LAUSD'S BAIT AND SWITCH VALLEY'S PROMISED CLASSROOM SEATS WILL BE BUILT ELSEWHERE.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

Despite their promises last spring when the third school bond issue was before voters, LAUSD officials said Tuesday they plan to cut the number of classroom seats to be built in the San Fernando Valley by nearly half under a proposed settlement of a recent civil rights lawsuit.

The West Valley would be especially hard hit because it is more affluent, while South Los Angeles would get the benefit if Superintendent Roy Romer's plan is approved by the school board. The seats, about 45 percent of those originally planned for the Valley, would be transferred to overcrowded schools in the inner city and other low-income areas, many of which are on a shortened 163-day calendar.

The plan is expected to be approved at a Dec. 14 board meeting and submitted to the state before Jan. 1.

``I think somebody made a major error in judgment ... There's no way I will support this,'' said board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the East Valley. ``I can't sit here in good conscience and cut seats out of that area, which is a very high-poverty area of L.A. Unified.''

It's not clear that Korenstein's objections will affect the outcome.

Ahead of last March's election, voters were told in fliers and other promotional material that the LAUSD's $3.87 billion bond Measure R would deliver 12,508 new seats to the Valley, including at least 6,530 in the East Valley.

The new proposal shows 6,975 new seats for Valley students, including 5,022 in the East Valley.

Romer said moving the seats to inner-city areas and poorer schools is simply what the district must do to meet the law.

``That's not treating anybody inequitable. It's looking at children and seeing who has the greatest need,'' Romer said. ``We want to take care of all these children's needs - all of them.''

The district drafted the plan to comply with a settlement reached in August of a four-year-old class action lawsuit known as the Williams case. In it, the American Civil Liberties Union claimed that California neglects its poor students by sending them to decrepit schools with inadequate textbooks and unqualified teachers.

The district says it is necessary to shift the seats to needier schools in order to move all schools off the shortened 163-day schedule by the lawsuit's 2012 deadline.

If the district fails to meet the terms of the lawsuit, a monitor could be sent in to oversee the district's facilities department.

Los Angeles Unified stands to gain hundreds of millions of dollars for textbooks and campus improvements for needy schools from the Williams settlement.

The district's general counsel, Kevin Reed, also said there would be no costs associated with the transfer of seats because the district is in the early stages of the planning phase for Measure R construction.

Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to the superintendent, said the changes were not designed to shortchange the Valley, but to level the playing field. For example, if the original distribution was kept, schools in the Valley would be able to move off bungalows, while other schools would still be on the shortened calendar.

``It's about the fact that if we don't do this, we're out of compliance with one of the most significant educational civil rights cases that this state has seen in a long, long time,'' he said.

But Korenstein said the LAUSD must keep its promises to voters and that she was not concerned about the state ramifications.

``Let them come take over the construction program,'' she said.

Korenstein helped lead the charge last year to have the bond package revised to include more seats for the East Valley. Reducing the numbers now could hurt the district when they return to voters for the fourth bond measure since 1997, which Romer said Tuesday he would like to do in June 2006.

The fourth bond is expected to include about 37,000 elementary seats to return all students to a traditional two-semester, 180-day calendar.

``It's embarrassing, frankly,'' Korenstein said. Voters ``are going to be mad.''

Jon Lauritzen, who represents parts of the Valley, said the board needed to take another look at how seats are allocated under the plan.

Board member Marlene Canter, who represents a small portion of the Valley, said voters need to know that the district has little choice.

``If that's not made clear, it's very difficult to explain,'' she said. ``Especially if you want to go out for another bond. Credibility is at risk.''

Several schools in the Valley are also overcrowded and struggling to get off shortened calendars, including Monroe, Polytechnic, San Fernando, Van Nuys and North Hollywood high schools, she said. Coupled with increased construction costs, Canter said she's worried the LAUSD will lose pace with its goal to build 160 schools over the next eight years.

``The nation is watching,'' she said.

The district has also pulled 7,000 seats from about 50,000 it originally said it would add under Measure R, partly out of concern for rising construction costs and also because it is not sure how it wants to redistribute them following the Williams case.

But it is unlikely the Valley would get the bulk of those seats.

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com