Community protests program cuts at UTLA rallyAward-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles...

Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • www.utla.net Volume XLIV, Number 9, May 15, 2015

Community protests program cuts at UTLA rallyWith state budget giving billions to schools, UTLA presses for full rescission of RIFs and restoration of services.

The threat of losing essential programs and staff brought together educators and learners from across the educational spec-trum at a UTLA rally at LAUSD headquar-ters on May 12. The message of the rally: “All the Pieces Matter” in the fight for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve.

As part of its preliminary spending plan for 2015-16 approved in the spring, LAUSD issued more than 600 potential layoff notices, including a significant number to psychiatric social workers and pupil ser-vices and attendance counselors, and made deep cuts to SRLDP (School Readiness Language Development Program) and the adult education program. Passionate supporters of these programs and services hit the streets and packed the School Board room on May 12 to testify to the damage these cuts would do to student learning and community support.

Nidia Recinos-Garcia’s daughter attends SRLDP at Grandview Elementary—one of the sites that will lose the program next year if the cuts go through.

“I couldn’t afford to send her to pre-school, and I found this program at the last minute, and it’s been awesome,” Recinos-Garcia says. “It’s only 2 1/2 hours a day, but my daughter has learned so much—not only academically but emo-tionally. She knows her ABCs and also important skills for school like staying in one place and lining up. It’s readying her for kindergarten.”

Grandview SRLDP teacher Ruth Fried has heard the complaint that the program must be cut because it does not generate average daily attendance (ADA) money for the Dis-trict, but she feels that is deeply short-sighted.

“We’re ambassadors to the school district because we get families to stay in LAUSD,” Fried says. “Over 90% of SRLDP students stay with the District. That’s how we affect ADA and generate money for the District.”

Psychiatric social worker Rosalyn Wil-liams is not one of the more than 60 PSWs who received a reduction-in-force (RIF) notice, but she was at the rally standing up for colleagues who did.

“The District continues to use our neediest and most fragile students and families to balance the budget,” Williams said. “With the passage of Prop. 30 and with increases in Local Control funding, it makes no sense to use threats to keep staff

hostage and fearful for their jobs. Study after study shows the effectiveness of psy-chiatric social workers and pupil services personnel, yet the District continues to cut services to students.”

Many adult education teachers, like Rick Nuñez, brought groups of their stu-dents to the UTLA action. For more than 25 years, Nuñez has taught a popular tiling and marble work program at Abram Fried-man Occupational Center. The District wants to cut his program back to 12 hours a week, shutting many students out of learning the marketable skills he teaches.

“It’s so vital to offer this kind of career training,” Nuñez says. “My program doesn’t have a dropout rate—it has a drop-in rate. I can’t tell you how many of my students have gone on to careers in construction and as general contractors.”

While the crowd rallied outside LAUSD, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl stood inside the Board room with a group of speakers—SRLDP teacher Ingrid Gunnell, SRLDP parent Gursel Aliyev, PSW Laura Rubalcava, adult ed teacher Laura Vasques, and adult ed student Juan Rodriguez—who urged the Board to rescind the cuts.

RIF fight on multiple frontsUTLA has been fighting the layoff notices

and cuts on multiple fronts. The union has been organizing delegations of parents, stu-dents, and educators to visit School Board members in their districts so they can share personal stories of how students will be im-pacted by the cuts. So far, these delegations have visited with Steve Zimmer, Monica Ratliff, and Bennett Kayser’s staff, with a visit scheduled with George McKenna. UTLA staff and attorneys have also been representing RIF’d members before an ad-ministrative law judge in the official RIF hearings, and more than half of the layoff notices sent to permanent teachers have been rescinded through this process.

New state budget directing billions to schools

From the beginning, UTLA has strongly believed that these layoff notices were fiscally unnecessary. Now the state fi-nancial picture is improving even more. As this UT goes on press, Governor Jerry Brown is releasing his updated budget proposal—called the May revise—and it

UTLA activists and allies power up School Board campaigns

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should direct billions of dollars in unex-pected revenue to schools and community colleges. LAUSD must approve its final budget for 2015-16 before July, and UTLA will continue to press the District to use all available funding for the rescission of RIFs and the restoration of programs.

Contract vote underscores unity and power

The energy going into the RIF fight has flowed from our contract and health ben-efits victories and the overwhelming unity members showed at the ballot box in endors-ing the agreements. Voting drew a historic high turnout—with 83% of eligible members casting ballots—and the votes were nearly

SRLDP families and educators came out strong on May 12 in support of the program, which prepares our youngest learners for long-term success in school.

At the UTLA rally, Karla Tejada (right, with her sign language interpret-er and adult ed teacher Daniel Baroody) talked about finding classes that worked for her at Abram Friedman Occupational Center after she had dif-ficulty in college. Now both programs she relies on—ESL for the deaf and cosmetology training—are on the chopping block for next school year.

unanimous, with 97% of members saying yes to the contract agreement and 99% passing the health benefits. The LAUSD School Board approved the contract agreement at its May 12 meeting on a 7 to 0 vote.

Neither agreement would have happened without members organizing school sites and taking part in escalating actions, from Big Red Tuesday to the Stand at Grand Rally and faculty meeting boycotts, which gave us strength in bargaining and showed the District our unity and power. The result is a 10% pay increase for members, fully funded health care, and a contract agree-ment that improves learning and working conditions, sets class-size caps, and lowers

(continued on page 4)

United Teacher • for the latest news: www.utla.net May 15, 2015

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President’s perspective

Organizing is constant: Fighting the cuts and readying for more actionBy Alex Caputo-Pearl UTLA President

At the LAUSD School Board on Tuesday, May 12, I shared the podium with Juan Ro-driguez, an LAUSD adult education student. Members of the School Board congratu-lated UTLA on our contract ratification vote, which had historic voter participation and “yes” vote tallies, and later approved our contract with a 7-0 vote. While this was very important and gratifying, Juan and I, and speakers from SRLDP and health and human services, were there for the purpose of pushing back against program cuts and layoffs. As hundreds of UTLA members, parents, and students rallied outside in our “All the Pieces Matter” action, Juan laid out his story. He had a wonderful childhood in many ways, but he had trouble in school and in the stability of his living situation. He eventually dropped out of school and ended up in and out of jail. Now, years later, with a degree, a stable job, and with an important role as a community leader, Juan says that he simply would not have been able to make this transition without LAUSD adult school educators.

Our programs and members have an enormous influence on people’s lives every day—and yet they are threatened with cuts and layoffs.

As we said when these layoff notices were first issued, they are fiscally unneces-sary (no other major school district issued notices this year) and would damage our students’ learning opportunities. The layoffs would be exactly the wrong move just as we are making progress toward rebuilding our schools after years of recession-era cuts.

In years past, UTLA was essentially held hostage in negotiations by the reduction-in-force layoff notices (RIFs), with LAUSD demanding financial sacrifices or take-backs to save our colleagues’ jobs. Relegating the RIFs to the bargaining table is a bad strat-egy: It shuts off available avenues of protest and, most negatively, shuts out parents and students and their persuasive voices against cuts. By separating the RIF fight from the bargaining process this year, UTLA avoided being held hostage, got a good contract agree-ment, and now is able to more broadly orga-nize against the program cuts and layoffs.

We have been fighting the RIF notices aggressively—by protesting at LAUSD headquarters (see the cover), by lobbying School Board members, and by represent-ing members through grievances and in the RIF hearings, where UTLA staff and attorneys with decades of experience are representing members before an administra-tive law judge. We have already gotten more than half of the permanent layoff notices rescinded in the RIF hearings.

The layoffs would especially hit hard our students at each end of the educational spec-trum—early education in the SRLDP program and adult education—and crucial health and human services provided by psychiatric social workers and attendance counselors. Repre-sentatives from each of these groups, along with parents and students served by their programs, formed UTLA delegations that visited School Board members who represent the districts in which they live or work. The

offices of Monica Ratliff, Steve Zimmer, and Bennett Kayser, have been visited, and George McKenna is scheduled for this week. Educa-tors shared details of how they impact stu-dents’ lives, and parents and students talked about what a difference the programs make to their families. By all reports, it was power-ful stuff. More delegations to School Board members’ offices are to come.

Before the delegation visits, the groups met at UTLA for a brief training on how to craft compelling narratives. A major part of being an organizing union is leadership de-velopment—building skills in our members and parents so they can be more effective advocates for their issues and recognize the power in their voices.

As this issue of the UNITED TEACHER

goes to press, we are waiting for Governor Jerry Brown’s May revise version of the budget, which we expect will have good news in the form of increased funding for schools. UTLA will be pressing for that money to be used to rescind all remaining layoff notices and stop the cuts to programs. In addition, we are making progress in recapturing money that may have been lost due to MiSiS mis-counts; this too should go toward saving programs and rescinding RIFs.

Stepping up big-time for the School Board elections

As this UNITED TEACHER goes on press, we don’t know the results of the May 19 LAUSD School Board elections, but we do know that hundreds of members stepped up and volunteered for our endorsed can-didates: Bennett Kayser, Scott Schmerelson, and Richard Vladovic.

It has been great volunteering alongside you, whether getting precinct walkers ready on the sidewalk with Monica Whalen, re-cruiting volunteers at a blitz visit at Monlux Elementary School, phone banking at a restaurant with Ingrid Villeda, precinct walking with Gloria Martinez, supporting UTLA regional organizer Jollene Levid in building phone banks in the West Valley, phone banking with Rodney Lusain, or working with a great number of others of you at a huge variety of events. Having one-on-one conversations, educator to voter, is one of our most effective campaign tools—and is a vital complement to letters, mailers,

rallies, endorsements, canvas programs, and the money put into campaigns through our PACE funds and through our affiliates (AFT, NEA, CFT, and CTA).

Most of our campaign volunteers signed up during our third school site visit blitz. UTLA staff and leaders visited schools to engage with members about the contract agreement and to talk about how critical the School Board races are. These visit blitzes continue to be great ways to connect UTLA staff and lead-ership to rank and file, and I thank all those members who show up to the meetings.

