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Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • www.utla.net Volume XLVII, Number 3, November 17, 2017

Thousands rally to Save Our SchoolsParents and educators demand progress from the district and the state.

Raucous rallies on November 16 that stretched from Harbor City to North Hills displayed the positive spirit of public edu-cation while sending a serious message about what’s at stake if we don’t stop starving our schools and start supporting educators. Parents, students, educators, and community groups massed under the “Save Our Schools” banner at six locations across the district, and each event had its own flavor and energy.

UTLA’s North Area marched from commuter-heavy Wilshire and Vermont to Young Oak Kim Academy, with the UCLA Community School Korean drum band providing the driving beat. At Diego Rivera Learning Complex, where South and Central Areas rallied, the kids rock band from Miramonte Elementary

“We are gathered here today for one reason: to fight for what we deserve from the district,” Monroe High student Cindy Ruiz said at the Valley rally. “Teachers, who want to see successful futures for the students they teach, are paid little for the jobs they do. Taking away healthcare, taking away pay raises, and laying off teachers is no way to thank them for everything they do.”

Ruiz asked the students in the crowd: “How many times have we as students sat in overcrowded classes where it is difficult to learn? How many times have we had to go to the nurse and she wasn’t available? Been forced to take standardized tests and

pumped up the crowd, and the group marched to the sound of honking cars. East Area turned Mariachi Plaza into a lively demonstration for public education, with Aztec dancers, drums, and chanting. At Los Angeles High School in the West Area, members formed a human billboard along Olympic Boulevard, with the spirited tone set by the LA High marching band. At Narbonne High, the Harbor Area com-munity stretched into a long picket line and ended the rally singing along to “Lean on Me” and swaying together side to side. A big turnout of Valley East and Valley West members shut down Haskell Avenue outside Monroe High School, where the marching band set the stage for a speaker program with parents, community groups, teachers, and students.

forced to sit in crammed classes? When will we finally get what we deserve?”

The rallies took place during a week with two contract bargaining sessions with LAUSD—full contract bargaining and healthcare bargaining.

In October, thanks to our escalating

Side-by-side summary: UTLA & LAUSD contract proposals

Page 4

(continued on page 7)

VALLEY EAST & VALLEY WEST

AREAS

EAST AREA HARBOR AREA

WEST AREA

SOUTH & CENTRAL AREAS

NORTH AREA

United Teacher • for the latest news: www.utla.net November 17, 2017

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President’s perspective

Organizing and actions work

By Alex Caputo-Pearl UTLA President

A few weeks ago, as I was walking out from a lunch meeting with members at Van Deene Elementary in the Harbor Area, I heard a familiar voice call my name. I gave Veronique Gathers, a plant manager and member of the Teamsters union at Van Deene, a hug. Her son, Marquise Williams, was one of the most remarkable social justice student leaders I have ever worked with, back in the early 2000s—he was at Dorsey High School in South LA while I was teaching at rival Crenshaw down the street. We talked about Marquise, and family, and kids, and then Veronique said, “I’m so glad all the unions are working together on our healthcare. I couldn’t be prouder of that. Let’s fight and win.”

A year ago this month, LAUSD sent me a letter stating that the district wanted to open healthcare bargaining a year ahead of time. There were several pages attached, arguing for draconian cuts to our health-care. I replied that there is a year left in the agreement and we’ll bargain at the right time—not a year in advance.

Over that year, the LA Times, which Eli Broad funds, continued to regularly publish attacks on public sector employ-ees’ healthcare, often straight from a group called Cal Matters, which Broad also funds.

Meanwhile, Nick Melvoin ran an un-precedented $13 million campaign for School Board, based largely on attacking our healthcare.

All of this culminated with LAUSD’s pronouncement at the bargaining table this past September that the district would be deeply cutting our healthcare.

A month later, the district came back to the table and offered a three-year health-care agreement with no increased costs for members. This is very significant progress, and it is a direct result of our organizing and escalation: our September 26 Big Red Tuesday, October 11 Picket for Power, more than 800 chapter chairs in place across the city (more than we’ve ever had), hundreds of Contract Action Teams in place at schools, our strong collaborative work with the seven other employee unions, and our unprecedented building of the Reclaim Our Schools LA coalition, including more than 15 parent, community, and civil rights organizations.

Organizing and escalating actions work. We saw it in the 2014-15 contract cam-paign and the 10% salary increase. We see it now with healthcare. We see it now with National Board Certified teachers—the district just recently pulled completely off the table its wrong-headed proposal to cut NBCT pay and force them to move schools. Your work at school sites is the key to our organizing and escalation.

We must keep up that organizing and keep pushing on healthcare. We must ensure that any multi-year healthcare agreement does not deplete the healthcare reserve. If it does, that will be used by the district to justify an attack on healthcare in future years.

How dare the districtHow dare the district spend two years

threatening our healthcare! How dare LAUSD threaten to punish educators for LAUSD’s financial dilemmas when the district has done little over the past few years to address California being 46th out of 50 states in per-pupil funding. How dare the district threaten the funding for our healthcare when the corporate charter majority on the LAUSD School Board is giving money away every time a new charter school is authorized or a failing charter school renewed.

How dare the district stonewall us on salary and offer just a 2% one-time bonus.

How dare the district refuse to move on our proposals on the class size and staffing our students deserve.

In the face of Celerity, PUC, and Ref Rodriguez’s high-profile corruption, how dare the district refuse to negotiate basic charter school regulation that is needed to save the civic institution of public education.

How dare LAUSD disrespect its educa-tors in our classrooms and schools, the people who spend every day working with our youth. We see this disrespect through:

• LAUSD’s flat-out rejection of our pro-posal to increase administrator account-ability in providing support for teachers in addressing student discipline and school climate issues. The district also rejected our proposal to form joint intervention teams to provide enhanced support to schools dealing with severe student discipline issues, and our proposal to have Local School Leadership and Shared Decision-Making councils produce, and monitor implementation of, school-site discipline and climate plans.

• LAUSD’s top-down directives on standardized testing. The district has not responded to our bargaining pro-posals giving educators more discretion over what tests are administered in our classrooms.

• LAUSD’s top-down mandates without adequate support and time given, such as

elementary report cards and benchmarks.• A flat-out rejection of our proposal

to allow Local School Leadership and Shared Decision-Making councils have more purview over how LCFF funds are spent at school sites. It shouldn’t just be up to the principal.

This is unacceptable.

From starving and privatized to thriving and sustainable

The public wants a civic institution of education that is high-quality, sustain-able over the long-term, and serves all students. Our students, communities, and city need this.

We as educators need this—with an em-phasis on the sustainability question—for our long-term job security, healthcare, and the opportunity to work as proud educa-tors within a thriving school system.

The state of California and LAUSD have chosen starvation and privatization for our schools over appropriately funding them. The state has done this by allowing per-pupil funding to be 46th out of 50 states. LAUSD and its corporate charter major-ity have done this through its history of approving charters and declining to fight for the survival of the district.

We have to fight for victories for our schools right now, while we also, crucially, fight right now for pathways to a sus-tainable future—funding-wise, charter regulation-wise, and more. If we don’t, we will annually be facing negotiations centered on cuts to student services, cuts to healthcare, cuts to jobs.

To do this, we must address seven ele-ments in this contract campaign and the broader Schools LA Students Deserve cam-paign to build a thriving, sustainable, truly public education system in Los Angeles.

1. We must recruit and retain great edu-cators. Increased salary, healthcare, and great learning and working conditions are crucial to this, as we face an oncom-ing national teacher shortage. Our current bargaining proposals on salary, class size,

(continued on next page)

Canyon Elementary staff with Alex on a school visit.

United Teacher PRESIDENT Alex Caputo-Pearl NEA AFFILIATE VP Cecily Myart-Cruz AFT AFFILIATE VP Juan Ramirez ELEMENTARY VP Gloria Martinez SECONDARY VP Daniel Barnhart TREASURER Alex Orozco SECRETARY Arlene Inouye

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jeff Good

BOARD OF DIRECTORSNORTH AREA: Karla Griego, Chair (Buchanan ES),

Mark Ramos (Contreras LC), Rebecca Solomon (RFK UCLA Comm. School), Julie Van Winkle (LOOC Liason)

SOUTH AREA: Maria Miranda, Chair (Miramonte ES), Ayde Bravo (Maywood ES), L. Cynthia Matthews

(McKinley ES), Karen Ticer-Leon (Tweedy ES)

EAST AREA: Adrian Tamayo, Chair (Lorena ES), Ingrid Gunnell (Salary Point Advisor), Erica Huerta

(Garfield HS), Gillian Russom (Roosevelt HS)

WEST AREA: Erika Jones Crawford, Chair (CTA Director), Georgia Flowers Lee (Saturn ES), Noah Lippe-Klein

(Dorsey HS), Larry Shoham (Hamilton HS)

CENTRAL AREA: José Lara, Chair (Santee EC), Kelly Flores (Hawkins HS), Tomas Flores (West Vernon ES), Claudia Rodriquez (49th Street)

VALLEY EAST AREA: Scott Mandel, Chair (Pacoima Magnet), Victoria Casas (Beachy ES), Mel House (Elementary P.E.), Hector Perez-Roman (Arleta HS)

VALLEY WEST AREA: Bruce Newborn, Chair (Hale Charter), Melodie Bitter (Lorne ES), Wendi Davis

(Henry MS), Javier Romo (Mulholland MS)

HARBOR AREA: Steve Seal, Chair (Eshelman ES), Karen Macias-Lutz (Del Amo ES), Jennifer McAfee

(Dodson MS), Elgin Scott (Taper ES)

ADULT & OCCUP ED: Matthew Kogan (Evans CAS)

BILINGUAL EDUCATION: Cheryl L. Ortega (Sub Unit)

EARLY CHILDHOOD ED: Corina Gomez (Pacoima EEC)

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Mallorie Evans (Marlton Spec Ed)

SPECIAL ED: Lucia Arias (Knollwood ES)

SUBSTITUTES: Benny Madera

PACE CHAIR: Marco Flores

UTLA RETIRED: John Perez

AFFILIATIONS American Federation of Teachers National Education Association

STATE & NATIONAL OFFICERSCFT PRESIDENT: Joshua Pechthalt

CTA PRESIDENT: Eric Heins CTA DIRECTOR: Erika Jones Crawford

CFT VICE PRESIDENT: Juan Ramirez NEA PRESIDENT: Lily Eskelsen Garcia AFT PRESIDENT: Randi Weingarten

NEA DIRECTOR: Mel House

UTLA COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Alex Caputo-Pearl

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Anna BakalisCOMMUNICATIONS SPECIALISTS:

Kim Turner, Carolina Barreiro, Tammy Lyn GannADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Laura Aldana

EDITORIAL INFORMATIONUNITED TEACHER

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We’ve made progress on healthcare, and now we escalate our campaign even more.


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Get connected to UTLA Facebook: facebook.com/UTLAnow

Twitter: @utlanow

YouTube: youtube.com/UTLAnow

4 Where we are in bargaining Side-by-side summary of UTLA’s and LAUSD’s proposals.

6 Community demands Ref’s resignation & charter accountability Parents and educators protest the effort to reduce transparency and oversight on charter operators.

8 UTLA Board united behind contract demands All Board of Directors members endorse our bargaining platform.

10 Why we should worry about private equity It is no coincidence that the same forces responsible for undermining workers’ rights have been leading the charge toward privatization of public goods like education.

Check out more photos from the November 16 rallies on page 7.

In this issue

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE (continued from previous page)

staffing, and professional respect regarding student discipline, site decision-making, testing, and mandates are key.

2. We must shift LAUSD’s budget pri-orities toward the above. It is not okay for LAUSD to have much larger unre-stricted reserves (percentage-wise) than most large school districts in the state. It is not okay for LAUSD to consistently overproject spending in its books and supplies fund, and use the rest as an un-accountable slush fund.

3. We must win 20 x 20, because shift-ing LAUSD’s budget priorities will not be enough to build a thriving, sustain-able, public school system, in the current context of California being in 46th place among the states. This is our campaign for California to increase school funding to $20,000 per student by 2020. This is not pie-in-the-sky—other states already do it. This is not unachievable—we are one of the biggest unions in the state, with connections to thousands of parents, and with enormous potential power. The LAUSD School Board and other elected officials have already signed on to the idea of 20 x 20. Now, we need to spur them into action. In California, the sixth-larg-est economy in the world and the birth-place of Hollywood, Google, Apple, and Silicon Valley, there are ample avenues to 20 x 20: closing tax loopholes on the wealthiest corporate commercial property owners, closing the carried interest tax loophole on high-end financial transac-tions, getting the promised and decades-overdue federal and state funding for special education, and more.

4. We must attract students and families to our public district schools and nurture their long-term commitment to our schools. LAUSD has gone from 800,000 students to less than 600,000 students over the course of a decade. Great educators and lower class sizes will partly help us increase enrollment, but there must be much more. We must take outside-the-box actions to make our schools more attrac-tive through efforts such as removing unused bungalows and creating more green space. Moreover, we must press the district to use its substantial influ-ence to help with family and community stability outside the classroom, which we are doing through our Common Good bargaining proposals by, for example, increasing the stock of affordable housing in LA (half of the decline in enrollment is because of the unaffordability of living in LA), creating a legal defense fund for families facing immigration issues, and advocating for free public transporta-tion for students. These help families concretely, while also building powerful coalitions with parents and communities as we show unambiguously that “we have your back.”

