The district’s previous offer to the union, UTLA, had been with the same percentage increases, provided funds were available.

“The removal of this language is very significant,” Vivian Ekchian, the District’s chief labor negotiator, said in a statement. “It assures our teachers of the District’s long-term commitment to providing them with the compensation they deserve, in addition to sustaining a robust health benefits package for them and their family members.”

The district is still including a 2 percent lump sum payout for last year.

In negotiations last week, the district said subjects discussed covered a range of subjects, including teacher evaluation, student discipline, grievance procedures, teacher transfers, small-learning communities, campus safety, shared-decision making, school-based management and the student records system known as MISIS.

Neither side has reported any agreement on anything.

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl on “Big Red Tuesday” on Sept. 30, 2014. (Credit: Craig Clough)

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is planning rallies at five locations on Nov. 20 with the duel purpose of demanding a new contract from the district and to participate in the National Day of Action that is being organized by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools.

UTLA is calling on all of its members to participate in the rallies, using some strong language on its website, which says that “a 35,000 member union can’t win a fight against the corporate parasites lined up against us with anything less than 35,000 members active in the fight.”

The rallies are part of a series of monthly “escalating actions” organized by UTLA’s new leadership as it looks to put pressure on the district in contract negotiations. The union’s demands are outlined in the Schools LA Students Deserve campaign, which includes a demand for teacher raises, lower class sizes and an end to “teacher jail.”

UTLA members have been working on a day-to-day contract since the last one expired in 2011. Since taking office over the summer, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl has ramped up the rhetoric and attempted to put pressure on the district for a new contract through his speeches and the union’s escalating actions. This has included hints at a possible strike, which was evident at the union’s annual leadership conference in September. 

Representatives of the union and district have held several contract bargaining sessions this fall, but are still far apart, with district negotiator Vivian Ekchian saying that the union’s demands would “deal a devastating blow to the district’s educational programs.”

The first escalating action as part of the series was “Big Red Tuesday” on Sept 30, where UTLA members were encouraged to wear ted T-shirts, the official UTLA color. That was followed on Oct. 21 with a press conference outside North Hollywood High School which focused on class sizes, with teachers and supporters around the district encouraged to wear a sticker highlighting their class size and student/teacher ratio.

The locations of the five rallies, which are set to begin at 4 p.m. on Nov. 20, are Narbonne High School, Bethune Middle School, Hamilton High School, Monroe High School and Mariachi Plaza.

The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools is a national organization that includes the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union and is dedicated to fighting the charter school movement, the broad use of standardized testing and connecting test scores with teacher evaluations.

Former Port of Los Angeles High School Principal Tom Scotti. (Credit: polahs.net)

After the unexpected resignation of their popular principal left some teachers, students and parents outraged, the faculty at Port of Los Angeles High School has voted to join United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).

Hundreds of people attended the school’s board meeting on Monday and voiced anger over the resignation Tom Scotti, the principal who left Friday to work for another charter program, according to the Daily Breeze.

Scotti had been with the school since 2005, and his departure was seen by some as a response to his displeasure with the school’s top leadership, while others claimed he was forced out, according to the Daily Breeze.

The Daily Breeze also reported there is widespread discontent among students, parents and teachers with the school’s executive director, James Cross, and the move to join UTLA was in response to Scotti’s departure.

Port of Los Angeles High School is an independent charter school with 59 teachers and faculty. In an open letter to the Port of Los Angeles High School community that was presented to the board on Monday and signed by 86 percent of the faculty, teachers explained the move to join UTLA.

“A union will give us a voice and an integral involvement in our school. Our students deserve teachers who are free to express their opinion and who are active participants in the decisions that directly affect our students,” Spanish teacher Mary Marin wrote in the letter, according to a UTLA press release.

A petition was filed on Tuesday with the California State Public Employment Relations Board seeking recognition of UTLA as their union, and faculty will soon begin collective bargaining over wages, hours and conditions of employment, according to UTLA.  

UTLA represents over 900 teachers at independent charter schools in the Los Angeles area and has over 30,000 total members. 

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl (left) and former president Warren Fletcher at a recent UTLA rally

The nominating period for United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) House of Representatives is currently open and will last through Nov. 3.

The House of Representatives is a 350 member body that meets eight times a year to debate policy and vote on motions. Any UTLA member in good standing can nominate themselves by filling out a form and delivering it via mail or in person to UTLA’s headquarters at 3303 Wilshire Blvd. 

