UTLA members at Van Nuys High School were shocked when, at the first faculty meeting of the year, an administrator let loose what they felt was an angry tirade, including telling them, “Van Nuys is not your home.” That line didn’t land well, to say the least (and was later repeated by an assistant principal in two separate PDs). 

“I’ve been a teacher here for 24 years, and I am an alumni of this school, like many other staff members on campus,” Van Nuys Chapter Chair Gary Fraigun says. “I have my graduating class picture on the wall of my classroom. This is my home.” 

Whatever the issue the principal was hoping to address, that wasn’t the way to do it. Members felt the outburst was belittling and unprofessional, and it got the faculty talking about other ways they felt disrespected, like at faculty meetings that don’t begin on time and stretch far beyond the allotted one hour.  

From conversations with staff, Fraigun and Vice Chairs Nicolle Fefferman and Jacob Ferrin-Eoghan came up with an idea for a collective action: UTLA members would wear “Whose House? Our House” buttons at the next faculty meeting and then leave exactly at the allotted one-hour mark. UTLA members took a poll, and a clear majority committed to it. 

This week, UTLA members showed up at the faculty meeting wearing the buttons and ready to leave promptly at 4:23, having set their cell phone alarms to all go off at once. In the end, the alarms weren’t needed — the principal was a no-show, so chapter leaders kept the focus on the agenda, and the meeting wrapped up before one hour. Before heading home, UTLA members convened at the school’s victory stand and did the union clap together. 

The next step for Van Nuys staff: Circulate a petition with formal demands around faculty meetings, including starting and ending the meetings on time and following the agenda. 

The organizing connects with an ongoing effort by UTLA members at Van Nuys to build their Local School Leadership Council to bring more teacher and parent voice into school-site decisions, in part to counter concerns with problem administrators on campus.  

“Last year we went to a training on how LSLCs are supposed to work, and we recognized all the things like PD and school schedules that should be voted on,” Fraigun says. “We said then and there — okay next year, we are on it, and we’ve followed through. We’re showing the power of local union membership at the school-site level, and it’s empowering.”