Historic contract vote confirms our path

The historic turnout for the contract vote (83% of eligible members voted) and the near-unanimous “yes” votes on both the contract and the health benefits agreements (97% and 99%, respectively) send a power-ful message. Internally, they show that our members are buying into a different model of unionism—a social movement union, where organizing among members and parents/community around a broad program is constant. To District officials and those who would privatize public education, the votes are another example of what they have been seeing the entire school year: our unity and power in building and recognizing our vic-tories and in preparing for the next battles.

These agreements were shaped by our members, through the bargaining survey and feedback during school site visit blitzes, and they were won by our members, through our organizing and escalating actions. I can’t say it enough: These agreements would not have happened without you. Would LAUSD have moved so far from its initial 2% raise offer if 1,000 people had rallied at Grand instead of over 15,000? Would they have agreed to first-ever contract language on class size and student-to-counselor ratios if only a handful of schools boycotted faculty meetings instead of hundreds across the entire city? Participa-tion doesn’t just matter, it’s essential.

Above all, the contract results signal a readiness to keep on fighting for our vision for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve and to continue building the organizing muscles and structures, site by site and neighbor-hood by neighborhood, to do so. Even while we take time to be with family and friends over the summer break (I have a few hiking trips planned with my parents, my wife, and my kids), UTLA will be organizing, and we need you involved, so be check-ing your emails regularly, and be ready to participate. Here are some issues that will take us through the summer and into next school year:

• Search for the new superintendent: Our schools suffered for years under one of the most top-down, corporate superintendents in the country. Deasy is long gone—and we are proud to have played a key role in holding him accountable—but the corporate reform movement still has great strength, as shown by the millions they are throwing into the School Board races against us. UTLA will be working with our parent and community partners to make sure we get a new superin-tendent who is collaborative and responsive to the community.

(continued on next page)

Alex walks precincts for the Kayser campaign with his daughter and UTLA Board member Gloria Martinez from Rowan Avenue.

United Teacher PRESIDENT Alex Caputo-Pearl NEA AFFILIATE VP Cecily Myart-Cruz AFT AFFILIATE VP Betty Forrester ELEMENTARY VP Juan Ramirez SECONDARY VP Colleen Schwab TREASURER Arlene Inouye SECRETARY Daniel Barnhart

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jeff Good

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

NORTH AREA: Interim: Kirk Thomas, Chair (Eagle Rock ES), Rebecca Solomon (RFK UCLA Comm. School), Julie Van Winkle (Logan Span School)

SOUTH AREA: Ingrid Villeda, Chair (93rd Street ES), Ayde Bravo (Maywood ES), Ayesha Brooks

(Markham MS), Maria Miranda (Miramonte ES)

EAST AREA: Gillian Russom, Chair (ESP Academy), Ingrid Gunnell (Lane ES), Gloria Martinez (Rowan ES),

Adrian Tamayo (Lorena ES)

WEST AREA: Erika Jones Crawford, Chair (Angeles Mesa), Noah Lippe-Klein (Dorsey HS), Rodney Lusain (Los Angeles HS), Jennifer Villaryo (Grand View ES)

CENTRAL AREA: José Lara, Chair (Santee EC), Kelly Flores (Maya Angelou), Paul Ngwoke (Bethune

MS), Zulma Tobar (Harmony ES)

VALLEY EAST AREA: Scott Mandel, Chair (Pacoima Magnet), Victoria (Martha) Casas (Beachy ES),

Alex (David) Orozco (Madison MS)

VALLEY WEST AREA: Bruce Newborn, Chair, Melodie Bitter (Lorne ES), Wendi Davis

(Henry MS), Javier Romo (Mulholland MS)

HARBOR AREA: Aaron Bruhnke, Chair (San Pedro HS), Elgin Scott (Avalon Gardens ES), Steve Seal

(Eshelman ES), Mary Tello (De La Torre Jr. ES)

ADULT & OCCUP ED: Ernest Kettenring (Roosevelt CAS)

BILINGUAL EDUCATION: Cheryl L. Ortega (Sub Unit)

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Linda Gordon

SPECIAL ED: Darrell Jones (Byrd MS)

SUBSTITUTES: Fredrick Bertz

PACE CHAIR: Marco Flores

UTLA RETIRED: John Perez

AFFILIATIONS American Federation of Teachers National Education Association

STATE & NATIONAL OFFICERSNEA DIRECTOR: Sue Cirillo

CFT PRESIDENT: Joshua Pechthalt CTA PRESIDENT: Dean Vogel

CTA DIRECTOR: David Goldberg CFT VICE PRESIDENT: Betty Forrester

NEA PRESDIENT: Lily Eskelsen Garcia AFT PRESIDENT: Randi Weingarten

UTLA COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Alex Caputo-Pearl

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS: Suzanne SpurgeonCOMMUNICATIONS SPECIALISTS:

Kim Turner, Carolina Barreiro, Tammy Lynn GannADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Laura Aldana

EDITORIAL INFORMATIONUNITED TEACHER

3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Fl., LA, CA 90010Email: [email protected]

UTLA main line: (213) 487-5560

ADVERTISINGSenders Communications Group

Bruce Loria: (818) 884-8966, ext. 1107

UNITED TEACHER accepts paid advertisements from outside companies and organizations, including UTLA sponsors and vendors with no relationship with UTLA. Only approved vendors can use the UTLA logo in their ads. The content of an advertisement is the responsibility of the advertiser alone, and UTLA cannot be held responsible for its accuracy, veracity, or reliability. Appearance of an advertisement should not be viewed as an endorsement or recommendation by United Teachers Los Angeles.

United Teacher (ISSN # 0745-4163) is published monthly (except for a combined June/July issue) by United Teachers Los Angeles, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Subscriptions: $20.00 per year. (Price included in dues/agency fe of UTLA bargaining unit members.) Periodical postage paid at Los Angeles, California. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to United Teachers Los Angeles, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Telephone (213) 487-5560.


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Letters to the editor

Get connected to UTLA Facebook: facebook.com/UTLAnow

Twitter: @utlanow

YouTube: youtube.com/UTLAnow

10% raise is really 10.36%About the salary increase in the recent

contract agreement: Isn’t it really a 10.36% pay increase because the staggered imple-mentation leads to compounding (i.e., a raise on top of an already raised salary)? Why does UTLA keep reporting it as 10%?

—Marc McPheeChavez L.A. Teacher Prep

Yes, you are correct. Because each subse-quent raise will be calculated on the new higher salary, it will equal a 10.366% increase by January 1, 2016. The math looks like this: (1.04)(1.02)(1.02)(1.02) = a 10.366% “cu-mulative” increase. We use the 10% in the interest of simplicity.

What lesson does BIC waste teach?

One main concern that was not ad-dressed in the “Speaking Out” article in the February UNITED TEACHER (“BIC Organizing Success Story”) is the hun-dreds of pounds of food that go to waste each day with the BIC mandate. Every morning in many LAUSD classrooms, students are told they must get a tray of food whether they plan on eating it or not. Even if the food is uneaten and unopened, students must throw it in the trash intact. Other schools may not enforce that same rule, but in those schools, all the uneaten, unopened food goes back to the cafete-rias, where workers have been advised to throw it away.

We are sending the message that it’s

okay to be wasteful. I’ve seen several gallons worth of cold, unexpired, closed milk cartons tossed in the trash by the end of the 20 minutes of BIC. Can’t something be done? If BIC must stay, can’t there be a way to help local food banks, homeless shelters, or simply allow those parents who volunteer to serve BIC to take food home?

It breaks my heart and infuriates me to see fresh fruit, cold milk, and hot packaged meals being thrown away every morning. What lessons are we truly teaching the children?

—Gina V. Ramsey

Career Substitute Teacher

Increases in CalSTRS contributionsPlease clarify for members why people

are hearing, by word of mouth, that CalSTRS is going to demand a 5% in-creased contribution very soon to survive insolvency by the year 2044.

—KPUTLA Member

As part of legislation passed in 2014, member, school district, and state contribu-tions to CalSTRS system are increasing over the next few years, but employees will see a 2.25% increase—not 5%. See a chart of all the increases and when they take effect on page 6. School districts will see the biggest increases of all, jumping from 8.88% to 19.1% by 2020. UTLA did not support this legislation, and we share legitimate concerns that the law is overly aggressive in addressing the funding shortfall

and that the increased funding demands will unfairly burden employees and school districts.

Don’t forget established servicesAs a health and human services UTLA

member, I do not always feel supported by UTLA, and the recent article about Roosevelt High School’s desire for a Wellness Center in the UNITED TEACHER has reinforced that feeling.

In the aforementioned article, not once was there a mention of the school-based clinic that has been in the middle of the Roosevelt campus for the past 18 years. It is one of the oldest school-based clinics LAUSD has, and it is staffed by three UTLA members! It is also one of the busiest school-based clinics, averaging more than 1,000 visits per school year. In the article, it mentions that “Wellness Centers provide easy access to physical and mental health services”—well, the established clinic already offers those services: physical health services by our own UTLA-represented LAUSD nurse practitioner, CD nurses, and school physician as well as mental health ser-vices via Los Angeles County mental health-contracted providers.

UTLA should fact-check their articles before publishing—and support their members—ALL of their members.

—Sherry Hefner-MedranoDistrict Nursing Services

CorrectionThe article in the April issue on

the Roosevelt community’s fight for a Wellness Center should have included MEChA as one of the campus student groups active in the effort. We regret the oversight.

Send corrections to UNITED TEACHER, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010; [email protected].

4 UTLA bus tour highlights school conditions Parents, students, and educators visit sites to talk about the need for lower class sizes and fully staffed schools.

5 UTLA members step up for tight School Board races Educators hit the phones and the sidewalks to support our candidates.

5 Alliance charter educators protest anti-union tactics Management engages in aggressive campaign against pro-union teachers.

Passionate supporters of adult ed, health and human services, and SRLDP programs rallied with UTLA against cuts on May 12.

