UITLA’s election drew only 23 percent of the membership

UTLA is headed in a new direction —  mostly veering to the left.

Despite a low turnout, Union Power candidates claimed victory today, with wins in nearly every leadership position within UTLA, the nation’s second-largest teachers union.

The progressive group — which plans to call for a strike if a new teacher contract can’t be negotiated soon — won outright in races for NEA Affiliate vice president, AFT Affiliate vice president, Elementary VP, Secondary VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. The race for President will be decided in a run-off pitting Union Power leader, Alex Caputo-Pearl, against incumbent Warren Fletcher.

“This shows that our members want UTLA to pro-actively and assertively fight against the attacks on the profession, while fighting for a clear vision of quality schools that we build through aggressive organizing with members, parents, and community,” Caputo-Pearl said in a statement.

Although he fell short of getting 51 percent of votes in the first round, Caputo-Pearl says he’s confident he’ll come out on top in the end.

“The organizing that led to these successes today,” he said, “will propel us to victory in the fight for a pay increase, for class size reduction and increases in staffing, against teacher jail, and around all of the other issues that are critical in public education today.”

Fletcher received fewer than half the votes Caputo-Pearl captured. He responded to the news in a statement, saying, “The results of the first round of the UTLA election were fairly unambiguous. The voting membership has decisively signaled the desire for a change in direction. To assert otherwise would be to deny an obvious reality.”

“I am confident that UTLA, whether under Mr. Caputo-Pearl’s leadership or mine, will move forward into the next three years with the common goal of fighting for what is best for students, for schools, and for the classroom,” he added.

John Lee, Senior Executive Director of Teach Plus in Los Angeles, told LA School Report that Union Power “was clearly the best organized among the different groups,” evidenced by their ability to get the endorsement of more than 250 UTLA chapter chairs. But Lee says the group’s sweep is far from a mandate on anything, given the total number of ballots cast. Only about 23 percent of UTLA’s 31,552 members participated in the election. And even Arlene Inouye, the incumbent treasurer who had the most votes (4,231) in her race, received only 13.5 percent of the total votes cast.

“When you’re talking about only only a quarter of members voting, that tells us that the majority of UTLA members aren’t engaged,” Lee said. “That means you have this vocal minority who are setting the direction for the union.”

Several Teach Plus fellows launched a petition initiative to increase UTLA member participation by allowing online voting but the endeavor is on hold until after the elections.

Gregg Solkovits came in third in the run for president, ending his bid for the position once held by his mother.

“Whoever is the next UTLA president is going to have to face the dilemma that unless you get UTLA well organized and ready to fight, then UTLA becomes increasingly powerless,” he told LA School Report.

Throughout his campaign Solkovits, like Caputo-Pearl, said the union has failed exert any strength over Superintendent John Deasy or the school board in negotiating a new teacher contract. The last contract expired two-years ago, leaving teachers and the district to operate under a temporary contract.

“My plan also was that we make sure that every school has a chapter chair then the union would have the ability to threaten a strike, Solkovits said. “A union that can’t threaten a strike is basically at the mercy of management.”

And that’s not a Union Power idea, he said, “that’s basically Union 101.”

*Clarifies Teach Plus involvement in election process.

Previous Posts: Misunderstood election rules cause friction among UTLA candidates; Tensions rise among UTLA candidates, take on issues and each other; At a UTLA candidate forum, issues break out within the mudslinging.

The union has shown signs of deep fracture lately, and with just 20 percent of the union’s 35,000 members expected to vote, the winner’s message will have to capture the votes of just a couple thousand teachers, in a long and drawn out process that begins on Feb. 25, and might not end until spring.

At the same time, with the union facing declining enrollment and revenue, the race is set to highlight a debate raging about its role, goals and tactics: should it stick to bread and butter issues of pay and contracts, or expand its mission to tackle race and equity? How confrontational should it be?

