”Today`s preliminary agreement paves the way for our broader contract campaign,” Myart-Cruz said. ”Full collective bargaining is when we, as a union, can put forward all the proposals we are ready and willing to fight for. The time has come to organize ourselves deeply and fight for a proactive vision of public education. As the Delta variant continues to move through our communities, the agreement fulfills our critical goal of extending multi-level COVID safety measures until at least December. Some protocols were due to expire in September. Make sure you attend your chapter sessions and be prepared to get involved and jointly identify issues to be negotiated. What wages, performance and working conditions should we address in our contract campaign? What problems, if solved, would make the biggest difference in improving teaching and/or learning in your chapter? If your chapter has not yet held a chapter issue identification meeting, contact your chapter officials to arrange a meeting to discuss your school`s priorities with your colleagues. ”First and foremost, the agreement recognizes that COVID-19 is still very much present,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz. ”The agreement fulfills our critical goal of expanding COVID safety measures to multiple levels – including regular testing, masking and quality air filtration – to ensure the safety and openness of our schools, and we have received a new quarantine checklist that provides clarity and consistency across the district on how the LAUSD is responding to COVID cases. Health and safety must come first to protect everyone who walks through the doors of our classrooms and workspaces.
UTLA has agreements with LAUSD on volunteer services in the following areas: DIS voluntary staff, personal tutoring services in small groups, fitness services, adult education (DACE), personal assessments and personal tutoring. On February 12, our second reopening negotiation with LAUSD took place. During the first session, UTLA made proposals on three topics: salary and remuneration, special education and class sizes, and HHS staff. These proposals came from the collection of contributions from groups of members representing the different sectors of our union and were approved by the Board of Directors. We informed the district that we were ready for serious negotiations and that we wanted to schedule meetings every two weeks by June. Parents, educators, students and community members of Monroe High in the San Fernando Valley came together today to denounce the so-called student-centered funding and call on LAUSD School Board Chair Kelly Gorez to join them and vote against CFS on September 14. UTLA members overwhelmingly approved the preliminary agreement reached with LAUSD in September. During three election days, from 30 September to 2 October, led by Integrity Voting Systems, 15,791 ballots were cast, of which 97% were in favour (15,344) and 3% in non (447).
During this second session, the district failed to provide us with a counter-proposal to our requests for special education. UTLA`s negotiating team consisted of six special education teachers who spoke passionately and persuasively about their real conditions and why the proposals were essential for them and their students. They told stories about 25 students in a secondary class at the SDC and how it is impossible to give students what they need in such conditions; being a new teacher and not having a mentor; the frustration of having five classes in an elementary class of the SDC; and how often their paraprofessional colleagues are removed from their classrooms to do translations and support other teachers. Their stories were warm and persuasive, expressing why our special education proposals are necessary to improve conditions for special education students and educators. Agreement on the provision of EWC services The work that our UNECE staff do with our youngest learners is fundamental and sets students on the path to continued success, and we are pleased to have reached an agreement last week offering voluntary personal early childhood education services. The agreement is similar to those we have reached for DIS VOLUNTARY services, student assessments, individual tuition, small group tutoring, adult education and certification courses, fitness for team sports, and nurses working in the COVID testing program. On January 29, 2020, we began resuming contracts with LAUSD, focusing on the issues that require the most attention before full contract negotiations in 2022. .