4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CONTESTED UTLA HOUSE OF REPS ELECTIONS SIGNAL INTERNAL FISSURES

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CONTESTED UTLA HOUSE OF REPS ELECTIONS SIGNAL INTERNAL FISSURES:

CONTESTED UTLA HOUSE OF REPS ELECTIONS SIGNAL INTERNAL FISSURES

Some union members fear outside groups – funded by non-profits like the Gates Foundation - encouraged teachers to run for UTLA's decision-making body to influence policy.

BY HOWARD BLUME AND TERESA WATANABE, LOS ANGELES TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/W52LLA

December 26, 2012, 4:56 a.m.  ::  The young staff at the Alexander Science Center has been hard hit by seniority-based layoffs, the main factor behind a turnover of at least 28 teachers in the last five years — this in a school with a faculty of about 28.
Teachers say that the students at the USC-adjacent campus have suffered from the lack of stability and that the faculty has felt frustrated and voiceless.
But now, three instructors from the Alexander science school are among the freshman class of delegates to the House of Representatives for United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union in the L.A. Unified School District.
The House is the union's official decision-making body: It selects candidates to endorse in elections and has the final say on policy — taking precedence over the president and the board of directors.