Leaders for teachers union try to stop LAUSD from laying off educators
One week after negotiating a double digit pay raise that creates a $140 million deficit in Los Angeles Unified School District’s budget, the teachers union Monday rallied in support of 609 educators whose jobs would be eliminated.
The school district notified those teachers, counselors, speech therapists and others last month that they could be laid off June 30, because of the looming budget deficit.
But before those educators lose their jobs, they’re entitled to a hearing before an administrative law judge. The first of those hearings on Monday was preceded with a rally by United Teachers Los Angeles.
In a written statement promoting the rally, UTLA invited people to “hear the educators’ personal stories and how students will be impacted by these cuts.”
The union’s tentative contract for pay raises worsens the district’ fiscal woes, and would cost $285.6 million more than district officials expected to spend over the next two fiscal years.
District officials are hoping the state will send them an extra $160 million to $220 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1 from higher than projected state revenue.
“We have first and foremost a commitment to cover the costs of the contract agreement with UTLA,” LAUSD spokesman Thomas Waldman wrote Monday.
The pay package includes more guaranteed money than the 8.5 percent raise union leaders wanted, but backs off demands for 5,019 more educators to lower the size of classes and provide other essential services.
Teachers would earn 9.28 percent more next year, starting the school year with a raise that’s 8.2 percent higher than their current salary and ending at a rate that’s 10.36 percent more than their current salary.
Additionally, they will go home this summer with lump sum payments close to about 5 percent of their annual salary — back pay for the past year they went without across-the-board raises.
In accepting the pay increase, teachers settled for enough funding to hire 270 more teachers and counselors. The union had demanded LAUSD hire 5,081 additional teachers, counselors and librarians, as part of its campaign for the tentative contract.
UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl has said the contract includes class size caps that will be a starting point for reducing student to teacher rations that routinely top 40 to 1.
If educators are laid off, they will be eligible for re-employment for 39 months. Afterwards, they can be placed in a substitute pool, according to Waldman.
Union members will vote on the tentative contract during the first week of May. If it’s ratified, the school board will be asked to approve the deal May 12.Leaders for teachers union try to stop LAUSD from laying off educators: