UTLA’s 85-member Expanded Bargaining Team had another session with LAUSD yesterday.

UTLA made counterproposals to establish Article XXX committees for Arts Education Itinerants, the California State Preschool Program, and Charter Colocation Schools and to allow employees facing catastrophic illness to receive donated leave days. LAUSD made weak counterproposals on professional development and the Black Student Achievement Plan.

Our team also walked though our previous proposals for Class Size, Master Plan, Immigrant Student & Family Support, and Equity, pressing on the district to explain why they are unwilling to agree to our demands on these topics. The district admitted that students need lower class sizes and more counselors, PSWs, PSAs, and psychologists — but they refuse to take action, despite having $3.4 billion in reserves.

More on the topics discussed:

Class Size

  • We pushed hard on our class-size proposal, which includes class-size reduction in every grade level at every school. 
  • The district’s response was to lean into their inadequate proposal to reduce class sizes in just a few grades in just 100 of our more than 800 schools. In a high-poverty district like LAUSD, their proposal would barely make a dent in the need for lower class sizes. We can’t leave hundreds of thousands of students behind because they don’t fit a narrow criteria determined by the district.

More Student Supports

  • The district gave lip service to the need for more counselors, PSWs, PSAs, and psychologists, but said they can’t hire enough people to fill the positions, so they refuse to agree to lower ratios in the contract. 
  • LAUSD is admitting there is a shortage crisis yet refuses to do anything about it — like agreeing to our 20% salary demand and our proposals to improve working conditions to attract and retain more staff.

Deaf Education

  • UTLA is pressing for Master Plan differentials to educators who serve DHH students, but the district is refusing to recognize ASL as a language of instruction, contradicting their own District Resolution on Deaf Education (Res-029-21/22).

  Equity

  • We called on LAUSD to make a written commitment to equity instead of only talking about it in the media. 
  • We are demanding written language that ensures a system of educational equity to redress the inequality that has marginalized generations of students. One of our proposals is the creation of an Equity Committee of UTLA, parents, and LAUSD representatives that would guide that work. 

  Support for Immigrant Students and Families:

  • We’ve proposed that LAUSD fund one immigration clinic in each community of schools, fully fund and expand the existing Dream Centers, and provide indigenous language resources and emergency relief funds for newly arrived students in need.
  • Despite the significant immigrant population in our school district and despite the fact that many teachers take on students just days after completing their journey into this country, often in traumatic and dangerous circumstances, LAUSD says that this is not part of our working conditions, and they refuse to negotiate over our proposals.

It’s clear that LAUSD is trying to narrow negotiations and be in control of everything: money, policies, our profession. 

We refuse to narrow our demands. Each of the elements of our Beyond Recovery platform supports the other. We will not accept piecemeal proposals that move the needle imperceptibly, that boost pay only modestly, that help only a limited number of students, and that ignore the community needs that impact student learning.On October 19 we picket at every site, and we stand up for our full platform of contract demands:

  1. Pay Increases to Close the Educator Wage Gap
  2. Smaller Class Sizes and More Student Support 
  3. End Over Testing  
  4. Equity for Schools and Communities   
  5. Expand Community Schools and Targeted Supports 

LAUSD will be watching on October 19. Your administrator will report to their bosses about the strength of our picket lines. When they see us out in force, they will know our determination to win. Escalating actions showing undeniable unity are the path to win our Beyond Recovery demands.

Share your October 19 picketing photos on social. Tag @utlanow and #UTLAStrong.