UTLA’s decision to keep teachers on the picket lines and out of schools Tuesday, regardless of whether a deal is struck Monday night, infuriated parents and could cost teachers and the district a total of more than $45 million in losses.

“It is important to know, whether or not we reach an agreement late tonight, we will NOT be going to work,” UTLA wrote on its Facebook page. “Report to picket lines as usual in the morning on Tuesday.”

The patience of parents who had been trying to support the teachers was starting to wear thin.

“If they make a deal, what’s the point in still striking?” said Tanisha Hall, who has two kids at Washington High, one at Bret Harte middle school and one at 95th Street elementary in South L.A.. “This is super irritating. I need these kids back in school.”

While UTLA said that teachers needed to ratify the tentative agreement before ending the strike, some observers said there was no reason they had to do that. The decision means that teachers will lose pay for both the Monday holiday and Tuesday – costing every teachers an additional $20 million and costing LAUSD around $25 million.

That means the total losses could top $45 million for keeping teachers out of the classroom an extra day.

Some questioned whether the real reason was that UTLA had another celebrity-filled rally planned for Tuesday that it didn’t want to cancel. A UTLA flyer posted on social media advertised: “Invited Guest: Alyssa Milano” and musical performances by Quetzal and DJ Phatrick.

Parents noticed that UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl spent Friday in the audience of Bill Maher’s show rather than at the negotiating table.  

“I’m with the teachers getting a fair shake, but not if they’re striking for publicity,” Hall said. That’s foolish and irresponsible.”

With net losses at the district topping $75 million Friday, the union representing LAUSD principals – who have borne the brunt of running schools and supervising kids with skeleton staffs all week – called for an end to the teachers strike, saying UTLA’s demands would “castrate” principals.

“The time has come for the strike to be settled and for teachers to return to the classroom immediately, if not sooner,” Associated Administrators of Los Angeles wrote in its weekly newsletter. AALA also said UTLA’s demands would “usurp” control over school decision-making from principals, including all school expenditures.

“AALA is vehemently against UTLA’s proposals to castrate the little to almost no decision-making authority principals currently have," AALA wrote. “Great schools do not exist apart from great leaders. AALA must go on record petitioning the District to protect the little autonomy principals and assistant principals currently have," or it will become "nearly impossible to meet the needs of the students."

As a day of bargaining at the mayor’s office came to a close with no resolution in sight, Board Member Richard Vladovic put out an almost panicked statement on social media, indicating that perhaps LAUSD should just give UTLA what it wants to end the strike – even though it would result in insolvency.

“I can no longer take the suffering that is taking place by everyone that has been disrupted by this work stoppage,” Vladovic said. “Therefore, I have decided that the District should do anything reasonable to settle these contract demands…Without the support of our Legislature, the Governor, and our labor partners, this District may cease to exist due to bankruptcy, jobs may be lost; and at that stage, I wish whoever succeeds me on the Board of Education has the necessary solutions to address this crisis.”

As LAUSD and UTLA returned to the negotiating table Thursday, student attendance plummeted 37 percent from the day before to its lowest level yet, and the district’s net losses from the strike grew to $57 million.

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and Superintendent Austin Beutner met briefly with Mayor Eric Garcetti to set some ground rules Thursday, and then both men decided to delegate talks to their bargaining teams. The two sides continued to negotiate at City Hall, with the mayor’s staff mediating until shortly after midnight. Talks resume at 11 a.m. Friday and are expected to last through the weekend.

Caputo-Pearl said both sides had agreed to keep the details of the talks confidential, but the sticking points were over class sizes, charter co-locations and hiring. “I would not frame it as us being close to each other,” he said, but “we’ve made an agreement to grind this out until we get an agreement.”

After facing pressure from black clergy and business leaders, UTLA is returning to the negotiating table Thursday, with Mayor Eric Garcetti attempting to mediate a solution.

“We will be in bargaining tomorrow,” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, who met with Garcetti and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond on Wednesday. Talks are likely to continue into the weekend, he added.