At this early juncture, 10 candidates, all of them men, are vying for attention in the first round of balloting (see ballot order here). Here’s a snapshot look at them:

Warren Fletcher

As current president of UTLA, Fletcher has both the advantages and disadvantages of the incumbency. He’s become the target of left-leaning activists who see him as too moderate and unwilling use tactics like strikes and protests.

But at the first presidential candidate forum, Fletcher defended his leadership, saying that members are better off today than they were when he took office. As achievements, he pointed to furlough days being eliminated, the district’s putting a stop to annual RIF cycles, and that both Adult and Early Education were saved from complete elimination. He also pointed to the cap placed on the Public School Choice program (which allowed failing schools to be reconstituted as charters), and how he campaigned on behalf of two school board members – Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff – against reform backed candidates. He’s advocated for a pay hike and pressed the district to rehire teachers.

In 2011, Fletcher defeated seven other candidates and prevailed in a runoff, succeeding A.J. Duffy. Previously he has served on UTLA’s Board of Directors and in the House of Representatives. He started with LAUSD in 1978 as a teachers’ assistant and became a classroom teacher in 1983.

Alex Caputo-Pearl
Well positioned as a formidable Fletcher opponent, Alex Caputo-Pearl is running at the top of a slate called “Union Power” – that includes seven colleagues running for other down-ballot positions.

Caputo-Pearl represents a faction within UTLA that is clamoring to push the union to the left. The platform includes social equity issues, creating a “credible threat of a strike”; a pushback on Breakfast in the Classroom; and a double digit salary increase. Caputo-Pearl told LA School Report last year that current leadership is “overwhelmingly defensive and reactive … taking things issue by issue,” and that’s not “going to help build quality schools.”

To strengthen UTLA’s leverage, Caputo-Pearl says he will develop a coalition branch and a communications department and will cultivate a team of researchers and experts “to frame the debate” on big issues like the Common Core.

Caputo-Pearl is currently a member of the UTLA Board of Directors and a teacher at Frida Kahlo High School. He spent more than half of his 22 years of teaching at Crenshaw High School, where he started the Coalition for Educational Justice. As a vocal opponent of reconstituting Crenshaw after it was found to be failing by the district, he was not rehired by the new administration. Website: unionpower2014.org

Gregg Solkovits
Now in his second term as UTLA Secondary Vice-President, Solkovits is well known figure within the union – his mother served as UTLA president starting in 1979, and he has held numerous leadership roles within UTLA.

Solkovits is seen as a moderate, and talks about trying to find new voices and ideas from union membership. “There are a lot of younger teachers, people with divergent points of view,” he tells LA School Report. “We need to listen to them.” On his website he says he will “appoint a diverse body of activists to propose changes to position UTLA for the fights of the future.”

At the first candidate forum, Solkovits argued it’s time to update UTLA’s governing structures and constitution. “The constitution was written in 1969 . . . and it sets up a system where there are a lot of chiefs without much input from average members.”
“I would get rid of it, rewrite it, and make it easier to pass motions.”
The position Solkovits is vacating to run for president will be the only open seat. Solkovits has been an LA Unified high school teacher for 28 years.
Website: gsolkforutlapresident.com

Bill Gaffney
A dark horse in the race, Gaffney is a moderate who talks about needing to create a productive relationship with the LA Unified district. He became involved with UTLA in 2007 after the district-wide payroll system changeover, which left thousands of teachers without a pay-check.
“I had not been paid in three months and saw little being done on our behalf,” he says on his web site. “The lack of action and compassion I experienced encouraged me to run for Chapter Chair, a seat I ended up winning.” His plan as president includes a salary raise and a stipend for ongoing professional development. Gaffney may get some help from teachers who don’t usually get involved with ideology of the left. He was recently featured on the website of The Teacher Action Network, led by GreenDot founder, Steve Barr. Gaffney is a science teacher and basketball coach at Fulton College Prep in Van Nuys. He’s been a teacher for 28 years. Website: www.billforutlapres.com

David Garcia
With a battle cry of “Don’t let the rats steal your money,” Garcia doesn’t sugar coat his message. As a a former Navy corpsman and Gulf War veteran he calls the leadership of UTLA “incompetent” and “pseudo-leaders.”

