The Tuesday, May 22, 2019, Board of Education meeting encapsulated and shined the light on the angst and misery many AALA School Support Administrators have experienced and continue to experience year-after-year. However, this time the tables were turned on the District’s very own senior leadership as most, if not all, of their contracts were renewed for ONLY one year. This is almost unheard of at the senior leadership level as typically contracts are offered for two to three years.
A lively debate ensued on the unfairness
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The following individuals have been selected by their peers to receive 2019 AALA Administrator of the Year recognition. There is one recipient for each of the five AALA departments. Congratulations to:
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The District recently published a news release highlighting the new Anthem Medicare Advantage Plan. The initiative saves $50 million annually in healthcare costs, and reduces the other post-employment benefits obligation by $3.8 billion. (Click HERE to read the complete news release.)
Press releases by nature cannot be comprehensive. Thus, it becomes important to provide historical context to drive home the importance of the Health Benefits Committee (HBC) to the process; and the reason why as labor partners we must always continue as a united front when it comes to healthcare.
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Our noble profession has amazing and memorable rituals and routines like celebrating the 100th day of kindergarten, the ubiquitous picture day, and the granddaddy of them all, high school graduations.
Regrettably, and by the same token, there is a
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Most of you know I meet every month with Superintendent Beutner to discuss priorities and concerns of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. As previously reported here, I have repeatedly emphasized the urgency of informing our members about
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AALA representatives went to Sacramento on April 8, 2019, with ACSA Region XVI for Legislative Action Day 2019. Each year, approximately 400 education leaders throughout the state bring their regional teams to Sacramento to advocate for California’s 6.2 million students. The teams are given detailed briefings and guidance about the main issues that are to be addressed with the legislators. This year, the ACSA/AALA teams focused on the following legislation:
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Measure EE is LAUSD’s bond measure appearing on the June 4, 2019, ballot that calls for a 16 cents per square foot parcel tax. An analysis indicates most homeowners will pay between $100 and $450 more a year; the larger the property, the more you pay. The bond will raise $400 to $500 million annually to lower class sizes, add counselors and nurses, and cover the recently negotiated pay raises. Otherwise, the District will continue making draconian cuts to the tune of $749 million by 2021-22 to meet the reserve benchmarks required by law. Failure to do so could lead to the Los Angeles County Office of Education removing the authority of the Board, taking over the District, and making unilateral cuts.
There is no doubt
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AALA’s AWESOME Unit J Bargaining Team reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) with the District on Thursday, March 21, 2019. Click HERE to view the actual agreement which follows the signature page; contract deletions are shown by strike outs; new sections and subsections are underlined.
Dr. Judith Perez, Lead Negotiator, Phyllis Lott, Vice President, Dave Montes, Director, Lisa Marine, Director, Laura Ramirez, Senior Steward, Gizella Czene, Job Steward, negotiated items of importance to our members, including competitive salaries and improved working conditions. Please take a moment to read the TA. In the meantime, listed below are some of the highlights.
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Five exemplary administrators, one from each AALA department (Adult, Elementary, Secondary, School Support Administrators, Unit J), will be honored as AALA Administrators of the Year 2019 and presented a $500 stipend from the California Credit Union by Gloria Rogers, Vice President, School and Community Development. The stipend is to be used to help support an LAUSD student program or activity, which can also include a donation to Friends of AALA.
The selected administrators will
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WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District is ordering an election to authorize a $0.16 tax levy per square foot of building improvements (about $240 on a 1500 square foot home), exempting seniors and certain disability recipients, to provide approximately $500,000,000 annually (beginning in January 2020 if the levy passes on June 4, 2019) for 12 years, requiring annual audits, oversight, and funding local schools.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT (TO MORE ABLY SUPPORT THE PASSAGE OF THE LEVY) THE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT SHALL IMMEDIATELY:
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The AALA Unit J bargaining team continues in negotiations with the District, and bargaining sessions are scheduled for March 7, 2019, March 21, 2019, and April 4, 2019, with more dates added, if necessary. AALA is awaiting the District’s response to the AALA Unit J salary, third longevity increment, and increased tuition reimbursement proposals that were presented when negotiations commenced.