In this issue

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE (continued from previous page)

• Building power at the UTLA Leadership Conference and through having a complete, updated list of chapter chairs: UTLA’s annual Leadership Conference will be July 31 to August 2 in La Quinta. It’s very important that all schools send representa-tives to the conference, where we will be holding focused trainings, building orga-nizing structure, and shaping details on key priorities for the coming year. Chairs, co-chairs, chapter parent action liaisons (CPALs), and chapter political coordinators (CPCs) are all invited on a space-available basis. Read more about the conference on page 18. It is also critical that all work sites have their chapter chair elections and report the results to UTLA immediately.

• Expanding connections with parents and the community around school improvement and increasing revenue: Parents will be key to moving forward on many issues, from choosing the new superintendent to build-ing on our contract victories around class size and staffing. Getting a CPAL (chapter parent action liaison) at every site will help us deepen our systematic engagement with parents, community, and students. Just as important to the UTLA school team are CPCs (chapter political coordinators), who drive the political work at their sites. Key focal points for parent and community work will be building labor/community coalitions to take the lead on school improvement, and continuing our work with the statewide Make It Fair coalition to win more state revenue for schools and social services (read more about Make it Fair on page 5).

• Getting into reopeners: The new agree-ment calls for contract reopeners in 2015-16 on evaluation and class size, and there are reopeners on salary, class size, and three ad-ditional articles each for UTLA and LAUSD in 2016-17. As always, bargaining during reopeners relies on a unified, mobilized membership to be successful. We will also begin to prep for our full contract renewal in June 2017. For that bargaining to be driven by genuine input from members, parents, and the community, we will need to begin a dialogue about the full contract renewal in the coming months.

• Supporting the Alliance educators and UTLA members at charter schools: We will continue supporting the educators at Al-liance charter schools, the biggest charter chain in Los Angeles, with 550 educa-tors. They are organizing to join UTLA, and amidst an aggressive and expensive anti-union campaign being run by the Alliance management, they have coura-geously grown their numbers from 67 to 145 signers for the union, and support is growing among parents and alumni. They also have more than 15 elected officials and community organizations supporting their efforts. Supporting the Alliance organizing efforts is just one part of our broader goals to include our charter school UTLA members more and more into the life of the union.

Organizing is constant. It is not about one campaign, one contract fight, one School Board election—it is how we build long-term strength to fight for the things that are unam-biguously necessary for our students and for our profession. Constant organizing allows us to keep engaging with our members and the community, growing our power, winning victories big and small along the way. We have much work to do in our campaign for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve, but we are well on our way. I wish you a fantastic, restful, energizing, and connected (to UTLA!) summer—you deserve it. Enjoy.

4 Pali High contract fight

6 Q&A on CalSTRS increases

7 WHO award winners

8 Milestones

20 Special category chapter chairs

22 Practical matters: health benefits in retirement

24 Openings on the UTLA Board of Directors

28 Retirees’ corner


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Contract talks for the majority of UTLA members have concluded with the passage of the new agreement, but there are still hundreds of UTLA members at independent charter schools who are engaged in active negotiations.

At one of those schools—Palisades Charter High—members are ramping up their fight for a fair contract after management declared that talks were at an impasse. The major sticking points are salary (the school is offering a 4% raise; educators are pressing for 6.5%) and a voice in bell schedule changes. Manage-ment has been attempting to change bell schedules through a committee that is not rep-resentative of stakeholders. These schedule changes are especially unpopular among

Pali High charter educators fight for fair contract

students and parents, many of whom have joined the teachers and health and human services professionals in pushing back on this contract demand.

To put pressure on management to settle the contract, the Palisades educa-tors are planning an escalating series of actions, including reaching out to parents, holding petition drives, and picketing in front of school.

Palisades Charter educators picket in front of the school to urge management to settle their contract.

UTLA bus tour highlights school conditionsParents and educators visit sites to talk about the need for lower class sizes and fully staffed schools.

FIGHTING THE CUTS (continued from the cover)

the counselor-to-student ratio.“These agreements are the result of

10 months of organizing and they show us the pathway to more victories in the future,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said. “The overwhelming member

vote signals a readiness to keep on fight-ing for our vision for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve and to continue build-ing the organizing muscles, site by site and neighborhood by neighborhood, to do so. We are on our way.”

For more on the RIF fight and UTLA’s next steps in organizing, see page 2.

A big yellow school bus with 25 educa-tors and parents traveled across LAUSD on April 14, making stops at schools along the way to highlight unacceptable learning and teaching conditions. Reporters, including Howard Blume from the L.A. Times and Norma Roque from Channel 34, were on board for different legs of the trip, interview-ing the riders as the bus traveled through the city. At each school site stop, the bus riders met educators and parents from the school and held rallies and news conferences.

At the first stop, Alta Loma Elementary, parents from Grandview Elementary cara-vaned over to join the more than 80 Alta Loma staff and parents at a before-school rally that focused on the need for librar-ians, nurses, the SRLDP early education program, and improved physical facilities.

Parent Cherry Hurd said she is con-cerned that the school is not staffed to deal with her daughter’s Type 2 diabetes.

“The school has a nurse only three days a week, but my baby has diabetes every day,” Hurd said. “The teachers at her school are wonderful, and one saved her [during an incident], but we need a full-time nurse.”

The second stop was North Hollywood High for a lunchtime rally to decry the huge class sizes there and elsewhere in the District.

“You cannot have a college-going culture and have classes with 45, 46, 47, 48 students,” counselor Milissa Roberts said. “It is danger-

ous let alone not academic. If you want your kids going to college, then you have to get them in classrooms that are reduced in size.”

The third stop was Robert F. Kennedy Span School, where RFK parents and UTLA members talked with other parents about issues at the school as they arrived to pick up their children. Some of the top concerns for parent activists at RFK are the Breakfast in the Classroom program, other campus cleanliness issues, and lack of nurses for the six-school campus.

The bus’s final stop was LAUSD head-quarters, where parents Kahllid Al-Alim, Lucia Huerta, Raquel Martinez, and Cherry Hurd addressed the School Board.

“We are seeing problems in our school,” RFK parent Raquel Martinez told the Board. “In order to have a healthy learn-ing environment, we need clean bathrooms and classrooms. Kids have to be healthy to have 100% attendance. We need staff such as nurses full-time so kids feel supported.”

The tour was a mobile organizing opportu-nity, giving parents, students, and educators the chance to have one-on-one and small-group conversations on the bus. Because the riders came from all parts of the city—from San Pedro to Pacoima and Boyle Heights to Venice—they could hear about experiences and conditions in other parts of the District.

“It’s powerful for teachers and parents to come together and learn they are not

alone in experiencing problems,” says Es-peranza Martinez, UTLA’s parent/com-munity organizer. “The tour was also a chance to connect their shared concerns to the Schools L.A. Students Deserve cam-paign and to build awareness that condi-tions can be changed by working together and holding the District accountable.”

In the middle of the tour, participants stopped at UTLA for a skills-building session on creating compelling narratives when addressing elected officials. As an organiz-ing union, UTLA is focused on developing leaders and building the ability of people to

Final stop: Outside School Board headquarters, parents, students, and educators stand by the big yellow bus that took them to LAUSD schools to highlight challenging teaching and learning conditions and to demand change.

act purposefully on the issues they care about. The bus tour was organized by UTLA’s

PCOC, the Parent Community Organizing Committee, made of representatives from each area of UTLA. The PCOC coordinates the work of building partnerships at the school-site level, by providing training and support for CPALs (chapter parent action liaisons).

The PCOC is committed to continuing to build the capacity of the CPALs and will be planning more actions of this kind that engage parents and community in our push to build on our contract victory and secure more improvements for our students.

UTLA delegations visit School Board membersAlexis Cooperman (psychiatric social worker), Miguel Flores (East L.A. Skills Center student), Ana Villasenor (SRLDP teacher), Angelica Garcia and family (SRLDP family), Maura Sakhakorn (adult ed teacher), Ana Carbajal (adult ed student), UTLA/AFT Vice President Betty Forrester, and UTLA Secondary Vice President Colleen Schwab visit School Board member Monica Ratliff.

Melissa Alvarado (SRLDP parent), Laura Rubalcava (psychiatric social worker), Shauna Brodsky (psychiatric social worker), Silvia Leon (SRLDP teacher), Bryan Lopez (adult ed student), and Matthew Crowe (adult ed teacher) meet with Bennett Kay-ser’s Deputy Chief of Staff Juan de la Cruz and other staff.

Martin Montoya (adult ed student), Karla Tejada (deaf student at Abram Friedman Oc-cupational Center), Daniel Baroody (deaf in-terpreter and adult ed teacher), Ruth Fried (SRLDP teacher), Mariefe Brown (SRLDP parent), Tim Sheridan (adult ed teacher), Rosalyn Williams (psychiatric social worker), Shauna Brodsky (psychiatric social worker), UTLA Elementary Vice President Juan Ramirez and UTLA/AFT Vice President Betty Forrester visit School Board member Steve Zimmer.


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Alliance charter educators protest management’s anti-union tacticsInternal memo exposes aggressive anti-union campaign by Alliance charter schools.

By Juan ParrinoUTLA Political Organizer

As this article is being written, UTLA leaders and activists—joined by concerned students and parents—are engaging voters while the School Board runoff election closes in on its final week. Our union is vitally in-volved in three competitive races where we have endorsed candidates with significant histories of LAUSD service. In District 3 we are seeking to elect career educator Scott Sch-merelson. In District 5 we are supporting the reelection of ethnic studies and early child-hood education champion Bennett Kayser. In District 7 we have gotten behind the reelec-tion of School Board President Dr. Richard Vladovic, a leader on protecting our health care and in helping UTLA and LAUSD reach an agreement on our contract.