5. We must show a proactive concrete vision for what our public, district schools should be, and we must start funding that model of schools. We have put forward a bargaining proposal to invest $10 million into the transformation of 20 schools into Community Schools—schools with a broadened curriculum, parent engage-ment, wraparound services, fully support-ed restorative practices, and an emphasis on teaching, not testing. It’s working in Cincinnati and Austin, and it can work here—let’s invest in these 20 sites and then

Our November 7 news conference with parents and educators outside LAUSD Board headquarters amplified our call for Ref Rodriguez to resign and targeted the charter lobby’s attempt to roll back account-ability measures. Read more on page 6.

11 Student voices: Time to

end random searches

12 Using the power of your LSLC

13 UTLA-supported PD options

14 HHS organizing

15 Bilingual issues

16 Passings

16 Accolades

16 Committee events

20 UTLA-Retired

scale it upward and outward.6. We must stop the priva-

tization and unregulated char-terization of LA education that destabilizes and financially undermines our neighbor-hood schools every day (the other half of the enrollment decline is due to the unregu-lated growth of charters). This charterization also creates a race to the bottom in educa-tional and work standards. The district needs to respond to our School Accountability bargain-ing proposal, which outlines common-sense accountability standards with charters that could be legally implemented tomorrow. Moreover, as our or-ganizing and escalation intensi-fies around our contract, and its waves hit Sacramento, efforts to change state charter school law must be twinned with our 20 x 20 advocacy.

7. We must organize ourselves for the long-term. Educators are always going to be a driving voice in making schools better. Our voices are more power-ful when we are organized—around school-site issues and around citywide issues. The lifeblood of this organization is Contract Action Teams, which chapter chairs and leaders have formed this year at hundreds of our schools. Chapter chair Kyla Fields and vice chair Ernestina Hernandez at Plummer Elementary in the San Fer-nando Valley used their CAT structure to address a pressing school-site issue.

Parents weren’t always getting accurate information about what was happening at Plummer and often did not have infor-mation from an educator’s point of view. The CAT collectively developed a flyer for parents and has been distributing and posting it in every corner of the campus (one of the strengths of employing CATs),

using it as a foundation for con-versations with parents about how to get accurate information and a foundation for stronger re-lationships. Chapter chair Maria Lopez and vice chair Sheila Vargas at El Sereno Middle School used the CAT structure to drive conversations across the entire campus about turning out to the October 11 school-site picketing and the November 16 rally. The responses and the resulting numbers were excel-lent. CATs are our present and our future on how we will put organized school-site power behind pressing local issues, grievances, parent organizing, and citywide priorities.

Our model works, and we need to double-down on it: or-ganizing for the here and now, organizing for the future, and building strategic escalating actions. Let’s continue pushing and make even more progress on healthcare. Let’s organize for salary, class size, staffing, professional respect, charter school regulation, and Commu-nity Schools. Let’s celebrate the leadership of school-site leaders like Veronique, Kyla, Ernestina,

Maria, Sheila, and parents from Reclaim Our Schools LA, and let’s multiply those leaders. Let’s organize against the choice to privatize our schools rather than fund them. Let’s organize for a sustainable, high-quality, thriving public education system. I hope to see you at your school site soon, and keep up the great work.


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Side-by-side summary of UTLA’s and LAUSD’s current full contract proposals.

Latest from the table: Full contract and healthcare

SALARY• Increase salaries by 6.5%, effective July 1, 2016• Create NBCT cohorts at 100 high-need schools, jointly

identified by UTLA & LAUSD, and require LAUSD to pay NBC exam fees for participating teachers who take the exam and stay at the school for at least two years

• Maintain 15% differential for NBC teachers at all schools

• Provide 2% one-time bonus• Increase the monthly payback amount for overpaid

employees from $200 per month to $400 per month• Require members to automatically enroll in a 457(b) plan

NOTE: LAUSD backed off its demand for NBC teach-ers to work in one of the 100 highest-need schools to qualify for a 15% differential

CLASS SIZE & STAFFING• Eliminate Section 1.5 from the contract, which allows

the district to unilaterally increase class sizes • Reduce time required to initiate grievance procedures

for class size violations by the district• Reduce the secondary counselor ratio from 500-1 to 400-1• Require 1 teacher librarian at every secondary school• Require 1 full-time nurse at every school• Provide every school with a choice between a district

office-funded dean, PSW, or Restorative Justice Advisor, to be determined by the Local School Leader-ship Council

• Maintain Section 1.5 in the contract

ACADEMIC FREEDOM• Provide teachers with complete discretion to deter-

mine when and/or what standardized assessments are used in their classrooms, beyond those required by the state or federal government

• Provide all teachers with the academic freedom to provide Ethnic Studies & Multicultural Literature instruction

• Require all secondary schools to provide Ethnic Studies & Multicultural Literature instruction no later than the 2018-2019 school year

• Require all elementary schools to provide Ethnic Studies & Multicultural Literature instruction, no later than the 2019-2020 school year

• Create a UTLA-LAUSD Ethnic Studies Task Force to provide ongoing support for Ethnic Studies & Multicul-tural Literature instruction

• Create UTLA-LAUSD Ethnic Studies Task Force

SHARED DECISION MAKING• Empower Local School Leadership Councils with

complete authority over all school-based funding, professional development, implementation of state and federal programs, and course electives and program options

• Rejected UTLA proposals

ASSIGNMENTS• Require posting of district-generated seniority list at

schools as part of matrix process• Allow staff majority vote to determine procedures for

matrix development at every school• Implement matrix development process for Adult

Education, consistent with K-12 process• Provide 2 paid release days for teachers subjected to

grade/subject assignment change after the beginning of school year

• Local School Leadership Councils shall determine whether schools have a coach, coordinator, or dean

• Require staff vote on the selection of a coach, coordi-nator, or dean

• Require staff vote on whether schools have a coach position

• Require staff confirmation vote on the administrator selection for a coach position

HOURS, DUTIES, AND WORK YEAR• Eliminate yard duty, test proctoring, clerical duties,

class coverage, and administrative duties for second-ary counselors

• Require staff vote to extend faculty, department, grade level, PD, or committee meetings beyond one hour

• Provide a preparation period for ROC/ROP/CTE teach-ers at secondary schools

• Establish a workload/assignment committee for itinerant employees to analyze working conditions and ensure equitable workloads

• Ensure that itinerant employees are provided an appropriate workspace, room key, restroom key, and necessary equipment for each assignment

• Allow itinerant employees to work off-site when appropriate

• Rejected UTLA proposals• Establish a workload/assignment committee for

itinerant employees to analyze working conditions and ensure equitable workload

EDUCATOR DEVELOPMENT, SUPPORT, AND EVALUATION• Eliminate use of Teacher Learning Framework for

evaluations and replace with California Standards for the Teaching Profession

• Extend timeline for formal observation from sixth week of 2nd semester to 10th week of 2nd semester

• Add 4th element to formal observation rating (“Highly Effective Practice”)

TRANSFERS• Clearly define “norm day” as last instructional day of

the fifth week of each school year• Protect members from administrative transfers for

arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory reasons• Eliminate administrator discretion in displacement

process, with displacements based strictly on seniority• Allow counselors with a teaching credential to be

included in counselor grouping for displacement purposes, as opposed to teacher grouping

• Ensure timely placement of displaced teachers within close geographical proximity of their previous assignment

• Require super-majority support by staff vote for any school conversion, including conversion to a magnet school

• Ensure that teachers are not required to reapply for their position as the result of a school conversion

• Maintain administrator right to skip seniority in displacement process

• Ensure timely placement of displaced teachers within close geographical area

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT• Provide itinerant employees up to 2 paid release days

to obtain/maintain required licensure• Ensure greater voice for UTLA representatives on

PDAC• Expand common planning time language beyond

middle schools


SPECIAL EDUCATION• Reduce special education caseload caps• Limit all SDC classes to 2 consecutive grade levels• Prevent segregation of special education students

from general education program• Provide paid release time to special education educa-

tors to complete federally mandated assessments• Create a mentor program and financial support for

special education educators

• No proposals

LEAVES AND ABSENCES• Add language to contract consistent with new law

allowing use of up to 12 weeks of accumulated sick leave by all employees for parental leave

• Increase the number of paid days for use upon ex-haustion of accumulated sick leave to up to 5 months

• Increase the compensation for paid days beyond ac-cumulated sick days from half pay to the employee’s regular rate of pay, minus the cost of a substitute


UTLA RIGHTS• Expand right to representation at school sites beyond

disciplinary meetings• Expand number of recognized chapter chairs for

itinerant members• Expand rights of itinerant chapter chairs to speak with

members at district meetings• Expand chapter chair rights in school conversion and

contract waiver processes• Ensure UTLA appoints all educator representatives on

district committees

• Increase reimbursement cost for UTLA to release members

REVENUE• Approval by the BOE of a resolution supporting and

calling for formal advocacy of 20 by 20.• No proposals but expressed willingness to collabo-

rate on efforts to increase revenue

Full contract bargainingUTLA and LAUSD met again at the

bargaining table on Monday, November 13. The district has not made any sig-nificant proposals on key issues relating to salary, lower class size, overtesting, more nurses, counselors, and teacher librarians, and other critical issues. On November 2, we countered their 2% one-time salary increase with a 6.5% per-

manent salary increase and requested a counterproposal from the district on salary, bilingual education, and Com-munity Schools.

Healthcare bargainingOn October 26, the district made a

proposal to fund our healthcare for the next three years. This is significant move-ment off their original plan to gut our

healthcare, and it is a result of our orga-nizing for collective actions and growing solidarity with our labor partners. But this is not enough. At the November 16 session, we made a counterproposal demanding annual increases in district contributions to healthcare to ensure premium-free coverage for active and retired employees and to help preserve the healthcare reserve.


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October 11’s #PicketforPower drew thou-sands into the streets and helped push LAUSD off its draconian healthcare cuts. Above: San Pedro High School. Left: Bradley Early Childhood Ed Center. Page 4: Lowman Special Ed Center.

STUDENT RIGHTS & SUPPORT• Cease the use of “random” metal detector searches

of students or “random” locker searches, and rescind LAUSD Bulletin 5424.2

• Approval by the BOE of a resolution supporting and calling for formal advocacy of fare-free ridership on all MTA buses and trains for LAUSD students

• Public support by the BOE for an end to the dispropor-tionate number of citations, fines, and “stop & frisks” involving black transit riders

• No proposals

MASTER PLAN• Expand eligibility for Master Plan salary differentials,

including for HHS and substitute members• Increase Master Plan salary differentials• Create employee training program to increase the

number of members eligible to provide instruction in the Master Plan program

• No proposals

SUBSTITUTE EMPLOYEES• Increase the continuity rate• Provide pay for substitute participation in professional

development• Provide 48 hours of paid annual sick leave, and allow

accumulation of paid sick leave up to 72 hours• Reduce required time for extended pay rate in special

education assignments• Ensure that necessary assignment information is

provided to substitutes prior to acceptance• Ensure substitute compensation for late cancellations

that prevent taking another assignment• A substitute teacher will not be considered late if

they arrive no later than 1 hour after accepting an assignment

• A substitute teacher will not be considered late if they arrive no later than 1 hour after accepting an assignment

ADULT & CAREER EDUCATION• Improve DACE transparency in providing adult educa-

tion employee information• Eliminate “M” Basis contracts• Improve adult education employee rights to perma-

nent status• Reduce adult education class sizes• Creation of a salary table for adult education employees

• Change “M” basis contracts to temporary contracts• Create joint panel to select employees for “advisor”

positions, with DACE Executive Director unilaterally determining which schools get an “advisor”

EARLY EDUCATION• Ensure that chapter chairs are assigned to early shift

schedules to allow for attending UTLA meetings• Move early education teachers with a BA and Elemen-

tary or Early Education Credential to the Preparation Salary T Table for salary

• Provide paid release for student teaching to early education teachers pursuing an Elementary or Early Education Credential

• Provide 8-hour workday for early education teachers, inclusive of a 30-minute duty-free lunch

• Create an Early Education Task Force with community members to explore paths for expanding LAUSD early education programs

• Create an Early Education Task Force with commu-nity members to explore paths for expanding LAUSD early education programs

STUDENT DISCIPLINE• Empower Local School Leadership Councils to

produce and distribute annual School Climate & Discipline Plans

• Increase administrator support for teachers in ad-dressing student discipline problems

• Create Positive Behavior Support & Restorative Prac-tices Committee to identify and support best practices and model schools for nurturing effective student discipline approaches

• Create intervention team of educators and admin-istrators to provide enhanced support to schools dealing with severe student discipline issues


IMMIGRANT FAMILY SUPPORT• Create a $1 million Immigrant Family Defense Fund to

support the families of students• Provide training to all employees on district protocols

for interaction with ICE• Develop community partnerships to place immigrant

support clinics at schools

• No proposals

AFFORDABLE HOUSING• Provide school-based support for students and

students’ families facing eviction or housing emer-gencies, including staff training collaboration with nonprofit organizations

• Identify surplus land owned by the district that can be used to develop affordable housing, with a priority of housing students and their families

• Public support by the BOE for laws and local ordinances that improve tenant rights and support workforce housing

• No proposals

SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY• Require an Education Impact Report and a Community

Impact Report as part of the authorization process for new charter schools and the reauthorization of exist-ing charter schools

• Require district-authorized charter schools to provide annual data on student demographics, dismissals, and expulsions

• Require district-authorized charter schools to provide annual data on available green space and compliance with local, state, and federal safety codes

• Require district-authorized charter schools to provide monthly data on student enrollment

• Expand the formal role of chapter chairs and co-location coordinators in ensuring that co-locations don’t diminish the learning and working conditions at schools targeted for co-location

• Ensure timely notification and engagement by the district with school communities facing possible co-location

• No proposals

GREEN SPACE ON CAMPUS• Require the district to develop a plan to remove all

unused bungalows from our schools, no later than December 31, 2019

• Require the district to develop a plan to provide adequate green space at all schools by December 31, 2019

• No proposals

COMMUNITY SCHOOLS• Designate 20 schools in high-need areas for Com-

munity Schools transformation• Allocate $10 million for the 20 designated high-need

schools for each of the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years to facilitate Community Schools trans-formation

• Analyze Community Schools transformation process for expansion to more schools

• No proposals


6

Charter lobby tries to fast-track changes while Ref still sits on the School Board.