In a strongly worded letter sent Wednesday, more than 20 African-American clergy members urged Caputo-Pearl to get back to the negotiating table, saying “the fortunes of African American children do not improve on the picket line."

After losing $15 million in attendance revenue the first day of the teachers strike Monday, LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner called on United Teachers Los Angeles to join him at the table and in lobbying the state to provide the funding needed to end the labor impasse.

“We need our educators back in our classrooms,” Beutner said. “I’m not going to shut the schools. Shutting schools leaves those children out in the rain, leaves them without a warm meal, leaves them without a path, without a promise…We have to resolve this now.”

Attendance was up 13 percent Tuesday, with 163,384 kids going to school without their teachers.

United Teachers Los Angeles has refused to return to the negotiating table since talks broke down Friday, despite pleas from LAUSD parents and an assist from the County Board of Supervisors, which approved some additional funding Tuesday for mental health and nursing at Los Angeles schools.

Instead, UTLA spent the day picketing at the California Charter Schools Association to push for a cap on the number of charter schools, even though that’s not a legal part of the contract bargaining process. Some parents who wanted to support the teachers on the picket line were furious at the assault on public charter schools. One UTLA teacher whose own child attends a charter school posted on Facebook that she declined to participate in the rally.

“I am standing up to improve their school conditions and give them better opportunities for health and learning,” she said. “As for the anti-charter talk, I detest it.”

Striking teachers huddled under ponchos and tents outside in the rain as half-empty buses and parents dropped off about 150,000 LAUSD students at schools for the first day of the first United Teachers Los Angeles strike in 30 years.

Parents at many West Side elementary schools reported sparse attendance – fewer than 100 kids at some schools, and just over 100 at others. Paseo Del Rey elementary school parent Troy Clements brought his three kids in. “I love my teachers here,” he said, but “my kids have perfect attendance, and I wanted them to keep that.” 

Marlton School, a K-12 school in South Los Angeles, which serves many kids who are deaf and hard of hearing, had more than half of their usual students, but only a quarter showed up at El Sereno Middle School, where LAUSD’s Chief Academic Officer Francis Gipson was back in the classroom teaching kids. She was one of 2,000 central office administrators deployed to school sites to help.

Teacher protests at schools were mostly peaceful, although parents at several schools reported problems at drop-off. A parent at Marquez Elementary, an affiliated charter in Pacific Palisades, said picketers harassed her as she tried to take her twins to school, including one with autism and a genetic disorder. 

“I am a working single mother with a disabled child,” the parent told Speak UP. “Picketers blocked our access to the handicap spot and heckled us. LAPD had to move them. It was very disappointing. Once the kids got to campus it was OK, but crossing that line was a bear. It is shameful. If the goal was to make me sympathetic to LAUSD, they succeeded. I thought that was impossible.”

A grandmother at Kentwood elementary in Westchester said that her grandson’s teacher yelled at him as he walked into school and told him not to allow the substitute to sit at or use anything on her desk. “I’m very upset over this,” she said. “I asked her to take a step back.”

One parent volunteer at another West Side school reported that someone wearing union red took her photograph to intimidate her as she showed up to help. And a parent at Braddock Elementary school’s Mandarin Immersion program said a drunk man she did not recognize (and who was not a teacher at the school) walked off the picket line and started an altercation with her and her husband until police were called.

Parents at WISH charter middle school, which co-locates at Westchester High, said picketing teachers blocked the entrance to their valet drop-off, and one picketer flipped off a parent and her kids. 

“The kids were a little upset,” said Chloe Donovan who has a child at WISH middle, a national model of inclusive education for kids with special needs. “They didn’t understand what was going on. It makes me feel a little sad because I definitely support the teachers. They forget we’re all LAUSD families, and we’re all just looking for places to send our children.”

