KTLA News: "Affirmative action program to expand opportunities for women within LAUSD" (1980)

uh this is a an historic day in a in the sense that the school district and the uh Center for Law and the public interest were able to negotiate a decree uh not under uh uh the gun of a pending lawsuit but uh we had arms length negoti for the last four months and arrived at this uh mutually acceptable uh settlement I think the school board and the uh staff and the lawyers at the school board are to be uh congratulated complaint and a consent decree the consent decree uh provides that uh for the next 10 years the school board will engage an affirmative action program designed to uh open up job opportunities uh in the school district uh at the principal level and other high level administrative jobs basically speaking the uh decree provides that for principal jobs and jobs above the principal level uh the school district will hire the same percentage uh women hire uh uh appointees and the same percentage uh women in which they apply the school district will engage in good faith efforts to guarantee that no less than 40% of the applicants for all of these jobs are women I would emphasize that the goals set forth in the uh decree are separate by the different job classifications in other words there's a a goal for secondary principal there's a goal for elementary principal there's a goal for area coordinator and so on up to the very top jobs the top five or six jobs in the district are excluded the the uh only other thing I would add is that that all of you know many of you have been with us in the school board many of you covered us for a great period of time I don't think ever in the history of the Los Angeles city school system has a bureaucracy that as large as this school system moved as fast starting in January with the first formation of the meeting regarding women in their administrative positions called by myself Bobby feedler we had women come there from all over the district at that time a motion was made to create a commission on sex Equity other statements were made about what was happening and the opportunities for women in this District within two months after that a basically a suit was filed by the senat of for Law and the public interest by Mr Hunt responded to by our attorneys here today Mr Apperson and Mr Mason and we have responded in a way that I think is outstanding within seven months a major consent to Cree a historic consent Cree has been filed for women in this District we are the first as far as I know in the country I certainly hope we are not the last in the country this is wi why were you willing to settle for less than 50% of the high level jobs it's it's because I believe that that is a superintendent's opportunity to choose those jobs and I believe that that should be left for management let me add a couple of things that I would [Music] uh [Music] this will be the signal to women in the district that indeed they have an opportunity for advancement [Music] the