At the LAUSD School Board meeting November 7, parents and educators called out the charter lobby’s push to decrease basic accountability and oversight require-ments and demanded that embattled board member Ref Rodriguez recuse himself from charter-related votes and resign altogether.

At the meeting, board members had been expected to take a contentious vote on more than 30 charter school renewals and authorizations. LAUSD officials were set to recommend that a number of charter op-erators be shut down because they refused to consent to rules and regulations spelled out in the LAUSD’s “district-required lan-guage” for charter agreements.

The charter operators’ refusal was part of the California Charter Schools Associa-tion’s plan to use its pro-charter board ma-jority—newly tenuous because of Rodri-guez’s multiple legal battles—to open the door to greater deregulation for all charter operators. Rodriguez is facing felony and misdemeanor money-laundering charges linked to his 2015 school board campaign. Separately, Partnerships to Uplift Commu-nities, the charter network he co-founded, recently reported possible conflicts of in-

terest involving Rodriguez and $285,000 in payments that he allegedly authorized when he was a senior executive at PUC.

“With a school board member under indictment and numerous charter scandals locally and nationwide, now is not the time to get rid of critical safeguards,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said. “In fact, students and communities need greater transparency, strengthened oversight, and more power to root out fraud—not less.”

The CCSA and charter backers spent a record amount of money in 2017 to install a charter-backed majority on the school board, and they are fast-tracking policy changes while Rodriguez still sits on the board and can cast the deciding vote.

“It is the lack of transparency and the conflict of interest that comes from the CCSA donating big money to people like Ref Ro-driguez and to our school board member, Nick Melvoin, that puts them in conflict with the kids who are in public schools,” Cowan Elementary parent Senta Georgia said at the UTLA news conference outside the school board on November 7. “Tradition-al public school students need the resources and it is not fair for these people, who get

millions and millions of dollars to get in their seat, to take things from our children and give it to other children who actually have more resources than our schools.”

Parents and educators reiterated the call for Rodriguez to resign.

“I’m here because I wanted to give Ref Rodriguez a message,” San Pascal Elemen-tary parent Brenda del Hierro said. “I’m asking him to recuse himself from voting and to resign. I’ve had conversations with him in the past, where he said he was going to do what was right for all students, not just charter students. I’m just asking him to step down and to do what’s right while he still has a chance to do what’s right.”

On November 6, a law firm that works with UTLA sent a formal letter to Rodri-guez demanding that he recuse himself from voting on charter issues. The letter cites, among other items, a $75,000 contri-bution from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to Rodriguez’s legal defense fund. Hast-ings sits on the board of directors for the Kipp charter school network, which had six schools and one proposed campus up for a vote on November 7. (Read the legal letter in full at utla.net.)

“It’s pretty clear Ref hasn’t stepped down because his billionaire supporters want a rubber stamp on the ‘no oversight’

agenda,” Mt. Washington Elementary parent Jesse McBride said.

At the eleventh hour, LAUSD and charter operators reached an agreement behind the scenes. The charter lobby secured some of the changes it sought, including allowing charter operators to get special education services from providers other than LAUSD, giving the school board instead of the district more say over charter policies, and enabling charter operators to sign longer lease agreements at co-located campuses.

In a critical win for oversight, the charter lobby did not win its demand to limit the ability of the district’s inspector general to investigate charter operators—a crucial tool for uncovering fraud and abuse in the charter sector. The inspector general’s investigations precipitated the FBI raid of the Celerity charter network and are crucial to the ongoing conflict-of-interest with Rodriguez’s PUC Schools.

In the end, the expected tight vote on the charter renewals did not materialize. The terrible optics of a criminally indicted board member casting the deciding vote on charter renewals moved the showdown from the board room to the backroom—a sign that the community pressure and media focus on Rodriguez is having an impact.

Community calls for more charter oversight, not less

This month begins the yearly process, under Prop. 39, whereby schools may be offered to a charter operator for co-location.

How to know if your school could be targeted: Classrooms at your school that do not have a register-carrying teacher is space that is considered “vacant” and available for co-location per Prop 39. Rule of thumb: If your school cur-rently has four vacant classrooms, your site may be a target for charter co-location, especially if you expect your enrollment to decrease next school year. Recommendation: Each chapter chair should ask your principal for a copy of the school’s E-CAR (Electronic Capacity Assessment Review), which is public information. The purpose of the E-CAR is to verify the number of classrooms at each school and how they are used, to calculate school operating capacities, and to identify available classrooms for future use. This report will let your school community know officially how many classrooms are available and vulnerable to possible charter school co-location.

Issues with co-location: Oftentimes the “unused” space offered to charter operators houses computer labs, parent centers, and after-school programs, or the spaces are unused bungalows, which could better be removed to restore playgrounds. Co-locations also can have an effect on school schedules and the unfettered use of facilities, such as the cafeteria, library, and other common spaces. Potential problems with safety arise when the co-located schools have a wide grade-level span, and surrounding schools can be affect-

ed when students are recruited to and/or counseled out of the charter school.

Resources and support: If your school has been targeted before or you think it is a potential target, chapter chairs should contact your UTLA Area rep and look for announcements in the bimonth-ly UTLA News to Use email of upcom-ing informative meetings. UTLA’s Prop. 39 Committee has put together a range of practical resources at www.utla.net/get-involved/issues/prop-39. Over the past several years, many schools have had success in pushing back on co-location or addressing issues after co-location through parent-community-educator organizing.

Prop. 39 timelineNovember 1: Deadline for charter

operators to submit written requests to co-locate on LAUSD school campuses.

December 1: District reviews charter operators’ ADA projections and agrees or objects and responds with projections the district considers reasonable.

January 2: Charter operators respond to district’s ADA projections.

February 1: District makes prelimi-nary proposals to charter operators with eligible facilities requests.

March 1: Charter operators respond to preliminary proposals.

April 1: District makes final offers to charter operators.

May 1: Charter operators must notify the district in writing to accept or decline the final offer by May 1 or 30 days from its receipt of final offer. If final offers are accepted, charter opera-tors occupy sites 10 working days prior to their first day of school instruction.

Co-location: Is your school targeted this year?

“It is the lack of transparency and the conflict of interest that comes from the CCSA donating big money to people like Ref Rodriguez and to our school board member, Nick Melvoin, that puts them in conflict with the kids who are in public schools,” Cowan Elementary parent Senta Georgia said.

Parents from Mariana Avenue talk to the media about the need for accountability for charter operators.

Parents and educators outside the LAUSD School Board meeting November 7 to demand charter oversight and Ref Rodriguez’s resignation.


7

In October, thanks to our escalating actions and all-union unity at the table, LAUSD took a huge step forward on healthcare, offering a three-year agree-ment after pushing a package of deep cuts. The priority now is to get an agree-ment that safeguards our healthcare reserve fund so that LAUSD can’t come for cuts in future years.

In full contract bargaining, LAUSD continues its pattern of intransigence on our critical issues, including lowering class size; ending overtesting; implement-ing real shared decision making at school sites; regulating charter operators; hiring more nurses, counselors, social workers, and teacher librarians; increasing school discipline support; expanding green space and affordable housing; and funding a proactive vision for Community Schools. LAUSD officials have not budged on

salary. They are still offering an unac-ceptable 2% one-time payment that will do nothing to make our pay more com-petitive with surrounding school districts or address the looming teacher shortage. Our current 2017-18 salary demand is a 6.5% on-the-scale increase, retroactive to July 2016.

Out at the rallies, UTLA members spoke to the many issues that drove them to the streets.

“I’m here in support of our healthcare and improved expenditures on kids,” Frost Middle School teacher Mary Wrobleski said. “If we spend money the right way, we can really help our students. I’d like to see smaller class sizes, but even more important, I’d like to see a bigger invest-ment in curriculum and training.”

One of UTLA’s key proposals at the table is to give the Local School Leadership Council authority over all school-based funding and professional development, which would give teachers and parents

decision-making power to use resources for the best impact on their students.

A critical part of the rallies’ Save Our Schools message is that California has a public education funding crisis. In a state that’s the sixth-largest economy in the world, there is no excuse for ranking 46th in the nation in per-pupil funding.

But a portion of the funding crisis in LAUSD is of the district’s own making: Currently LAUSD has much larger unre-stricted reserves (percentage-wise) than most large school districts in the state, and the district consistently overprojects spending in its books and supplies fund to create a “slush fund” that’s out of reach for school needs. Through our bargaining demands, UTLA is putting pressure on LAUSD to send as much money as possible to school sites.

Shifting LAUSD’s budget priorities, however, will not be enough to sustain public education in the long run. UTLA’s 20 x 20 campaign to increase school

funding in California to $20,000 per student by 2020 is gathering momentum. Our rallies this week were coordinated with actions by the San Diego, Oakland, and other teacher unions calling for 20 x 20, and on Tuesday, the LAUSD School Board passed a resolution endorsing 20 x 20 and calling on the state to fully fund education. There are ample avenues to 20 x 20: closing tax loopholes on the wealthiest corporate commercial property owners, closing the carried interest tax loophole on high-end financial transac-tions, getting the promised and decades-overdue federal and state funding for special education, and more.

“20 x 20 is not a pie-in-the-sky idea—other states already do it,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said. “In California, the birthplace of Hollywood, Google, Apple, and Silicon Valley, this is doable and how we will achieve our righteous demands that are crucial to building a thriving, sus-tainable public school system.”

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS (continued from the cover)

East AreaNorth Area

Students out in support

HHS professionals

South and Central Areas

West Area

Harbor Area

Early Ed at the Valley West and Valley East Areas


8

UTLA Board united behind contract demandsThis statement was signed on October 11,

before LAUSD backed off its demand to deeply cut healthcare. Read the latest on healthcare on pages 2 and 4.

LAUSD has made it clear that they would rather cut our healthcare than invest in educators and students.

As the elected Board of Directors of UTLA we represent educators across Los Angeles and we see the impacts of district, local, and state funding policies on our classrooms, our students, and our professions every day. After years of disrespect, underfund-ing, and mismanagement LAUSD wants to cut our healthcare, increase class sizes, continue the overtesting of students, and deny educators and parents a voice in how school-based funding is spent.

These are not the Schools LA Students Deserve.

LAUSD should reprogram monies so that students and those who work with them every day are the priority. Moreover, the district’s proposed cuts represent a symptom of the real problem. Our schools are being short changed. California, the world’s sixth-largest economy, is 46th in

Empowering our communities—Public schools are the anchors of the community.• Build Community Schools to expand

parent engagement, broaden the curricu-lum, and increase social services at our highest-need schools.

• Increase parent and educator decision making.

• Require charter schools authorized by the district to provide equal access, transpar-ency, and due process rights for all parents and students.

• Invest in positive behavior support through real, fully-funded restorative justice, and through holding site ad-ministrators accountable for their part in implementation of student discipline and school climate plans.

• Use the district’s leverage to help make im-provements in affordable housing and support for homeless students, access to green space on campuses, support for immigrant fami-lies, access to public transportation without discriminatory “stop and frisk” searches, an end to psychologically damaging “random” searches of students that interfere with in-structional time, and other community issues.

the nation in per-pupil funding. California spends $75,560 a year on each prisoner in its system, but only $10,291 on each student. Corporations and the wealthiest Californians are not contributing their fair share to the ed-ucation of our children; instead a corporate media campaign has been waged to blame hard-working educators for the outcome of years of underfunding and neglect.

Students and educators deserve better. As a union we are advancing an aggres-

sive bargaining platform in order to create solutions to the crisis in public education. Our proposals include:

Supporting students—Safe, high-quality public schools are a right for all.• Reduce class size at all grade levels and

hire more nurses, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and teacher librarians.

• Hire more special education teachers and specialists.

• Invest in dual language programs and ensure student access to ethnic studies, visual & performing arts, early educa-tion, and career & technical education.

Defending the teaching profes-sion—Educators are everyday heroes; we must protect against attacks.• Attract and retain high-quality

educators through competitive salaries, quality healthcare, and support for LAUSD employees pursuing careers in education.

• Ensure all educators have healthy working conditions.

• Limit incursions into instruction-al time by cutting standardized testing, top-down mandates, and unnecessary paperwork.

Funding the future—Invest in our students and our schools.• Fund LA schools at $20,000 per

pupil by the year 2020 = 20 by 20.

As members of the elected Board of Directors of UTLA we are united behind these proposals and we are prepared to take collec-tive action to achieve these goals and protect the rights of educators and students.