United Teachers Los Angeles confirmed that its members will go on strike for the first time in 30 years on Monday, throwing the lives of parents and kids into disarray as they wrestle with whether to send their kids to understaffed schools or scramble to find and pay for childcare for an undetermined period of time.

“Our members are prepared to strike for as long as it takes,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said Sunday.

LAUSD made new offers last week for 6 percent raises, lower class sizes and more nurses, counselors and librarians. UTLA rejected the latest offer Friday, and no new talks took place over the weekend.

“Los Angeles Unified did not want a strike and offered UTLA leaders a $565 million package to significantly reduce class sizes, add nearly 1,200 educators in schools, and provide all UTLA members with 6 percent salary raises,” LAUSD said in a statement Sunday. “Los Angeles Unified remains committed to contract negotiations and will continue to work around the clock to find solutions to end the strike which will hurt students, families and communities most in need throughout Los Angeles.”

Many parents are worried about their kids’ safety and the quality of instruction during a strike. Debi Anderson has a daughter with autism at Hamilton High and a son in the School For Advanced Studies at University High.

Speak UP: Can you explain the deficit spending part because UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl came out the other day and said, “We have budget documents showing there has been no deficit spending for the last five years.” The union is claiming there is no deficit spending, while LAUSD says they're spending roughly $500 million more every year that than they're bringing in. Can you explain from the county's perspective, is there a deficit, and what should parents believe?

Debra: Well, our definition of deficit spending is when more money is going out than what you're bringing in. And from all of what we’ve seen in terms of LAUSD documents provided to us, they are spending more, and evidence to that is the fact that they're going from a 10 percent reserve to an 0.96 percent reserve [in three years]. So, if they weren't deficit spending, we wouldn't see this reserve dwindling down to below 1 percent.

Speak UP: That make sense. UTLA is also questioning the timing of this letter. Can you explain the timing? It's coming right in the middle of these negotiations. Did the letter have anything to do with that, or did the timing have to do with something else?

Debra: Our timeline is driven by Ed Code, not union negotiations. These union negotiations have been taking place for a long time. We have 80 districts [for whom] we are providing oversight on their budget and certifying whether they have a positive, qualified or negative budget. The timeline per Ed Code for us to make sure that we certify all of these is Jan. 14. So, it's a few days early, but it's right at the deadline. There are a billion and a half kids in LA County. It's unfortunate that the union or other people may see it that way, and I can see why they might because of the closeness in the timing, but if you look at that Ed Code, you know we're following what's prescribed there.

Speak UP: The other thing that the union is questioning is the independence of the county. UTLA is saying that there is some collusion between LAUSD and LACOE, which oversees LAUSD budget. They're basically implying that it's actually the other way around -- that the District is controlling the County Board of Education. Can you address these allegations and tell us whether you are in the district’s pocket and a puppet of the district, as UTLA claims?

Debra: That's absolutely not true. The decision to go in with the fiscal experts, actually the decision is mine. It's up to the County Superintendent, It doesn't even require my Board's approval. So, the question that the County Board of Education is controlled by LAUSD is absolutely wrong. I am a longtime educator, and I care about kids. And when I see a budget that's dwindling down with a district this large, and the impact that that has on children and families and interruption to their instruction, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to do my job and make sure that we're giving them the support that they need. But it has absolutely nothing to do with the union negotiations.

Speak UP: UTLA and a consultant for the administrator’s union did the same thing with Dr. Candi Clark, the Chief Financial Officer for LACOE. They really maligned her personally and attacked the credibility and credentials of this African American woman in a way that was pretty sexist and racist. They implied that she was a puppet of the district, said that she didn't write her own speech to the Board. UTLA claimed they had emails showing that the district wrote her speech. Can you address these conspiracy theories that we hear a lot from the unions?

