LOS ANGELES – On Monday, August 8, 2022, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents over 34,000 employees, formally filed an Unfair Practice charge alleging the Los Angeles Unified School District violated the Educational Employment Relations Act (“EERA”). On April 22, 2022, LAUSD publicly announced “four additional days for accelerated academic opportunities,” without providing notice and an opportunity for the union to bargain as required by the EERA. Four days later, the district Board unanimously approved the extended calendar without negotiating with the union, and has failed to meaningfully engage the Union in negotiations on this subject since then. These four optional “Accelerated Days” are optional for all students and for all C-Basis employees—about 80% of UTLA members. The district chose to add these “Accelerated Days” without first consulting with parents, teachers or other school workers.
The district has overstepped legal boundaries by failing to include the tens of thousands of teachers, nurses, counselors, and support staff in determining the best way for the LAUSD community to manage post-COVID recovery. These optional days will cost the district an estimated $122 million. These funds could be better spent on programs proven to positively impact student learning including establishing smaller class sizes, hiring more counselors, psychiatric social workers and school psychologists and investing in teacher development.
The district also failed to respond appropriately to UTLA leadership who raised multiple practical concerns about the district’s proposal, which included questions on who would staff the proposed optional days, consequences for students who choose not to attend, and the impact on teachers’ performance evaluation for those who opt not to participate in this misuse of educational funding.
UTLA is calling on the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to promptly investigate these charges and have LAUSD immediately withdraw its four accelerated days and return to the status quo. That remedy would enable LAUSD to finally bargain in good faith over the amount and distribution of employee work days (voluntary and mandatory) and other consequential terms and conditions of employment before implementation. Regardless of the outcome, teachers will continue to fight to ensure the district respects their bargaining rights and that the district is held accountable for its arbitrary behavior.
Cecily Myart-Cruz, President of United Teachers Los Angeles said, “Over the past few years, educators and school support staff have been dealing with the physical and mental scars of the COVID pandemic and the devastating impacts housing and economic insecurity continue to have on students and their families. Educators are the ones in the classroom day to day, not Superintendent Carvalho, yet they are being left out of conversations on how to most effectively invest in student learning. Instead, the district has chosen to make hasty decisions that will have more negative consequences for both educators and students, while the contract for more than 30,000 employees has expired. We strongly urge LAUSD to rectify this situation by withdrawing the additional days and bargaining in good faith, so that we can prioritize funding for the programs and initiatives proven to ensure student success.”
Unfair-Practice-Charge-UTLA
3 Comments
Unfortunately the Uvalde shooting spree brings to light a very depressing concept with regard to some Teachers Union priorities and Student Safety.
What ? Yes, we have just read that UTLA is upset about the idea of four “optional” extra days of school and the union is annoyed they were not being included in the discussion as to which teachers will receive the additional pay estimated at costing tax payers $122 million.
Really do the dead bodies in classrooms teach us nothing?
One of the major findings in the Uvalde incident was that teachers had to go out into the hallway (where the shooter was firing his weapon) in order to lock the classroom doors with a key. And further research discovered this is true in most US schools including LAUSD!!
Having that as a backdrop I can not imagine why UTLA and teacher unions everywhere have not made their own safety (even if they don’t care about the student safety) a priority!!!! Self preservation somehow seems to have not registered.
Yes all 3 reasons for not using double sided locks so teachers can lock the door from either side are money, money, and money. The cost of locks themselves, the cost of staff to install the locks, and the potential need to rework the physical doorway to meet ADA requirements.
Really ?
Sad but true but many teachers have not figured out no matter High the union negotiates their salary and benefits ….none of those dollars will matters if they end up in a grave because changing a lock was again a lower priority than a few extra days of extra duty assignment dollars!!
This lack of consideration about safety could be among the factors there is declining enrollment as parents seek a place that considers theirs child’s safety a priority!!!!!!
And before anyone thinks “our poor teachers” are starving to death again Check out the dollars they actually make* and factor in they do not work 8 hours a day as most full time employees do or 12 months a year as most adults must and then there are those Holidays most employees don’t receive. All without mentioning that lack of accountability for student achievement.
When dollars come from taxpayers perhaps STUDENT SAFETY should be on the list near the top rather than at the bottom
* see Transparent California.com — reality can be shocking
THANK YOU for telling the whole story, especially about the 122 million. Also, big props for using the whole quote from UTLA President, Cecily Myart-Cruz! Its sad that I had to look through 3 pages on google search to find your article.
Glad you found it!