Alex Caputo-PearlPRESIDENT

Victoria (Martha) CasasVALLEY EAST AREA DIRECTOR

Mel HouseVALLEY EAST AREA DIRECTOR

Jennifer McAfeeHARBOR AREA DIRECTOR

Elgin ScottHARBOR AREA DIRECTOR

Cecily Myart-CruzUTLA/NEA VICE PRESIDENT

Wendi DavisVALLEY WEST AREA DIRECTOR

Erica HuertaEAST AREA DIRECTOR

Maria MirandaSOUTH AREA CHAIR

Steve SealHARBOR AREA CHAIR

Juan RamirezUTLA/AFT VICE PRESIDENT

Mallorie EvansHEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES DIRECTOR

Erika Jones-CrawfordWEST AREA CHAIR

Bruce NewbornVALLEY WEST AREA CHAIR

Rebecca SolomonNORTH AREA DIRECTOR

Gloria MartinezELEMENTARY VICE PRESIDENT

Kelly FloresCENTRAL AREA DIRECTOR

Matthew KoganADULT/OCCP ED DIRECTOR

Cheryl L. OrtegaBILINGUAL ED DIRECTOR

Adrian TamayoEAST AREA CHAIR

Daniel BarnhartSECONDARY VICE PRESIDENT

Marco FloresPACE CHAIR

José LaraCENTRAL AREA CHAIR

Hector Perez-RomanVALLEY EAST AREA DIRECTOR

Karen Ticer-LeónSOUTH AREA DIRECTOR

Alex OrozcoTREASURER

Tomás FloresCENTRAL AREA DIRECTOR

Noah Lippe-KleinWEST AREA DIRECTOR

John PerezUTLA-RETIRED PRESIDENT

Julie Van WinkleNORTH AREA DIRECTOR

Arlene Inouye SECRETARY

Georgia Flowers LeeWEST AREA DIRECTOR

Karen Macias Lutz HARBOR AREA DIRECTOR

Mark RamosNORTH AREA DIRECTOR

Lucía AriasSPECIAL EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Corina GomezEARLY ED DIRECTOR

Benny MaderaSUBSTITUTES DIRECTOR

Claudia RodriguezCENTRAL AREA DIRECTOR

Melodie BitterVALLEY WEST AREA DIRECTOR

Karla GriegoNORTH AREA CHAIR

Scott MandelVALLEY EAST AREA CHAIR

Javier RomoVALLEY WEST AREA DIRECTOR

Aydé BravoSOUTH AREA DIRECTOR

Ingrid GunnellEAST AREA DIRECTOR

L. Cynthia MatthewsSOUTH AREA DIRECTOR

Gillian RussomEAST AREA DIRECTOR

OCTOBER 11, 2017

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10

Union-to-union support for shared priorities.

UTLA members at Alta California Elementary, Canoga Park High School, and other sites joined SEIU Local 99 members in their series of rolling infor-mational picket lines that began October 25. Weeks earlier, Local 99 members joined UTLA at our October 11 Pickets for Power.

The union-to-union support under-scores the commonality of our struggles and the shared priorities of improving student services by increasing staffing levels and improving wages to recruit and retain experienced staff. Local 99 school workers have been in contract negotiations with LAUSD since March to try to address these concerns. UTLA and Local 99 are also in critical healthcare bargaining together, along with representatives of all LAUSD employee unions.

UTLA members work side by side with SEIU Local 99 people every day—the union represents 30,000 cafeteria workers,

teacher aides, custodians, bus drivers, and others providing essential student services at LAUSD schools. Nearly 50% of SEIU Local 99 members are also parents

or guardians of school-aged children. Next up for Local 99 contract actions: a march on the LAUSD School Board on December 12.

On the line with Local 99

It is no coincidence that the same forces responsible for undermining workers’ rights have been leading the charge toward privatization of public goods like education.

By Samir SontiUNITE HERE Local 11

Workers have always had good reason to stand in solidarity with educators. After all, you teach our children. If for no other reason than that, your well-being is in-separable from our own. And there is more to our common cause than just that. We all stand to benefit from a robust public sector that mitigates the inequalities and insecurities our economic system too often produces. Public education is a central pillar of such a public sector.

It is no coincidence that the same forces responsible for undermining workers’ rights have been leading the charge toward privatization of public goods like education. The two attacks are part and parcel of the same process of the upward transfer of wealth and power that has been ongoing for years. While some of those forces, like the Walton family, do little to mask their agenda, others are less visible but no less dangerous.

One of these is the private equity indus-try, and in mid-October UTLA members joined with more than 500 hospitality and food service workers from UNITE HERE Local 11 in Brentwood for a rally to expose private equity for what it is.

Private equity employs more than 11 million people in the United States, and as of 2016 the industry owned $2.5 trillion in assets. That is the size of California’s economy, the sixth-largest in the world.

From the predatory investors of the 1980s who specialized in sophisticated forms of financial engineering—think Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone’s Wall Street—private equity has grown into one of the largest owners of our society.

And their business model is no longer limited to the kind of plunder depicted in Stone’s film, whereby corporate vul-tures encircled companies, seized their most valuable assets, and disposed of the carcasses that remained. Toys ‘R Us and other bankrupt retailers can attest to the fact that private equity still does plenty of that, but in recent years they’ve set their sights on much more.

Now private equity is on a mission to profit off control over public goods.

After the financial crash in 2008, private equity firms scooped up foreclosed homes by the tens of thousands, and they are now the largest landlords of single-family residences in the country. Around the U.S., these same companies also exploited cities’ desperate need for cash to purchase—that is, to privatize—basic things like municipal water systems and fire and ambulance services. There are today places where, as the New York Times has put it, you call 911 and Wall Street answers.

The private equity industry has also set its sights on public education. Several in-dustry leaders sit on the boards of charter organizations, and many more provide financial support for the cause of so-called school reform. Some of these prominent private equity executives were among those, along with Eli Broad and others, found to have made undisclosed contri-butions to the campaign against Proposi-tion 30, which provided a much-needed funding boost to California schools.

Included in this group was Tony Ressler, head of the private equity firm Ares Capital Management and a former longtime board member of Alliance College-Ready Public Schools. Alliance, one of the largest charter networks in Los Angeles, has over the years

used the California Charter School Facility Program and other forms of public support to build what the researcher Gordon Lafer has described as “a portfolio of privately owned Los Angeles-area real estate now worth in excess of $200 million.”

Some private equity firms, like Leeds Ventures and Quad Partners, actually spe-cialize in investments in the “education sector.” As Mitch Leventhal, a vice chancel-lor at the State University of New York, and educational economics researcher Ina Tang have observed, public K-12 education offers “significant profit potential” from “service providers that offer curriculum, educational software, and student assessments.” To these investors, the opportunities to make a buck off education seem limitless.

All the while, private equity firms, many of which are based in California, get away with paying the capital gains tax rate of 20%. Educators and housekeepers in Los Angeles hotels pay a higher share of their income in taxes.

It is a disgrace that California public schools rank 46th out of 50 in per-pupil funding, and UNITE HERE Local 11 is proud to support UTLA in your fight for 20 by 20—reaching $20,000 per pupil funding by the year 2020. Achieving this much-needed investment in public education will require standing up to those forces, like the private equity industry, that see privatization of public goods and exploi-tation of working people as two sides of the same coin.

Why we should worry about private equity

Speaking out

On October 19, UNITE HERE held demonstrations in 40 cities across the U.S. to protest the growing power of private equity firms and the impact on working people and public services. Locally, UTLA members joined the UNITE HERE Local 11 rally in Brentwood (above).

Local 99 joins UTLA’s Pickets for Power on October 11.

UTLA members walk with SEIU Local 99 members at Alta California Elementary on October 25.


11

News from UTLA/NEA

Time to end “random” searches The practice criminalizes students and doesn’t make schools safer.

Students speak: Random searches are not random

By Grace HamiltonMarshall HS Student

Dozens of times a day, school deans and security walk into LAUSD classrooms and pick out five students to conduct a “random” search. They take us out of class and into the hallway where they go through our belongings. We are told they are searching us for weapons, but they frequently take our classroom supplies, like White-out and highlighters. This is a random search … except they are not random. My name is Grace Hamilton, and as a senior at John Marshall Senior High, I am against “random” searches.

In my School for Advanced Studies classes, I don’t get searched for weapons during class time. But in my regular classes, which consist of mostly Latino students, that’s where I’ve been searched. At Marshall, non-magnet and non-honors classes get searched more often.

“Random” searches are not random. I meet regularly with students from more than 15 schools involved in my organiza-tion, Students Deserve, the student-led grassroots group leading the fight to end

searches. Students at Dorsey High School, a predomi-nantly black school, get searched more than any other school I talk with. This goes along with all the evidence that says schools with black students face more searches, more polic-ing, more criminalization.

Muslim students are also targeted for searches based on stereotypes that make them out to be dangerous.

The only purpose these “random” searches serve is to criminalize, traumatize, and degrade racial and ethnic groups in schools.

The justification behind searches is that they protect students, teachers, and administrators by keeping weapons and violence out of schools. But less than 4% of schools in America conduct searches. Most districts have figured out that schools that conduct searches are no safer than those that don’t. Blacks and Latinos are blamed for the school shootings that happen, when 90% of elementary and high school shoot-ings were done by mostly upper-middle class white Americans.

There is no evidence that searches keep weapons and violence out of schools, but there is evidence of mistrust between students and administrators because of them. This distrust prevents students from speaking in confidence about weapons on campus and working with them to deal with peer conflict. They lower the self-esteem of those targeted and make them feel as if they’ve done something wrong, when really the policy is wrong.

Students Deserve is a grassroots coali-tion made up of LAUSD parents, teachers, and students. We have teamed up with groups such as Black Lives Matter, Youth Justice Coalition, and the American Civil Liberties Union to end these searches. Since last year, we have had two major events, including Making Black Lives Matter in Our Schools at Dorsey High School and our End Random Searches rally at the school board in May. We’ve also met with various school

board members, including Ref Rodriguez, Monica Garcia, and Kelly Gonez.

The school board held a meeting on October 24 entirely devoted to the issues of searches. Ahead of that meeting, we handed out “Against Random Searches” buttons and informational flyers to stu-dents across dozens of schools to start a conversation about the random search-es at the schools, and students and our allies were out in strength at that board meeting. Through these actions, we are letting LAUSD know that we reject both the current policy of random searches during class time and any proposal of searching us as we enter school grounds.

Our immediate solution for this semes-ter is to end these searches, expand safe passage programs, and ensure there are counselors available.

Our medium-term solution is to fund real Community Schools, which includes lowering class size, more counselors, more arts and electives, real restorative justice, and wraparound services like school health clinics, therapists, and more. The Asian-Pacific Health Center we have at Marshall is extremely helpful to all stu-dents. They do everything from giving shots to doing physicals and STI tests.

LAUSD needs to end the current random search policy in order to stop criminalization in schools and replace it with conditions that will help all students feel genuinely safe.

This issue, I’m giving my column to Grace Hamilton, one of students leading the fight against LAUSD’s “random searches” policy. When you hear from the students about the impact of these searches—the lost instructional time, the feeling of being dehumanized—it brings the issue home.

UTLA has stood with students in calling for an end to random searches, the NEA heard and passed a new business item on the issue, and it has become one of our proposals at the bargaining table. I’m proud that UTLA is taking on this issue.

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We’re with you all the way.We’re with you all the way.

At sites with Local School Leadership Councils, it’s a coalition.

Secondary matters

Who runs your school?

Who runs your school? Ask your-self this question, and give yourself a moment to find an honest answer. If you said “the principal,” you’re prob-ably not alone. And if your answer in-cluded, in some way, teachers, parents, students, and other educators at your school, it is likely that your school has a functioning Local School Leadership Council (LSLC).

Too many of our schools either don’t have an LSLC or don’t use the one they

have to its fullest potential. All too often, teachers at schools with non-functioning LSLCs have frustrations with senseless PD, out-of-control student discipline, un-supportive administrators, and a general sense of arbitrary or top-down decision-making at the school site. Sound familiar? It doesn’t have to be that way, and in fact, an active Local School Leadership Council is a key piece of how we can change these kinds of conditions.

There are several key LSLC respon-sibilities that exist in our contract right now. The LSLC has the right to deter-mine the “staff development” program. The LSLC should be a place where the student discipline issues are discussed and a common approach is agreed upon. This is because the LSLC has the purview over the “student code of conduct.” The LSLC determines the daily schedule of the school (within the limits established by district policies and state law) as well as the schedule of school events such as Back to School night or when minimum days are used. The current contract lan-guage for the Local School Leadership Council can be found in Article 27 of the UTLA-LAUSD contract. Improving Article 27, by adding to it, is a key part of the UTLA bargaining platform, but

putting the existing contract language to work is just as important.

It comes down to two things: de-mocracy and power. Are our schools going to be characterized as democratic, in the sense that decisions are made not by one person in an office, but by many people, in an open meeting, and by voting if need be? At some schools this might be hard to believe, but many LAUSD principals actu-ally do have some good ideas about what schools can be doing to better serve our communities. Oftentimes the strength of these ideas comes not just from the principal’s own experience, but because they develop ideas and plans by talking with teachers, parents, and students about their own experiences in our schools. When principals know that their plans are going to have to win the votes of other educators, parents, and students at an LSLC, their whole approach shifts toward inclusivity and away from their perceived authority to “call all the shots.”

Which brings us to “power.” At the bar-gaining table, when we have repeatedly brought forward our proposals to restore the role of the LSLC in local, school-site decision making, the district’s representa-tives have been explicit in saying that they “don’t want to lessen the authority of the principal as the instructional leader.” And that statement has everything to do with reinforcing the idea that principals should be focused on “having power over” people and not be focused on “building power with” people.

The best principals whom we work with aren’t paranoid about losing their authority; they are open and engaging with all members of the school commu-nity. When these principals have ideas about changing things at their schools, they talk with and listen to the people involved. (Does your principal do that?) They model leadership by doing what leaders do: get people to follow them. Teachers you know who are instructional leaders are recognized as such because they do things with their teaching that you would want to emulate, to “follow,” if you will. From the calm and focused way they set the tone in their room, the engaging way they interact with students and draw them into meaningful dialogue, and the graceful way they balance waves of student energy (or lethargy), real in-structional leaders make you want to do as they do.