At this time the outcomes of the May 19 General Election are unknown. What can be

Educators at Alliance College-Ready charter schools have uncovered proof that Alliance management has instructed its administrators to engage in an aggressive anti-union campaign against its own teach-ers. At a news conference in April, Alliance educators, backed by supportive elected officials, community groups, parents, and alumni, shared a “smoking gun” piece of evidence—an internal document from Alli-ance home office that guides administrators on how to campaign against unionization.

“The Alliance administration told us they would respect the decision of their teachers, but their anti-union behavior doesn’t feel respectful at all,” said Xochil Johansen, special education teacher at Al-liance Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science High School. “This anti-union playbook shows that rather than respect the voices of their pro-union educators, the Alliance is doing everything to discourage them.”

In March, 67 educators from Alliance’s 26 sites—L.A.’s largest charter school chain—announced plans to form a union with UTLA, and support for unionizing con-tinues to grow among the faculty members. Alliance educators are organizing a union to have a collective and effective voice in the decision-making process at Alliance schools and to create the highest-quality learning environment for their students.

Alliance administration initially re-sponded to the union effort by issuing a statement assuring teachers and counsel-

stated for the record is that our current efforts have been supported by all of our eight UTLA Areas and by major financial contributions by our affiliates, the CTA, CFT, NEA, and AFT. Such UTLA-wide participation is based on our awareness of how essential it is to have a School Board composed of members whose history of service within LAUSD enables them to understand that our schools need to improve, not by being turned over to corpo-rate operators and privatization promoters, but by steering LAUSD to greater success based on what works in the classroom.

At the same time we realize that while UTLA strives to help elect the very best School Board, even the best board is ham-pered by a lack of sufficient funds.

Our schools and other vital public servic-es have for decades operated with woefully inadequate funding. Year after year since the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978, funding for California’s schools, community colleges,

ors that they would “support any deci-sion made by employees to join or not to join a union” and later that its intent was “simply to put out facts.” That commitment was short-lived, however, and the internal memo demonstrates that there is a con-certed campaign to coerce educators, and even parents, from supporting organizing. The document is a guide for administra-tors on how to use personal information in pressuring teachers not to support a union, to illegally block teachers’ access to union information during non-work time, and to attempt to silence pro-union teachers’ voices and encourage anti-union teachers. Alliance officials confirmed for the media that the document is authentic.

“I am shocked and disappointed to know that Alliance is fighting against their own teachers,” said Ofelia Carrillo, Stern Math and Science School valedictorian from the Class of 2010. “They are taking resources out of the classroom and fighting teachers on their right to organize.”

The memo also covers how adminis-trators can discourage parents from sup-porting teachers, something that rankles parents like Frank Alvarez, who spoke at the news conference.

“As a parent I am here to vocalize my support for the educators who are standing up for their right to form a union and for what’s right for my child’s education,” said Alvarez, whose child attends Tennenbaum Family Technology High School.

Alliance educators and UTLA have filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the Public Employment Relations Board related to Alliance’s actions, which also include interfering with the rights of pro-union teachers to campaign on non-work time and threats of negative evaluations.

Stand up for Alliance educators: These educators, who continue to organize and build support in the face of management’s anti-union tactics, need our support. Read more about the Alliance educators’ story in the April UNITED TEACHER, “like”

them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/allianceeducators) and sign the online petition at http://bit.ly/AlliancePlayFair. UTLA represents more than 1,000 educa-tors at 12 independent charter schools in the Los Angeles area, including Granada Hills Charter High Schools, Birmingham Community Charter High School, El Cami-no Charter High School, Apple Academy, the Accelerated Schools, and Montague Charter Academy. For more information on the UTLA Charter Organizing Project, call (213) 487-5560, ext. 152, and visit utla.net/chartereducators.

At a news conference exposing Alliance’s anti-union tactics, Alliance teacher Xochil Johansen shared an internal memo that guides Alliance administrators on how to campaign against unionization.

UTLA activists and allies power up campaignsSuch concerted participation is now needed to “Make It Fair” and eliminate commercial property tax loopholes.

housing, and critical social safety net servic-es has continued to be slashed. When Cali-

fornia voters passed Prop. 13, it created critical protections for homeowners and renters, but it also created commercial property tax loopholes that allow giant corporations to avoid paying their fair share.

This is why UTLA has joined Make It Fair, a diverse grassroots coalition of over 40 organizations—commu-nity groups, labor unions and faith-based organizations—organizing throughout Cali-

fornia to spread the word about the need for commercial property tax reform. A recent USC report notes that reassessing commer-cial property at its current value would gen-erate up to $9 billion in additional revenue each year for our state.

Please plan on being part of UTLA’s par-ticipation in the Make It Fair coalition effort. Concerted member participation has been at the core of our School Board election efforts, and such participation will be essential to bringing fairness to California’s tax policy.

To learn more about Make It Fair: Con-tact UTLA Political Organizer Juan Parrino at (213) 368-6216 or [email protected].

Harbor Area members and staff join San Pedro High students in supporting Richard Vladovic. Volunteers also joined the efforts for Bennett Kayser (below left) and Scott Schmerelson (below right).


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Q&A on increases in CalSTRS contributions

State Assembly Bill 1469, signed into law as part of the 2014-15 budget, increases member, school district, and state contri-butions to the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) over the next several years. Here’s a Q&A on how the changes are impacting you.

UTLA did not support this legislation, and we share legitimate concerns that the law is overly aggressive in addressing the funding shortfall and that the increased funding demands will unfairly burden employees and school districts.

Why have CalSTRS contribution rates been increasing?

Due to various factors, including the economic downturn after the 2008 stock market crash, CalSTRS has a long-term funding shortfall. If the shortfall hadn’t been addressed, it may have affected CalSTRS’s ability to pay future pension obligations. Under AB 1469, the system should be fully funded within 32 years.

How much more will I be paying? CalSTRS members saw the first increase

in contributions (via payroll deduction) to their Defined Benefit Account last July, when the rate increased from 8% of their salary to 8.15%. That rate will see another increase, to 9.20% for most employees, as of July 1, 2015.

When will the new higher rate affect our paychecks?

The first paycheck affected will be the one issued in August 2015 for the July 2015 pay period.

Why are there different contribution rates for employees depending on whether they were hired before or after 2013?

Legislation in 2012 made adjustments to CalSTRS plans for employees hired after 2013,

including requiring them to work longer to receive full retirement benefits. Their rate of increase is lower because of that legislation.

How much more will the state and District be paying?

Currently, LAUSD contributes 8.88% of employee compensation to the CalSTRS general retirement fund. Under AB 1469, school district contributions will increase to a total of 19.1% of payroll, phased in until 2020.

The state’s contribution to the CalSTRS general fund increased to 3.45% July 2014 and will rise every July over the next couple of years until California’s total contribution is 6.33%.

Will there be further rate increases for employees after July 2016?

As the law stands now, there should not be further rate increases for employees. AB 1469 grants CalSTRS limited authority for setting contribution rates, and member rates are to remain fixed under statute. The CalSTRS Board will have the responsibility to adjust employer (after 2020-21) and state (after 2017-18) contributions as necessary to be 100% funded by 2046. CalSTRS must hereafter report to the legislature before July 1, 2019, and every five years thereafter until 2046 on the fiscal health of the CalSTRS Defined Benefit Account Program and the unfunded liability.

What can we say to people who say teacher pensions are a drain on the state budget?

Teachers do not retire into a life of luxury: The average monthly benefit is $3,500, and it equals 55% to 60% of an employee’s annual wage. Many people are also unaware that these pensions are not “giveaways”—CalSTRS members pay a significant portion of their salary into the system every year.

Also, California benefits greatly from retiree spending. Each $1 in taxpayer con-

tributions to California’s state and local pension plans creates $7.91 in total eco-nomic output for the state.

How is the CalSTRS plan different from a 401(k)?

Newer teachers and members who previously worked outside the school system may not be familiar with “defined benefit” plans, which are increasingly rare in the private sector. Under the defined benefit plan, CalSTRS members get a guaranteed monthly payment upon re-tirement. “Defined contribution” plans, such as 401(k)s, have no guarantee of a consistent payment in retirement and are subject to the vagaries of the stock market.

Why is a secure retirement for educators so important?

Most retired educators rely on their CalSTRS pension as their primary source of retirement security because educators do not earn Social Security for their Cal-STRS-covered employment. In addition, teachers who previously worked in the private sector often see their Social Secu-rity benefits reduced or eliminated by the federal Social Security offsets.

Working in California public schools is a difficult, underpaid job—but one that comes with the promise of a well-fund-ed, secure retirement. Undermining that promise would have a calamitous effect on educator recruitment and retention.

School district contribution increasesSchool employer contributions will increase to a total of 19.1% of payroll by 2020.

EFFECTIVE DATE NEW RATE

July 1, 2015 10.73%

July 1, 2016 12.58%

July 1, 2017 14.43%

July 1, 2018 16.28%

July 1, 2019 18.13%

July 1, 2020 19.1%

CalSTRS member contribution increasesThe contribution rate previous to July 1, 2015, was 8.15% percent.

EFFECTIVE DATE NEW RATEPre-2013 hires

NEW RATEPost-2013 hires

July 1, 2015 9.20% 8.56%

July 1, 2016 10.25% 9.205%

Contribution rates to see another bump in July.

Results should be sent to UTLA ASAP.

Has your school elected a chapter chair yet?

As UTLA continues our organizing campaign for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve, it’s crucial that we have UTLA representation at each site. Election of 2015-16 chapter chairs, co-chairs, and vice chairs at all UTLA school sites should have been completed by now. Current chapter chairs must report the results of the elec-tion at their site to UTLA, even if they have been reelected for the 2015-16 term.

Chapter chair election form: A chapter chair election form has been distrib-uted to each chapter for this purpose; it can also be downloaded from utla.net/1516nocce. Any chapter that has not completed and returned the chapter chair election form should do so as soon as possible.

Leadership Conference in July: The annual Leadership Conference is one of the best ways to prepare newly elected

chapter chairs, reconnect current site leadership, and reinvigorate our veteran leaders. This year, the confer-ence will be held in La Quinta, during the last weekend in July. To make sure every chapter chair gets invited in time to reserve a room, it’s crucial that we receive the Notice of Chapter Chair Election form as soon as possible.

