Helen Bernstein

Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are singing a low, sad refrain this school year. A four-year cycle of budget cuts has eliminated 4,000 jobs, ended or curtailed a variety of programs and increased class sizes. Now, teachers face salary cuts that could reduce their paychecks by more than 17%. By most accounts, morale at L.A.

I thought it was remarkable the way teachers responded to the earthquake. They have really risen to the occasion. Teachers are holding classes in their homes. Teachers are calling parents to see how the kids are, giving them assignments over the phone. People have really gone above and beyond what was necessary. This has been very heartwarming, considering the fact that most of the people we're talking about are incredibly demoralized.

Signaling the return of labor friction in the Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers union President Helen Bernstein demanded Tuesday that any surplus public school funds left over at the end of the year be given back to teachers whose salaries have been deeply cut. Her statements came one day after an early district review of finances showed a projected $39-million budget surplus by June, a figure that Supt.

She was both steel and velvet. Helen Bernstein was the toughest union leader that this nation's teachers had. And the most tender. As president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, Helen fought hard and minced no words when it came to the needs of educators. She was irrepressible. Anyone who would attempt to dispute her strong notions was "clueless" and simply "didn't get it." "Now let me get this straight," Bernstein would launch in. "How many oversized classes have you taught today?"

The head of the Los Angeles Unified School District's teachers union on Saturday called for the ouster of Supt. Bill Anton and outlined aggressive plans to enlist the support of civic and business leaders to fight double-digit cuts in teacher salaries. "The movers and shakers of this city must understand that they will hurt if we hurt," Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, told 700 of the union's school-based representatives at an annual leadership conference.

A 16-year-old female student was shot in the hip Tuesday afternoon within two blocks of Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood, where classes had just ended for the day, authorities said. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was listed in good condition, said Officer Bruce Borihanh of the Los Angeles Police Department. Police suspect that the girl, who had been walking home, was caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs, according to an LAPD source who asked not to be named because the case was ongoing.

The Palisades Education Complex, serving nine public schools on the Westside, will hold its first public fall meeting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Paul Revere Middle School library, 1450 Allenford Ave., Brentwood.

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein has been elected to her second two-year term as head of the union that represents the Los Angeles Unified School District's 36,000 teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses and psychologists. With about a third of the union's 28,500 members casting mail-in ballots, Bernstein won reelection by a 3-1 margin over her only challenger, 10th Street Elementary School teacher Robert Matano.