TEACHERS DIRECTED TO INNER-CITY SCHOOLS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer has quietly and without board approval started a program aimed at directing newly hired credentialed teachers to the inner-city areas largely represented by board President Genethia Hayes, the Daily News learned Thursday.

In a May 18 memo to minidistrict superintendents, Romer said he recognized that the directive might hurt other areas, including the San Fernando Valley, by leaving them to choose from a pool of uncredentialed teachers.

``However, I am committed to providing the opportunity for these schools to be staffed with the most qualified teachers available,'' Romer said of inner-city local districts G and I.

Those two South Central districts have the highest percentage of uncredentialed teachers, but two school board members who represent parts of the Valley criticized Romer's policy for being implemented in secret without discussion or study of individual school needs.

Valley board member Julie Korenstein called Romer's action ``a knee-jerk reaction'' while David Tokofsky, who represents the East Valley and Eastside, said district officials are playing the ``old politics of turf'' without public debate.

Romer could not be reached for comment Thursday.

His chief of staff, Joe Rao, said the intent of the plan is to aggressively promote the inner-city schools by allowing them the first chance at credentialed candidates as part of a campaign to close the experience gap between those schools and others in the city.

``This is not a policy, it's an opportunity to showcase these schools,'' Rao said. ``It's more marketing.''

In District G, nearly 35 percent of the teachers have emergency credentials, while just over 40 percent of the teachers in District I do, according to LAUSD records.

That's about double or more the Westside and Valley's percentage of uncredentialed teachers.

In the West Valley's District A, 21.5 percent of teachers are working under an emergency credential; in the northern and eastern parts of the Valley, or District B, 26.5 percent; and in the central and southern parts of the Valley, or District C, 24.2 percent.

Just 17 percent of Westside teachers are working under emergency status, while the district overall averages 26.8 percent without credentials.

Korenstein said a detailed, school-by-school analysis would be needed to justify any shifting of credentialed teachers.

``This needs to be evaluated very carefully,'' she said. ``Certainly there are areas in the San Fernando Valley that have equal needs. The San Fernando Valley tends to be overlooked again and again as the orphan of LAUSD.''

Tokofsky said his district includes many low-performing schools that should not be denied a fair chance to hire qualified teachers.

``Priority staffing should not be by artificially gerrymandered districts, but by the actual needs at individual schools. That's the giveaway,'' he said.

``It feels like the politics of the old regime: doing things behind closed doors without empirical data and without public input at the whims of a bureaucrat or board member.''

Rao said Romer's action does not carry the force of a formal hiring policy. Teachers who don't want those assignments are free to shop elsewhere in the district, though their options could be limited under a previous consent decree that essentially limits how much schools can spend on their staffs.

Officials of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has negotiated protections to prevent assignment of veteran teachers, said the union has no objection to the policy for new teachers.

``We want qualified teachers in that area as well as anywhere else,'' said Bev Cook, UTLA's secondary vice president.

Associate Superintendent Gordon Wohlers said that by hooking up inner-city school representatives and candidates at the LAUSD's downtown headquarters first, representatives from those schools will at least be assured of being heard. District G Superintendent Renee Jackson, who with District I Superintendent George McKenna pressed for the change, said the schools in her district are among the lowest-performing in the city, combined with the second-highest number of emergency credentialed teachers - 1,062.

``It's an equity issue,'' Jackson said. ``We want an opportunity, the first crack to overcome our vacancies and so many emergency credentialed teachers.''

Board member Caprice Young, who represents parts of the Valley and near Westside, defended Romer for being ``wise'' in focusing on inner-city school staffing.

``It's really important we get our best candidates into the districts that are underserved,'' Young said. ``It's really hard to get teachers to go into the most troubled schools. Sometimes they just need encouragement, to see it's not as bad as they thought.''

Two Valley superintendents agreed, saying they have little trouble recruiting independently, and don't expect that to change.

``I think it's necessary,'' said Deborah Leidner, superintendent in District A, which covers much of the West Valley.

``We have areas in this district that have tremendous difficulty recruiting teachers,'' Leidner said. ``I don't have a difficult time recruiting teachers. If this helps kids, then it's good for the district.''

A couple of board members, however, warned that the additional recruitment hurdle - no matter how well-intended - could boomerang by scaring credentialed teachers away from the district entirely.

``My greatest concern is that if teachers are told they can only be placed in those two districts, they may choose another district (outside the LAUSD),'' Korenstein, the Valley's representative, said.

``There are a lot of restrictions already, and any additional restrictions when there's such a shortage ... I'd be real cautious, it could backfire.''

Wohlers, the associate superintendent, said the district will notify reluctant candidates of other LAUSD job openings.

To do otherwise, he said, would be to ``shoot ourselves in the foot.''

EMERGENCY CREDENTIALS IN LAUSD DISTRICTS

Low-performing schools in districts G and I in South Central Los Angeles will get the first chance to hire fully credentialed teachers under a new policy by Roy Romer, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Below are the numbers of emergency credentialed teachers in each of the 11 local districts for this academic year:

--Local District A/Northwest Valley: 727 (21.5 percent) of 3,379 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District B/Northeast Valley: 999 (26.5 percent) of 3,775 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District C/Southwest Valley: 822 (24.2 percent) of 3,392 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District D/Westside: 501 (17 percent) of 2,947 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District E/Hollywood and Eagle Rock: 871 (25.3 percent) of 3,446 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District F/Downtown and East Los Angeles: 803 (25.9 percent) of 3,095 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District G/South Central Los Angeles: 1,062 (34.6 percent) of 3,069 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District H/East Los Angeles: 1,155 (30.5 percent) of 3,789 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District I/South Central Los Angeles: 1,036 (40.3 percent) of 2,571 teachers have nonregular credentials.

--Local District J/Bell and Cudahy: 919 (29.8 percent) of 3,083 have nonregular credentials.

--Local District K/Harbor and San Pedro: 770 (23.1 percent) of 3,339 teachers have nonregular credentials.

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EMERGENCY CREDENTIALS IN LAUSD DISTRICTS (see text)