Return the election form to: UTLA, Attn: Data Processing, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Fax the form to (213) 637-5161. This year, the PDF form (posted at utla.net/1516nocce) can be sub-mitted electronically by clicking “sub-mit” (or emailing it to [email protected]). The UTLA Membership De-partment will then call the Election Committee chair to verify the details.

Area by area vote resultsBelow are the results by area of the contract and health benefits agreement vote. Overall, the agreements were ratified overwhelmingly, with 97% of members voting yes for the contract and 99% voting yes for the health benefits agreement.

CONTRACT HEALTH BENEFITS

YES NO YES NO

North 3,254 86 3,304 26

South 3,809 138 3,912 30

East 2,315 58 2,349 21

West 2,881 89 2,934 28

Central 2,148 83 2,203 28

Valley East 3,587 72 3,624 30

Valley West 4,040 66 4,080 19

Harbor 2,698 71 2,749 18

Online votes 11 1 11 0

Total 24,743 664 25,166 200

Votes by itinerants are included in area totals.


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UTLA/NEA recognizes service with the “We Honor Ours” program.

WHO awards honor union activists

Spirits were high at this year’s WHO (“We Honor Ours”) awards on April 27 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Downey. Friends, family members, and colleagues celebrated UTLA activists who fuel the union through their work advocating for their profession, lobbying elected officials, organizing against bully principals, build-ing connections with the community, and much more. This year, 15 union members and a community nonprofit were recog-nized for their work in providing out-standing leadership and support for public education.

CTA President Dean Vogel, the guest speaker for the night, praised UTLA’s recent contract victories and success in organizing and said that people are talking about UTLA “throughout California and the nation.”

“That’s what happens when you come together with a singularity of purpose,” he said. “And tonight we celebrate the people who hold the union up. Teaching is the toughest job in the world. Doing that is hard enough, but then these people do union work too.”

The awards were given by the WHO Planning Committee, based on nomina-tions from fellow union members. Here is a little more about the unique contributions of each winner.

Local WHO Awards

Fredrick BertzFredrick Bertz first

burst onto the UTLA scene in the 2009-2010 school year as a strong voice for substitute teachers. He spoke regularly at the School Board meetings about the harm that was being done to substitute teachers and the Dis-trict’s unfair labor practices. It was at this time that he also became a member of the House of Representatives and im-mersed himself into all things UTLA, learning about other underserved groups and trying to form coalitions with their leadership so that together they would have a stronger voice. It was at this time that he also began attending the NEA RA, where he became chair of the Sub-stitute Teachers Caucus of the NEA. We watched him race around the convention hall as he worked with different state cau-cuses and leaders to garner support for motions pertaining to substitute teachers. He also worked in CTA to bring substitute teacher issues to the floor. In addition to his work for substitute teachers, Rick has been active in the Gay and Lesbian Issues Committee of UTLA, as well as the LGBT Caucus of both CTA and NEA. He has helped raise money for GaLIC’s scholarship program, arranged for his choir to sing at our awards dinner, and even emceed last year’s ceremony.

Ayde BravoAyde Bravo, a kin-

dergarten teacher at Maywood Elementary, has been an activist for the past seven years. Ayde has been engaged in many organizing

campaigns during those years. As a South Area steering committee member, she successfully organized community members for the removal of three bully principals. She has also campaigned against an unscrupulous organization when it attempted to destabilize public schools by misleading parents in their attempt to use the Parent Trigger Law. As the South Area political coordinator, she has been instrumental in helping to get out the vote to win School Board elections. She has also taken on the task of lobbying in our state’s capitol for bills that support and strengthen public ed-ucation. Ayde has dedicated time and energy to ensure that California schools are properly funded. She has spent valu-able time serving as a PACE committee member, a House of Representatives member, a CTA State Council member, an NEA RA delegate, and a South Area UTLA/NEA Board of Director. Ayde Bravo is an outstanding leader and or-ganizer. Her strength, dedication, and compassion make it easy for others to follow her lead. The relationships she has built throughout her years of activism have positively impacted our profession and have made our union stronger.

M. Victoria CasasVictoria Casas is a

dynamic leader. As chapter chair, she holds regular meetings, and member participation has increased under her leadership. Her en-thusiasm energizes members and increas-es their involvement. Victoria sends out weekly updates, keeping the members informed. As a director, Victoria has done an excellent job communicating with her cluster leaders. She is a vital part of Valley East’s steering committee. She serves as the secretary for both the steering com-mittee as well as the area meeting. Vic-toria is also very active in rallies and the “Goodbye Galatzan” campaign. At times it has been a family event, with her husband and children beside her.

Tomas Flores Tomas Flores has

taught in LAUSD for 26 years in Title I schools. He has been a proud UTLA member in the East Area, North Area, and currently Central Area, where he is teaching at West Vernon Elementary School. Early in his career with LAUSD he served as chapter chair in the East Area, where he organized ac-tively against propositions 227 and 189. For the past five years, he has served on the Central Area Steering Committee and in the capacity of Central Area political coordinator to increase members’ po-litical participation. As an elected CTA State Council representative, he serves on the Retirements Issues committee. Separately, he has presented at UTLA’s Leadership Conference. This year he was elected treasurer of PACE. He engaged in Bennett Kayser’s first candidacy and now his current reelection campaign. He also worked for the campaigns to elect Monica Ratliff and Dr. George McKenna and has

been selected to lobby on behalf of UTLA and PACE in Sacramento and Washing-ton, D.C. Additionally, he is active on the UTLA committees for elementary edu-cation, Raza education, human rights, charter school unionization, retirement issues, and the UTLA task force for fi-nancial sustainability.

Donna HorowitzSchool nurse Donna

Horowitz has been in-volved in UTLA for more years than she can remember. Prior to that, she was active in her professional organiza-tion for LAUSD, the Los Angeles Council for School Nurses, as their Nurse Issues chair and as a member of the Nurse Liaison Committee. She discovered quickly that in order to make signifi-cant changes for the improvement of working conditions for school nurses in LAUSD, and ultimately for students, those changes had to come through the UTLA contract agreement. Therefore, she became co-chair for school nurses for two years and then moved on to serve as chapter chair for the past three years. She is a House of Representa-tives member and the chair for the UTLA Health and Human Services Commit-tee. She works with the HHS Steering Committee to get contract language in for all HHS members, who are often underrepresented. She works with the

Leadership Conference Committee in the planning and organizing of that event. She has given countless hours at rallies, phone banking, organizing school nurses around the UTLA vision, and increas-ing the visibility of school nurses both within and without UTLA. She is an active member in both CTA and NEA. Donna’s aim is to provide first-class service to the students she serves, their families, her community, and her peers.

Mel HouseAn itinerant P.E.

teacher for elementary schools, Mel House has been teaching for 18 years and has been very active in the union for the past eight years. She is chapter chair for all elementary P.E. teachers in the union and is a former UTLA Board member for West Area. She is currently on the steering com-mittee and is a cluster leader in Valley East, while also serving on the UTLA Organizing Team. She is on the GLBT Caucus and State Council for CTA. She is the chair of the UTLA Inner City Com-mittee, a delegate to the NEA Represen-tative Assembly, and is the secretary/treasurer for the UTLA/NEA Board of Directors. She just received the NEA Foundation Award in Washington, D.C., and will be traveling to Peru as a recipi-ent of the award.

2015 WHO Award winners with UTLA and CTA leadership.

CTA Secretary/Treasurer-elect David Gold-berg (with UTLA/NEA Vice President Cecily Myart-Cruz and CTA President Dean Vogel) won the State WHO award for his organizing skills and for bringing strength and unity to UTLA and CTA.

Manuel Criollo accepted the Gold Community Award on behalf of the Labor Community Strat-egy Center, a long-time advocate for the less powerful and ignored communities of the city. He is with UTLA/NEA Vice President Cecily Myart-Cruz and CTA President Dean Vogel.



8

MilestonesPassings

A beloved husband, father, grandfather, and teacher, Herman Katz died peacefully at his home in Sherman Oaks on April 12.

Katz’s greatest joy and satisfaction came from family, friends, colleagues, and stu-dents, who admired and treasured him. The son of a Russian Jewish mother and an American Jewish father, Katz was raised in City Terrace and Boyle Heights, and as a dedicated educator he devoted more than 50 years to Hollenbeck Junior High and Roosevelt High School, beginning in 1957, in the very community where he grew up.

He was the teacher to whom a young and confused Tony Villar went for help at Roosevelt High. Katz offered the young

Tony encouragement and suggested that he take the SAT exams and apply to college. That same young man would go on to become City of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who often credited Katz with turning his life around.

Katz’s legacy of compassion and service will be carried on by the countless lives he touched. He will be remembered and missed forever. He is survived by his loving wife, Beverly, of 60 years, two daughters, three grandsons, a future son-in-law, and two future granddaughters-in-law. There will be a memorial to celebrate his 82-year life in June.

Read more reflections on to Herman Katz on page 28 of this issue.

Retired LAUSD teacher Orlando J. Lee, 73,

In memoriam: Orlando Lee

In memoriam: Herman Katzaffectionately known as Lee, passed away on August 19, 2014, after a brief illness.

Orlando was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s. In L.A., he earned his bachelor’s degree from Cal State L.A. and his master’s degree in special education from Cal Lutheran. He worked as a special education teacher and consultant for LAUSD for 35 years. Orlando was an advocate for the needs of special education students, families, and teachers. His passions were coaching his son in Little League Baseball, playing basketball with the Johnny Brown All Stars, and playing handball. He leaves his wife of 18 years, Marilyn, also a retired LAUSD teacher; his children, Tracy, Kim, and Greg; and five grandchildren. The world will be a much sadder place without his friendly nature, infectious smile, and keen sense of humor. He is greatly missed.

