As we approach Thanksgiving Day and all that it represents for the country, let us reflect on the many things within our educational system for which we are thankful. Granted, life in the LAUSD has been anything but easy since the Great Recession of 2008, yet the District has continued to provide what some call
One component of the 2017-2020 AALA Certificated Agreement with the District was the provision for the auto-enrollment of active certificated members into the District’s 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan. It is important to note that:
AALA is proud to announce the Unit J Negotiations Team 2018:
Dr. Judith Perez, Lead Negotiator
Phyllis Lott, Vice President
Lisa Marine, Director
Dave Montes, Director
Laura Ramirez, Lead/Head Steward
Gizella Czene, Member-at-large
Juan A. Flecha, AALA President
The negotiations team convened its first meeting on October 25, 2018, to review:
• Collective bargaining in California
• AALA Unit J Collective Bargaining Agreement 2015-2018
• Bargaining Information and Procedures
• Topics for negotiations
• Proposals
Topics for negotiations and subsequent proposals to present to the District are based on input from the members. There are
Imagine there’s no reorg
It’s easy if you try
Not having to reapply
Above us only relief in sight
Imagine all the frontline managers
Relieved to focus on the kids at hand…
Aha…ah…
Imagine there’s no reorg with 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 networks (supervised by 4 Assistant Superintendents) or who knows
Nothing to worry or pine for
And no displacements, too.
Imagine all the frontline managers
Living life and working in peace on behalf of kids
In their current central and local districts
Aha…ah…
You may say we’re dreamers
The District and United Teachers Los Angeles have been unable to reach a settlement after three mediation sessions. When mediation fails, state statutes require the parties go to fact-finding, a process that involves the establishment of a panel that looks at all the facts and issues a report with a recommendation on how to settle the contract dispute. The fact-finding panel includes a UTLA appointee, a District appointee, and a neutral chairperson appointed by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Each side has a maximum of five days to select a representative to the fact-finding panel, and a maximum of five days after that PERB has to determine a chairperson. To select the chairperson, PERB gives both sides a list of experienced attorneys or arbitrators and the District and union will alternately eliminate names until only one remains. That person then becomes the chairperson.
The three-person panel then
Last month, we published an article about the election for State Superintendent of Public Instruction which set the record straight on some of the accomplishments of AALA-endorsed candidate Tony Thurmond. The article also informed readers that this race is set to break all fundraising records and be the most expensive campaign in the state. With absentee ballots in the mail and millions being spent on television ads, mail, radio, and Internet advertising, we question why so much money is being poured into the election for a nonpartisan office that will head the California Department of Education, but have limited authority over school funding or educational policy.
The Center at Cathedral Plaza was awash in a sea of red, white, and blue as administrators converged for an evening of networking, enjoying refreshments, meeting with colleagues, and making new friends at the AALA Annual Fall Reception. Lucky attendees won a TV, a notebook computer, and gift cards.
AALA President Juan A. Flecha brought the house down when he thanked his supporters for reelecting him and advised the audience, using the words of President Trump, that in less than two years his administration has accomplished more than any administration in the history of the country!
Unit J members in good standing will be receiving an AALA survey shortly by email. The purpose of the survey is to understand what Unit J members are thinking and what their priorities are for the upcoming negotiations with the District. The results will be analyzed by the Unit J Bargaining Team in order to best
The focus of this week’s Update is to answer the many questions that have arisen as a result of the 2017-2020 Successor Agreement between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles.
Q: Did the Board of Education approve the 2017- 2020 Tentative Agreement (TA)?
A: The Board of Education APPROVED the TA at its first regular meeting of the year on Tuesday, August 21, 2018.
Q: When will the negotiated raise and the retroactive pay appear on the pay warrant?