Debra: That again is another absolute false statement. Dr. Clark is a very strong CFO, absolutely writes her own speeches. Everything that was written in her speech is in alignment with what she's been writing to the district over the past year. There was nothing new in there, nothing different. I was actually with her. We had a meeting, as we meet with all our superintendents in the county. I believe it was about their differentiated assistance, and they were going to have a Board meeting that day. I asked him how we could assist. He said it would be helpful if we would share the information, our concerns that we shared with him, to his Board. I had a board meeting that same day, and I said, "Absolutely, I can't be there but Dr. Clark can stay," and she wrote her speech at LAUSD. She used their laptop, then wanted to send it for us to review because it had to be approved by me. So, because they saw that there was an email that went from LAUSD to her, they made the assumption that someone else or LAUSD wrote her speech, which is absolutely preposterous. I also agree, and I think it's really unfortunate that she's been attacked in an unfair way. And I agree that there's been some sexist and racist remarks that I think are unacceptable.

Speak UP: At one Board meeting, a consultant for the administrators union even publicly called her “Miss Candy Crush or Crunch or whatever.” Do you have any comments about people working for the unions maligning and insulting a public official in this way publicly?

Debra: I find it offensive, and I find unacceptable, inappropriate and, frankly, something that were not going to tolerate. That is just uncalled for.

Despite a new offer from LAUSD to add $130 million to lower class sizes and hire 1200 additional educators and nurses, negotiations between LAUSD and United Teacher Los Angeles ended in impasse Friday. UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said that absent some surprise offer from LAUSD, “Get ready, because on Monday, we will be on strike.”

LAUSD implored UTLA to reconsider its decision to walk away from the table. “We are extremely disappointed that United Teachers Los Angeles has rejected Los Angeles Unified’s revised offer without proposing any counter offer,” the district said in a statement after talks broke down. “UTLA has refused to continue contract negotiations.”

The district is also formally asking Governor Gavin Newsom to intervene. “We need his help,” said LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner. “We do not want a strike. We ask for his help now to resolve this so we can keep our schools open, we can keep kids safe and learning in school.”

The new offer LAUSD put forward Friday was in response to additional funding in Newsom’s budget proposal unveiled Thursday, as well as an additional $10 million the county is providing to beef up nursing services at schools. It would allow LAUSD to add a nurse five days a week at every elementary school. Most schools only have a nurse one day a week now.

LAUSD also offered to lower class sizes by two at every middle school and high school, cap the number of students in grades 4-6 at 35 students and add a counselor at every comprehensive high school. The district is also promising “no increase in any current class sizes.”

But the co-chair of UTLA’s bargaining team described the new offer as “insufficient” and “woefully inadequate” because the new hires were only guaranteed for one year. “That just doesn’t cut it.” 

Beutner reiterated his frustration with UTLA’s lack of movement from what he described as $3 billion in demands that haven’t changed in nearly two years, which he said would instantly render the district insolvent. 

“What is it UTLA wants to avoid a strike? We do not know," Beutner said. "We’ve done the best that we can. If they’ve decided to strike irrespective of what we offer, we’d like them to answer to the community how that helps students, how that helps families and how that helps educators.”

Parents of about 13,000 kids attending LAUSD’s California State Preschool Programs and Early Education Childhood Centers are scrambling to find childcare before Monday after learning that 180 LAUSD preschools will close during a teachers strike to all children except those in special education.

“If the teachers strike, we will not be able to adhere to the teacher-child ratios specified by the state’s Department of Social Services, which licenses the centers,” said an LAUSD spokeswoman, who advised parents to check a list of the schools here. The closures are “for the safety of our students,” added Dean Tagawa, executive director of LAUSD’s Early Childhood Education Division.  

UTLA has threatened to have teachers walk off the job Monday, Jan. 14 unless a deal is reached, and a court on Thursday confirmed that the strike date was legal. The news of preschool closures came as a shock to parents who had been told that all LAUSD schools would remain open during a strike. 

“It’s really hard,” said former Board District 5 candidate Justine Gonzalez, Speak UP’s Parent of the Month, whose daughter attends one of the early educations centers that will close. “I have to work to pay my bills. I have to pay my rent. I thought I would at least have the option to send her if our family needed to.”

