BUS STRIKE LEAVES PREP ATHLETES STRANDED! SCHOLARSHIPS, SEASON IN PERIL.

Byline: Gerry Gittelson Staff Writer

The weeklong strike against Los Angeles Unified by contract bus drivers has thrown prep sports programs into chaos, threatened the entire spring season and jeopardized some students' chances of college scholarships.

On Monday, student-athletes were back on the practice field with their coaches all across the Los Angeles Unified School District from Chatsworth High in the north to San Pedro High in the Harbor area. But no games were being played and concern was rising over a prolonged strike against Laidlaw Transit Co., which provides transportation to more than 19,000 LAUSD students daily.

With the shortage of buses, school outings and extracurricular activities have largely been canceled, which forced all of last week's competition in baseball, softball, boys' volleyball and tennis, swimming, track and field and golf to be postponed indefinitely.

This week's events are being canceled altogether.

For star softball player Melissa Santana of Birmingham High in Van Nuys, the loss could be worse than losing the rest of the season. Among the state leaders with six home runs, Santana is on the bubble for a college athletic scholarship if she gets to show off her talent the rest of the season.

``If the season is discontinued, it could wipe out a four-year scholarship, a free education. That would be a travesty,'' said Birmingham softball coach Jim Rose. ``For the seniors, if they lose this season, they can never get back because there's no next year.''

Like other student-athletes, Santana can't understand why schools can't provide their own transportation until the strike is resolved.

``It's been really hard on all of us,'' Santana said. ``I think it's pathetic.''

But the option of providing private transportation was disallowed by section officials last week.

``We've got 60 high schools, and some schools have access to private transportation and some don't. That's not fair,'' said Barbara Fiege, the LAUSD's director of interscholastic athletics. ``As you can imagine, this whole thing has been a huge headache.''

On Monday, Laidlaw agreed to submit the dispute to binding arbitration in order to settle the strike.

Earlier in the day, however, Teamsters said the union would ask the LAUSD to help resolve the dispute, although district officials have previously said they are innocent bystanders in the dispute between Laidlaw and about 700 school bus drivers.

``We don't believe that's the case,'' Teamsters spokesman Don Owens said. ``In our opinion, there is mutual room for responsibility among Laidlaw and the school board. We think the school board should step up to the plate.''

Superintendent Roy Romer and school board President Caprice Young said Monday that it would be inappropriate for them to get involved in a vendor's contract dispute.

The union is asking for a 15 percent increase over three years, while Laidlaw has offered 1.8 percent more per year for the same period. The two sides have been at an impasse since February. Contract drivers are paid about two-thirds of what the LAUSD's own drivers earn.

Fiege has called an ``emergency meeting'' for this afternoon at Hamilton High in Los Angeles, where she at least hopes to arrange a Saturday schedule for makeup games. She said the last time the City Section had to cancel this many contests was in 1994 because of the Northridge Earthquake. Schools didn't compete in winter sports for three weeks, but the playoffs were salvaged.

But Chatsworth athletic director Fluke Fluker wonders about the logistics of arranging games on Saturdays because supervisors, including himself, might already have other plans.

``This is beyond a nightmare,'' Fluker said. ``The district is doing an injustice and disservice to the kids who have worked so hard. Our baseball team is ranked No. 1 in the nation and might be No. 1 in the nation when the polls come out on Thursday. And our volleyball team is a City contender. We're on the brink of making history, and the kids are able to go out there and display their skills and talents.''

Chatsworth baseball player Jared Halpert wanted to play rival El Camino Real of Woodland Hills on Monday. Instead, he trudged his way through another practice, not knowing when the season might resume.

``This is frustrating and ridiculous, just indescribable,'' Halpert said. ``We've been working hard and waiting to play ECR all year. I'm just very upset, but we're being directly affected by the strike. It's horrible, just devastating.''

Baseball coach Jeremy Lawrence of Grant High in Van Nuys believes the cancellation of athletic contests is an unfair casualty of the bus strike.

``I'm getting more and more upset because I've been around for a long time, and I know that all the LAUSD has to do is pay the LAUSD bus drivers overtime (until the strike is settled) because that's the way they used to do it,'' Lawrence said.

``What if the strike goes on for the rest of the season? They're going to keep hurting the kids? That's a joke. I'm out there with these kids four hours a day. We work hard. This is completely the school district's fault. They're trying to be political and all of them are looking to the sports programs. But if they just pay overtime to the LAUSD drivers, they can let the kids play.''

The district is scrambling this week to find ways to transport students to some of the sporting events, which have been canceled since the beginning of the strike, said Willie Crittendon, administrator for school operations and safety.

He wouldn't say what alternatives were being proposed. But he said they would take some some options to Deputy Superintendent Merle Price ``as quickly as possible.''

Missing sports events has been a hardship for students. ``We are sensitive to that,'' Crittendon said. ``That's why we're working very diligently to come up with alternatives if possible.''

Staff Writer Mariel Garza contributed to this story

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Joe Guntz, above, fields a ball during a Chatsworth High School baseball practice Monday after a bus strike forced cancellation of a game. At left, Laidlaw bus driver Cynthia Juarez-Darnall protests outside the company's Canoga Park facility.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer