FOR THE RECORD

The union representing Teachers based in Los Angeles last week negotiated a unique contract, which included a provision to help the local school district pay to reduce class sizes in upper grades.

The United Teachers Los Angeles agreed to sacrifice additional raises to enable the Los Angeles Unified School District to finance its $135 million a year plan to shrink classes by two students or more over the next three years.

The United Federation of Teachers has been urging the Bloomberg and Spitzer administrations to make reducing class sizes more of a priority.

The three-year Los Angeles accord provides Teachers with a 6-percent hike retroactive to last July. The union had been seeking a 9-percent increase.

The pay raise, however, covers only the current school year, and future wage hikes have not been hashed out yet.

In California, class sizes are already put at a 20-to-1 ratio for kindergarten through third grades. Funds have been allocated for class-size reductions in several upper grades. But without the latest proposed changes, the 11th- and 12th-grade high school classes would be allowed to average as many 40.5 students, according to the Los Angeles Times.

California spends roughly $2.4 billion a year to help pay for class-size reduction.

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While parents and Teachers clamor to get face-time with Department of Education staff to discuss the school reorganization plan, Principals have been repeatedly solicited for their input.

The DOE has held a series of meetings of Principals and high-level officials at Tweed, convened focus groups to quiz Principals about the new funding formula, and sent out e-mails requesting general feedback. But it's still not clear how much the Principals' input is transforming policy decisions.

"One of my colleagues got an e-mail response that said Principals would be able to 'choose the mix of their investments' in terms of school budgets," said a Principal from a school in a high-needs neighborhood. "What are we now, stockbrokers?"

He said another colleague sent an extremely critical e-mail to the DOE and got no response. "I guess they didn't like what she had to say," he said.

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Our condolences to Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters' Association, on the loss of his father, Francis J. Cassidy.

Mr. Cassidy, 81, died of natural causes Feb. 12. Born June 20, 1925, he was the last survivor of 10 siblings who grew up on East 59th St. in Brooklyn. He served in World War II aboard the submarine USS Hake.

The elder Mr. Cassidy joined the Fire Department in 1957 and served for 29 years, retiring in 1986 at the rank of Lieutenant. He is survived by his son and four daughters: Mary Ryan, Jane Felix, Rita Sica and Elizabeth Hartnett, as well as 16 grandchildren. Services were held Feb. 16 at Santa Teresa of the Infant Jesus Church in Staten Island.

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President Bush encountered skeptical questioning from reporters during a Feb. 14 press conference in which he asserted that a military group connected to the Iranian government had provided Iraqi insurgents with improvised explosive devices to be used against U.S. troops.

After several inquiries about why these claims were more credible than the false ones made by his administration to build the case for invading Iraq, Mr. Bush said in exasperation to one correspondent, "The idea that somehow we're manufacturing the idea that the Iranians are providing IEDs is preposterous, Ed."

We could only think of three words in response: W M D.

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Some eagle-eyed political observers have noticed that Rudy Giuliani's Presidential Exploratory Committee is located in the same lower Manhattan building the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association calls home.

The situation at 40 Fulton St. puts a new twist on "politics make strange bedfellows." The PBA, which had a strained relationship with the former Mayor, rents four floors in the building, located near the South Street Seaport.

"You better not stand by an open elevator shaft," joked one PBA staffer.