LAUSD is making an exception for children who attend preschool Collaborative Classrooms and other preschool programs for kids with special needs. Those kids will be able to attend from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. The District is “assigning Central Office staff for these programs to ensure that students’ services remain seamless at our schools should a strike occur,” Tagawa said.

But the closures put many parents in a precarious position. The preschool programs primarily serve low-income working parents who could lose their jobs if forced to take time off of work to care for their kids for days or weeks during a strike. Once again, the most vulnerable kids and families will suffer the most.  

“It’s scary,” said Gonzalez, who has no idea what she will do with her daughter if the teachers walk out. “This is a need-based program [serving] young working parents, for the most part. These are folks who need it because they work and can’t afford other options.”

With LAUSD showing “signs of serious signs of fiscal distress that cannot be ignored,” the Superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education, who oversees LAUSD's budget, has appointed a team of fiscal experts to "compel the district" to end its deficit spending and right its financial ship. The move brings LAUSD one step closer state takeover and the loss of local control over its budget.

In a press release and a letter sent to LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia, LACOE Superintendent Debra Duardo expressed concerns over the risk of district insolvency, calling into question whether LAUSD’s latest offer to UTLA is affordable. Among the concerns were:

* Inability to consider long-term impacts of collective bargaining agreements

* Staff unrest and/or low morale

* Deficit spending and failure to maintain adequate reserves and fund balance

* Lack of control and monitoring of total [employee] compensation as a percentage of total expenses 

* Inattention to the district’s $19 billion unfunded retiree healthcare liabilities. 

Despite the sternly worded warnings, the United Teachers Los Angeles continues to deny the reality of LAUSD’s fiscal crisis. When asked to produce a single independent expert who could back up the union’s interpretation of the district’s financial health, UTLA President Alex-Caputo Pearl cited UTLA’s own forensic experts and those from the statewide teachers union. This begs the question of whether UTLA understands the meaning of the word “independent.”

Instead of taking LACOE’s warnings to heart, UTLA continued to attack the credibility of the county overseers and falsely claimed that the district has no deficit spending. The union’s rejection of the consensus of county and state overseers, two independent financial review panels and a neutral state-appointed fact finder —which confirmed the district’s deficit spending — are drawing comparisons to climate deniers who reject the consensus of science. 

UTLA delayed the start of a potential teachers strike until Monday, Jan. 14, as LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner and LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia headed to Sacramento to plead with state leaders for more school funding to meet teacher demands and avert a strike.

“Los Angeles Unified is doing everything possible to avoid a strike,” Beutner said. “We are working with state leaders to find more resources to better support our students and all who work in our schools.”

LAUSD and UTLA resumed talks Wednesday at LAUSD headquarters, and the strike delay may give the two sides more time to reach a deal that would spare parents, kids and teachers the pain of a walkout.

UTLA’s decision to delay came after the Los Angeles Superior Court declined to rule on the legality of a Thursday strike until Thursday morning. "We do not want to bring confusion and chaos to an already fluid situation," UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said in a statement sent to teachers.

The district’s meetings with state leaders Wednesday underscored LAUSD’s difficult financial challenges. LAUSD sweetened its offer to UTLA in talks Monday, adding $75 million to the $30 million prior offer to lower class sizes and hire more nurses, counselors and librarians. UTLA called that offer “inadequate.”

Beutner has said that he would like to meet all of UTLA’s demands, but they would cost billions and would lead instantly to insolvency and state takeover. About 90 percent of the funding LAUSD receives comes from the state. 

The question on everyone’s mind is, where is Governor Gavin Newsom? Newsom was elected with help from the statewide teachers union and in recent days has highlighted plans for more preschool and college funding, but he has remained notably silent on K-12 education funding, as teachers in the state’s largest district prepare to strike.