The form can be found on page 20 of the UTLA’s September newsletter.

If more nominations are received than available seats, UTLA will hold elections.

So expect school districts to go on a spending binge this summer—Los Angeles Unified School District aims to equip all of its 650,000 students with tablet computers—and then unions in the fall to protest draconian budget cuts and layoffs.

– Allysia Finley in the Wall Street Journal (California’s Shrinking Surplus)

Previous posts: Union Focusing on Jobs; Teachers Vote Against Deasy, For More Teachers; UTLA, LAUSD Prep for Prop. 30 Budget Battle

Board candidate Monica Ratliff talks with a UTLA protester (via KPCC)

District 6 (East Valley) candidate Monica Ratliff was spotted outside at the UTLA rally to hire more teachers/reduce class size. Via KPCC. [*Contrary to the original version of this post, the rally took place after school and so Ratliff didn’t have to take any time off.]

Previous posts: Board Candidates Differ on Teacher Retention, School Turnaround; Sanchez Supports Classroom Breakfast & Teacher Dismissal Initiatives

The above graphic is from Barbara Jones’ excellent Daily News piece on Superintendent John Deasy’s push to dismiss more teachers. The article also includes a sidebar briefly summarizing 83 cases against teachers accused of misconduct in the last 15 months — accusations ranging from “showing students images of naked children” to “paying students to do his work, such as mailing letters and returning phone calls.”

The way the district gives out figures for dismissals makes it difficult to suss out what percentage of teachers are fired for misconduct rather than performance, which was the focus of this LA Weekly article. But the data available sure makes it seem like the vast majority are fired for misconduct.

Previous posts: Increased Teacher Dismissals; Mixed Reactions to New Teacher Dismissal Bill; The “Ineffective” Teachers Game; Tenure Approval Still +90 Percent

Breakfast in class (via TakePart)

“Ending the breakfast program in Los Angeles could cause thousands of kids to start the school day hungry,” begins this recent TakePart story by Vanessa Romo.  “So why are teachers against it?”

The piece describes the classroom breakfast program that’s supposed to take the first 15 minutes of school, highlights the other districts around the country — Baltimore, Houston, Chicago, San Diego—that are doing the same thing, and the controversy that’s erupted among some teachers over the loss of instructional time and the mess the breakfasts have created by being offered in class instead of in the lunchroom. Improvements in nutritional quality and cleanliness are in the works, according to the story — including the elimination of Cereal Day.

Previous posts: Parents Rally for Classroom Breakfast; Union Focusing on Jobs at Tuesday Board Meeting

United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) is planning a major show of force at the meeting and afterwards, calling for reductions in class size (and rehiring of laid-off teachers) .

According to the UTLA website, the School Board should rehire teachers due to the passage of Proposition 30 last year.

Meantime, there are other hot-button issues that may be discussed, including the Deasy budget items (including classroom breakfast), teacher dismissals, and the new teacher evaluation program.  The Board agenda for the May 14 meeting includes numerous decisions, approvals, and member resolutions. (See 05-14-13 Board Order Of Business).

Previous posts: UTLA Softens Criticism of Classroom Breakfast; Deasy Budget Memo; Deasy Memo Foreshadows Dramatic Board Meeting; Board Likely to Back Classroom Breakfast

District 6 candidate Monica Ratliff (via campaign page)

There hasn’t been much mention at all in the mainstream media of District 6 candidate Monica Ratliff‘s role as both the union representative for her school and (more recently) a member of the United Teachers of Los Angeles House of Representatives.

For example, the LA TImes‘ recent re-endorsement of Ratliff doesn’t make mention of it.

But earlier this week, the LA Daily News editorial page came out with a strong endorsement of Ratliff that addressed the issue head-on, arguing that Ratliff’s position as a union representative and chapter chair doesn’t make her a union operative and that her endorsements show she’s not a “union hack.”

In coming days, LA School Report will be publishing information about what a union representative does and how Ratliff performed that role at San Pedro Elementary.  We’ll also be delving into her opponent’s background working for Mayor Villaraigosa and on state ballot initiatives.

Previous posts:  Daily News Matches LA Times Endorsements; District 6 Candidate Commits to Support Deasy; Why the Coalition’s Going All Out to Elect Sanchez

For comparative purposes, here’s the current teacher evaluation form used by principals to evaluate teachers (as part of the so-called “Stull evaluation”).