The friends and community of Ber-trand Elementary School in Reseda were saddened by the passing of Robin Lee on Easter Sunday. A beloved teacher and col-league, Robin taught fifth and third grade at Bertrand for 19 years until his retirement in 2003. Known for his profound sense of humor and unique philosophy of life, Robin was a great and reliable source of support, friendly quips, and comic relief for all who knew him. Robin was a popular teacher who was often visited by former students and often quoted by his fellow educators.

Before he came to Bertrand, Robin taught at Newcastle Elementary. He was skilled in martial arts long before it was fashionable and had trained with Bruce Lee. He was active in his church community, and was a dedicated family man who is survived by Vicky, his devoted wife of 45 years, and his son, Christopher.

In memoriam: Robin Lee

Those of us who were blessed in knowing him will forever cherish the humor, wisdom, and joy that Robin Lee brought to our lives. We carry his quips in our hearts to help us deal with all the surprises that life has to offer.

Retirements

Adult education will have one less pro-ponent after June 5. Ernest Kettenring, a 30-year teacher in math and social studies in LAUSD’s Division of Adult and Career Education (DACE), has announced his retirement. Ernest departs a career that has touched the lives not only of students but also hundreds of teachers for whom he was a tireless champion for improved working conditions and fair benefits.

Raised in Chino, Ernest’s early path bore little semblance to what would lead to director of adult education for UTLA. Music degrees at CSUs Fullerton and San Bernardino paved the way, in 1978, to Cape Town, South Africa, where he did graduate studies at a British university and played French horn in the South Africa Symphony Orchestra, a stint that lasted four years.

Ernest’s return to the United States was preceded by his traversing up the African continent in a converted army truck. “One bath in five months,” Ernest remarked, recall-ing a pocketful of experiences like hunting with the Pygmies in the Congo, sightseeing the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and being hospitalized with malaria in Cameroon.

After a full scholarship to the University of New Hampshire for an M.A. in history, he studied Swahili in a doctoral program at UCLA, winning a Fulbright Scholarship for a year’s study in East Africa, and an in-cidental distinction as the first-ever teacher with a credential endorsement of Swahili.

Ernest became active in UTLA in 1992 at the urging of fellow teacher and UTLA leader Julie Carson. Ernest made a speech about increasing adult education teacher tenure hours from 20 to 30 per week. Not only what he said, notes Carson, but how he said it—calmly and unemotionally—was to become the hallmark of his leadership style. His steadfast research, superlative organizational skills—and in the words of Robert Sucher, an ESL teacher at Abram Friedman Occupation Center (AFOC), “an encyclopedic mind”—earned him respect if not admiration from friend and adversary.

Ernest stood up for adult education teachers at an estimated 200 grievance


Retiring: Ernest Kettenring (above, center), a long-time activist for adult education, is retir-ing after 30 years in LAUSD’s Division of Adult and Career Education.

JULI

E CAR

SO

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UTLA has formed a new area-based steer-ing committee dedicated to addressing issues with Prop. 39 co-location. The main purpose of the committee is to give support to UTLA chapters that want to fight co-location at their school and to develop a Districtwide and state strategy on needed policy changes.

Prop. 39, which lowered the threshold for approving bond measures for school facili-ties, was passed by California voters in 2000. Embedded (some say hidden) in the propo-sition was an amendment to the Ed Code requiring school districts to offer “equitable and adequate” unused public space to charter schools, opening the door for charters to move onto existing District campuses.

Currently, there are 43 charter co-locations at LAUSD. Yet, for the 2015-16 year alone, more than 60 new co-locations are anticipated. Sometimes co-location proceeds smoothly and benefits both schools, but many times, it can have a negative impact on the home school. In some cases the rooms that are given to the charter are the “set asides” that house the com-puter lab, parent centers, afterschool programs, or the music room. Once-overcrowded schools with bungalows that should be removed to create more playground space are instead being identified as having unused space. The co-location can have an effect on school sched-ules and the unfettered use of school facilities, such as the cafeteria, library, multipurpose room, and other common spaces. Potential safety problems can arise when the co-located schools have a wide grade-level span. All of these issues underscore the importance of having an ongoing, active UTLA committee to help schools tackle these issues.

Dealing with Prop. 39 and co-locationNew UTLA committee will offer support and resources to schools.

Some schools have been pushing back against co-location by uniting with parents and the community. This year, Roosevelt High School mounted a powerful commu-nity campaign against co-location, arguing that the space LAUSD identified as “open” was already targeted by the community for expanded student and community services, including a Wellness Center. The outcome for Roosevelt is still unclear, but even when the fight against co-location is not success-ful, the organizing work prepares the way for future action.

The new Prop. 39 steering committee was born from a well-attended meeting in March involving 60 chapter chairs, representing both currently and soon-to-be co-located schools. The chapter chairs spent the day sharing con-cerns, assessing the impact of colocation, and identifying strategies for pushing back.

The new UTLA steering committee will hold regular chapter chair meetings on Prop. 39—especially when the co-location cycle starts again next school year—to support schools and share tools and techniques for addressing colocation. The next one, to be held on May 20, will prepare chapter chairs to ensure that Campus Co-location Com-mittees, mandated for the first time by Su-perintendent Cortines, meet to make the co-location process as collaborative as possible.

For more on Prop 39 colocation: Go to utla.net for a Prop. 39 Q&A, implemen-tation regulations, District memos, and more useful info. For immediate assis-tance, contact UTLA Area rep Christopher Arellano at [email protected].

Visit kp.org/betterresults for information about routine screenings that can help protect your health.

Stay motivated Try these ideas for keeping your numbers in check:

Walk it off. Walking is a great way to shed pounds and lower your BMI.

Eat it raw. Rinse fresh broccoli and break off the florets to serve raw with dip or hummus for a heart-healthy snack.

Breathe. Take it easy, it’s good for the heart (and the spirit too).

Stack the numbers in your favorKnowing your numbers — like your blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI — can help you take control of your health. If your numbers need improvement, making simple lifestyle changes can make a difference.

Going in for a checkup is one of the best ways to stay in the know about your health. You’ll learn your numbers, and get valuable information to help you take action and start looking and feeling your best.

Make an appointment with your doctor to see what areas you may need to work on, and how best to prevent conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

BETTERresults

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Stories of the countless “other duties NOT assigned” performed by UTLA members.

From the secondary VP

The search for the meaning of “educator”

Being a teacher is more than master-ing Common Core (or whatever learn-ing modality is in vogue at the moment), preparing lessons, correcting papers, or administering tests. It is even beyond the scope of educating and inspiring. Teachers must also be advocates and spokespersons for advancing ideas and ideals while pro-tecting against the attacks of those who choose to fund MiSiS over addressing the critical needs of students and educators.

Informed by my school visits and connect-

ing with educators in all corners of the city, along with my 311/2 years in the classroom, I was able to speak at length recently with KPCC reporter Annie Gilbertson about the “other duties NOT assigned” to educators that are done on a daily basis in our schools. For these duties, however, there are no test results, no way of statistically measuring their effects, and no grandiose awards for the educator. UTLA members fulfill these “duties” as part of an almost natural and innate dedication and commitment.

Let’s take a look at the social studies educator who spent hours applying for an award from the Van Nuys Airport’s educational foundation for one of his stu-dents. He wanted to recognize her and at the same time build self-esteem and encourage her to continue to do well in spite of obstacles. The educator attended the award ceremony for the student (she was performing in a music program else-where) and with honor accepted the rec-ognition she received. The next day the student’s success was announced at the school, bringing great pride to the teacher and joy to the student.

How about the counselor who realized that a student could not afford clothing for the school prom? Quickly, the counselor rallied the UTLA members on site to collect

funds to enable the student to attend the prom in a new dress! Then there is the teacher who sold donuts with colleagues to support a student who was in need of a kidney transplant and was undergoing dialysis three times a week. Her treatment required the student to take a bus with her mother and younger brother from the Valley to Children’s Hospital, which took two-plus hours each way. The funds the school staff raised provided Access trans-portation to the hospital (no more bus!), which greatly helped the family.

And let’s look at our educators who see students struggling with their sexuality and reach out to help. One LGBT edu-cator at a high school recognized a sui-cidal student and gave countless hours of support, resulting in that student returning to school and graduating with top honors.

RIF’d colleagues need our supportOur reduction in force (RIF) educators,

from SRLDP to adult education, also do the work of “other duties NOT assigned” that surely cannot be measured but are inherent in the meaning of “educator.” I have been to graduation ceremonies at adult educa-tion schools in the Valley. You can feel and see the connection the educators have with the students, who are now graduating with high school diplomas or from training for careers (most recently, students graduated from receiving the first training on the road to becoming registered nurses).

Our psychiatric social workers, speech pathologists, audiologists, and attendance counselors—frankly, all the educators who make up UTLA—perform these “not as-signed” duties because we are educators: a profession quite unlike all others. These are stories that the public needs to hear. We need to define what an educator is and does. It is time to stop the downgrading of our profession and work together to redefine our profession! In fact, the educa-tion reporter, Annie Gilbertson, whom I mentioned earlier would like to interview educators in this regard, so please send me the stories of your “other duties NOT assigned.” Let’s get the word out!

We must not forget our reassigned/housed teachers. They too have their stories. I remember talking to an educa-tor one evening two years ago. He had just won the top grant award for his school. The next day he was housed and was not told why for almost two years. While there is more work to do in support of our housed UTLA members, we have made strides in the unprecedented language in the new contract agreement. Teachers who find themselves being reassigned are encouraged to call their UTLA Area Repre-sentative and attend the Unjustly Housed Teacher Committee meetings. Dates and times are on our website. There is also a box with housed teacher information in the UNITED TEACHER.

Standing up for special edOur special ed educators who are at-

tempting to correct what they believe is

the wrong path for some of their students are yet another example of performing “other duties NOT assigned.” You may be aware that the District is looking to close special education centers that service some of our most needy students. While we all want students to have the best educational experience, including mainstreaming students when appro-priate to be with their peers and flour-ish on a regular campus, there are some cases where students, as argued by many special education educators, would not be best served on a general education campus. It appears that crucial services— including assistants and nursing servic-es—do not always follow students to the general education campus. Our special education teachers and parents are quite concerned and in fact met with Superin-tendent Ramon Cortines. Unfortunately, his response was not what was antici-pated given the gravity and urgency of the issues presented. He later sent a letter that included a sentiment along these lines: “Well, if things are so bad, why aren’t parents filing more complaints?”