Articles such as “an” and “the” are powerful. Every educator at your school whose practice others want to follow is AN instructional leader. When the prin-cipal is referred to as THE instructional leader, what’s really being said is that there is no room for democratic deci-sion making, that there is no time to see if a principal’s ideas can gain buy-in among those who will have to imple-ment them, and that they alone should have the power to decide which posi-tions will be carved out of the school-

site budget. When the principal alone has the power to set the budget (which creates the positions that form the core of the “Instructional Leadership Team” at a school), we have a situation that can’t be called “democratic,” and relationships of power that implicitly trade job security for acquiescence to the principal’s ideas of how the school should be run. If the principal alone can decide whether you have a job at the school next year, do you think that might change how you would talk about their ideas?

This is why your UTLA Bargaining Team has proposed that in addition to the important powers already granted to the LSLC, the democratically elected LSLC should have the authority to determine how to budget for the expenditure of ALL school-site funds. The power to set the budget is key to setting the tone for the entire school: whether important deci-sions will be made collectively, in a way that empowers all members of the school community, or whether all the power over the school community will be in the hands of one person.

Having issues with your LSLC? Please talk with your chapter chair, or possibly your CAT member who talks regularly to your chapter chair. Chapter chairs or des-ignees can send potential issues to [email protected].

By Daniel BarnhartUTLA Secondary Vice President

Using the power of your LSLCExisting rights under the contract

Per Article 27 of the UTLA-LAUSD contract, the Local School Leadership Council has determina-tion over the following:

• Staff development program

• Student discipline guidelines and code of student conduct

• Schedule of school activities and events and special schedules

• Guidelines for use of school equipment, including the copy machine

• Some local budgetary matters

Current LSLC contract proposals

In current bargaining, UTLA is seeking to further empower Local School Leadership Councils by giving them authority over:

• all local budgetary matters

• all local PD

• programs such as BIC

• course offerings

• student testing that is not a state or federal mandate


13

UTLA offers professional development options that work for teachers, drive professional growth and foster student success.

Elementary notebook

PD done right

Whether you are on a quest to max out your salary points or expand your own professional growth, UTLA offers a variety of professional development options to help you achieve your personal progress. UTLA is committed to supporting our members on their professional growth. We know that quality professional develop-ment is key in achieving the Schools LA Students Deserve.

Our programs, detailed below, are high-quality, research-based, and designed

to enhance instruction. UTLA is proud to offer professional development that focuses on student achievement as well as facilitates collaboration among colleagues. We encourage you to read on to find the program that best suits your needs.

Salary points: Advancing on the salary schedule

Earning salary points is how educators on the T Salary Table move up in yearly salary and earn more in retirement. For every 14 salary points, you move to the next box, or “schedule,” on the salary table. It is recommended that educators earn the maximum—98 salary points—by the end of their ninth year so they can move on toward earning the “career increments” on the salary table. If, however, you are past your tenth year and haven’t yet earned 98 salary points, you still can continue to earn points and move up on the salary table. Salary points can be earned in a variety of ways, including courses from accredited institutions, travel, PDs and workshops, and presenting salary point courses.

For more info: Contact LAUSD Professional Development Advisors Ingrid Gunnell (213-241-5486) and Esmerelda Khoury (213-241-5485) or visit https://achieve.lausd.net/Page/1848.

PAR: Teacher-to-teacher support for effective instructional practice

The Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) Program is a joint UTLA-District collab-orative program created and designed to provide teacher-to-teacher support for effective instructional practice. PAR provides a slate of professional develop-ment classes open to all teachers. Classes address topics including Classroom Man-agement, Backward Planning for the Smarter Balanced Assessments, Short-Text Writing Across the Curriculum, In-formational Text & Project-Based Instruc-tion, Designing Lessons for 21st-Century Learners, Building Strong Connections, the Power of Presence, and more. Classes are provided during summer, spring, and winter recesses, as well as on Saturdays during the school year. All classes are free of charge to all LAUSD teachers, and all are approved for credit toward a salary point. To register for classes go to MyPLN, and search PAR.

For more info: Visit the PAR website at achieve.lausd.net/PAR or call Susan Masero, PAR coordinator, at 213-241-5501.

LOOC: Helping schools gain autonomy through leadership models

The Local Options Oversight Com-mittee (LOOC) works with schools to help them gain autonomy from the district by becoming Expanded School-Based Management Model (ESBMM) Schools, Pilot Schools, or Local Initiative Schools (LIS). Some freedoms that autonomous schools enjoy are:

• Opting out of district-mandated assessments

• Selecting staff and administrators• Choosing alternate curricula• Creating innovative schedulesThe first step in the process of be-

coming autonomous is to attend one of the 2018 informational workshops. The dates and locations are as follows (you only need to attend one set of workshops):

• Thursday, February 1, and Thurs-day, March 1, at Local District Northwest (South Conference Room)

• Monday, February 5, and Monday, March 5, at Local District South (Sellery Room II)

• Thursday, February 8, and Thurs-day, March 8, at Local District West (Training Room 1)

• Monday, February 12, and Monday, March 12, at UTLA

All workshops are after school, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Teachers, administrators, and parents are all welcome to attend.

For more info: Contact Julie Van Winkle, the UTLA liaison to LOOC, at [email protected] or 213-241-8772.

Strategies for Student Success: Teacher-developed, research-based workshops

Strategies for Student Success (SSS), brought to you by the American Fed-eration of Teachers, launched in 2013 at UTLA. Currently, SSS classes are spon-sored by the California Credit Union and open to all educators. UTLA’s SSS site is the only one west of Texas.

How are AFT’s SSS classes different from most professional development?

• They are very interactive.• They model best practices/teaching

strategies based on research that can be customized for use in the classroom with all ages of students.

• They build skills and foundational knowledge in identifying, reading, and applying quality research to practice.

• They are developed by National Trainers (classroom teachers) under the direction of the AFT Researchers.

The SSS classes are approved for salary point hours, and educators can obtain certification to teach the classes.

For more info: Visit www.utla.net/resourc-es/utla-pd-opportunities or contact Susie Chow, NBCT, at [email protected].

ISCA: Teaching the lesson design process

The UTLA Institute for Standards, Curricula and Assessments (ISCA) pro-vides an intensive lesson design study process that enables teachers to col-laboratively create and systematically improve engaging, intellectually chal-lenging, standards-based performance assessments and units that spark student curiosity and perseverance. ISCA semi-nars deepen participants’ knowledge of both subject matter and pedagogy. Participants receive technology support and time to think, develop, write—to-gether. Participants build professional learning communities naturally, around creating effective lessons and assess-ments. ISCA’s seminars are for all sub-jects, courses, and grade levels and all programs, from Advanced Placement to Special Day Classes. Participants rate ISCA as a unique and profound experi-ence to refine teaching skills and prepare for National Board Certification. Courses are approved for salary points.

For more info: Contact Charlotte or Day Higuchi at 213-639-0800 or [email protected] and visit iscaonline.org.

The Support Network: Helping educators achieve National Board certification

The Support Network (TSN) is a collaboration between United Teach-ers Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District that provides a comprehensive program of profes-sional practice support for National Board Certification for pre-candidates, first-time candidates, and continuing candidates. The program includes:

• A curriculum created and presented by National Board Certified teachers

• Pre-candidacy/orientations in the spring, summer, and fall of each year

• 10 hours of NBCT-facilitated Assess-ment Center exercise simulations

• 20 hours of NBCT-facilitated pro-fessional practice seminars for portfolio preparation

• 30 hours of NBCT-facilitated study groups in certificate/certificate alike areas

• 40 hours of additional support in cross study group, drop-in sessions, and conferences

• Subject-specific workshops as needed• TSN-certified trained facilitators with

ongoing training throughout the year• Research-based protocols• A successful program for full candi-

dacy, retake, and renewal candidates• Salary point credit available for com-

pleting the process• Leadership opportunities for candi-

dates, presenters, and facilitators

For more info or to sign up for a free orienta-tion workshop: visit www.thesupportnetwork.net or contact Michael de la Torre, NBCT, TSN program coordinator, at [email protected].

By Gloria MartinezUTLA Elementary Vice President

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14

Building real power and a voice for health and human services professionals.

From the Secretary

A new age for HHS employees

I had no experience with my union when I first started working as an LAUSD speech and language specialist. My first encounter with UTLA was through the Speech and Language chapter chair, who gave union news at our district meetings and asked us to report if our caseloads went above the California Ed Code re-quirements of no more than 55 students. We were also encouraged to report un-acceptable working spaces, such as in a closet, near the bathroom, or even outside.

During my 18 years as a health and human services professional, I learned that the union, which was our collective voice, was the place where we could take action on issues in the workplace, and get results. I also turned to UTLA around social justice issues I cared about and found unity around them. Today, I feel the privilege and responsibility as a UTLA officer to be in the fight for our rights, our contract, and a quality public education for every student. Truly, public education has become the civil rights issue of our time.

UTLA is an incredibly democratic union, where someone like me, one of our health and human services credentialed professionals, has had opportunities to step forward and be a leader. It wasn’t long ago that I would hear members say, “I didn’t know that speech and language experts [or other HHS professionals, such as nurses and counselors] were part of UTLA.”

Today, you will see HHS members at rallies, events, school-site pickets, and parent-community meetings in leadership positions as we organize together around our issues and sustaining public education. We are stepping forward in new ways and building structures that go beyond mobilization during times of crisis, such as when there were cuts to HHS positions during the recession. The changes we are making will build our power and carry us forward as leaders in this movement.

Here are some of those changes:• We doubled staffing support to our

HHS members, which is the most profes-sionally diverse and spread-out group of UTLA members. Many HHS members (itinerants) work at several school sites and often do not have a strong connection

to a school site.• Instead of one chapter chair for each

of the HHS groups (some numbering more than 500 members), we have changed the structure to parallel the area district meet-ings our HHS members attend. There are now up to eight chapter leaders for the HHS groups that have over 200 members: psychologists, nurses, PSA counselors, PSW counselors, speech and language therapists, PT/OT therapists, and second-ary counselors.

• We are providing specialized trainings for HHS leaders at the UTLA Leadership Conference and other times through the year.

• We are holding an ongoing series of meetings to discuss pressing issues of concern, to network, to prioritize HHS issues for bargaining, to develop our or-ganizing structures, and to build relation-ships with each other.

• We are building Contract Action Teams (one CAT for every 10 HHS members) to facilitate communication among our members.

Read the two pieces on this page to hear more from two people critically involved in the changes: a UTLA staff representative who has been organizing HHS members and a new psychologist chapter chair.

By Arlene Inouye UTLA Secretary

By Pablo MurilloUTLA Area Representative

When people remember their days in school, often they think of a teacher with whom they spent most of their time. However, we also interacted with other people besides the teacher. If a student got sick, he or she went to see the school nurse; if there was trauma involved, the student saw the school’s psychologist; or if there were problems at home, a PSW or a PSA was there for support along with other health and human services professionals. None of us made it out of school without the help of our HHS members.

Itinerants developing a union team identity: For a long time, it has been chal-lenging to organize our HHS members under our UTLA flag. Unlike classroom teachers, our UTLA HHS members often do not work in one location over a long period of time. Instead, many are assigned to multiple locations and work any variety of days at a school or clinic. A chapter chair at a school can go several weeks without having a single interaction with one of our itinerant members, with HHS staff often going to their separate department meetings. This has negatively affected the development of a team union identity for our HHS members and resulted in feel-ings of disconnect and subsequently a lack of power and union voice within the district. If our UTLA HHS members lack this continuity because of their itinerant assignments, how can UTLA organize them in conjunction with developing a much-needed union team identity?

A decision by members: First, every member in HHS must decide that he or she will become active in the union. The power of any union depends on the involvement of the membership. UTLA has changed our structure to make HHS leadership more possible by having a chair and vice chair in each of our eight UTLA areas to give steady leadership to our itinerant groups. Building on this, our new HHS chairs and vice chairs are working with UTLA staff to develop Contract Action Teams (CATs). CAT members take responsibility

UTLA HHS rep: Health and human services professionals touch lives

for communicating with a set group of members, es-pecially around contract talks. The role of the CAT goes well beyond bargain-ing, though, and it holds the permanent solution for our HHS members’ challenges. If an issue affecting several of our HHS members is occurring throughout mul-tiple sites, now through the CAT, we will be able to have clear communication regarding who is being af-fected, pinpointing the site locations and sup-porting evidence. The CAT is our artery of communication and action in the union, and our contract action team leaders, chairs, and vice chairs are the white blood cells.

Be part of the CAT solution: However, this idea will not work unless we have many of you as HHS professionals decid-ing to become part of this solution. We are seeking members who want to make a dif-ference and build real power and a voice

for HHS members. In bargaining and in life, we can only achieve that which we are well-organized to achieve. We still need more people to complete the CATs across the many programs in HHS. Do not underestimate the difference you can make in your union. Call UTLA and ask to speak to your Area representative and say, “I want to be part of the new vision to build power and a voice for our HHS members. What can I do to help?”

New HHS chapter chair: Health and human services professionals rising

By Michael PobanzPsychologist Chapter ChairNorthwest Valley

As with many health and human ser-vices employees, school psychologists can feel like lonely islands floating around the district. We gather about once a month for a few hours to listen to a PD presentation, with no time to talk about any changes administrators have handed down and the impact those changes have on our students and our work at the schools.