But there are also a handful of new tidbits, such as the news that Ratliff held a fundraiser last week (attended by Board members Marguerite LaMotte and Bennett Kayser), mentions by name of a few more of the wealthy contributors who have given to the Coalition in support of Sanchez, use of the word  “referendum” to describe last week’s poll/survey of UTLA teachers about Superintendent John Deasy — and the claim that it’s not clear how much the race matters to Deasy’s longevity or effectiveness.  (Obviously, the Coalition doesn’t think so.)

Perhaps most interesting of all, the LAT story describes Ratliff’s latest articulation of her views on Superintendent Deasy.  She tells the Times she doesn’t want to fire him or re-open the search process but rather she wants to “evaluate Deasy with an open mind based on his record, his working relationship with the board and other relevant factors.”

If accurate, this represents a dramatic softening of Ratliff’s official position on Deasy.

Deasy is just finishing his second full year as Superintendent, and served as a Deputy Superintendent for a year before that.  Earlier this school year, the Board voted 6-0 to extend his contract.

Last month, when it was still a possibility that UTLA might strip Sanchez of his endorsement and enter the District 6 race with a clear preference for her, Ratliff told LA School Report that she would “terminate [Deasy’s] contract.

In February, Ratliff told voters at an East Valley forum that she didn’t have a clear view of his performance one way or the other and declined to say whether or not she would give Deasy another year on the job when asked by LA School Report afterwards.

LA School Report has contacted the Ratliff campaign to verify the Times’ account and will let you know if and when she responds.

Previous posts: District 6 Candidate Hardens Position on Deasy Leadership; Union Endorsements Unchanged for District 6

For the last two years, parents at Haddon Elementary in Pacoima have been gathering signatures for a parent trigger petition much like the one seen recently at 24 Street Elementary School.

According to Parent Revolution, the petition drive gathered signatures from about a third of all parents.

But in January, parents voted to put the process “on pause.” The following month, teachers at the school voted to institute a series of reforms by becoming a Local Initiative School (LIS).

According to parent trigger advocates, the petition-gathering process served as a sort of bargaining chip, or leverage.

“They’re being forced by parents to reform the school,” said Esmerelda Medina, a volunteer whose children used to attend Haddon.

But some teachers say the reforms currently being implemented at the school and the parent trigger petitions have nothing to do with each other — and that the trigger process was disruptive rather than constructive.

Unlike 24th Street Elementary, which will be partly taken over by a charter operator after a successful parent trigger campaign, Haddon was not universally seen as a failing school.

Its Academic Performance Index score is fairly strong — 788, up 36 points from 2011. If that rate of growth is maintained, it could reach 800 this year, which is the goal for every LAUSD school.

“The school has improved in many aspects, academically and everywhere else,” said Rosie Lopez, a parent with a child currently at Haddon.

Parents at Haddon organized a parent union chapter and began gathering signatures in 2011.  A letter went out to parents calling for Haddon to be converted into a charter school (although it also said the hope was that the district would institute reforms on its own).

Some Haddon teachers said their own reform efforts were independent of the petition — and actually predated it.

“We knew that the Parent Revolution was going to go forward to try to make this a charter school, but that wasn’t until November,” said Esther Mena-Ibarra, a transitional kindergarten teacher in her third year. “We had already decided to go forward with the LIS by then.”

The school “was on a petition path, but everyone decided it would be better to collaborate,” said Parent Revolution spokesman David Phelps. “The teachers came to the parents and said, look, instead of using parent trigger process, let’s find a way to build collaboratively and turn things around.”

Of all the LIS options, Haddon selected only three. One allows local control over new hires, which will be done through a hiring committee. Importantly, the school won’t be forced to accept “must-place” teachers. The school will also have certain budgetary freedoms that other schools don’t have

“There is not one positive thing the Parent Revolution has done since the organizers arrived at Haddon,” said Mike Gonzales, the former UTLA chapter chair for Haddon who claims that a number of teachers have left the school because of the efforts of Parent Revolution. “They have caused chaos and destruction to the school.”

“If there’s tension being generated now, it doesn’t need to happen,” said Parent Revolution’s Christina Sanchez, referring to complaints about the trigger process. “There’s excitement about the LIS plan moving forward.”

