"Other labor chiefs don't like Cortines' proposal to trim six days to help balance a projected $640-million shortfall."
Esther Lee says she plans every minute of her seventh-grade science classes at Berendo Middle School in Koreatown.
"For a lot of my students, their only connection to academics is in school . . . so I feel I can never waste time," she said.
But under a plan proposed by Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, Lee could be chopping a week off her schedule as early as this spring to help district officials balance a projected $640-million shortfall.
California school districts have the option of shortening the school year without losing key state funding for the next several years, and at least one other district has moved to shorten its calendar. Others, up and down the state, are considering the option.
Cortines had said he wanted to preserve, if not extend, the school year, but he said he is unable to balance the budget without major concessions from employee unions, whose leadership has generally resisted furlough days and pay cuts. In a news release Friday evening, he made the proposal to shave five school days and one noninstructional day off the calendar.
Leaders of both the teachers and administrators unions said they are fully aware of the financial crisis and are willing to negotiate.
Esther Lee says she plans every minute of her seventh-grade science classes at Berendo Middle School in Koreatown.
"For a lot of my students, their only connection to academics is in school . . . so I feel I can never waste time," she said.
But under a plan proposed by Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, Lee could be chopping a week off her schedule as early as this spring to help district officials balance a projected $640-million shortfall.
California school districts have the option of shortening the school year without losing key state funding for the next several years, and at least one other district has moved to shorten its calendar. Others, up and down the state, are considering the option.
Cortines had said he wanted to preserve, if not extend, the school year, but he said he is unable to balance the budget without major concessions from employee unions, whose leadership has generally resisted furlough days and pay cuts. In a news release Friday evening, he made the proposal to shave five school days and one noninstructional day off the calendar.
Leaders of both the teachers and administrators unions said they are fully aware of the financial crisis and are willing to negotiate.
