UTLA conducts bus tour to rally for better education

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Parents and educators with United Teachers Los Angeles conducted a bus tour of Los Angeles Unified School District schools Tuesday where they say there are unacceptable learning and teaching conditions.

Those who participated rallied outside of Alta Loma Elementary School and then headed to North Hollywood High School where they conducted a lunchtime rally featuring LAUSD board candidate Scott Schmerelson.

UTLA says the schools are overcrowded and understaffed, and that the LAUSD needs to do something about it.

"You may not have a college-going culture and have classrooms with 45, 46, 47 and 48 students. It is dangerous, let alone non-academic. If you want your kids going to college, then you got to get them in classrooms that are reduced in size," said Milissa Roberts, a counselor at North Hollywood High School.

A LAUSD official told Eyewitness News that since the district completed the building of 150 schools over the last decade to ease overcrowding, class sizes have been reduced throughout the district.

Those who rallied Tuesday say more work needs to be done. North Hollywood High School teacher Diana Sweeney says if the district is holding teachers more accountable, they need to make sure educators have all the tools to get the job done.

"I think that under the conditions that they are asking us to work, to make us the scapegoats for what's not working, if they're not helping us in reduce class size," Sweeney said. "You know the statistics... Most teachers don't last five years because the conditions are so difficult."

City News Service contributed to this report.