Parents’ Protest Gains Teachers’ Jobs--for Now : Education: School officials had overestimated the number of instructors needed for students bused to the Valley and the Westside. A layoff decision is delayed until Monday.

In an unusual move, Los Angeles Unified School District officials removed 100 teachers from their classrooms Friday and then rescinded the order hours later after protests from parents, students and teachers union representatives.

The teachers were told Thursday not to report next week because district officials had overestimated the number of students expected to be bused to more than 50 schools, mostly in the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

But a storm of protest from parents and teachers angry over the disruptions apparently has stalled the move. Lu Hishmeh, an administrative consultant for school operations, said the decision “is being delayed until Monday.”

District officials had few explanations for the teacher cutbacks, which prompted a flood of telephone calls from parents and sent hundreds of children home in tears. Normally, teacher assignments are adjusted after the first month of school.

“This is a multimillion-dollar error that is affecting thousands of kids, and people who are responsible need to be identified,” said Mark Slavkin, the school board member representing the Westside. “It is a big mistake and it is inexcusable.”

Slavkin said he will ask Los Angeles School Supt. Bill Anton to find out why district administrators needed nearly two months since the start of school to determine how many teachers were needed at schools receiving the bused students.

District officials accurately predicted an increase of 15,000 students this year, according to Gordon Wohlers, a special assistant to Anton, but apparently could not determine what schools the students were attending.

Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, said teachers were given only one day’s notice of the changes. The teachers were told they would be transferred to other schools in the city or used as substitute teachers, she said.

“The district must have known about this problem for weeks but we had no idea,” said Bernstein, whose union represents teachers in the school district.

The 100 teachers were hired this year to accommodate increasing numbers of students who ride buses from crowded inner-city neighborhoods to schools on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley. Their salaries have been paid from a fund created by the school board several years ago to relieve overcrowding.

But without the required number of students per classroom, officials said the financially strapped district cannot afford to continue paying for smaller-than-average classes.

District officials estimate that the teacher cutbacks will save $3 million that would have gone to pay substitute teachers. The district contract guarantees the teachers a full-time job through June.

But in a tearful goodby to her students Friday, teacher Jamie Brown said the issue was more than money and a job.

“This is not supposed to happen in November,” said Brown, who had 25 students in her third-grade class at Beckford Avenue School in Northridge. “We’ve started some intense projects and you can’t just stop in the middle of them. We all cried together.”