The leadership of the Los Angeles Unified School District reached an agreement with the teachers’ union, UTLA.
“Beutner said the agreement provides for a 6 percent pay increase for school employees and a “meaningful class size reduction.” Further information about the pact, he said, would be released later Tuesday.
“ Beutner said that he is still has “tremendous” concerns about the school system’s financial health but that those concerns must be balanced with students’ needs.
“Today and tomorrow, when school opens, begins a new chapter in every classroom,” he said, noting that “40 years of underinvestment in public education” can’t be solved in one week.
“Caputo-Pearl said teachers will review and vote on the contract Tuesday. The agreement, he said, will bring crucial services to students and impose caps on class size.”
Not clear yet whether there was any action to limit charter school expansion.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Watch the settlement press conference, where both sides get to share:
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We got them to eliminate section 1.5 – now they can’t raise class sizes without negotiations.
Class sizes will be reduced over 3.5 years and capped at 33?
And over that period, every school will have a full time nurse.
They will reduce the student to counselor ratio to 500:1 – instead of the current 1250:1.
They will take out all the condemned bungalows and turn those areas into green spaces.
SPED teachers will get 2 paid days off to help with IEPs.
There will be funding for more community schools with wrap around services.
6% raise without touching healthcare or adding additional hours.
I don’t know about librarians yet.
That’s all I know for now. So far, this is TREMENDOUS!
I think the best thing about all of this is people are now awake. They made their choice – and that is for public schools.
I am so happy! But the fight will continue….
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The radio stations in Los Angeles are having a field day with this contract saying that Beutner has no idea where the money will come from. What’s going to be cut to fund these promises?
No one is speaking to that.
And they should.
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The District is actually paying for very little that is new…282 nurses (funding that wlll probably come from the State’s recent health initiative) and 34 counselors. That’s basically it. The rest is all window dressing, or was already budgeted for.
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To joan
I guess that to fund these promises, Beutner must agree with all congresswomen regarding to tax 70% on people who has income after 10 million earning income annually in LA. What would you think about the possibility? back2basic
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Oh yea, there is indeed contract language regarding charter schools and co-locations. There will also be new legislation in the state regarding them, too.
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From UTLA: Victory for public education!
Summary of Tentative Agreement/UTLA and LAUSD January 22, 2019
After 6 days on strike along with parents, students and community members across Los Angeles, we have reached a historic agreement that addresses major issues impacting our schools, students and professions.
Below is a summary of that agreement.
Privatization/Charter Cap: The Board of Education will vote on a resolution calling on the state to establish a charter school cap and the creation of a Governor’s committee on charter schools at the next BOE meeting.
School Funding: UTLA, LAUSD and the Mayor’s office will jointly advocate for increased county and state funding. This includes but is not limited to funding for nurses, special education and community schools. The Mayor will also endorse the Schools and Communities First ballot initiative and will work together with LAUSD and UTLA on advocating for the passage of this initiative.
Class Size: Complete elimination of Section 1.5, which had previously allowed the district to unilaterally ignore all class size averages and caps. Reduction in class sizes by norm day is as follows and additional equity investment will reduce some class sizes throughout all 4 years:
• 2019-2020 – reduction of 1 student, secondary cap of 39 for ELA and Math
• 2020-2021 – reduction of 1 additional student (2 aggregate)
• 2021-2022 – reduction of 2 additional students (4 aggregate)
• Effective by norm day 2022, the district shall comply with the class size averages and maximums in Section 2.0.
Salary: A 3% retro salary increase for the 2017-2018 school year and a 3% salary increase retro to July 1st, 2018
A Nurse in Every School: For the 2019-2020 school year, the district will hire 150 full-time Nurse positions. For the 2020-2021 school year, the district will hire at least 150 full-time Nurse positions, which will provide a fulltime Nurse at every school five days a week.
Community Schools: By June 30, 2019, the district will designate 20 community schools. By June 30, 2020, the district will designate an additional 10 community schools. These community schools will have additional funding and UTLA positions, including a Community Schools Coordinator position.
Local School Leadership Councils at community schools will have full discretion over all budgetary items outside of School Site Council.
Librarians: For the 2019-2020 school year, the district will hire 41 full-time Teacher Librarian positions. For the 2020-2021 school year, the district will hire at least 41 Teacher Librarian positions, which will provide a full-time Teacher Librarian at every secondary school campus five days a week.
Counselors: The district will hire at least 17 additional full-time Counselors by October 1, 2019, allowing the district to maintain a counseling service ratio of 500-1 per secondary school.
Special Education: 2 release days for testing, access to regular caseload reports, improved language on caseload caps, improved rights for SPED teachers.
Early Education Workday: All Early Educators will have an 8-hour workday inclusive of a 30-minute duty-free lunch
Co-Location: By December 1 and February 1 of each year, the district will provide UTLA with a list of all schools threatened by co-location. At each co-located school site, a UTLA co-location coordinator will be elected and empowered to be part of the development of the Shared Use agreement.
Testing: Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, a joint UTLA/LAUSD committee will be created and tasked with identifying all district assessments. The committee will develop a plan to reduce the amount of assessments by 50%.
Local School Leadership Councils: Pilot as part of a community schools program for majority vote control over school site budget.
“Random” searches: A pilot program that exempts schools from administering random searches will be extended for up to 28 schools. This will be phased in by the 2021-2022 school year and city services will be provided for student safety during the pilot program.