Laid off in 2010 because of budget cuts, Garcia is now a substitute teacher who is a frequent speaker at LAUSD school board meetings.  His flier, “Revolution Solution,” promotes lowering union dues (with the promise to return dues if UTLA fails to represent them), teacher self-evaluation, and making all officer and board meetings open to the public. Garcia is against UTLA’s push for a 17.6 percent salary increase. “Regular people are losing money,” he said at the presidential candidate forum in January, “and a raise would alienate us from them.” Instead, he says the union, especially teachers, “need to build up a positive image within the community.”

As a parent of four children in the school district, Garcia says he favors randomly searching students for weapons and contraband. He ran for UTLA president in 2011 and received just 1.5 percent of the vote, but this year he could benefit from having drawn the top position on the ballot.

Saul Lankster
Once a charter school teacher and supervisor, Lankster now calls for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools within LA Unified. He says of charters, “I know of the manipulation of test scores, the rip off of public funds provided for children, the exploitation of teachers who oftentimes cannot defend their labor or professional rights in many charter schools.”

Listed on the ballot as “Saul ‘the fighter’ Lankster,” he says he will negotiate a teacher pay raise in his first 18 months in office and put an end to policies that he says target well-paid teachers and land them in “teacher jail.” Now a teacher at Huntington Park High School, Lankster grew up in Alabama and, according to his website, was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and went to jail with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Website: saullankster.com/home.html

Kevin Mottus
A candidate who is focused primarily on health issues, Mottus, is a familiar face at school board meetings where he has frequently spoken out to warn of adverse health effects of wireless digital devices. Last year he presented a motion before the UTLA house of representatives to adopt a policy that would require employees be informed when there are changes in their exposure to environmental hazards including electromagnetic radiation. The motion was adopted. His platform includes a plan to restore PPO medical coverage for members and include disability insurance in union dues.

Mottus is a registered coach for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and helps children and adults with learning disabilities and dyslexia. He works as a psychiatric social worker at the School Mental Health Department at LAUSD, focusing on students with behavioral problems.

Marcos Ortega II
A teacher who has been sitting in “teacher jail” since October for allegedly assaulting a student, Ortega has no other issue he cares more about.

Ortega wants to reform the investigation process for accused teachers. “Teachers are powerless,” he told LA School Report. “A student can accuse you and boom, you’re pulled out of a classroom and thrown in teacher jail for who knows how long,” he said. Ortega also says the current UTLA leadership has eroded the public’s perception of teachers. “The public isn’t with us anymore and I blame our representation,” he said. Finally, he’d like to change the UTLA’s identifying color from red to “anything else.”

Innocent O. Osunwa 
A labor lawyer and English teacher at Stevenson Middle School, Osunwa is one of two candidates who did not participate in the first candidate forum. He is also a relative newcomer to the field, declaring his candidacy during the do-over filing period, which was opened by UTLA to allow potential candidates to pay their back dues to run.

Osunwa has had some previous political experience although his last run for office was probably less successful than he intended. As a write-in candidate for the 32nd Congressional District in California, he lost to Democrat Hilda Solis, 130,042 to 8.

“There was a mistake,” he told LA School Report. “I am a Republican. They listed me as an independent.”

One of his major campaign issues, he said, is the union’s labor contract with LA Unified. “It has too many loopholes in the way it is worded,” he said. “It has teacher protections, but on the other hand, teacher protections are taken away.” Also, he said, the system of teacher evaluation is “too subjective.”

Leonard Segal
A substitute teacher since 1995, Segal is one of two candidates who did not participate in the first candidate forum. He is the North Calling Area Chapter Chair on the Substitute Teachers Committee and was the NEA Substitute Teacher Caucus Chair from 2003 to 2011.

This is Segal’s second bid for the presidency. He ran in 2011 receiving just over 3 percent of the vote in a field of eight. If that race is any indication, Segal might have entered the race in order to throw his support behind the candidacy of current president Warren Fletcher.  When he ran In 2011, Segal used the advertising space allotted to him in the election edition of the United Teacher to promote his competitor, or perhaps ally, Warren Fletcher.