While class size is an important issue for teachers, psychologists similarly have many issues with workload, which for us, by contract, must be “reasonable.” The district has abused the interpretation of “reason-able” for school psychologists long enough. Without organized resistance, school psy-chologists and other HHS employees have just rolled with the punches (ouch!).

However, with the new organizational

structure of HHS within UTLA, we are now able to have our own local psy-chologist UTLA meetings and UTLA chapter chairs (previously we had one chapter chair for more than 500 psychs!). I am the first chapter chair for school psychologists in the Northwest (Valley) unit and this year we held our first UTLA local psychologist chapter meeting ever.

I was even able to meet with the UTLA bargaining team, and we got HHS and school psychologist issues on the table for our new contract nego-tiations. Within our local UTLA psych group, we have also formed smaller Contract Action Teams (CATs) of eight to ten members to better communicate, organize, and mobilize. It is a new age for HHS employees and school psy-chologists, and we know teachers will walk side by side with us as we all push for important changes in our contract.

Speech and Language Specialist chapter chair Heather Teixeira speaks at the Make It Fair Townhall about the need for increased funding for public education.

The newly expanded psychologist chapter chairs meet at UTLA in September. Michael Pobanz, Northwest Valley chapter chair, is on the left.


15

Facebook: facebook.com/UTLAnow

Twitter: @utlanow

YouTube: youtube.com/UTLAnow

Get connected to UTLA

Casa Libre: A refuge for unaccompanied minors in LA.

Unaccompanied minors, the majority of whom are teenage boys, face almost insurmountable hurdles. Federico Busta-mente, the director of Casa Libre, a home where some of the boys live in the historic MacArthur Park neighborhood, spoke of the challenges that these boys face. The majority are from Guatemala, and then El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico, in that order. Most of the boys arrive speaking only one of 26 indigenous languages, primarily Quiché, a Mayan tongue. The boys at Casa Libre are enrolled in the Newcomer Program at Belmont High School, where they face the challenge of not only learning English, but advancing in their academic studies. Some have attended school previously; some have not. Some are well on the road to a diploma. One boy who is 23 just graduated. He was a full-time student, held a full-time job, and lived on his own in a single room.

All of the boys at Casa Libre hold down jobs after school and on weekends. They work as dishwashers, gardeners’ assis-tants, general maintenance workers, and other jobs that require hard, physical work. Bustamente reports that when these kids arrive at the U.S. border, they must affirm “fear of violence” as a compelling reason to come to the U.S. Often girls as young as 12 have been given contraceptive pills by their mothers for when, not if, they are raped on their journey toward safety.

At Casa Libre, navigating life in a large American city, where the school may be larger than the town they came from, is a

priority. Other than help with schoolwork and tutoring in Spanish and English, Bus-tament and his wife, Nadine, help them organize their lives and learn about public transportation, city services, immigration services, laundry, cooking, and other daily activities. The boys’ new school friends are regular visitors and all can make use of the computer room, the laundry room, the dining room, and the pool table. Loren, a wonderful volunteer, has come every day for the past five years and cooks for the household. The boys, with the direc-tor, have cleaned up and refurbished this 115-year-old, 10,000-square-foot mansion that was built by an English immigrant, John Parkinson, in 1902 for a family of 11 children. In his spare time, Director Bustamente is learning Quiché.

Casa Libre is a home for these boys, not an institution. They are cared for and valued for their courage and life skills, and, I would say, loved. A nonprofit orga-nization whose building is owned by the city of Los Angeles, Casa Libre depends entirely on donations. I am wondering when someone will step up and offer such a refuge for teenage girls. There is none in Los Angeles now.

Multilingual education moves forward: We need the brains and voices of our bi-lingual teachers, whether or not you are in a program but nevertheless are committed to language rights and language learning. LAUSD is moving rapidly forward with

implementing Prop. 58 (the Multilingual Education Initiative) and UTLA needs to be a major part of that movement. Come to our next Bilingual Ed Committee meeting on November 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 828.

—Cheryl OrtegaUTLA Director of Bilingual Education

[email protected]

Bilingual issues

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C O M M I T T E E E V E N T S

UTLA African American Education Committee Presents the Forty-Fifth Annual Community Conference

Saturday, February 3, 2018 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM

UTLA Building 3303 Wilshire Blvd. Room 815 Los Angeles, CA 90010 Presenters, Panel Discussion, Entertainment, White Elephant Sale

Continental Breakfast and Lunch

Early Registration before January 24, 2018 $20.00 Register on Saturday, February 3, 2018 $25.00 Parents free! Students free with ID!

*Teachers, you can use AAEC Conference hours to build point credits. For more information contact: UTLA Conference Secretary: Debbie Reid at UTLA (213) 368-6232 Janice L. Lee Conference Chair (818 368 4846)

PassingsAt age 45, Tess Jerusha Damon died with

dignity surrounded by her parents, Paulette and Nathan Blumstein, and her four sisters, Nell Galles, Brette Otten, and Bree and Brynne Blumstein, in her North Hollywood bungalow.

Born in Honolulu, Tess grew up in Kaneohe and Kailua. Hours spent ex-ploring beaches, tide pools, streams, and woody trails nurtured her love of the natural world and developed her curios-ity, patience, and keen observation, all of which served her well as an artist.

In 1984 her family moved to West Hol-lywood, where she attended Bancroft Junior High. In 1985 the family moved to Northridge. Tess graduated from Sutter Middle School and Cleveland High School Humanities Magnet.

Tess graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a bachelor’s in psychology. She then studied art at Pierce Community College, became a substitute teacher, and earned her K-12 teaching credential in art at National Uni-versity. This June she completed her Moder-ate/Severe Special Education Credential.

She taught art at Patrick Henry Middle School for five years, establishing an art program there, before teaching ESL in Japan for a year. She toured Thailand before returning home to L.A.

After a long-term special education as-signment at Sutter Middle School, Tess was rehired by the LAUSD as an itinerant visual arts teacher in the Elementary Arts Education Branch. She taught hundreds of students in multiple schools over a 17-year span. She loved her students and her work, believing in the importance of arts edu-cation to stimulate creativity, thinking, self-expression, and confidence in her stu-dents. She shared her love of nature with

her classes to imbue them with a sense of wonder, empathy, and humanity.

Tess’s passion for art and nature shaped her life. Her home was a tasteful minimal-ist oasis of art and plants, welcoming her beloved hummingbirds, phoebes, alligator lizards, and all living creatures. Her special connection with her nieces Leilani and Lorelei Galles delighted her.

Tess was generous, compassionate, sen-sitive, helpful, intelligent, resourceful, and fun. With her Japanese cat Nichiobi, she lived an independent life of quiet beauty and enriched the lives of all who knew her, loved her, and now mourn her passing.

Donations in her memory may be made to the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society or the Burbank Animal Shelter.

Tess Jerusha Damon1972 –2017

Venice High sports medicine teacher honored as a California Teacher of the Year.

Accolades

Kirsten Farrell, a health science and medical technology teacher for Venice Senior High School, was named last month as one of five 2018 California Teachers of the Year. She is the only Los Angeles teacher this year to receive the honor.

Farrell created one of the first L.A. Unified sports medicine teams, which she founded at Venice High in 2004 in partnership with the West Coast Sports Foundation. In addition to teaching stu-dents about anatomy, medical terminol-ogy, and the ability to treat athletic inju-ries, the program helps them recognize signs of concussions and trains them in CPR, use of defibrillator, and other life-saving techniques.

A 21-year teaching veteran, Farrell has served Venice High for 15 years as a regional occupational program and career technical education teacher. She has taught a variety of courses, includ-ing sports medicine, medical terminol-ogy and sports therapeutics. She is also a certified athletic trainer.

“I have always been—and continue to be—inspired by my students and my many dedicated colleagues every single day,” Farrell said. “I appreciate that Venice is a true community school. Having grown up in a mobile, military

family, I am thrilled when I meet grand-parents of current students who pro-claim ‘Proud to be a Gondo!’”

To submit news for “Accolades”: Email

details and photos to [email protected].

Kirsten Farrell, a new California Teacher of the Year, created one of the first L.A. Unified sports medicine teams.


17

Dual-Language Teachers Needed

The District is currently seeking candidates to staff Arabic, Armenian, French, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish bilingual programs at the Elementary and Secondary levels.

There are current vacancies, as well as expected future growth in these programs.

If interested, please email Jacob Guthrie, Talent Acquisition Specialist, Human Resources Division, at [email protected] for more information.

LAUSD HUMAN RESOURCES

UTLA members will elect delegates at the January 25 General Membership Meeting at UTLA to represent the union at the statewide convention of the California Federation of Teachers.

At the convention, CFT members from around the state will gather to debate and vote on important resolutions and con-stitutional amendments. The annual CFT Convention is the most important policy-making body of the federation.

All UTLA members are eligible to be elected delegates to this event; delegates who fulfill their official obligations will receive a stipend to cover a major portion of their expenses. Interested members can fill out

UTLA/AFT 1021 delegates to CFT Convention to be elected January 25CFT to hold annual convention in Costa Mesa, March 23 to 25.

the coupon below to nominate themselves.The coupon must be returned by

January 12.

Motions for the meeting: All motions must be submitted to UTLA/AFT 1021 four weeks prior to the general membership meeting on January 25. Motions can be sent to AFT 1021 President via fax at 213-251-9891, mailed to 3303 Wilshire Blvd. 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 or emailed to [email protected] by December 28, 2017. Please indi-cate “AFT 1021 motion” in the subject line. Motions submitted prior to the meeting will be posted on the UTLA/AFT 1021 link at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

Name

Employee No.

Home address

City/Zip

Email

School

Phone # to contact you

I hereby declare that I am a fully paid member of UTLA. I wish to nominate myself as a delegate to the 2018 CFT Convention to be held in Costa Mesa from March 23 to 25.

Signature

This form must be returned by January 12 to UTLA/AFT Vice President Juan Ramirez at 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 during regular business hours (9 p.m. -5 p.m.) or by mail. Nominations will not be taken from the floor or by fax/email. Elections will be held at the general membership meeting on Thursday, January 25, at 6 p.m. at UTLA.

2018 CFT Convention self-nomination form

UTLA/AFT members will elect delegates at the January 25 General Membership Meeting (UTLA building, 6 p.m.) to represent the union at the National Convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Pittsburgh, July 13 to 16.

At the convention, AFT members from around the country will gather to debate and vote on important resolutions and con-stitutional amendments. The biennial AFT

Be UTLA’s voice at the AFT Convention in July 2018

convention is the most important policy-making body of the national federation.

All AFT-affiliated UTLA members are eligible to be elected delegates to this event; delegates who fulfill their official obligations will receive a stipend to cover a portion of their expenses. Interested members can fill out the coupon below to nominate themselves.

The coupon must be returned by January 12.

Name

Employee No.

Home address

City/Zip

Email

School

Phone # to contact you

I hereby declare that I am a fully paid member of UTLA. I wish to nominate myself as a delegate to the 2018 AFT Convention to be held in Pittsburgh from July 13 to 16.

SignatureThis form must be returned by January 12 to UTLA/AFT Vice President Juan Ramirez at 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 during regular business hours (9 p.m. -5 p.m.) or by mail. Nominations will not be taken from the floor or by fax/email. Elections will be held at the general membership meeting on Thursday, January 25 at 6 p.m. at UTLA.

2018 AFT Convention self-nomination form

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18

By Debby Schneider and Laura Carls UTLA/NEA Election Committee

Ready to become involved in education issues at a national level?

The NEA Representative Assembly will meet in Minneapolis, June 30 to July 5, 2018, during which delegates representing their local unions from throughout the United States, including overseas locations

UTLA holding elections for convention delegates.

Involvement opportunity

2018 NEA Convention set for Minneapolis

affiliated with the Department of Defense, will give input, gather information, and formulate and update NEA’s positions on various legislative and policy issues.

Educational concerns affecting local, state, and national unions may be brought to the floor by any delegate. The excite-ment of deliberation and voting begins each day at 7 a.m. during the California state caucus and never slows down. This excitement, plus the numerous CTA- and NEA-sponsored activities, serves to enter-tain and educate exhausted but inspired delegates.

UTLA/NEA members who run for the 2018 Representative Assembly and receive

the highest number of votes (by a plurality) will have an opportunity for a three-year term at the local level. One-year terms are available for state delegates.

Election process for delegatesThe process for the NEA Representa-

tive Assembly delegate elections will be as follows: Voting for local delegates will take place at the February 7 UTLA Area meetings. The top vote-getting candidates will be named as delegates following the counting of votes on February 9.

The UTLA/NEA election committee will then formulate the state candidates’ ballot from those names of people who

NEA Representative Assembly Annual Convention slated for July 2018 in Minneapolis

UTLA/NEA RA election absentee ballots available

UTLA/NEA members on formal leave will be able to vote in the 2018 NEA Representative Assembly election by absentee ballot. The ballots are available to any teacher on formal leave from a school or worksite and can be obtained by completing an absentee ballot request (below) and submitting it to UTLA by U.S. mail (no faxes/email) by January 4, 2018, no later than 5 p.m. All ballots will be due back at UTLA by 5 p.m. on the appropriate date (use timeline).

UTLA/NEA Members on Formal Leave Request for Absentee Ballot for UTLA/NEA Representative Assembly Elections

Please Print

Name

Employee Number

Mailing Address

Name of School

Non-LAUSD Email Address

UTLA Voting Area

Check one: CTA/NEA Board member Formal LAUSD leave

I am requesting an absentee ballot for the following election:

Wednesday, February 7, 2018 (ballots due back 2/7—Local) Tuesday, April 3, 2018 (ballots due back 4/3—State)

All above information must be completed for this request to be valid.