To answer that, UTLA is encouraging parents and educators to file uniform complaint forms if they believe there has been a violation of the education rights of students. Look for more information and the forms at utla.net or email Scott Gerber, our UTLA special education spe-cialist, at [email protected]. Parents need to have options and not be denied the right to have opportunities with support for their vulnerable children in need of special education services. Please also send me your concerns, whether you are a special ed educator or general ed educator, so we can cover more special education issues in the UNITED TEACHER.

PR for our amazing schoolsThere is no doubt that we are facing

declining enrollment in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is time that we champion our educators and start a public relations campaign that emphasizes the many positives and benefits of our schools and the tireless efforts of our educators. I will even applaud a principal who called me, off the record, to discuss how to save his music program because he believes the arts are “good for kids.” Yes, indeed, Mr. Principal, you have our support!

We must continue to fill positions with our contract pool teachers and start hiring back off the reduction in force (RIF) list. Please let me know of any open positions that need to be filled appropriately by credentialed teachers in that subject field. It is vital to get our educators back in the classroom and off this RIF list!

During the next few weeks, please do contact me with stories and events about your school that evidence the meaning of “educator.” Let’s let Los Angeles know that the “Angels” in this city are watching over our children and exist in our public schools.

Colleen can be reached at [email protected].

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Honoring our activists, joining community fights, and marching on May Day.

NEA & AFT affiliate actions

Advocacy in action

What advocacy looks like at the local, state, and national levelBy Cecily Myart-CruzUTLA/NEA Vice President

In every aspect of UTLA/NEA, advo-cacy is paramount to ensuring the Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve. Here is a report on recent actions.

Local: UTLA/NEA Who Awards UTLA/NEA held our annual “We

Honor Ours” (WHO) Awards on April

27 at the Embassy Suites in Downey. The WHO awards are given annually to UTLA/NEA members who have displayed exemplary dedication and have given out-standing service to UTLA and its member-ship. These dedicated award winners can be found working in the background on a variety of issues to uplift the membership, and this year’s candidates were no excep-tion to this rule. The awards ceremony featured outgoing CTA President Dean Vogel, who said, “I’m impressed by all of this year’s winners, because although I know many of them, hearing why they were selected was inspirational.”

One of the highlights of the evening for

me was awarding the State WHO Award to CTA Board of Director David Goldberg. I first met David when I was a 16-year-old who had just graduated high school from LACES and was attending camp for the first time. He was our charismatic camp coun-selor—a really good listener, thoughtful, and a true advocate for the camp students.

Fast forward ten years, when that same

camp counselor, now a teacher, reintroduced himself to me in my first years in the class-room and almost immediately asked me to get involved in leadership roles at UTLA.

With his mentorship, he has helped me develop over the years. He consistently iden-tifies and engages new members, has always connected the local to the state, organizes talks between locals, and truly advocates on behalf of the members. He is a bridge builder.

Two weeks ago, CTA State Council held elections for the offices of CTA president, vice president, and secretary/treasurer. I urged folks at State Council to vote for a secretary/treasurer who signified change, collective action, and advocacy, and David was elected. It was an honor at the WHO awards to introduce my camp counselor, mentor, advocate, and friend—and new CTA secretary/treasurer—David Goldberg.

I want to congratulate every awardee on a wonderful accomplishment, and I challenge all UTLA members to get more involved in UTLA, CTA, and NEA. Let’s start identifying new leaders at your school site and in the area as well. They may very well be 2016 WHO Award winners.

Read more about the WHO winners on page 7.

State: Advocacy in SacramentoI wrote last month in the UT about trav-

eling to Sacramento to advocate on behalf of ethnic studies and charter school ac-countability legislation for UTLA and CTA. Since that story ran, I have traveled back to Sacramento two times to advocate with CTA. This month, CTA brought more than 50 educators, including two of the 2015 CTA Teachers of the Year, to the capitol over a two-day span to talk with legislators. We were able to defeat four bad bills in Sacra-mento: AB 734 would have expanded the divisive parent trigger laws, AB 1044 would

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Cecily Myart-Cruz and Assembly member Mike Gipson (D-Los Angeles) discuss the education bills that recently came before the Assembly Education Committee.

UTLA/NEA Vice President Cecily Myart-Cruz joins UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl at a May Day rally in MacArthur Park.

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13

have removed seniority from being consid-ered when laying off employees, and AB 1248 would have unnecessarily extended the teacher probationary period and taken away due process rights for some teachers.

Please see the CTA Educator at cta.org for up-to-date news on legislation.

National: May DayAll over the nation, International

Worker’s Day is observed on May 1. It is a celebration of laborers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labor movement. President Alex Caputo-Pearl and I joined Union Del Barrio and hundreds of educators, students, parents, and community members in MacArthur Park to march for workers, immigrants, and communities of color. We supported the demands of the people for a $15-an-hour wage, no more delays for DACA/DAPA immigration reform, educational justice for every student, ethnic studies as a requirement in all of California, an end to police brutality, and justice for all com-munities of color.

Using the power of our united voice

By Betty ForresterUTLA/AFT Vice President

On May Day, while Alex and Cecily joined UTLA activists at MacArthur Park (see her report above), UTLA Elementary Vice President Juan Ramirez and I were under the Dragon’s Gate in Chinatown, where UTLA members and staff joined the

L.A. County Federation of Labor unions and community organizations on Interna-tional Workers Day. We marched under a 30-foot by 70-foot American flag and raised demands for a $15-an-hour wage for all, no more DACA/DAPA immigration reform delays, and justice for all communities of color. The march ended at a resource fair in Grand Park. Not too far away, UTLA Treasurer Arlene Inouye and UTLA Sec-retary Dan Barnhart proudly and loudly joined East Area activists on May 1 in Boyle Heights, where students and community members marched from Mariachi Plaza through the neighborhood.

Just a few days before May 1, UTLA-Retired member Rosemary Lee, UTLA Strategic Research Director Grace

Regullano, and I joined faith leaders, sisters, and colleagues in labor and com-munity, environmental, and social justice movements in their 15-day solidarity fast calling on L.A. officials to lift the hourly wage to nothing less than $15.

Wearing symbolic orange rebozos, the “Women Fast for 15” participants did more than talk about wealth inequality—they took action. With more than 800,000 full-time workers earning poverty wages, the cost to taxpayers increases and families struggle. Our children,

our students, our schools deserve more, so we stood on the streets and in front of the City Council meeting that day to call on elected officials not to wait to move working families out of poverty.

The Schools L.A. Students Deserve is about the families we serve and the communi-ties our schools are in. It is not enough to just deliver the Common Core standards to our students—we also have an obligation to make the world a place that our students can succeed in. As union members, we must use the power of our united voice to advocate in every arena for support and resources for our students, schools, and communities.

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UTLA activist Rosemary Lee and UTLA/AFT Vice Presi-dent Betty Forrester take part in the “Fast for $15” rally in April calling for the City of Los Angeles to raise the minimum wage to $15.

May Day in Boyle Heights: UTLA officers Arlene Inouye (above) and Dan Barnhart joined the commu-nity march that began at Mariachi Plaza in East L.A.

UTLA/AFT Vice President Betty Forrester and UTLA Elementary Vice President Juan Ramirez help hoist the flag for the march through downtown L.A. on May 1.


14

Financial sustainability for 2015-16 and beyond.

From the treasurer

UTLA budget challenges

As the school year comes to a close, we, the officers, staff, and elected leaders, hope that you will have a refreshing and reju-venating summer. We have had an active year of organizing, also reflected in our spending this past year. Halfway through the year (last February and March), the UTLA Board of Directors and House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, from September 1, 2015, to August 31, 2016. The budget had been worked on

since January and was adopted in March, before all of the expenses for the 2014-15 year were fully known. This process co-incides with our independent certified audit conducted every year. We received an unqualified opinion (the highest opinion available) from certified public accountants Vasquez and Company, LLP, for the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years, meaning that we have followed all generally accepted accounting principles and the financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects.

However, it is important to note that in 2011, 2013, and 2014, we passed deficit budgets, meaning that our expenses were to exceed income. Yet when the actual ex-penses came in, we actually operated in a deficit for the following years: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. As you know, UTLA has seen a decrease of ap-proximately 10,000 members since 2007, while we have faced rising operational costs, including increased costs for member representational services, communications, staff health care and other insurance, orga-nizational expenses, and technology.

Over the past three years we had a budget deficit, with lost income of more than $2.5 million. We have attempted to make cuts proportional to that amount and maintain our basic functions. However,

with dropping membership levels and rising costs, we have had an operating deficit for seven budget cycles, due pri-marily to a dues structure that does not provide enough revenue to cover our annual general operating costs.

• The 2015-2016 budget projects an operating deficit of approximately $1.5 million, which is roughly $425,000 more than the $1.1 million operating deficit approved with last year’s budget. This deficit will be offset by the additional dues revenue from the salary increases in the approved tentative agreement, which will support the organizing expenses that we have incurred over the past year.

• The second installment of the Strike Readiness Fund in the 2015-16 budget will be moved over into the operating account to provide funds for specific categories, such as mobilization, computers, printing, and communications, as the ongoing orga-nizing plans are implemented. As reported last January, the House of Representatives approved by a 96% yes vote the transfer of $3 million from the strike fund into the general fund for strike readiness. As of April, $1 million has been transferred and $332,873 has been spent.

• Most of the increased deficit spend-ing is for structural budgetary items, such as increased costs for staff retiree health benefits and long-needed hardware and software upgrades.

• Our state and national affiliates have contributed 80% of the costs for five new staff positions as part of the UTLA/CFT/AFT/CTA/NEA Partnership Agreement effective until 2017.