Newsom is expected to release a detailed budget proposal in coming days but has made no comment on the financial crisis in Los Angeles. Other school districts in California are also facing a funding crunch because the required district contributions for teacher pensions are rising dramatically. Sacramento Unified recently had its budget denied by the county, and cuts were ordered. Teachers in Oakland are also on the verge of a strike.

“We remain committed to providing every student in Los Angeles Unified a great public education,” said Board President García. “Today is a first step in working with state leaders to achieve this goal.”

UTLA and LAUSD are both expected to hold press conferences at the end of the day, and we will update this story with any new developments.

Strike FAQ For Parents

When Will A Strike Start, and How Long Will It Last?

If Los Angeles Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles do not reach an agreement, a strike will start Monday, Jan. 14.  There is no telling how long a strike will last. The last strike was in 1989 and lasted nine days.

Will the Teachers Be On Strike At My School?

UTLA and LAUSD are still in talks, but if they don’t reach an agreement, teachers at all LAUSD neighborhood schools, magnets schools, pilot schools, dual language immersions schools and affiliated charters will go on strike. Teachers at independent public charters authorized but not operated by LAUSD will be working and will NOT be on strike, but parents may still face picket lines if the charter co-locates with a district school where teachers are striking. If your child attends a charter school, and you are not sure whether it is independent or affiliated, you can check this list.

Will Schools Be Open During A Strike?

LAUSD says all schools will be open during normal hours, meals will be served and some form of instruction will take place. Principals will be working and most likely so will some other school staff. LAUSD has hired substitute teachers and will send administrators with teaching credentials to schools. But kids may be learning in large groups in auditoriums or cafeterias. Ask your principal for your school’s plan.  

If I Keep My Kids Home During A Strike, Are Absences Excused?

Absences will be unexcused unless you can provide a note saying that your child is ill. LAUSD receives funding based on attendance so keeping your child home will mean less funding for your child’s school and less money for LAUSD to meet teacher demands. California law calls more than three unexcused absences truancy, and parents can be fined. It’s unclear how strictly truancy laws will be enforced during a strike. Some principals are signaling that kids may come to school for attendance taking at the start of the day and have parents bring them home shortly afterward without being penalized. Check with your principal. 

May I Volunteer To Help At School During A Strike?

Yes, as long as your principal approves, extended family members may volunteer. LAUSD has waived requirements for fingerprinting and TB testing during the strike but will still check parent volunteers to make sure they are not in the sex offender database.  

Will My Child Be Safe?

LAUSD says yes. However, schools will not have the normal ratio of adults to kids, and nurses will also be on strike. LAUSD has expressed concerns about the safety of some of its highest-needs kids with severe disabilities. Parents of high-needs kids are welcome to attend school with their kids, if your principal permits it. Police officers will be at every secondary school throughout the day, and officers will be at elementary schools during drop-off and pickup to help keep kids safe. 

Will Afterschool Programs Be Open?

Yes, afterschool programs will be operating. Students who participate in fee-based after-school programs on LAUSD campuses may be allowed to attend, even if they are not in school. Those in Beyond the Bell programs cannot. Please check with your principal for details.

Why Doesn’t LAUSD Just Meet UTLA’s Demands?

LAUSD says it wants to meet UTLA’s package of demands for salary increases, class size decreases and more hiring. The entire package, however, would cost billions, and unless we get more state funding, meeting the demands would lead to insolvency and a state takeover of LAUSD. Superintendent Austin Beutner and Board President Monica Garcia traveled to Sacramento Wednesday to ask state leaders for more funding to meet the demands and help avert a strike.

*This document will be updated as new information arises.

While the question of whether a strike can legally begin Thursday remains up in the air, the LAUSD Board passed a policy Tuesday to make it easier for parents, guardians and other family members to volunteer at schools during a strike and other emergencies.   

Talks between LAUSD and UTLA are scheduled to resume Wednesday morning after some movement between the two sides Monday. However, a court decided not to hear arguments Tuesday on whether a strike can begin this week, which means that any work stoppage could still be delayed until Monday if no resolution between the two sides is reached. 

