School Board Flees Protesters : Education: More than 200 striking teaching assistants break up the meeting and seize control of the boardroom.

Using confrontational tactics reminiscent of the 1960s, more than 200 striking teaching assistants broke up a Los Angeles school board meeting Thursday by angrily denouncing the superintendent and seizing control of the room as board members fled.

“I’m going to be rude, because you’ve been rude to us. Settle the contract now,” yelled union negotiator Cookie Pacheco as School Supt. Bill Anton looked on in dismay and several teaching assistants tussled with guards under the American flag. District officials soon abandoned the room to the assistants, who swarmed into chairs reserved for board members, poured themselves glasses of water and toasted their takeover.

Thursday’s action came on the second day of a “rolling strike” by hundreds of assistants represented by Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union. The union, negotiating its first contract for the assistants, is seeking a four-hour minimum workday so assistants can qualify for health care benefits.

“They took my seat,” board member Roberta Weintraub said half in disbelief, after retreating to her office to wait out the protest. During 11 years on the board, through teacher strikes and desegregation fights, Weintraub said, she has never seen such a melee.

The board reconvened about an hour later in a small conference room, after district security officials blocked off hallways with long tables and locked the doors to nearby administrative offices. The sit-in ended peacefully around noon when union members left the boardroom and joined hundreds of other teaching assistants who clustered in the outdoor courtyard of district headquarters, waving picket signs and shouting slogans.

While it was unquestionably dramatic, board members say the union sit-in failed to sway them.

“It doesn’t impact the negotiations in any way,” board member Leticia Quezada said. She added that an agreement would be reached at the bargaining table and that attempts to provoke the board would not work.

“It’s counterproductive,” added Diana Munatones, a spokeswoman for Anton. “Here we were trying to hold a meeting on school-based management, which is extremely important, and they disrupt it.”

The two-day strike has also disrupted classes at some of the 119 schools in Central Los Angeles, Pacoima, Sun Valley, Arleta and North Hollywood, where teachers rely on the assistants to translate for non-English-speaking students. About 80% of the assistants are minorities and 70% are bilingual.

Local 99 officials said Thursday’s demonstration was triggered by their belief that they had reached an agreement with Anton during talks last week in which he agreed to their demands for four-hour minimum workdays and health benefits. They maintained that the board then rejected the proposed contract in a closed meeting Monday.

A visibly angry Anton said the claims were untrue. He said he made it clear he was acting informally and that no agreement was reached during the talks.

“I emphasized that we weren’t negotiating,” Anton said. “All they’re trying to do is split me and the board and it is not going to work.”

Board members rallied behind their superintendent, saying that a seasoned veteran such as Anton, who was deputy superintendent for eight years before assuming his current post in July, would not have made such promises without first consulting the board.

The strike is expected to continue today at the same 119 schools. On Monday, assistants at those schools will return to work while 117 other schools are targeted, union officials said. School officials said 700 teaching assistants did not report to work Thursday, while the union put the number at 2,000.

The two sides are scheduled to resume negotiations on Tuesday. In addition to four-hour minimum workdays, Local 99 is demanding 15 paid vacation days per year and fully paid health benefits. Assistants now receive no health benefits or paid days off.

District officials say they cannot afford the union’s demands and that 3,400 of the 10,000 teaching assistants already work four hours or more per day. In addition, with the district moving toward school-based management, under which more authority will be given to local schools, board members say the scheduling and hiring of teaching assistants should be decided by principals and parent advisory groups.

Both sides have agreed on raising salaries by 8% to $10.20 per hour for current employees.