I hereby declare that the above information is accurate.

Signature

This request is due by 5 p.m., January 4, 2018, at UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Attn.: Cecily Myart-Cruz. Until 5 p.m. on January 4, forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

All absentee ballots will be due back to UTLA by 5 p.m. on the appropriate date (see timeline).

Would you like to become a UTLA/NEA delegate to the 2018 Representative Assembly Annual Convention in Minneapolis? From June 30 to July 5, 2018, UTLA members affiliated with the NEA/CTA will be in attendance at that convention.

For a member to be eligible not only to become a delegate, but to serve in the UTLA/NEA Representative Assembly, a self-nomination form must be complet-ed and returned to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA President, by 5 p.m., January 4, 2018. There will be two categories of delegates: local and state. Local del-egates will be elected on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, at the eight UTLA Area meetings. State delegates will be elected Tuesday, April 3, at the UTLA/NEA Service Center Council meeting from 3:30 to 6:30. A complete set of election rules will be sent to each person submitting a self-nomination form.

Term of office for local delegates is three years, beginning July 2018. State delegates are elected yearly.

UTLA/NEA Representative Assembly Self-Nomination FormPlease Print

Name

Employee Number

Mailing Address

Home Telephone

Non-LAUSD Email Address

School

UTLA Area (Circle One) N S E W C VE VW H

Ethnicity (Circle One)

Asian/Pacific Islander African American

Caucasian (not Spanish origin) Chicano/Hispanic

I wish to have my name placed on the (check one):

Local and state ballot

Local delegate ballot only State delegate ballot only

If my name appears on the local delegate ballot, and I am elected as a local delegate, I hereby give my permission to have my name removed from the state ballot.

I certify that below is the signature of candidate whose name appears above.

Signature

This request is due by 5 p.m. by mail (no faxes or emails) by January 4, 2018, at UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Attn.: Cecily Myart-Cruz. Until 5 p.m. on January 4, forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.


19

turned in self-nomination forms for only the state delegate ballot (a one-year term) and those who self-nominated for both the state and local delegate but did not receive top votes in the local delegate election.

The voting for the one-year state del-egate term will take place at the UTLA/NEA Service Center Council meeting on April 3, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., and the counting of the votes will follow on April 5.

Any teacher on dues-paying leave, year-round teachers who are off track, and early childhood education teachers who are off track may vote by absentee ballot, accord-ing to CTA election rules.

Ballots can be requested by complet-

ing the form below. Note: Our timeline is set in accordance with CTA submission requirements.

UTLA/NEA members running for the 2018 Representative Assembly must be sure to use the self-nomination form on the facing page instead of the form sup-plied by CTA. No faxes or emails will be accepted. As a delegate, it is your respon-sibility to attend all Service Center Council meetings (January 16, April 3, and May 29).

UTLA/NEA election committee members are Laura Carls and Deborah Schneider-Solis (co-chairs), Fredrick Bertz, Andrew Carrillo, Marcela Chagoya, Wendi Davis, Karla Griego, Rosa Me-lendez, Loren Scott, and Yolanda Tamayo.

Ricardo AbreuJose AguilarJames AndersonWannetta AshtonGwen Baker (Richards)Robin Branch-ScottMarcela ChagoyaJose DelgadilloLisa DinwiddieVeeda FernandesTomas FloresKelly Flores Cecilia Flores-AdamsDavid GoldbergLeonard GoldbergCassandra Grady

Delegates with terms expiring in 2017Adrian HernandezKirsten JohnsonAndrea JonesMichael JonesGloria MartinezL. Cynthia MatthewsRosa MelendezStacey MichaelsJuan Diego MontemayorMark MuskrathDidi ObiJ.C. O’GabahannJuan RamirezMary-Janice RodriguezNarciso RodriguezAna Marcela Rubio

Thomas RubioColleen SchwabElgin ScottPaulette ShelleyShelita ShelleyAlfreda SorianoAdrian TamayoYolanda TamayoDon TarquinMary TelloLillian ThompsonZulma TobarMargarita VargasSylvia WolfHal WolkowitzMarc WutschkeUTLA/NEA RA 2018

election timelineNEA/RA Local Delegate election

November 17, December 22: Nomination forms, timeline, and absen-tee ballot request forms in UNITED TEACHER.

January 4: Self-nomination forms and absentee ballot requests due to UTLA building by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail (no faxes or emails). Until 5 p.m. on January 4, forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

January 5: Letters sent out acknowledging receipt of nomination forms.

January 22: Absentee ballots sent out.

February 7: Local RA delegate elections at all UTLA Area meetings and at UTLA headquarters from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

February 7: Absentee ballots due back to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, at UTLA building, 10th floor by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail only (no faxes or emails).

February 9: Area and absentee ballots counted, 9 a.m. Letters sent to winners and results will be posted at www.utla.net by the end of the next business day.

February 19: Deadline to submit election challenge in writing to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, provided a runoff election is not re-quired. Please contact Vivian Vega for appropriate form at 213-368-6259.

NEA/RA State Delegate election

March 12: State RA delegate absentee ballots sent out.

April 3: State RA delegate election at UTLA/NEA Service Center Coun-cil meeting at UTLA headquarters, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.

April 3: State absentee ballots due back to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, at UTLA building, 10th floor, by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail only (no faxes or emails).

April 5: Election Committee meets at 9 a.m. to count all ballots. Let-ters sent to winners and results will be posted at www.utla.net by the end of the next business day.

April 15: Deadline to submit election challenge in writing to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, provided a runoff election is not required. Please contact Vivian Vega for appropriate form at 213-368-6259.

Anything on your mind?

Send letters by email to [email protected] or by fax to (213) 487-3319.

Share it with UTLA members by writing a letter to the editor.

Tell us what you are doing to change your community through community activism and empowerment for a chance to receive up to a $2,000 scholarship. Scholarships will be awarded to current high school seniors only. To enter we require the following:

• Send us an 800 word, two-page essay. One page describing your accomplishments and the second page describing the specific details of your project.

• Include photos and/or a video/DVD of your service(NO web links accepted)

• Include completed Sue Embrey Community ActivistScholarship Application form.

• Provide two (2) letters of recommendation from your teacher, Director of community service program or your high school Counselor. At least one recommendation letter should be from a current

UTLA Asian-Pacific Committee

Sue Embrey, educator, activist and author, lived by her principles of non-violence, self-determination through unionization, social justice for workers, teamwork, collaboration, service to others, and empowerment of the disenfranchised. Sue Embrey is most recognized for her work education the public about the injustices of the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War II. In 1969 she helped to organize the first Manzanar Pilgrimage and also co-founded The Manzanar Committee that worked to gain designation of Manzanar as a California State Historic Landmark and eventually a National Historic Site.

UTLA Asian-Pacific Committee

Sue Embrey 2017-2018 Community Activist Scholarship

Calling all LAUSD High School Seniors!

Sue Embrey, educator, activist and author, lived by her principles of non-violence, self-determination through unionization, social justice for workers, teamwork, collaboration, service to others, and empowerment of the disenfranchised. Sue Embrey is most recognized for her work education the public about the injustices of the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War II. In 1969 she helped to organize the first Manzanar Pilgrimage and also co-founded The Manzanar Committee that worked to gain designation of Manzanar as a California State Historic Landmark and eventually a National Historic Site.

Tell us what you are doing to change your community through community activism and empowerment for a chance to receive up to a $2,000 scholarship. Scholarships will be awarded to current high school seniors only. To enter we require the following:

• Send us an 800-word, two-page essay. One pagedescribing your accomplishments and the second page describing the specific details of your project.

• Include photos and/or a video/DVD of your project (NOweb links accepted)

• Include completed Sue Embrey Community Activist Scholarship Application form.

• Provide two (2) letters of recommendation from your teacher, Director of community service program or your high school Counselor. At least one recommendation letter should be from a current UTLA member.

larship application packets go to: www.utla.net For scho Entries must be submitted by 5 p.m. on December 15, 2017

United Teachers Los AngelesAsian-Pacific Scholarship Committee3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th FloorLos Angeles, CA 90010


20

Report of the October 13 General Assembly Meeting.

By Mignon JacksonUTLA-R Secretary

President’s report: President John Perez spoke about UTLA-Retired support-ing UTLA’s election campaign efforts by joining PACE—either by giving monthly by authorizing a deduction from CalSTRS to UTLA-PACE or by contributing by check. UTLA-PACE contributions are essential for a fully funded political action committee to defend public education.

Perez went on to speak about the nego-tiations for our healthcare for 2018 with the district. The unions are united in wanting the district to continue funding healthcare as it is currently (see update in his column).

There was also the election of three UTLA-Retired members to UTLA-PACE. Congratulations are in order for Cecelia Boskin, Bill Taxerman, and Jim DeSalvo.

Treasurer’s report: Mike Dreebin re-ported on the UTLA-R budget balance, which is now $55,795.10. UTLA-R has 4,336 members.

Health benefits report: Loretta Toggen-burger reviewed the Health Benefits FAQ from the LAUSD Health Benefits

Committee that addressed the issue of “Medical Plans for Retirees Receiving Medicare” and “Retiree Health Bene-fits Are an Unfunded Liability.” If you have any questions or concerns, contact Loretta Toggenburger at [email protected] or 818-516-8602.

PACE report: Cecelia Boskin was not in attendance. UTLA-Retired members are reminded that their participation in the UTLA political process is vital and that contributions should be mailed to Cecelia Boskin, 3547 Federal Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90066.

Legislative report: Mary Rose Ortega, our legislative reporter, was not present but information was distributed from CTA and CFT affecting retirement.

Guest speakers: Tom Morrison, con-sultant to the Districtwide Health Ben-efits Committee, and Mariam Hironimus, LAUSD health benefits representative, spoke about the upcoming 2018 ben-efits package. UTLA-Retired members’ annual Benefits Open Enrollment begins November 1 and ends November 19, 2017. Changes can be made online or by calling 213-241-4262. There was a Q&A period at the end of their presentation.

Retirees’ cornerMovement on healthcare.

Note from UTLA-R President

By John PerezUTLA-Retired President

Movement on healthcare bargaining: At the time of this writing, the district had moved from wanting massive reductions in spending on healthcare to a willingness to agree to a new three-year agreement for active and retired members. However, the district wants to cap its contribu-tion to a stipulated amount, with any increases in spending coming from the healthcare reserve. Over time, an agree-ment like this will deplete the reserve and cause either reductions in benefits or cost sharing (monthly payments to the district for active and retired members). The movement on the part of the district is due to the organizing and mobiliz-ing on the part of UTLA in its contract fight with the district and because all the LAUSD employee unions have made it clear to the district that they stand in solidarity on health care for all district employees and retired members. The fight to secure our healthcare will only be permanently won when we have a national single-payer system like Medi-care for All. We, as retirees, need to be 100% behind all actions taken by our active brothers and sisters in this fight—not only for our health care, but also for preserving a free public education for all kids against the privatization agenda of the current school board majority and their financial angel, Eli Broad.

Join or re-join PACE: Recently UTLA-Retired members received a letter from your UTLA-R officers with a PACE signup card. To date we have received 189 completed PACE cards. This means that even if we don’t recruit another new PACE member from this recent mailing, UTLA-R has doubled its contributions to defend public education from what we were able to contribute before we made it possible for you to join PACE. Prior to our PACE drive, from donations made at UTLA-R meetings and my asking you

in this column to send contributions, the yearly contribution of UTLA-R members had been between $5,000 and $7,000 per year. With 189 UTLA-R PACE members, that means at a bare minimum UTLA-R will now be contributing $18,900 per year to PACE. Fighting the privatizers, who contributed $14 million to the campaigns of the pro-charter school candidates in the 2017 school board elections, is an expen-sive proposition. As retirees we need to help in this fight, and that’s where joining PACE for the first time or re-joining PACE comes in. If all of our 4,300 members were to join PACE, we could, collectively, con-tribute $430,000 per year to the fight to keep the word “public” in public edu-cation. The privatizers want to change our system from a public system with the public choosing the people to run the system, into a private education system using public money with no citizen or governmental oversight. If you have put aside the PACE card, please fill it out and return it in the UTLA envelope.

Beyond Obamacare: Remember, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is in-surance reform—not health care reform. More than 20 million Americans have health care today than had it before the ACA, and that is a positive, but to ensure that all Americans have health care, we need a national health service or a single-payer system like Medicare for All. A recently introduced bill would allow the federal government to negotiate the cost of prescription medicines for Medicare recipients, now currently forbidden by a law passed under former President George W. Bush. Changing the law would allow the federal government to force down the price of prescription medicines and save the federal government billions of dollars—dollars that could be used to expand insurance coverage to millions more Americans and at the same time move us one step closer to a Medicare for All system.

John can be reached at [email protected].

A motion passed by the UTLA House of Representatives calls for a report to be published in the UNITED TEACHER that lists all union-paid travel by UTLA officers and directors outside of Los Angeles County. Below are the travel expenses incurred from December 2016 to May 2017, with an expla-nation as to how the travel relates to UTLA business.

CFT Convention in SacramentoAttended by Dan Barnhart ($1,493),

Alex Caputo-Pearl ($1,325), Georgia Flowers Lee ($764), Betty Forrester ($2,789), Ingrid Gunnell ($770), Mel House ($800), Arlene Inouye ($927), Erika Jones-Crawford ($771), Matthew Kogan ($937), Gloria Martinez ($915), Cecily Myart-Cruz ($1,867), Juan Ramirez ($734), Gillian Russom ($890), Adrian Tamayo ($995), Julie Van Winkle ($753), and Jennifer Vil-laryo ($599).

