Teachers

Lowe's Cos. posted fiscal third-quarter profit that met analysts' estimates. Net income fell to $344 million, or 23 cents a share, from $488 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier, the home-improvement retailer said. Excluding a write-down in the value of some stores and a tax benefit, earnings totaled 24 cents a share, in line with analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue declined 3% to $11.4 billion in the three months that ended Oct. 30.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed cutting the city budget by about $1 billion and may propose raising the city sales tax to help close a $4-billion shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Officials may fire 14,274 teachers if the state doesn't pass along $770 million in federal aid for education in each of the next two years, Bloomberg said.

Re "L.A. teachers union and district in battle over tests," Jan. 28 While there is some possible but heavily debated value to the LAUSD's "periodic assessments" as a tool to help our students learn, is there any question that teachers are a more important tool? With the district looking at mass layoffs, how can it still be clinging to the continuation of these tests? Until the LAUSD's fiscal emergency has passed, any optional item in the budget should be deleted that doesn't involve keeping as many teachers in the classroom as possible.

Authorities Thursday identified a body found on the coast near Montecito as that of a kayaker missing since Jan. 25. With a friend, Daniel Zembrosky, 24, of Santa Ana tried to swim ashore from a capsized kayak, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's office. The friend made it to land and called for help from his father's home nearby. Rescue personnel searched futilely for two days but did not recover Zembrosky's body until it was spotted in the ocean Wednesday.

Nearly 16,000 city school district employees -- including thousands of teachers -- may be told next month that they are in danger of losing their jobs because of budget problems, officials said Thursday. The potential cuts include 10,000 teachers, nurses and other certificated employees and 6,000 administrators. The Los Angeles Unified School District is facing a nearly $900-million budget shortfall over the next 18 months because of the state's fiscal crisis. Teachers must be notified by March 15 if they could get laid off, and final notifications would be issued late in the summer.

Re "A bite out of teachers," editorial, March 11 The Times dismisses saving $60,000 on energy costs, but that represents a classified employee's salary. If urging employees to be energy efficient, as our new policy does, will save one job, I don't believe it is too much to ask. The Glendale Unified School District is weathering not a rainy day but a blizzard of ineptitude from Sacramento. The district is not closing schools or increasing class size. Our teachers still have their jobs.

Jennifer Fitts is in her second year teaching first grade at Oliveira Elementary School in the Bay Area city of Fremont. And it's the second year the 24-year-old has received a layoff warning because of state budget cuts. "I hate this time of year," said Fitts, who is among more than 300 teachers to receive pink slips in the Fremont Unified School District. "I never thought that being a teacher, it would be so uncertain." Fitts was among hundreds of teachers, parents and children marching through downtown Fremont on Friday, one of more than 100 "Pink Friday" protests that unfolded across the state, with students walking out of classes, teachers donning pink clothing and unions holding rallies.

About 70 teachers called in sick Monday to protest proposed layoffs and state cuts to education in the Centinela Valley Union School District, forcing two schools to close early and the hiring of more than 50 substitutes. Teachers at Hawthorne, Lawndale, Leuzinger and Lloyde high schools organized the sick-out last week, said Supt. Jose Fernandez. Of the 70 teachers who called in sick, more than half were teachers at Leuzinger, and 32 had received notices that they could be laid off in February or March, he said.

School officials today will seek a court injunction to stop Friday's scheduled one-day teachers strike. The expected morning filing in L.A. County Superior Court is part of a two-pronged legal strategy by the Los Angeles Unified School District. Last week, the school system filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board in Sacramento. That action, too, could lead to a court injunction against the strike. The school system also unsheathed a weapon in the public-relations war over the looming strike.

The union representing Los Angeles teachers said Wednesday that it would comply with a court order halting a one-day strike that had been planned for Friday. The union will abide by the order because if teachers did strike Friday, members would face $1,000 fines and risk losing their teaching credentials, said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Tuesday granted the Los Angeles Unified School District a restraining order prohibiting the strike.