Last night, the district brought us a calendar proposal that is unquestionably a response to our collective refusal to extend the school year by four more days. Since the district acted unilaterally and illegally last spring by changing the calendar and extending our school year without bargaining, we have been clear that they must engage educators when making changes to the school calendar and that we know what our students need to succeed — which doesn’t include unilaterally turning four random, disruptive Wednesdays with no plan into optional days while extending the school year. This new proposal has only made it more clear that the district is moving even closer to meeting our demands with just the concept of UTLA rallying in downtown after our overwhelming 93% yes vote to boycott and rally.
Our full Beyond Recovery Platform is the only proposed plan that addresses the needs of our schools and tackles systemic issues in our public education system. LAUSD must engage all of it. Our UTLA Bargaining Team also rejected the disrespectful counter proposal from LAUSD from the last bargaining session (that included their salary offer of a mere 8% raise over two years) and held the line on our original 5/12 proposal.
