DISTRICT LACKS BASIC TEXTBOOKS IN ENGLISH.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

A Los Angeles school board member Friday warned that the district suffers from a severe shortage of elementary school reading textbooks in English because it stocked up on Spanish-language books over the past two years.

The Los Angeles Unified School District used part of a major state allocation for textbooks to buy thousands of Spanish-language readers - books that are no longer useful to students who were transferred to English-immersion classes under Proposition 227.

Board member David Tokofsky blasted the district's poor handling of the situation and failure to quickly solve the problem, and said some children and teachers have gone for months without needed materials.

``The district has declared a victory over the textbook shortage but I believe we have a massive problem,'' Tokofsky said. ``Teachers are being undermined. They've been asked to start a new curriculum without any books.''

On Tuesday, the board will review a report from the superintendent notifying them there are not enough textbooks in kindergarten through 12th grade, Tokofsky said. The board is required by law to certify the sufficiency of textbook supplies because the district receives state money for the books.

Proposition 227, passed by voters in June, essentially eliminates bilingual education except where parents specifically demand a waiver from its impact. About 11 percent of parents have requested the waiver. Children who do not speak English now are placed into English immersion classes for a year before they are transferred to a traditional classroom.

Since school officials only had two months to implement Prop. 227 after it was approved by voters, there have been a number of questions and unforeseen problems for teachers to deal with.

Tokofsky estimated that as many as 150 schools are affected by the shortage, but he has been unable to get better figures from LAUSD officials.

District officials on Friday were able to shed little light on the problem.

``It's pretty obvious there's a shortage but I don't know the extent of it,'' said Jim Konantz, director of instructional technology and library and textbook services.

Konantz said he thought Forrest Ross, the district's head of language acquisition, would know. Ross did not return phone calls.

Widespread?

Some principals in the San Fernando Valley said they believe the shortage is widespread.

Jeri Dunnigan, principal of Nevada Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park, said nearly half of her students, or about 350, don't have the English reading textbooks they need.

The problem was discussed at a recent meeting of schools in her region, and Dunnigan determined that her school was ``better off than most.''

Konantz said the district was in the process of letting schools know that money would be made available to buy new textbooks from a $3.2 million fund.

Because the district had not received orders from schools, it was unknown how much would be needed, Konantz said.

He said the district was working toward the goal of a reading book for every student.

Tokofsky doesn't understand how the district landed in this mess - with possibly millions of dollars worth of useless Spanish textbooks.

In an Oct. 21 internal memo to Superintendent Ruben Zacarias, Tokofsky said the district should arrange to trade for English language books with the publishers. Tokofsky urges the swap to be done immediately because ``these schools have sat for months without these textbook series in the primary grades.''

Tokofsky said the mammoth district, which has made multimillion-dollar purchases with these same publishers in the past, should use its clout.

``If there ever was an argument for a large district, it's the advantages they have with economies of scale,'' he said. ``If a big district doesn't do anything, a big district isn't worth anything.''

Will discuss trades

Konantz said they plan to discuss trades with publishers but have not had any meetings.

While many schools operate on year-round calendars, other schools on a traditional calendar began Sept. 8. Principals didn't know until a couple of weeks ago just how significant the shortage was.

That's because state law required parents to wait 30 days before they asked for a waiver to allow their children to circumvent English immersion classes and go back to a bilingual room.

Dunnigan said that very few parents wanted waivers, so the textbook shortage was large.

After a meeting of schools in her area, Dunnigan began asking publishers to give credits or exchanges. She has not had any answers.

``Things have changed so fast with 227 that it's hard to keep up,'' she said.

She said new teachers were being helped along in reading instruction tips by veteran mentor teachers.

``On one hand it's threatening that they have no books but on the other, if they're new, they don't know any different,'' Dunnigan said.

Bob Miller, principal at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima, said his school has had to use stop-gap measures to deal with the shortage, but does not believe the problem will last long.

``Nothing says that we can't use the Spanish language books by looking at the pictures, talking about it and developing word lists,'' Miller said.

He has staff ordering new books and looking for old books at the Third Street storage annex. Students also share books.

Miller said the unused readers could also be used in the library or lent to children to take home.

``But, I'd be lying to you if I told you I knew what they're going to do with those millions of dollars worth of books,'' Miller said.