Los Angeles Teachers

Los Angeles teachers and school district officials might not agree on much these days, but harmony prevailed Saturday when 50 teachers volunteered to work on their day off to help young musicians get a start on their careers. The sounds of flutes, pianos, saxophones and other instruments filled the hallways of the Los Angeles City College Music Building as 150 nervous elementary school students auditioned for a chance at scholarships offered by the Los Angeles City Elementary School Music Assn.

Hundreds of people filled a church near South Los Angeles and spilled out into the streets for an emotional Mass on Wednesday celebrating the life of a popular fifth-grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School who committed suicide in the Angeles National Forest. Tearful relatives, colleagues and students remembered Rigoberto Ruelas as a dedicated educator, who steered children away from gangs, helped them overcome academic difficulties and inspired them to aim for college. "He wasn't just a teacher to me, he was a second father," said 13-year-old Karla Gonzalez, who broke down and sobbed when she took her turn at the microphone.

For Patricia Lowe, a teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Burbank, the past year has been hectic but personally fulfilling. A panel of her peers and administrators made Lowe a mentor teacher, a job that involves coaching new instructors, giving teaching demonstrations and explaining new educational techniques. "It's a stimulating experience for me," Lowe said. "When we're in the classroom all day . . . it's difficult to see what's going on around us.

Los Angeles teachers and school board members Thursday ratified a new contract that will boost teacher wages 24% by 1990 and give the instructors a much greater say in school policy matters. The ratification clears the way for classes to resume today on the 600 campuses of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Leaders on both sides said they hoped that conditions will quickly return to normal in the nation's second-largest school system, although the nine-day strike and the painfully reached settlement could leave some enduring scars in the schools and on the divided school board.

With signs pointing toward a possible settlement, talks stretched from Wednesday afternoon into early today in an effort to bring the eight-day-old Los Angeles teachers' strike to an end and restore labor peace in the nation's second-largest school district. In his most optimistic statement yet, teacher union President Wayne Johnson said he hoped "we can get movement today and settle this thing. I don't think we are that far apart." Describing herself as "cautiously optimistic," school board President Roberta Weintraub said she was "just very hopeful that we will go into this bargaining session and emerge with a contract.

An unhurried trip to Austria and Munich, Germany, leaves May 15 for 23 days and spends extended time in only four areas. Six nights are spent in the tiny town of Mutters near Innsbruck in the Tirolean Alps. Six nights are spent in the Salzkammergut Lake District, an area of mountains and 45 lakes near Salzburg. The last six nights in Austria are at Baden (Bei Wien), which is 14 miles south of Vienna. City tours of Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna are included.

Maddie Hayes and David Addison aren't the only ones who moonlight. An estimated 40% to 50% of Los Angeles teachers make money in a variety of ways beyond their regular teaching jobs. Although they offer a variety of reasons, ranging from creative satisfaction to stress reduction, San Fernando Valley teachers admit the main reason they moonlight is the money. The average salary earned by a teacher in the Los Angeles school district is $28,000 a year, not including benefits.

A chance on charters Re "Whistle-blowers to open a charter," Jan. 18 Congratulations to the Los Angeles teachers who are opening their own charter school. They will have the professional autonomy to do the very best they can for their students without being micromanaged from above. They can manage the school themselves or select someone to be head teacher. They will be able to make key decisions about the budget as well as curriculum, instruction and staffing.

Damien Valentine knows painfully well about a national phenomenon that is imperiling the academic achievement of minority students, particularly African Americans like himself: the pervasive and disproportionate use of suspensions from school for mouthing off and other acts of defiance. The Manual Arts Senior High School sophomore has been suspended several times beginning in seventh grade, when he was sent home for a day and a half for refusing to change his seat because he was talking.

The teachers who went on strike deserve their raise in pay. Those who crossed the picket line are freeloaders. GLADYS FOREMAN Los Angeles