UTLA TO WORK WITH SCHOOL BOARD, NOT CONTROL IT.

Byline: John Perez LOCAL VIEW

HOPEFULLY, a new day is about to dawn for Los Angeles schools, and not a moment too soon. State budget cuts are casting a long shadow over public education and the cash-strapped LAUSD.

To stay focused on our 750,000 students, the Los Angeles Unified School District board and Superintendent Roy Romer must sincerely begin cooperating with the 48,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles and the parents of our students. There is no other way out of this crisis.

During the past four years, the last thing that a school board dominated by the Coalition for Kids wanted to do was make partners out of our district's teachers in the all-important task of educating our kids.

The Coalition for Kids and their corporate sponsors did everything they could to keep educators and parents out of the loop when it came to issues important to them. Just look at the mess they made by not talking to anyone but themselves during the ongoing battle on a new school calendar.

For the past four years, the Coalition for Kids board members made an army of high-priced executives, real estate consultants and in-house lawyers the priority of the LAUSD. That's why UTLA backed school board candidates who pledged to make the classroom the district's No. 1 priority.

Board members Julie Korenstein and David Tokosfsky have a track record of putting the classroom first, and we hope that newcomers Jon Lauritzen and Marguerite LaMotte will join them in making the classroom the top priority of the district's shrinking resources.

Although the message of putting the classroom first resonated with the public, there are those who believe that the new board will be controlled by UTLA.

UTLA members are your children's teachers, counselors, librarians, etc. - we are not looters out to sack the LAUSD. We have always stood ready to work with the district to improve student achievement. We worked with parents and our school communities to make School Based Management and LEARN work, two programs dismantled by the Coalition for Kids school board.

UTLA stands ready to work with the entire school board, those we endorsed and those we did not, to make education better for our students and your kids.

UTLA fought shoulder-to-shoulder with parents and the community to help pass billions of dollars of school bonds so that every child would have an opportunity to attend a good school in their own neighborhood. Likewise for the sake of the kids, UTLA stands ready to work with Superintendent Romer to convince state legislators to stop the budget ax from decimating their education.

There are areas where there needs to be better cooperation between the LAUSD and the men and women responsible for the education of our communities' young people. The board can help restore public trust and the trust of its educators in it by expanding the powers of the inspector general to oversee business deals.

The Coalition for Kids board was never concerned about Los Angeles County school districts. Hopefully, this will change with the new board.

There are many nonmonetary reforms we can work together on that will make the district a better place to learn and to teach.

Let teachers teach. End the top-down mandated programs that run counter to what classroom veterans know works with their students.

Allow teachers to become true partners with the district in the design and direction of their own professional development. UTLA is a leader in the state in peer assistance and review, and a national leader in developing national board certified teachers.

Make us a partner in the effort to develop small learning communities. Dividing overcrowded middle and high schools into smaller ``academies'' can help our students learn and can give them the critical individual attention they need.

Even though UTLA doesn't expect to agree on all points with the new school board, we are totally committed to making real progress toward a revitalized school system. But a prerequisite for that is that the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education begins to listen to its classroom personnel and its parents.