L.A. Unified Board Argues Over Call to Disband Subdistricts

Debate over the fate of the Los Angeles school system’s 11 subdistricts erupted into angry exchanges at a school board meeting Thursday, with one board member accusing at least three others of doing the teachers union’s bidding.

“They take their marching orders from [United Teachers-Los Angeles], and they don’t need the superintendent’s input into something as unimportant as the construction or deconstruction of this district’s structure,” board member Mike Lansing said during the special budget-cutting session.

Lansing and board member Marlene Canter angrily objected when it appeared that three, and possibly four, of the board members were trying to rush through a vote on a motion to disband all of the subdistricts and replace them with one division each for elementary, middle and high schools.

The semiautonomous local districts were formed four years ago to put administrative services closer to the schools and to help implement academic reforms on campuses. But the union has criticized them from the start, saying they drain money that would be better spent at the schools.

The motion causing anger Thursday was made by board member Jon Lauritzen, who was elected with the union’s help, as were all the other board members except Lansing and Canter.

This year, as the district tries to close a nearly $500-million gap in its nearly $5-billion operating budget before the new fiscal year starts July 1, the union has stepped up its call for the board to disband the districts.

Supt. Roy Romer has proposed cuts in the local districts’ budgets but has repeatedly said he is reluctant to eliminate them just as reforms are taking hold and as the district is building 160 schools over 10 years.

Earlier this week, the board agreed to postpone a vote on Lauritzen’s motion until June 8, when Romer, who was leaving for London on Thursday night, and board President Jose Huizar, whose family vacation starts in a few days, would be back in town. On Thursday, however, Lauritzen tried to bring his motion to an immediate vote.

“Time is of the essence,” Lauritzen said when Canter and Lansing objected. “We need to act on this as soon as we possibly can” to save money and allow enough time for such a significant restructuring, he said.

When the board’s legal advisor said the vote could not be moved up without at least 24 hours’ notice, Lauritzen unsuccessfully sought to have another special meeting today.

Canter objected to deciding the local districts’ fate when Romer could not be included.

“I think it’s humiliating and disrespectful to the superintendent,” Canter said, adding that there was no reason to have a superintendent if the board was going to ignore him.

The board eventually settled on discussing the fate of the districts May 25 and taking a vote June 8, but not before the bitter arguments over the union’s role broke out.

“The reason they don’t want 11 [subdistricts] is they don’t want people close to the schools looking over people’s shoulders and making sure business is getting done,” Lansing said of the union.

Two other union-supported board members, Julie Korenstein and Marguerite LaMotte, shot back at Lansing, who left for another engagement after his outburst.

“Everybody at this table had somebody who helped them get elected,” LaMotte said. “I really take offense.”

Korenstein said she was “really disappointed that Mr. Lansing gave such a cheap shot and then ran out of the room.”

Huizar offered a compromise to be considered with other plans for the districts at upcoming meetings. He suggested reducing them to between four and six and diverting about $28 million of their budgets to schools.

Huizar said after the meeting that he did not believe Lansing meant to include him in his remarks, as he had not sought to eliminate the subdistricts, as the union wants. But Huizar said he and some other board members are frustrated by what they saw as Romer’s delays.

“We have been asking him for months to give us detailed information” about the costs and to come up with some options for reconfiguring them, Huizar said.

Romer promised the board that he is working on such plans but said he and the board needed to be thorough in deciding what to do.