As you may know, the District and UTLA have been in negotiations for a new contract for more than a year. The union is asking for a 6.5% salary increase, class-size reductions, discretion to determine which standardized assessments are used in classrooms, and more school nurses, librarians, and restorative-justice advisors, among other things. The District’s position is that funding these demands will lead to immediate bankruptcy. To learn more about the District’s offer, click HERE (or visit www.lausd.net); for more about UTLA’s position, click HERE (or visit www.utla.net).
Recently, UTLA conducted a strike vote in which 98% of those voting
BREAKING NEWS!
The Board of Education approved the AALA Tentative Agreement on Tuesday, August 21, 2018. Key provisions are:
3% on-schedule wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2017
3% wage supplement retroactive to July 1, 2018
Addition of a third career increment, which will be 50% greater than the second career increment
A special appeal process for School Support Administrators who are released from their positions for other than District operational needs.
This week’s Update begins with an association. What comes to mind when you read the title “Gone with the Wind?” Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler, Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, are names that probably come to mind for many of us. What may not immediately come to mind is Margaret Mitchell’s name. She is the author of the great novel “Gone with the Wind” upon which the blockbuster movie was based. Our point is that the movie would never have been made had she not written the novel. The same goes for AALA’s School Support Administrators and AALA’s Unit J. Like their Hollywood counterparts
AALA members overwhelmingly ratified the 2017-2020 Tentative Agreement (TA) with LAUSD. With all votes counted, 98% of those voting were in favor of the TA. The next step is for the Board of Education to approve it at its next regular meeting.
HIT THE GROUND RUNNING!
Some Unit J members are rightly wondering if the recent contract negotiations applied to them. The negotiations and upcoming ratification process are for certificated frontline managers. However, AALA is looking forward to the approaching Unit J Negotiations. The AALA Unit J contract is the only contract in the District that expired this
Last week’s Update welcomed E Basis Administrators with useful and helpful tips to tackle the 2018 school year. This week, it is the most opportune of times to welcome the association’s B Basis Administrators. And what a welcome it is! AALA’s AMAZING certificated bargaining team reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) after nine months of negotiations with the District on
We want to give a warm welcome to all E Basis administrators as they return to work from their very brief vacations. We hope that you had time to rest, relax, renew, and enjoy good times with family and friends. As always, we know that you will hit the ground running to prepare your schools and other sites for the start of a new year. In light of that, this issue of Update will primarily consist
Sadly, national politics seem to be playing out in our own backyard. Proof positive is a recently released report from the L.A. Unified Task Force (formerly headed by now Superintendent Austin Beutner) entitled Hard Choices (click HERE). The report squarely places the blame for the District’s lack of achievement and finances at the feet of classroom teachers and frontline managers. The irony of the report is the apparent absolution of District-represented senior leadership and the Board of Education, both past and present. Yet, it is they who make policy and propagate resolution after resolution, ultimately burdening teachers and administrators with bulletins, memoranda, and reference guides by the thousands.
So it is important
By now, you have learned of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31, et al. (Click here) The heavily anticipated 5 – 4 ruling reversed over 40 years of legal precedence (Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U.S. 209, 1977) and strikes down laws in California, New York, and 20 other states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, which held that employees who are represented by a union should pay their fair share of fees to support the union that represents them in collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment. The Abood case, in a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court, affirmed that because the “designation of a union as exclusive representatives carries with it great responsibilities, it inevitably also entails substantial costs.”
Justice Elena Kagan offers a brilliant synopsis in her dissenting opinion in the Janus case, calling out the five opposing jurists as “Black robed rulers overriding citizens’ choices,”
This week’s Update is in memoriam to the death of the professional career of more than one of our members. Once again, AALA members find themselves in the crossfire of harsh disciplinary action with little to no progressive discipline. Once again, administrators are being released from their assignments with little notice, no evaluation, and no reasons given. And to make matters worse, those fortunate enough to not be victims, cannot yet inhale a sigh of relief because the District reserves the right to change assignments up to the last working day of this month. More than one AALA member was released from their administrative assignment at the 11th hour last year.