Strike preparations, however, are underway, and the Board voted 4-1 Tuesday to allow family members who have been checked against a sex offender database to volunteer -- with a principal’s permission – during times of crisis, without having to get TB tested and fingerprinted, as long as they are supervised at all times by school staff. Board Member Scott Schmerelson (BD3) voted no, and George McKenna (BD1) was absent.

LAUSD and United Teachers Los Angeles failed to reach an agreement during talks Monday, despite the district sweetening its offer on new hiring and class size reductions from $30 million to $105 million. The two sides will meet for more talks Wednesday, in hopes of averting a strike that UTLA has threatened to begin on Jan. 10.

The district and the union will also be in court Tuesday to argue whether UTLA has a legal right to start a strike Thursday. LAUSD claims that UTLA failed to give the proper technical 10-day written notice so if UTLA does go on strike, it might have to wait until Jan. 14.

LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner and UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl both attended Monday’s talks at LAUSD’s Beaudry headquarters, which Caputo-Pearl describes “diplomatic but tense at times.” Each side made some concessions.

 LAUSD’s offer went above and beyond what the neutral state-appointed fact finder recommended. Nevertheless, Caputo-Pearl called said it was “inadequate,” adding, “We don’t think there was a lot of progress made today.”

LAUSD then said in a press release that it was “extremely disappointed and frustrated that the union has turned down our offer and – once again – failed to put forth any proposal to try to resolve the issues of class size and salary.”

Parents of kids with special needs who fear for their kids safety during a strike are cheering LAUSD’s decision to ask a federal judge to allow it to file a lawsuit to stop at least some members of UTLA from striking.

The complaint argues that a strike would harm LAUSD’s ability to meet federal and state laws requiring the district to educate and provide services to more than 60,000 kids with special needs.

“I think it’s really great, and I am supportive of a federal judge blocking this if it means supporting kids with special needs,” said Ada Amaya, mother of a 20-year-old son at Pacific Blvd. who has cerebral palsy and needs 24-hour supervision. Her son cannot feed himself or change his own diapers. “He’s completely dependent upon care. I’m very worried about this [strike]. I would like to see the teachers and the district come to an agreement and not have a strike.”

The move comes just as LAUSD and UTLA have agreed to sit down Monday to continue contract talks in an attempt to avert a strike that UTLA has threatened for Jan. 10 unless all its demands are met. While LAUSD made a new offer Dec. 28 in line with the neutral fact finder’s recommendations, UTLA rejected it, and Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference Thursday that a strike is “all but inevitable.”

Many UTLA members, including teachers, nurses, counselors and psychologists provide educational services to kids with special needs that are required by the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Those legal requirements do not go away in the event of a strike. LAUSD students are also protected by a federal court order called a Modified Consent Decree.

“To protect more than 60,000 special-needs students, Los Angeles Unified is seeking approval to move forward with a complaint to prevent UTLA leadership and its members from engaging in a denial of services to special needs students during a strike,” said LAUSD General Counsel David Holmquist about what may be an unprecedented legal move. “A strike would be detrimental to students with disabilities and their families, depriving the students of the special-education support and services they rely on each day.”

In a filing with the United States District Court, Central District of California,  LAUSD “seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against UTLA, enjoining UTLA, its officers, and representatives from causing, encouraging, condoning, or participating in any strike, slowdown, or other work stoppage by any UTLA bargaining unit member who provides educational services to LAUSD special education students.”

The injunction would be “limited to services being provided to students with disabilities,” because “students with disabilities [should] not be deprived of legally-mandated services” during a strike. However, it’s not clear whether the injunction would apply only to special education teachers or to any teacher who has kids with special needs in class – a far larger number.

One day after a neutral, state-appointed fact finder recommended that United Teachers Los Angeles accept LAUSD’s offer to raise teacher salaries 6 percent, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl refused to return to the negotiating table and instead set a strike date for Jan. 10 “unless there are dramatic shifts.”