Bill Gaffney, one of ten candidates for president of UTLA

The Los Angeles teachers union election process is long – from February to July – and a lot like a reality show, with multiple voting rounds to knock out candidates/contestants, until finally, there’s only one person left standing.

That’s especially true in the race for UTLA president, which has 10 men competing for the chance to lead about 40,000 teachers, counselors, nurses, and other health and human services professionals.

Eight of them faced each other for the first time yesterday, in the first forum of the campaign season. It was held at Thomas Starr King Middle School in Silver Lake, organized by the school’s chapter chair for members of the North Area. Fewer than 40 people attended, and that included candidates for other offices.

Over the course of an hour incumbent Warren Fletcher, Gregg Solkovits, Alex Caputo-Pearl, David Garcia, Bill Gaffney, Saul Lankster, Marcos Ortega II and Kevin Mottus answered questions touching on the union’s successes and failures over the last three years under Fletcher; they addressed the causes of the achievement gap and how to close it; and the opportunities and challenges in LA Unified.

Without wasting any time they all agreed — even Fletcher — the current state of the union is fractured and plagued with in-fighting.

“One of the great challenges we face is disunity,” he admitted to the audience, which, ironically all appeared to be united on this issue.

And, although Fletcher said “discourse is healthy” he cautioned members against becoming entrenched in their differences at the risk of losing recent gains made for the union, such as the passage of Prop. 30. Referring to the extra infusion of cash to the district from the tax initiative, he said, “we need to make sure we don’t fritter it away by being at each others throats.”

All the other candidates blamed Fletcher for the lack of cohesion and clear messaging.

Gaffney, a 28-year teacher, said Fletcher has been an ineffective collaborator and union officers have failed to lead or devise a strategic plan.

“We’re just putting out fires,” he said, throwing his hands in the air.

“We haven’t been able to put ourselves at the table with power,” Caputo-Pearl argued. Instead, “we privately negotiate with school board members and that doesn’t work.”

To strengthen UTLA’s leverage, Caputo-Pearl said he would develop a coalition branch, a communications department, and also cultivate team of researchers and experts “to frame the debate” on big issues like the Common Core.

Solkovits also argued UTLA’s governing structures and constitution are outdated. “The constitution was written in 1969 . . . and it sets up a system where there are a lot of chiefs without much input from average members,” he said in an interview before the event. “I would get rid of it, rewrite it, and make it easier to pass motions.”

But as much as the non-Fletcher candidates blamed the current leadership, the real villain of the night was not in the room: Superintendent John Deasy.

Garcia came out swinging, calling Deasy “Evil Von Sleazy.” He proceeded to punctuate each response by tossing the microphone on the lectern until he was asked to be more respectful of school property.

Lankster accused Deasy of being a “corporatee” and in league with corporate interests.

On a similar note, Fletcher received a smattering of applause when he said, “Deasy was sent to this town to dismantle UTLA” and that the superintendent views LA Unified as a “drill and kill district” for charter organizations hoping to privatize public education.

Mottus suggested Deasy is deliberately ignoring scientific evidence that the district’s wi-fi infrastructure is jeopardizing the health of students and teachers.

Ortega, who says he’s been “trapped in teacher jail” since October, said Deasy’s mission to rid the district of bad teachers has caused irreparable collateral damage.

“Deasy cast a big net and it’s catching sharks and barracudas but it’s also catching guppies and angelfish,” he said.

The low turn out was especially poignant in light of the stream of comments about teacher disenfranchisement.

Throughout the question and answer session, only Fletcher made a brief mention of cuts to the district’s Adult Education programs. That was disappointing to Veronica Toleda, a family literacy programming coordinator at 15th Street Elementary School, who supports Mottus.

“That’s the reason I came,” she said. “I think the people in charge now only focus on K-12 teachers. They forget that adult education teachers are in the union too, and they don’t support us.”

Other topics that received very little attention: teacher evaluations, the Common Core, standardized testing, and the district’s billion dollar iPad program.