Purpose: At the convention, UTLA represen-tatives join delegates from across the country in debating on motions and setting policy for the AFT, one of UTLA’s national affiliates.

Statewide privatization meeting in San Jose

Attended by Alex Caputo-Pearl ($581).Purpose: To strategize with state affiliates on

charter accountability legislation.

Meetings with legislators in SacramentoAttended by Alex Caputo-Pearl in March

($696) and April ($1,887) and by Arlene Inouye ($762).

Purpose: To meet with elected officials on charter oversight and Community Schools legislation.

National Council of Urban Education Associations Conference in San Antonio

Attended by Cecily Myart-Cruz ($1,880).

Purpose: Presented workshop. Also helped set policy for urban councils for the year.

CTA Issues Conference in Las VegasAttended by Gloria Martinez ($634),

Cecily Myart-Cruz ($908), Juan Ramirez ($462), and Elgin Scott ($120).

Purpose: Presented workshop and connected with educators from throughout the state to strat-egize on challenges to public education.

California Labor Fed meetings in Sacramento

Attended by Betty Forrester in December ($541) and February ($313).

Purpose: To represent UTLA at the California Labor Federation.

NEA Leadership Summit in OrlandoAttended by Ingrid Gunnell ($1,254),

Cecily Myart-Cruz ($2,370), Juan Ramirez ($1,578), and Elgin Scott ($784). NOTE: Above costs include fees for nine UTLA members who presented at the summit.

Purpose: To develop activist leaders and prepare them with the leadership skills to lead a relevant union.

CTA Equity and Human Rights Conference in San Jose

Attended by Cecily Myart-Cruz ($1,437).Purpose: To attend workshops and hear speak-

ers on critical issues of diversity and equity in education.

Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Meeting in D.C.

Attended by Betty Forrester ($1,215).Purpose: To plan coordinated national actions

to fight privatization.

Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Meeting in Chicago

Attended by Cecily Myart-Cruz ($620).

Officer and board travel expenses

Purpose: To plan coordinated national actions to fight privatization.

Make It Fair Campaign Meeting in Oakland

Attended by Juan Ramirez ($412).Purpose: To strategize on passing the Make It

Fair tax initiative to support public education by making corporations pay their fair share.

CTA President’s Lobby Day

Attended by Cecily Myart-Cruz ($752).Purpose: To meet with legislators on issues of

importance to public education.

Charter Organizing Project meeting in Oakland

Attended by Betty Forrester ($370).Purpose: To strategize on ongoing work to

support charter teachers to win a voice for them-selves and for the students they educate by orga-nizing a union.

CFT Legislative Committee meeting Sacramento

Attended by Matthew Kogan ($274).Purpose: To strategize on legislative priorities.

California Association for Bilingual Education Conference in Anaheim

Attended by Cheryl Ortega ($150) and Juan Ramirez ($310).

Purpose: To attend workshops and connect with educators statewide on bilingual education.

CalPERS meeting in SacramentoAttended by Betty Forrester ($1,521).Purpose: To alert CalPERS Board to the anti-

union campaign against Alliance teachers being directed by individuals who benefit from CalPERS investments.

AFT English Language Learner Cadre Task Force meeting in D.C.

Attended by Juan Ramirez ($184).Purpose: The ELL Educator Cadre is a nation-

wide advisory task force on ELL issues.

The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence meeting in San Francisco

Attended by Cecily Myart-Cruz ($633).Purpose: The legislature created the CCEE to

provide advice and assistance to schools in achiev-ing their LCAP goals. At this meeting, officers from urban locals gathered to go over the LCAP.


21

Support for housed teachersUnder former superintendent John

Deasy, many educators were victims of the “teacher jail” system. Caught off guard and often falsely accused, they were left to suffer alone, under house arrest and unsure of what to do. LAUSD’s abuse of “teacher jail” has lessened since the departure of Deasy, but we still need to be vigilant about each and every case.

Some things that UTLA members may not be aware of: Teachers who run afoul of their administrators no longer get sent downtown to be “housed.” Instead, every day between 8 a.m. and 2:45 p.m., they’re restricted to their own houses and obligated to call in to the district twice daily. They’re paid their regular salaries, but they’re forbidden all contact with their schools, which can make mounting a defense difficult. In the meantime, district personnel in-vestigate the cases of these teachers.

Housed teachers are not kept informed of the status of these investigations. No formal hearing takes place until the district reaches its verdict, so accused teachers have no chance to influence the process.

UTLA’s Standing Committee for Un-justly Housed Teachers meets monthly at the union to support these teachers. From time to time the committee in-troduces motions at House of Repre-sentatives meetings. The committee also represents “reassigned teachers”—teachers arbitrarily relocated to other schools. The next meeting is December 14 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Room 904. The UTLA building is located at 3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010.

If you’ve been recently removed from the classroom, please contact Luis Vicente Ovalles, staff rep for housed teachers, at [email protected].

• Participating in workshops custom-ized to the group’s goals by expert con-sultants. Topics may include promoting a positive campus climate; Common Core through a social justice lens; teaching the Holocaust; media literacy; bullying preven-tion; restorative justice; and much more.

• Lunch and resource materials. Individuals may register for special

open enrollment institutes. Groups of 30 participants or more may register for a customized program. All pre-K to 12th-grade educators welcome. Some programs qualify for LAUSD salary point credit. Register now at www.museumoftolerance.com/FreePD.

Salary point course on healthy relationships

The new, self-paced three-salary point course, “Creating a Conducive Environment Through Building Healthy Relationships,” aims to reduce toxic stress experienced by teachers. Educators find ourselves in stress-ful situations at home, on the freeway, and at work, but this course teaches you how to make your classroom a “stress-free” envi-ronment for better learning. Enroll at www.education4equity.com/lausd.

Salary point class on drawing and sketching

Bartt Warburton, an LAUSD Teacher of the Year, is holding a workshop on the basics of drawing and sketching. The focus is on learning to draw in a light-hearted and fun environment, and participants will draw with everyday materials, including

No. 2 pencils, printer paper, and ordinary ball-point pens, while also exploring more sophisticated drawing materials. The class will cover such things as quick-sketching, portraiture, still life, landscape, drawing from your imagination and from photos, drawing upside-down, and drawing with your eyes closed. Designed for beginners, this class will help you overcome your fear of drawing. If you’re already an ex-perienced artist, this class can serve as a workshop. You’ll discover ways to use art in your teaching and in your regular life. The class fee is $199 and you get one salary point. The class meets three Satur-days, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The dates are January 20, February 3, and February 24. All three meetings are at the La Canada Public Library conference room. Registra-tion is online, in advance. You must register online to be enrolled. No walk-ups. Class is limited to 30 participants. When the class is full, we will have a waiting list. To reg-ister, go to Bartt.net and click the LAUSD logo. You will find compete details and a gallery of Bartt’s artwork. For more info, go to Bartt.net, or email Bartt at [email protected]. You can also call or text Bartt at 818-568-3595.

Speak Truth to Power video contest for student filmmakers

In partnership with the American Fed-eration of Teachers and the Tribeca Film Institute, the 8th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Speak Truth to Power Video Contest invites middle and high school stu-dents to create short three- to five-minute videos about the work of a human rights defender. Commemorating the 50th an-niversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s run for

president, in 2018 students are asked to make a connection between their chosen human rights defender and RFK, which could be done through the use of a quote, archival footage, or by including a connec-tion in the narration. The contest, which has reached more than 50,000 students across the country, engages both creative teachers and curious students. It inspires intellectual vigor, the pursuit of knowledge, and the daring to create change. Above all, it encour-ages a new generation of students who are

not only aware of human rights abuses, but are prepared to do something about them. Prizes will be awarded to students in the middle school and high school divisions, and the grand-prize-winning video will be premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018. Previous winners featured videos of defenders tackling Islamophobia, police brutality, child labor, human traf-ficking, bullying, and domestic violence. Entry deadline is March 3, 2018. Visit www.speaktruthvideo.com for more information.

GRAPEVINE (continued from page 19)


22

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The Humanitas Magnet for Interdisciplinary Studies

located on the Grant High School campus is antici-

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Polytechnic High School’s Math, Science, and Tech-

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CLASSIFIED AND DISPLAY AD POLICY: UNITED TEACHER will not accept ads for legal services in the areas of worker’s compensation or personal injury; nor advertising for tobacco or alcoholic beverages; nor advertising deemed misleading or offensive to members; nor advertising inconsistent with the programs and purposes of United Teachers Los Angeles.

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Ages 13+ • CCSS-Aligned • Curriculum Included (Worksheets, Glossary, PowerPoint)For Classrooms, After-School Groups, Staff Trainings

Players will:• Become more aware that racism exists in many everyday situations (both interpersonal and institutional)• Learn why the situations are racist (stereotyping, tokenism, cultural appropriation, etc.)• Acquire tools to interrupt these kinds of situations in order to help create a more loving and just world

Print your ad from your computer or use a typewriter. Count the number of words in your ad. Area code and telephone number count as one word. Email and web address count as one word. Street address counts as one word. City and state, including zip code, count as one word. Abbreviations and numbers are considered words and are charged individually. The classified ad rate is $1.50 per word for each time your ad runs (there is no charge for LAUSD job share/employment available ads). Multiply the number of words in your ad by $1.50. This is the cost for running your ad one time in UNITED TEACHER. If you’re run-ning your ad in more than one issue, multiply the one-time total by the number of issues you wish the ad to appear. We have a ten word minimum ($15.00). All ads are payable in advance by check or money order. Please make check payable to UTLA. The deadline to receive your classified ad at the UTLA Communications Dept. is noon on the Monday that falls two weeks prior to the publication date. Any questions? Call 213-637-5173. Mail ad and payment to Classifieds, UNITED TEACHER, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010.

How To Place Your UT Classified Ad


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U N I T E D T E A C H E R

GRAPEVINEStudent art exhibition honoring the 50th anniversary of the East L.A. Walkouts

In March 1968, thousands of predomi-nantly East L.A. students walked out of their schools in a mass demonstration for civil rights and educational justice. In honor of the 50th anniversary of this educational movement in 2018, Orchard Academy Arts & Media teacher Brett Drugge is calling on teachers around the district to join a district-wide student art exhibition. His idea is inspired by Ramiro Gomez’s cardboard cut-out art, and the concept is for teachers from around the district to have their stu-dents exhibit life-size cardboard replicas of the walkout students in popup installa-tions at their respective schools. Photos can be collected and featured at a website devoted to celebrating the walkout legacy. Please contact Drugge at [email protected] for further information.

Evenings for Educators at LACMA: “Empathy Through Art”

For more than 30 years LACMA’s Eve-nings for Educators series has provided K-12 teachers with opportunities to talk about, discover, and create works of art. On December 5, explore how artworks can be used in the classroom to nurture students’

ability to empathize with others. This session features a special lecture by arts integration specialist Dr. Desi Cameron. Enjoy complimentary parking and dinner catered by the Patina Group as well as thematic curriculum containing images, lesson plans, and additional resources. Tickets are $15 per person for the evening, which runs from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. For more information and to register, please visit www.lacma.org/evenings-for-educators. If you have additional questions about the program, please call 323-857-6093.

UTLA Asian Pacific Committee announces its 49th Manzanar conference

If you have always wanted to attend the Manzanar Pilgrimage, you not only can attend the April 28 Manzanar site bus trip, but you can also earn up to two salary points (with approval pending for a third). To earn salary points you MUST attend the Pilgrimage on Saturday, April 29. The five session dates are: February 10 (with new Filipino component), March 10, April 23, April 28, and May 5. The cost for salary points is $225, which covers charter bus transportation, food, and ma-terials. If you wish to attend the pilgrim-age only, we ask that you also attend our

pre-trip session Monday, April 23, at the UTLA building from 4 to 9:30 p.m., and your fee will be $75. Sign up via UTLA by contacting Jenny Lam at [email protected] or by phone 213-368-6229 OR go to utla.net, put “Manzanar” in the search bar and it will take you to detailed info on each session and allow you to regis-ter. NOTE: A minimum of 20 participants required in order to offer salary points. If you have questions regarding sessions or salary points, please contact: Diane Newell (818-642-0981 or [email protected]) or Rosie Van Zyl ([email protected]). Please put “Manzanar” in the subject bar when emailing for a prompt response.

Math for America Los Angeles now accepting Master Teacher Fellowship applications

The Master Teacher Fellowship is a five-year program designed to help excep-tional math/computer science teachers become leaders by supporting them as they design and orchestrate an improve-ment project focused on student-centered results. Applicants apply as a team, with one to two other teachers at their school site. Teachers selected for the fellowship receive $10,000 annually in salary support, funding to attend math conferences, an

additional planning period during the school day to carry out their project, and more. Selection criteria includes five-plus-years of experience teaching math/com-puter science in grades 7-12 in a high-need public/charter school in the greater Los Angeles area and exemplary teaching and leadership skills. Applications are due February 12, 2018. For more information, visit http://mfala.org.

Free professional development at the Museum of Tolerance

The Museum of Tolerance is offering grant-funded professional development programs for teachers. Educators can sign up for Tools for Tolerance for Educators, an interactive, experiential program de-signed to advance anti-bias education and the creation of inclusive and equitable schools. Programs take place in the immer-sive learning environment of the Museum of Tolerance and are offered in one- or two-day formats. Programs include:

• Experiencing the Museum of Toler-ance as a laboratory for human behavior.

• Hearing personal testimonies from witnesses to history.

• Engaging in facilitated discussions around issues that matter.

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