That last phrase left the door cracked open for a settlement, but it’s unclear how such a shift might take place while the union is refusing to negotiate. If the strike takes place on Jan. 10, students will be back in class for three days after winter break before losing their teachers to a walkout.

“I definitely don’t want them to go on strike,” said Rosa Elena Andresen, a parent of a child with severe special needs at Pacific Blvd. in Huntington Park. “I want the teachers to get a raise, but I’m worried how the strike will affect me and my daughter. They won’t be working on her goals during a strike.”

UTLA also disputed the neutral fact finder’s contention that LAUSD has “financial limitations,” including a structural budget deficit, and should raise the requirements for new employees to qualify for for free lifetime health benefits, which would “free up more money for salaries as opposed to diverting so much money to retiree health benefits.” 

“We do deny the district has real problems in their budget,” Caputo-Pearl said. That means UTLA is now rejecting the findings of the county, the state, two independent financial review panels and the neutral state-appointed fact finder.

Legal wrangling between UTLA and the district continued on Wednesday with the California Public Employee Relations Board filing a charge against UTLA for  refusing to bargain in good faith. PERB’s charge means the agency that oversees the labor dispute has found sufficient evidence to move forward with the unfair labor complaint charge that LAUSD brought against UTLA in October, according to LAUSD General Counsel David Holmquist.

In a stunning rebuke to the United Teachers Los Angeles union, the state-appointed neutral fact finder appointed to help resolve LAUSD’s labor dispute has endorsed most of the major details of LAUSD’s recent offers on salary and class sizes as the path forward to prevent a strike.

The fact finder confirmed that LAUSD is facing a large deficit and suggested that UTLA accept LAUSD’s offer of a 6 percent raise, as well as LAUSD’s September offer to devote additional funds to lowering class sizes and hiring more nurses, counselors and librarians. LAUSD has offered $30 million to do that at the highest needs schools, but UTLA has instantly rejected all of LAUSD’s offers to date.

“The report says Los Angeles Unified’s offer of 6 percent is appropriate,” said LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner, who suggested that UTLA agreed because the union’s representative on the fact-finding panel wrote “I concur” with the recommendation. “The rest of the report confirms what Los Angeles Unified has already offered UTLA...We believe the path forward is clear, and the neutral fact finder has told us the path forward is clear. Six percent is fair.”

The neutral fact finding report also said UTLA’s class size “demands at this point are expensive." The report endorsed part of LAUSD’s October offer to work together with UTLA to develop a new class size plan.

Beutner agreed that class sizes are too big but pointed out that things are even worse at all but one of the 10 largest districts in the state. “Class size is an issue across California,” he said. “In comparison with the other 10 large districts across the state, we’re not so bad.”

After dissecting the neutral fact finder’s report, Beutner called on UTLA to cut a deal and settle the dispute now without the pain of a strike, which UTLA has threatened for mid-January unless all its demands are met. Beutner said he would be available “24-7” over the holidays to reach a settlement agreement to protect LAUSD’s kids. “We hope UTLA will join us at the bargaining table to resolve this.”  

Student academic growth tops the list of parent priorities for a school performance framework, according to a Speak UP survey of 200 parents across LAUSD, which was presented to the LAUSD Board on Tuesday.

Speak UP conducted focus groups and surveyed parents this fall from all types of schools representing the geographic, socioeconomic, racial, and needs-diversity of the district. The results demonstrated that regardless of the type of school, the geographic location, or the socio-economic makeup of the school, parents want the same things from a school report card.   

A full 73% of parents rated student academic growth as “very important,” more than any other measure of performance. Overall academic performance of students came in a close second, with 69 percent of parents rating it as very important, while principal effectiveness and teacher qualifications came in third and fourth.

“What this tells us is that parents clearly care most about outcomes for their kids,” Tom Creery, a former teacher who now works as a Speak UP parent engagement coordinator, told the Board at public comment. “They want their students to progress and succeed, and they want to know how well a school is delivering on those measures.”