Wil Page, the school chapter chair who organized the event and moderated the Q&A session, said that was due to time constraints.

“This is a really long election cycle and I’m sure we’ll get to all of those questions in the time to come,” he said. “This was more like an elimination round. I don’t know who I’m voting for yet, but I know who I’m not voting for after tonight.”

Previous Posts:

School Board Members LaMotte, Garcia and Galatzan all showed up in green

What began as a breezy LA Unified School Board meeting on Tuesday turned, not surprisingly, into a long, tedious, sometimes rancorous session, with a host of issues discussed but rarely resolved. A number of key votes were postponed, and Superintendent John Deasy’s highly anticipated budget presentation was postponed until the Sept. 10 board meeting so it could be considered in the broader context of the 2013-14 budget.

Here are some of the highlights:

• One new feature of Richard Vladovic‘s newly begun presidency (aside from creating a number of new committees) was to order senior staff, including instructional superintendents, to attend board meetings. In many cases, when public commenters brought issues to the school board, Vladovic urged the visitors to meet, on the spot, with the district staffers.

• The Board debated the $113 million budget for implementing the new Common Core State Standards — although voting on the budget was postponed until next month. LAUSD Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino pointed out that roughly 75 percent of the budget is set to go toward helping teachers.

Teachers union President Warren Fletcher was none too pleased.

“Having looked at the budget,” he said, “I am sadly taken aback by how thin it is. I don’t think it was well thought through. We will not make progress if dollars are used to build an out-of-classroom bureaucracy.”

A recent online survey by teachers union members showed that teachers feel unprepared for the Common Core transition.

UTLA Vice President Gregg Solkovits struck a more conciliatory tone, saying he was speaking on behalf of “classroom teachers who are not afraid to embrace the Common Core standards.” He urged the board not to rush its implementation. Deasy said that there was “real wisdom” in that comment and pointed out that the district’s plan is to take four years to transition to the new curriculum.

• The deal to hire Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana and loan her to Mayor Eric Garcetti‘s office and be reimbursed by the city was approved unanimously without discussion.

• Another charter co-location dispute arose, this one between Lorena Street Elementary and Extera, a charter operator. Proposition 39 requires LAUSD to share public school facilities equitably with charter schools, leading to sometimes testy co-locations, where district schools and charters share campuses. Just how much space is up for grabs is the subject of an ongoing court battle – in fact, chief counsel Dave Holmquist said the district is filing a brief with the Supreme Court of California on Wednesday.

The dispute spurred board member Steve Zimmer to ask that the board direct the superintendent’s staff to lobby the state to suspend Prop 39. That motion will be voted on next month.

• Member Bennett Kayser‘s motion to convene public input meetings and establish budget priorities passed 5-1, with Tamar Galatzan voting no and Monica Garcia absent.

*Correction: An earlier version incorrectly described the way a charter school shares facility space with a public school.

Previous posts: Vladovic Adds Committees, Doles Out Assignments; Now: Live Tweet LAUSD School Board Meeting; Melendez to Be Hired Under Unusual Salary Arrangement; Deasy to Board: Your Wish List Could Cost $1.4 Billion; Board Preview: Deasy Will Present Hiring Options and Their Cost

Clockwise from left: Warren Fletcher, Gregg Solkovits, Alex Caputo-Pearl, Jose Lara

The teachers union’s annual Leadership Conference starts today (click here to see the program), and perhaps the biggest question on members’ minds is who will rise to challenge UTLA President Warren Fletcher as he seeks reelection in January.

Filing won’t officially begin until December, but the campaign season begins today.

“Most slates [of candidates] are going to be announced this weekend,” said UTLA Area Chair Jose Lara. “There will be flyers passed out at all the general sessions. There will be socials, and campaign parties, so to speak.”

Fletcher is expected to run for a second three-year term. Alex Caputo-Pearl, a former teacher at Crenshaw High (which has been reconstituted) is widely assumed to be running for president on a slate of candidates supported by the Progressive Educators for Action, or PEAC, a caucus within UTLA whose platform includes a call to end “the growth of corporate charter schools” and “standardized testing to determine students’ futures.”