The District has made proposals related to salary overpayments and recuperation;
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Congratulations to the eight District secondary schools that have been selected as 2019 California Distinguished Schools. Schools are selected based on achieving exceptional student performance for two consecutive school years or closing the achievement gap between two school years as exemplified by their performance and progress on the state indicators, which include test scores, suspension rates, and graduation rates.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced the winners on Monday, February 25, and made the following statement,
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After holding down the fort and keeping the District afloat during the UTLA work stoppage, LAUSD frontline managers are being thanked by receiving March 15 Notices―those letters that inform them that as of July 1, they may be released, demoted, or reassigned from their current positions. Yes, the erstwhile District leadership has decided to send out blanket notices to all certificated administrators (except principals and assistant principals in permanent status), whether school-site or office-based. As if that were not demoralizing enough,
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We all know the importance of the spiral approach in which the basic facts of a subject are learned first without worrying about the details. Then as learning progresses, more and more details are introduced, while at the same time the basics are reemphasized many times to help enter them into long-term memory. Therefore, we are spiraling back to reiterate some salient points from previous topics.
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Unit J members are an important and vital component of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. As such, the weekly Update should be more reflective of the hopes, challenges, and voices from our Unit J members. For example,
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As part of the negotiations for the 2017-2020 AALA Certificated Agreement, the District proposed to enroll those who were not currently contributing to LAUSD’s 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan into the program. This is a voluntary, supplemental retirement savings plan that is administered by Voya Financial, which has received awards for its investment choices and low fees. AALA certificated members voted to approve the agreement in August 2018. Shortly after the ratification vote, many members, of course, had questions, which we attempted to answer in past issues of Update. Previous articles provided general information about the 457(b) program (click HERE) and answers to frequently asked questions (click HERE).
Last week, the District sent
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There are no adequate words to express the heroic work our frontline managers did during the strike, often with no direction or guidance from District leadership, as evidenced by this email from a member:
LAUSD school site administrators are asked to maintain school safety plans, attend trainings, update their Principal Portals, conduct trainings for teachers, and perform other operational duties throughout the school year. I was surprised when the District, facing a serious operational challenge in the form of a six-day work stoppage, failed to provide the school sites with any operational guidelines or updates. I repeatedly checked my District email and personal voicemail for information, not about contract negotiations, but simply about operational best practices as we worked in isolation, with skeleton crews, to keep our students safe.
And while we want to recognize the exemplary work of our members, it seems hollow to just effusively thank the thousands of you who were subjected to the worst possible working conditions
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The struggle is real and getting more complicated by the minute. Our frontline administrators have done a yeoman’s job of somehow keeping schools open while trying to provide some semblance of normalcy. Even now, as this article is being penned, administrators are texting, emailing, and calling with a range of concerns and demands from “FOUL! Call a sympathy strike now!” to “The bastille is being stormed by picketers,” to “Escalation tactics are becoming violent, I am afraid for my safety, and fending literally for myself,” to “I want my teachers back NOW!”
We can probably agree that the time has come for the strike to be settled and for teachers to return to the classroom immediately, if not sooner! And while AALA supports many of the righteous demands UTLA is making of the District, and we all know what they are, AALA by the same token is vehemently against UTLA’s proposals to castrate the little to almost no decision-making authority principals currently have.
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There is no doubt that signs would look like this one without good teachers in the classroom every day supported by frontline managers. And lest we forget, a significant majority of AALA members were teachers first; are required to have a valid teaching credential to be able to administer; and many of us “Walked the Line in ’89.” This partly helps to explain the sleepless nights, angst, and sheer agony many school-site administrators in our ranks are experiencing, given what appears to be an almost inevitable strike. The worry comes from
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