is at a point where they can’t do anything else,” said Victor Kimbell, principal of Raymond Avenue Elementary. “I know I need to be here. I’m going to continue doing the best I can.”

School board President Leticia Quezada said she understands the frustration felt by district employees and parents, but wishes that they would focus their energies on fighting plans that would balance the state budget by taking money from education.

“We’re all angry at what we’re seeing happening in our schools,” she said. “I don’t want to deny that anger. I don’t want to ignore it. I want to channel that anger to Sacramento.”

Gov. Pete Wilson proposed a revised education plan Friday that includes advancing schools $732 million for this year, money that would be deducted from what they are due to receive from the state in the next two years. Altogether, schools would lose about $900 million under Wilson’s plan.

Public pressure has already worked, Quezada believes, forcing the governor to abandon proposals to postpone kindergarten for thousands of youngsters and cut funding for special school programs.

“My message to the school community is we’ve got to keep that heat on,” Quezada said. “Anything else is a diversion from the one thing we must do this year--which is to survive.”

Times staff writer Henry Chu contributed to this story.

The District

Here is some background information on the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school system, for the 1991-92 school year: * Enrollment: 639,699

* K-12 Teachers: 30,263

* Schools: 723, including many schools and centers for special needs, such as continuation and magnet schools and centers for newly arrived immigrant students.

* Ethnicity: The breakdown of students as of the fall of 1991:

Group Percentage Latino 64.4% Black 14.8% Anglo 13.1% Asian 5.2% Filipino 1.9% Pacific Islander 0.4% American Indian 0.3%

* Languages spoken by students: About 90. Spanish is spoken by 90% of students whose native language is not English. Others include: Armenian, 2%; Korean, 1.64%, and Cantonese, 0.97%.

* English fluency: 41% of students are designated as “Limited English Proficient,” or LEP, students.

* Average class size: Varies depending on grade level and type of school. Schools that are more than 70% minority have slightly smaller class sizes.

Level Class Size Kindergarten: 29.5 Grades 1-6: 29.5 to 37 Grades 6-9: 30 to 39.25 Grades 9 & 10: 30 to 38.5 Grades 11 & 12: 30 to 38.5

* Dropout Rate

Grades 6-9: 7.07% (in 1990-91)

Grades 10-12: 14.86% (in 1990-91)

* Busing: As of May, 22,250 pupils were bused to district schools outside their neighborhoods in the Capacity Adjustment Program. This excludes busing for voluntary integration purposes.

* Free lunches: 386,000. Reduced-price lunches: 28,000

SOURCE: Los Angeles Unified School District, Office of Public Affairs

Compiled by researcher Tracy Thomas