Caputo-Pearl declined to comment.

Lara himself said he was “still deciding whether or not to throw my hat into the ring.” Lara, who is also running for the El Rancho Unified Board of Education, has been a fierce critic of Fletcher.

“Warren Fletcher has led our union down the wrong direction,” he said. “We have seen a series of constant losses. Any victories we get are despite Warren Fletcher, not because of him.”

As examples, he cited  the passing of Proposition 30 and Monica Ratliff’s shocking victory over Antonio Sanchez for LA Unified board member. UTLA had endorsed both candidates, and Fletcher actually showed up to Sanchez’s campaign night party.

Lara added that Fletcher had done nothing to back up UTLA’s Initiative for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve, which the membership passed overwhelmingly after Fletcher lent his support to it and called for the union to take a more aggressive stance on district policies, such as class sizes and the restoration of Adult Education.

“Warren has done everything to disrupt campaign,” said Lara. “He has paid lip service to it, [but also] obstructed it.”

UTLA Vice President Gregg Solkovits is also considered to be a possible candidate; he didn’t return a phone call, seeking comment.

One last possibility is a slate of “school-reform” minded teachers, akin to those involved in the now-defunct NewTLA, which hasn’t met for about a year. Although they are currently not organized under any one group, they are associated with organizations like TeachPlus and Teachers for a New Unionism. These teachers are more amenable to reforms favored by Superintendent John Deasy, such as the use of test scores in teacher evaluations.

A few of these teachers are planning to present a proposal at the conference that would take all UTLA voting online.

The conference will also include “core training,” which, according to the program’s introductory letter, will “offer concrete guidance on three pressing issues: countering the destabilizing threat of Parent Trigger, understanding teacher evaluation, and building better schools through community and political organizing.”

Other highlights include caucus meetings, Fletcher’s “State of the Union” speech and a screening of the film Lincoln.

Previous posts: LA Teachers Proposing Online Voting System for Union Elections; ‘Political Season’ Starting with UTLA Leadership Conference; Union President Likely Faces 2014 Challengers

UTLA President Warren Fletcher

Warren Fletcher’s three-year term as UTLA President is heading into its last year, and while the teachers union election is a long way off it seems likely that he will face a challenger or two.

One of the potential challengers is a teacher activist from Crenshaw High school.  The other is a current UTLA Vice President.

Depending on how it turns out, the election could be seen as a referendum on how successful Fletcher has been at bridging the gap between pragmatists and hard-liners within the union.

Caputo-Pearl, left, phone-banking for Steve Zimmer in March

Fletcher is expected to run for reelection, although filing doesn’t officially open until December and the election schedule has not been set.

It is not uncommon for a union head to be challenged for re-election.

One teacher widely rumored to be considering a run against Fletcher is Alex Caputo-Pearl, a history teacher at the beleaguered Crenshaw High School.

Caputo-Pearl would likely take a tougher stance against the more moderate Fletcher, who had the support of NewTLA (a caucus of teachers more open to reform) when he won a close election in 2011.

Caputo-Pearl is a member of the UTLA Board of Directors, as well as the Progressive Educators for Action, or PEAC, a caucus within the union whose platform includes a call to end “the growth of corporate charter schools” and “[t]he use of standardized testing to determine students’ futures.”

Caputo-Pearl was one of the architects of the Initiative for the Schools LA Students Deserve, a resolution that called for UTLA to adopt a more aggressive approach toward advocacy. Speaking to LA School Report at the time, he called the initiative “an implicit and explicit critique” of the union.

“Current UTLA leadership has basically tried to deal with things in an overwhelmingly defensive and reactive way, taking things issue by issue,” said Caputo. “We don’t think that’s a strategy that’s going to help build quality schools.”

Caputo-Pearl did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether he was running or not.

Solkovits

Also rumored to be mulling a run is UTLA Secondary Vice President Gregg Solkovits (pictured, left).