Green Space: A joint Green Space Task Force between LAUSD, UTLA and the City of Los Angeles will be created and be charged with presenting a plan to increase green space including removing bungalows, removing asphalt, creating greener play areas, water retention systems, and Community School Parks by December 2019.
ROC/ROP Prep Period: Prep period for ROC/ROP teachers
Substitute Educators: Increased continuity rate and extended rate for long-term assignments in special education. Expanded protection for late notifications.
Adult Education: Improved language on longevity, part-time leaves and replacing tenured teachers. Agreed on MOU around pay equity and piloted matrix at 4 schools
Workspace for Itinerant Employees: All itinerants will be provided a reasonable workspace at school sites. An appeal process for itinerants to request alternative space will be provided.
Transfers/Magnet Conversion: Ensures that UTLA members at a school site will have a vote prior to a magnet conversion
UTLA Rights: Chapter chair sign off local school budgets and waivers, expanded chapter chair rights for subs and itinerants, including the right to speak about UTLA issues at district-wide and local district meetings.
Immigrant Defense Fund: District will provide a dedicated hotline and attorney for immigrant families and will collaborate with UTLA for further services.
Protection of healthcare for striking adult ed and substitutes.
Protection for striking substitutes to get continuity rate extended with strike.
See the full TA on UTLA.net for more information. This is a historic victory for educators, students and parents. Class-size reduction, limits on testing, access to nurses, counselors and librarians will change our students’ lives forever.
We won this victory through our unity, our action and our shared sacrifice.
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Vote on a resolution to call to establish? Clearly, this multi-step process is there to ensure the cap never be established.
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Yup, that’s a stupid point of agreement. Utterly worthless.
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Class size reduction to 33 students per class? Reducing counselor load to 500 students per counselor? No ban or rollbacks on co-locations but only a UTLA rep informed of co-location plans? UTLA teachers are brave, smart, hard-working, professionally laboring on behalf of their students, loved by the community–they and the students deserve more than this–and they have the power already in their hands to get more–a citywide strike cannot be sustained by a city without the social fabric falling into crisis–this society cannot maintain itself unless its teachers are in care of its 50mil k-12 kids all day every day–teachers are essential, period, but are treated with disdain…a strike has to turn that around and not recover some lost ground but use the power of a walkout plus community support to advance new ground in favor of public education.
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I listened to you on Dennis Bernstein’s program, KPFA.org. I was also fortunate to have been at the panel discussion at Stanford University a few years ago.
I am a retired teacher and was an active Union Member. Teachers are underpaid and must stand strong!
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Marian,
So glad you were listening.
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To All Teachers, Parents, Students and PUBLIC EDUCATION Supporters:
We all need to unite and repeat our strong MANTRA like in a mediation for life:
1) #RealDemocratsSupportRealPublicSchools!
#RealRepublicansSupportTheirCommunityPublicSchools!
#GoodCitizensSupportMainStreetNotWallStreet!
2) Every child in the US is entitled to a free public education
BECAUSE “Undocumented children and young adults have the same right to attend public primary and secondary schools as do U.S. citizens and permanent residents.” according to “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plyler vs. Doe (457 U.S. 202 (1982))”
3) Real Democrats FIGHT PRIVATIZATION in all its forms
BECAUSE all PRIVATE institutions ONLY AIM at LOOTING TAXPAYERS FUND. Most of all, those CORRUPTED corporate RUIN CITIZENS and COUNTRY regardless what country, what races, what education background, what cultures, what family roots and what party those corrupted corporate and authorities come from.
4) CONSCIENTIOUS teachers and politicians of all parties must unite in an agreement to STRONGLY protect PUBLIC EDUCATION AT K-12 SYSTEM with wrap around services.
BECAUSE all young AMERICAN GENERATIONS are the REAL PILLARS of our DEMOCRACY.
In short, It takes so much to organize a statewide or citywide walkout, so hard to organize with community support. All Teachers, Parents, Students and PUBLIC EDUCATION Supporters are putting up a fight in order to have enough power to STOP THE LOOTING and the bleeding OF AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION from PRIVATIZATION.
YES, YES, YES:
1) Teachers should also actively work to ensure that any Democrats running for president support public education. Education must be an issue in 2020
2) Don’t expect co-opted Democrats like Corey Booker, Andrew Cuomo, Jerry Brown, or Joe Manchin to be critical of non-profit charters (or, as the co-opted Democrats like to call them, “public charters”).
3) Parents MUST be able to exercise choice WITHIN the public school system — NOT OUTSIDE OF IT because we should be a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy and it is a path for opportunity.
4) UTLA should have specified AN EXACT LIMIT by the numbers on charters that restricts their looting of public schools and their dispossession of public teachers and students from taxpayer funded school spaces.
5) UTLA should have explicitly demanded the MAX NUMBER for each class.
Please note that all above information are taken from the guru veteran educators:
a) From IRA SHOR January 22, 2019 at 8:01 pm
b) From dianeravitch January 17, 2019 at 1:35 pm
c) From AlwaysLearning January 17, 2019 at 12:33 pm
d) From NYC public school parent January 17, 2019 at 11:50 am
e) From retired teacher January 17, 2019 at 10:56 am
I am heartfelt appreciating all true conscientious heroes in educational career. Respectfully yours, May King
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Great ideas all! In order to make these goals a reality, teachers must be much more politically engaged and demanding of those running for office. We should not accept half answers that corporate Democrats hide behind. We need to force them to take a stand. We need to start questioning the “value” of privatization. They should have to provide evidence that it works. We need to hold politicians and charters accountable. There is still much work to do!
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