Previous posts: School Board Gives Final Approval to 24th St. Plan; UTLA’s “Wait and See” Mode on Parent Trigger; Two More “Parent Triggers” in the Works; LA Parents Opting for Varied “Trigger” Options

There were lots of interesting tidbits thrown out during the Yale School of Management education summit session on community mobilization held earlier this month in New Haven, and no shortage of quips from panelist organizers Jeremiah Kittredge and Derrell Bradford, Kristen Wiegand, and Derwin Sisnett (moderated by Suzanne Tacheny Kubach).

But the conversation at the end about the parent trigger was to me fascinating, revealing differences among organizers in terms of how they view the trigger, even as they admire its power and pull.

“The best hook anybody has found is parent trigger,” said Kittredge — even as he listed its flaws. “There’s no better piece of persuasion to get people to come back out than the concept of parent trigger.”

Some of the topics that were touched on included the power of storytelling, the difference between mobilizing a community and engaging or organizing it for the long run, the struggle to mesh what advocates want and what low-income communities can and should do. You should really skip the rest of this post and just start listening at the 5 minute mark where the session begins (WS600022).

The panelists – all of them involved in mobilization in various ways – spoke some powerful truths — humble ones, many of them — and expressed chagrin at their results so far and frustration with the funders and nonprofits whose beliefs they share but who don’t understand the world in which they work.

Like advance people on a campaign, organizers are different from those they work with.

However, for me the most engaging part of the panel came at the very end, when the panelists struggled to describe their views on the parent trigger, which is – like it or not – the most compelling, powerful policy option out there. The discussion of the trigger begins at roughly 1:11.

Some panelists like Sisnett said they were for it, felt it kept him and other operators honest.

Others like Bradford were downright enthusiastic:  “I think parent trigger is the ultimate local control,” said Bradford.  “Anybody who says that parents play a key role in education and should be more involved in education should be for parent trigger.  I’m for parent trigger.”

However, one of the panelists did his best to articulate a nuanced view of the trigger.

“We’re all searching for the hook.  I got 50 parents in a room I say, ‘Why should you come out tomorrow?’ The best hook anybody has found is parent trigger. There’s no better piece of persuasion to get people to come back out than the concept of parent trigger.”

Cross-posted from This Week In Education.  Image via YSOM

Via LA Times

Most of the news coverage surrounding last week’s union straw poll on LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy focused on the whopping 91 percent of teachers who expressed “no confidence” in his leadership and treated the result as if it had some sort of real-world impact.

What got left out or minimized along the way was the reality that the vote was really nothing more than a “push” poll crafted by UTLA leaders to generate negative responses (teachers were encouraged to vote against Deasy) and that the result was largely the result of budget cuts and tougher evaluations in recent years that have cost thousands of teachers their jobs and put many more in an angry, uncertain mood.

There were however at least a couple of voices out there challenging the coverage, including Educators 4 Excellence and — somewhat of a surprise — the LA Daily News editorial page.

In the Huffington Post, Educators 4 Excellence executive director Ama Nyamekye described confusion among teachers over why the vote was being called and claimed “the union missed a critical opportunity to have a substantive conversation about what could transform Los Angeles schools, instead forcing teachers to simply choose sides.”

Yesterday’s LA Daily News turned the vote on its head: “They have no confidence that Deasy would put teacher interests above students. They have no confidence that he won’t figure out who the non-performing teachers are by evaluating the success of their students – and fire them. And they have no confidence that Deasy won’t give raises to excellent teachers, which might hurt the feelings of mediocre teachers.”

Teachers are understandably worried after years of budget cuts and the arrival of the energetic (and sometimes imperious) Deasy. Still, last week’s vote was purely symbolic — a sop by UTLA President Warren Fletcher to internal challengers and a publicity stunt crafted for willing journalists.

Previous posts:  Increased Teacher Dismissals; Teachers Vote Against Deasy, For More Teachers; More Failing Teachers Pushed Out Under Deasy

                          Viviana Sosa

I grew up and went to school in South Los Angeles.  I became a teacher in the same types of schools I attended as a student. Despite being so intimately affected by public education, I felt totally removed from critical policy conversations happening in my district and union that shaped my profession and, in turn, the lives of my students.

A few years into my teaching career, I realized I needed to educate myself about the issues confronting my classroom. I began attending my schools’ union meetings, eventually ran for my union chapter chair and won a seat in UTLA’s House of Representatives—the governing body tasked with making decisions that affect all teachers and students in our district.