Now in his second term, Solkovits will be termed out next year under union bylaws that limit officers to two consecutive terms, each lasting three years.

Solkovits is a somewhat controversial figure within UTLA.

While the union endorsed Eric Garcetti for Mayor, Solkovits spoke out against Garcetti and an LA County Federation of Labor meeting. When the incident was reported by LA Weekly‘s Gene Maddaus, some within the union were calling for Solkovits to resign.

Solkovits got himself into hot water again a month later when the LA Times‘s Howard Blume reported that rumors were flying about a deal cut between Solkovits and School Board candidate Antonio Sanchez.

“According to people with knowledge of the matter,” Blume wrote, “Solkovits has said that Sanchez, if he wins, would let United Teachers Los Angeles choose his chief of staff.”

Both Solkovits and Sanchez vehemently denied any such arrangement.

Asked about his plans, Solkovits told LA School Report he hasn’t decided yet.

“I have not made a decision on whether or not I am going to run for ANY UTLA office,” said Soklovits in an email. “I was an English and Social Studies teacher at James Monroe High for 28+ years and miss it every day.”

Fletcher’s allies note that the union is in pretty good shape.

There were no Reduction in Force notices (often called RIFs or pink slips) handed down this year, the school year was restored to its full 180 days and a UTLA-backed resolution to hire more teachers is expected to pass.

Fletcher outflanked critics by getting behind the PEAC Initiative, which passed overwhelmingly.

The election of teacher Monica Ratliff to the School Board was arguably a huge win for UTLA under Fletcher, as was the successful re-election of Board member Steve Zimmer.

Previous posts: Union President Volunteers for Pay Cut; Teachers Vote Against Deasy, For More Teachers; Rumors Swirl Around Sanchez Staff Possibilities; UTLA Official Kneecaps Mayoral Candidate Garcetti; April Vote Will Highlight Union Factions

“It is sad that the Times has chosen to print rumors and innuendo, instead of doing the necessary research to either substantiate or disprove those rumors,” wrote UTLA President Warren Fletcher on the union’s website. “At no time has UTLA entered into any secret agreement with any candidate running for the L.A. School Board regarding staffing or any other subject.”

The three names dropped in the Times story  — all with strong ties to UTLA  — all denied making any deal, as did Sanchez, according to the Times.

But there’s another Sanchez chief of staff possibility that’s been floating around who has strong ties to the Mayor, LAUSD, and other school reform advocates.

The position of Board Member chief of staff is a fairly new one. Until 1975, Board Members were elected “at large,” meaning they didn’t even have separate districts, and shared from a pool of secretaries. In 1975, they were given their own districts and own secretaries. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Board Members started to get their own budgets and their own staffers.

Previous posts: District 6 Candidate Commits to Support Deasy; Forum Scheduled for District 6 Candidates; Union Funding One of Two Endorsed Candidates

UTLA Vice President Greg Solkovits

On Monday, Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel gained the endorsement of the powerful LA County Federation of Labor — an umbrella group of county unions. Greuel is supported by nearly every large union in the city (with the exception of UTLA).

But, intriguingly, it was a member of the UTLA leadership, Gregg Solkovits, who helped convince the County Fed to endorse Greuel, and not her rival Eric Garcetti — even though UTLA endorsed Garcetti several weeks ago.

According to Gene Maddaus in the LA Weekly, Solkovits said that Garcetti “had immediately backtracked after receiving UTLA’s support, coming out in favor of the parent trigger law and other aspects of the education reform agenda” and told the assembled union leaders that “he would vote for Garcetti because his union had instructed him to, but that he wanted the rest of the Federation to be aware of Garcetti’s reversal.”

Did Solkovits go off-book? Was this an attempt by UTLA leadership to un-ring the Garcetti endorsement without having to go back to the unruly House of Representatives? Solkovits has not responded to a request for a comment.

Previous posts: Garcetti Praises Reform Strategies, Mayoral Candidate Greuel Supports Garcia, Parent Trigger, Teachers Endorse Garcetti for Mayor