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
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
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:
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
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.
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
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:
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;
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,
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,
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.
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,
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
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
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.
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
Dear Members of AALA:
I make an effort to only write in the first person when absolutely necessary. An elementary school principal wrote to me last week with a challenge regarding the District’s Early Literacy Program. The email went on to mention that every Saturday in December, including the first Saturday of the winter break, was booked with required/mandatory trainings. The article refers to Saturday trainings related to GATE and restorative justice. The intent
The email below is from an AALA member in the trenches and reflects the current emotional and physical state of many of our frontline managers.
Dear AALA,
I am writing to express the overall dire and poor health administrators are experiencing across the District. Many of my colleagues, and [myself] included,
Periodically, the Update shares trends and challenges our members are experiencing and we find that operational issues continue to create hazards. The specific matters are really not connected in any way other than our members are being continuously investigated for not specifically following District policy to the letter of the law. This week’s newsletter focuses on the potential difficulties with child abuse reporting, social media, and cash-on-hand at schools. The good news is
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