I thought that by participating in my union where policy is made and negotiated, I could ultimately impact the outcomes of my students. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

I needed to do more than simply engage with my union. I needed to change how we engaged other teachers.

While UTLA is an effective negotiator on behalf of teachers when it comes to collective bargaining, even our union leaders still employ a top-down approach to decision-making. There is little effort to foster conversation, debate and deliberation among members. As a result, teachers are disillusioned with and disengaged from the process that decides the fate of much of our day-to-day lives.

The UTLA’s latest tactic, a “No Confidence”  vote on Superintendent Deasy, is a case in point.

There has been little communication and a complete lack of information about the very reason for this vote. What’s more, members lack the necessary information to make an informed decision about the Superintendent for themselves, and are instead being fed an overtly political and consistently one-sided proposition: “Ten Reasons to Vote No on Deasy.”

This is not how we empower teachers and elevate our voices beyond the classroom – it’s the exact opposite. Teachers should be a part of the conversation, and ought to be informed about decisions that affect our classrooms, schools, unions and district. Yes, teachers have an obligation to educate ourselves about local issues and policy choices, but we all need access to information and a constructive space to discuss issues with fellow teachers.

Too often, union leadership is demanding that membership simply respond to policy initiatives, rather than help determine and shape them. Classroom teachers have an invaluable perspective, seeing on the ground how policies impact outcomes. Rather than asking teachers if the Superintendent should be fired, we should be asking teachers what issues and policies they want prioritized. Instead, we jumped three steps ahead. Teachers were blindsided with the vote of no confidence, given little context of its impetus, and given no perspective on how the vote would actually improve achievement – which is our ultimate goal.

The UTLA’s full-throttled push to force a vote against the Superintendent should serve as a wake-up call to teachers throughout the district.

Regardless of their individual views on the issue, we can all agree that the process did not engage teachers in a constructive dialogue about the priorities of our district. Instead, it forces teachers to choose a side: district or union. This distraction causes us to lose sight of the most important educational priority of all—our students.

But we have the power to change this. It’s time for individual teachers to step up and lead, both inside and outside the classroom. We need more competitive elections for school and union positions, and better communication among our peers. Even more importantly, teachers must do what we urge our students to do: ask questions, think critically and seek out information.

We cannot be afraid of debate or dissent – we should embrace it and create a dialogue about how we can elevate our classrooms and district. We can do that through our union, which remains an all-important lever for change in our schools. But we need to raise our voices and not let others speak blindly for us or for our students.

Please feel free to share your reactions in the comments below.  You can also send oped submissions to info@laschoolreport.com.

Previous commentaries: “Backwards Mindset” in Union Initiative; Reformers By Any Other Name?; Districts Wrong to Rely on Interns, Teacher Says;  Why Zimmer *Really* Switched Sides

Image courtesy Parent Revolution

Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., the decision of the parents over the fate of 24th Street Elementary School is scheduled to be announced at a park near the school.

The decision will be based on a vote of the 369 parents who signed the original parent trigger petition, according to the LA Weekly.  Whichever of the four possible school governance models the parents choose, it will be a historic moment because of the lack of a court fight, notes the Hechinger Report.

But the parent trigger — a controversial state law that gives parents the right to initiate dramatic changes at a low-performing school — is already being used or considered by parents at other LAUSD schools.

LA School Report was first to report that a second LAUSD parent trigger petition has been readied to present to the district — this one at Weigand Elementary.  We can now also report that frustrated parents at a third LAUSD school — Haddon Elementary — have taken a pause from the signature-gathering process they had begun in order to hear from teachers there about changes they might make on their own.

Previous posts: Parent Trigger Ups and Downs;  Varied “Trigger” Options; Contrasting Reactions to Parent Trigger.

The current LAUSD figure is undoubtedly much lower than that, considering that student achievement is not yet part of the evaluation system, and might or might not go up under the new teacher evaluation plan being implemented in September, based on what the New York Times found.

As you may recall from a September LA School Report post, only about 4 percent of LAUSD teachers don’t receive tenure — a determination made in large part through annual teacher evaluations.  The figure hasn’t changed much since Superintendent Deasy arrived.

Previous posts:  Tenure Approval Still +90 Percent

Previous posts: You Say You Want a Revolution; Contrasting Reactions to Parent Trigger