UTLA and LAUSD Strike a Deal

Palisadian Teachers to Return to Classrooms

By JAMES GAGE
and CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA

Teachers voted to approve an agreement made between Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles that was presented early Tuesday morning after an all-night bargaining session ended at 6:15 a.m., bringing to a close a strike that had begun on January 14—the first in the district since 1989.
As the Post went to print on Tuesday evening, preliminary numbers showed overwhelming support for the deal, according to UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl.
The Board of Education and union members are expected to ratify the deal next week, according to LAUSD Board of Education Member for District 4 Nick Melvoin.
“The plan is that teachers are voting on the agreement now,” Melvoin told the Post Tuesday evening. “The board is not voting until early next week on Tuesday. Teachers will be back in school [Wednesday]. We know the teachers miss their kids and the kids miss their teachers. We’re grateful for everyone’s patience.
“The Board of Education votes on Tuesday, but the Superintendent has been negotiating with UTLA negotiating teams with the understanding that the Board will ratify.”
“Good news for our families and teachers!” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Tweeted at noon on Tuesday. “After days of tireless negotiations here at City Hall, LAUSD and UTLA have reached an agreement that—pending approval by the teachers represented by UTLA and the Board of Education—will allow students to go back to school tomorrow.”
UTLA sent out a press release detailing certain aspects of the deal, calling it a “victory for public education.” Per a two-page summary released by UTLA, the deal includes a 3 percent retroactive salary increase for the 2017-18 school year and a 3 percent salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2018.
It also includes a guaranteed nurse at every school, with 150 full-time nurse positions to be filled for the 2019-20 school year. In 2019-20, the district will hire 41 full-time teacher librarians and another 41 in 2020-21.
The district will also hire at least 17 additional full-time counselors by October 1, 2019. Importantly, the deal also eliminates a contract provision, Section 1.5, allowing the district to increase class sizes during times of “economic hardship” while simultaneously reducing class sizes incrementally between 2019-22.
A joint press conference Tuesday morning held by Mayor Garcetti, Superintendent Beutner and Caputo-Pearl announced the tentative deal to the public.

“The strike that nobody wanted is now behind us,” Beutner said at the press conference. “I’m delighted that we reached an agreement with the UTLA.”
“We have started down a real path to address class size,” Caputo-Pearl said at the conference, standing next to Beutner. “I’m so proud of our members, classroom teachers, counselors, nurses, librarians, psychologists.”
The agreement will expire in June 2020, and the LAUSD and UTLA will be back to bargaining.
Representatives from UTLA met with LAUSD officials at Los Angeles City Hall over the long weekend, with negotiations between the two organizations continuing through Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 21 and into Tuesday.
During negotiations, Caputo-Pearl argued that the district should tap into its $1.8 billion in reserves to reinvest in public schools, while LAUSD Superintendent and Palisadian Beutner argued that the district is operating at a deficit of $400 million in 2020-21, and that its reserves are fully earmarked for pension payments and health coverage for retired teachers.
The six-day strike has cost the district $125 million in attendance revenue, though the district recouped $50 million of that loss by not paying striking teacher salaries during the strike.
Last Thursday, January 17, teachers, parents, students and other strikers picketed outside Paul Revere Charter Middle School in the pouring rain. Colorful signs waved back and forth as cars drove by on Allenford Avenue and honked in solidarity.
“For me, the strike is a way for us to stand up for our students and put public education first,” sixth-grade math and science teacher Steven Bilek told the Palisadian-Post at last Thursday’s strike.
“We’re lucky with what we have here at Paul Revere but I want to make sure that’s districtwide as well. We’re fighting to get everything for every student, that’s really what it means to me; smaller class sizes, more nurses, counselors, new teachers, the big things.”
Though Paul Revere is charter affiliated, it still follows the same striking guidelines as LAUSD public schools.

“We’ve got 40 kids in a class here, same as a lot of schools, so we’re out here fighting,” said sixth-grade English and history teacher Megan Wright. “The strike means different things for different people and we support what it means for everyone.”
Students also came out in droves to help with the strike.
“I’ve been striking since Monday,” said eighth-grader Andres Rodriguez. “The teachers are out here striking, so it’s only right we show up and help support them.”
“It’s been a lot of fun supporting the teachers,” added seventh-grader Sarah Masso.
Last Thursday evening, a caravan of strikers visited the Palisades home of USGA Executive Committee member William Siart. Siart was accused by strikers of diverting wealth from public schools into private charter schools through his nonprofit efforts. He is chairman at Great Public Schools Now and Excellent Education Development (ExED).
Maria Osoria, a parent of three, was among dozens in the crowd who gathered at the Annenberg Beach House before driving into Pacific Palisades.
“One of [my kids is] getting bad grades because there are about 39 students to each classroom,” Osoria said in Spanish. “My son has an individualized education program and asthma, and it’s very difficult for him to be in that kind of environment.”
“To hear all of these other parents’ stories and to know I’m not the only one is even worse,” said Osoria. “So this is our fight, which we stand united and together in, to get the [LAUSD] to give our kids a fair and just education, because this will mold their futures.”
At 7 p.m. last Thursday evening, after their demonstration at Siart’s home, strikers gathered outside LAUSD Superintendent Beutner’s Palisades home, protesting in his driveway for hours and chanting slogans like “billionaires can’t teach our kids.”
Following the January 22 vote, teachers returned to the classrooms. The ball is now in the district’s court, which will vote next Tuesday but is already expected to vote in support of the deal.