UNION CRITICIZES PLAN TO FIX FAILING SCHOOLS.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

A key component of LAUSD Superintendent Ruben Zacarias' plan to restructure failing schools drew fire Monday from the teachers union, which threatened to file an unfair labor practice grievance in response.

Under a plan the school board may vote on today, schools languishing on academic probation for several years would lose their right to make many administrative decisions and could eventually face wholesale restructuring, with a new staff possibly brought in to boost test scores.

``I don't think it's unreasonable, when a school shows two or more years of decline, for someone to step in and say, you need to turn it around,'' Zacarias said.

The plan is an extension of his effort to find and fix schools with unacceptably low student performance. Starting in the 1997-1998 school year with a list of 100 troubled schools, the district still has about 30 that have not improved their test scores and remain on academic probation.

Zacarias said that although the district has discussed the plan with the union, it does not require negotiations and does not violate the contract. The steps that have drawn the union's protest are necessary to rejuvenate poorly performing schools, he said.

Teachers union President Day Higuchi disagreed, saying the plan infringes on the current teachers contract.

Higuchi is incensed that the board is being asked to approve the plan at the same time that the district has been negotiating with United Teachers Los Angeles over it.

``Everybody wants to help schools that can't improve student achievement,'' he said. ``But simply issuing a four-step directive with step three saying, you lose your rights under the contract, that's not a good beginning.''

The action plan submitted for today's school board meeting spells out the consequences for schools that do not improve test scores.

Those on academic probation whose scores fall or remain unchanged after one year would lose specific responsibilities, including local decision-making, budget flexibility and initiating personnel changes.

If scores fail to improve for a second year, those schools would be ``reconstituted'' - reorganized with the possibility of staffing changes.

Higuchi said stripping those responsibilities from the schools would gut the ``shared decision-making councils'' that give parents, teachers and administrators a say in how each school is run. The authority of those councils is included in the teachers contract.

Board President Victoria Castro said she is ready to move forward with the plan, noting that other districts have tried the same steps with success.

``These are tough decisions, but sometimes they may be necessary,'' she said.

But board member David Tokofsky said the plan may need more input from teachers and others before it is approved.

Although he has no problem with some of the plan's drastic steps, he said he wants to make sure the district carefully assesses each problem school before suspending any administrative powers at those campuses.

``I want to make sure the therapy we administer deals with the problem,'' he said.

Also in today's meeting, the board will consider another linchpin of Zacarias' efforts to make Los Angeles Unified School District personnel more accountable. The superintendent will present 13 recommendations from the district's Accountability Task Force.

Echoing the plan for failing schools, one recommendation calls for creating rewards for success and penalties for failure among students, personnel and schools.

The report also calls for giving principals greater hiring authority and rewarding teachers and other employees who demonstrate particular knowledge or skills.