Charters can force L.A. teachers out of classrooms

A lawsuit by the California Charter Schools Association will force existing schools to give up space to charter schools, including leaving teachers with no classrooms, according to the Los Angeles Times. This very same setup was proposed last school year for Balboa High School here in SFUSD, to make room for Leadership Charter High School. After protest, the plan was scrapped (Leadership now shares space at Burton High School, a move that did not force teachers to give up classrooms.)

Settlement opens door to charter schools in L.A.
By Howard Blume
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 13, 2008

More Los Angeles campuses will have to make room for charter schools, even if some teachers are forced to give up their classrooms and become roving instructors, under a litigation settlement approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday.

The agreement requires the school district to inventory all properties and work directly with charter schools to find space on or off campus.

Charter advocates say finding and paying for facilities is their No. 1 challenge.The settlement signals "new cooperation" toward serving all students -- whether they attend a charter or a traditional school, supporters said. "We share the pain of overcrowding equally," said Caprice Young, president of the California Charter Schools Assn., a party to both suits. "We in the charter school movement recognize that the Los Angeles Unified School District has a space crunch, and we all have to work together to create great facilities for all kids."

Agreeing to the possibility of roving instructors, called "traveling teachers," was perhaps the major -- and most controversial -- concession by the school district. Because of classroom shortages, these teachers move from room to room with cartloads of materials throughout the day, an intensely unpopular assignment.

The school district could provide no figures on how many teachers travel, but their numbers have declined dramatically in recent years with the construction of new schools and declining enrollment.Two lawsuits were filed in May under a state law that calls for public school campuses to be "shared fairly." Charters are independently run public schools freed from many provisions that govern other schools, including adherence to union contracts and district curriculum.

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