PANEL SEEKS DECENTRALIZED L.A. UNIFIED TEACHERS UNION TO BEGIN INFORMATIONAL PICKETING.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

A commission analyzing Los Angeles Unified's governance structure voted Thursday on ways to decentralize the behemoth district, while the teachers union ratcheted up its own push for greater school-site autonomy.

The Joint Commission on LAUSD Governance was created in April 2005 by the presidents of the City Council and the school board to recommend whether the structure of the nation's second-largest school district should be altered and how.

The panel decided, for instance, that budgets and lesson plans should be handled by individual schools, while the district's central administration should oversee transportation and school charter issues.

``What they're saying is decentralization will empower the local school to better serve students,'' said Bill Mabie, spokesman for Councilman Alex Padilla, who co-founded the commission. ``The idea is that if there's more empowerment at the school level it also empowers parents because there are people who are accountable right there at the school site.''

Meanwhile, United Teachers Los Angeles has scheduled informational pickets today as part of its effort to gain more resources and control at the school level.

The demonstrations coincide with the start of contract negotiations.

``We're going to be doing informational leafletting and talking to parents about our contract demands and our plans for working with the community,'' UTLA President A.J. Duffy said. ``We're going to be stepping up our attacks on the bureaucracy. We're going to push very hard and these informational leaflettings are our opening statement to the district that we are serious and we need them to come to the table with all seriousness.''

In April, UTLA proposed reforming the 727,000-student school district by eliminating the eight local districts and replacing them with six regional resource centers that would have no decision-making authority.

Most personnel from district headquarters and local districts would be moved into school sites, Duffy said.

UTLA also pushed for increasing the seven-member school board by two and making the positions full time.

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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