The 2015-16 budget we passed is a con-servative spending plan, but costs will likely be higher than our income, even with the addition of the increased dues. The cost-cutting has reached an end point, and we are paying the price for years of neglect of our database system and infrastructure. Members also want increased organizing and services such as legal support.

The budget that was proposed and passed is necessary for UTLA to carry

out the priorities of our members. It also brightly highlights the fact that our current dues structure, in which UTLA members pay the lowest dues for membership of any local teachers’ union in the state of California, is unsustainable.

UTLA is at an important crossroads. While the issue of financial sustainability is not new to UTLA, the issue has been accelerated by ongoing trends and events. UTLA was founded in February 1970, when competing unions were brought to-gether under a low dues structure, based on 1.5% of a beginning teacher’s salary. It is a formula that does not account for changes in the educational landscape, such as the expansion of charter schools and the privatization of public education, loss of income through dropping membership, the continuing impact of Proposition 13 on education funding, and the updated dues structure of our state and national affiliates. Furthermore, in the coming year, all public sector unions are anticipating a serious threat to our existence with Supreme Court cases that challenge the collection of agency fees from nonmembers who benefit from union activity. This attack directly impacts UTLA, and we will have a proactive and comprehensive fight back.

This is the right time to address UTLA’s financial sustainability problem, and we are well positioned to take action. Over the past months a broad Financial Sustainability Task-force has been brought together that includes members from the eight areas of the city, past UTLA leaders, the Budget Committee, and state and national affiliate partners to work on solutions for a financially and organization-ally strong UTLA. Together we are laying out an organizing plan that will benefit UTLA not only in the next year, but for years to come. For our members and for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve, UTLA must be a strong, functioning, and thriving union. We look forward to working together with you to meet the challenges for the coming year.

Contact UTLA Treasurer Arlene Inouye at [email protected].

By Arlene Inouye UTLA Treasurer

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16

Parents and educators protest the plan to severely cut the program in 2015-16.

Supporting the profession

The fight to save SRLDP

Everyone, from educators to the high-est-ranking politician, seems to agree that early education is crucial to building a solid foundation for student success—yet LAUSD is threatening to make cuts to SRLDP, the School Readiness Language Development Program, while also cutting other essential programs, such as adult ed and health and human services.

SRLDP is one of several programs devel-oped in 1979 as part of a court order to help support minority children. SRLDP focused

on three areas: improving teacher quality, increasing parent engagement, and provid-ing opportunities for preschool education. The main objective of SRLDP is to provide prekindergarten opportunities for students and prepare them for their future role as successful learners in LAUSD. As it was originally designed, SRLDP is a compre-hensive program that improves not only the abilities of students, but also that of their teachers and parents. Ebrahim Maddahian, Ph.D. of the LAUSD Program Evaluation and Research Branch, concluded in a 1998 report that “SRLDP is a comprehensive, systematic and organized way of improving student achievement . . . . It is recommended that this program model not be expanded only to PHBAO [Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian and Other Non-Anglo] schools but to all schools in the District.”

Although the benefits of SRLDP were documented, the budget cuts that occurred in the 2012-13 school year required SRLDP teachers to absorb the additional respon-sibilities of teaching parents as well as the students. While parent engagement to this day is listed in the mission statement as a high priority and current goal of LAUSD, additional program cuts in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years have left no formal time for parents to partake in parent educa-

tion classes to improve their ability to assist their children. Now LAUSD wants to make even more cuts to this important program.

On March 10, 2015, the Board of Educa-tion approved a “fiscal stabilization plan” that would make a 45% reduction in the School Readiness Language Development Program for 2015-16 . Under the LAUSD plan, which UTLA is fighting, for the 2015-16 school year, only 171 elementary schools will retain the ability to continue the program. The process for identifying the 171 sites was to rank the schools by LCAP School Needs Index (unduplicated count of free/reduced lunch, English lan-guage learners, and foster youth). The top 171 schools were selected to retain the program to meet the needs of the largest possible number of at-risk four-year-olds.

Many of the parent volunteers at schools

started their involvement in an SRLDP class-room. Parents understand the importance of being part of their children’s education and are usually the ones who join school commit-tees. I had the opportunity to have my own children in an SRLDP program some time ago, and I witnessed how the parent com-ponent helped parents prioritize education of their children. My children all went on to college, and one is now a high school teacher. In this time when we see how difficult life has gotten for many youngsters, I wonder why we don’t spend more money and effort helping youngsters when it matters—when they are small children.

UTLA and our members will continue voicing our concerns and those of parents and children, as we did on May 12 at the rally at the School Board. We should be expanding—not diminishing—SRLDP.

By Juan RamirezUTLA Elementary Vice President

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Parents, staff, and students from numerous sites have held rallies to protest LAUSD’s proposed cuts to SRLDP, including Montara Elementary (above) and Park Avenue (below).


18

“Organizing for Power” for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve.

2015 Leadership Conference

The Leadership Conference is the one time of the year when all of the UTLA chapter leaders are brought together at one place and time to:• celebrate what we have accomplished

together over the past year;• hear about the direction and key priori-

ties for the coming year;• network with, meet for the first time, or

reestablish connections with colleagues and leaders from throughout the city;

• unite around the organizing plan for power in 2015-16;

• hear from inspirational and dynamic speakers, affiliate leaders, and elected officials who have supported UTLA;

• hone your skills and expand your knowledge in more than 20 workshops presented during two sessions around “Organizing for Power;” and

• get ready to organize and continue the fight for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve!

Organizing the movement for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve will continue at the 2015 Leadership Conference. We will build from the gains made possible by the ongoing, site-based, and all-member organizing actions that took place through-out the year. From the school-site picketing and sticker-up day for health care, to the regional rallies, Stand at Grand, faculty meeting boycotts, class-size and student services bus caravan and precinct walking

for endorsed School Board candidates, UTLA has begun the movement. This local movement connects with the broader na-tional and international movements as we partner with parents and com-munities to fight for public educa-tion for LAUSD students, most of whom are youth of color and English language learn-ers, with special needs and situa-tions that demand our response. We are committed to taking this fight to the next level.

We also know that public sector unions and teach-ers’ unions in this nation, as well as globally, are under attack. We will continue to fight together with the LAUSD labor unions for full funding for health care and lifetime health benefits, which will be up for renegotiation in 2017. We will also fight against the attacks on our pension, seniority, and who we are as public educa-tors, having been demonized as “greedy and selfish.” We do this together with a

broad-based coalition of our labor, parent, and community partners to expose the true intent of the corporate and Wall Street agenda and find long-term solutions such

as the redistribu-tion of state and federal resources.

This Leader-ship Conference in 2015 will help UTLA to leverage our power and tip the scales to our advantage as we further organize, organize, orga-nize. If you are a chapter leader, it is critical that you attend the Leadership Con-ference. We are also extending the invitation to other UTLA leaders as space permits on

a first-come, first-serve basis (see www.utla.net/2015leadershipconference and note the deadline to RSVP and submit registration is June 19). It is imperative

that school teams be represented along with representatives from our special cat-egories. This was the first year that we have instituted CPALs (chapter parent action liaisons) and CPCs (chapter politi-cal coordinators) as organizing partners—this conference is for you too! Plans are under way as we finalize the speakers, workshops, and general sessions to fully prepare us for the next steps in the Schools L.A. Students Deserve.

We will present an organizing plan that will address our budget, structural, and capacity limitations while also strength-ening UTLA internally and externally to maximize our potential for the fight ahead. We are UTLA, the second-largest local union in the nation, and we know that what happens in Los Angeles reverber-ates across the nation. Let’s continue the movement—July 31 to August 2—as we organize for power in 2015-16!

—Arlene Inouye & Cecily Myart-Cruz

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Anything on your mind?

Send letters by email to [email protected] or by fax to (213) 487-3319.

Share it with UTLA members by writing a letter to the editor.

UTLA CALENDAR

Friday, May 15

UNITED TEACHER Publishes

Saturday, May 16

UTLA Retirement Dinner

Tuesday, May 19

LAUSD School Board Elections

Wednesday, May 20

PACE Meeting

Elementary, Secondary, African-American Education, and Capably Disabled Committee Meetings

Friday, May 22

UTLA-Retired General Assembly Meeting

Monday, May 25

Memorial Day

UTLA Offices Closed

Wednesday, May 27

Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday, June 3

House of Reps Meeting

Substitute Committee General Meeting

Thursday, June 4

Last day of Instruction

Friday, June 5

Pupil-Free Day

June 5-7

CTA State Council (Westin Bonaventure)

Sunday, June 21

Father’s Day

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20

Name Employee Number

Address

City Zip

Home Phone District Position

(Circle One) Candidate For: Chair Co-Chair

Special category you would represent

Substitutes Only: Calling Area

Special category chapter chair nominations reopened

Article IV, Section 8.3 of the UTLA/LAUSD Agreement provides for a chapter chair Districtwide for each major employment category that is not school-site based (one each except Substitutes).

Nominations have been reopened for the unfilled special category positions listed on this page.

Candidates for these chapter chair posi-tions must self-nominate with this form; otherwise the positions will go unfilled. Self-nomination forms must be returned to Daniel Barnhart, UTLA Secretary, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los An-geles, CA 90010, Attention: Constitu-tion Committee, no later than May 29, 2015, at 5 p.m.

If more than one person is nominated for a category, the election then will be car-ried out by ballot, mailed to the homes of all members of that category. The ballots shall be mailed on June 8, 2015, and must be received back by UTLA no later than 5 p.m., June 22, 2015. Anyone who is eligible to vote (i.e., a UTLA member of that category) but has not received a bal-lot must call Dan Barnhart at UTLA (213) 368-6244 by June 15, 2015, to request one. Please see UTLA Chapter Chair Elections and Duties at www.utla.net for further information regarding qualifica-tions for this office, duties of the chapter chair, term of office, etc. Groups of 80 or more members may elect a co-chair to assist the chair as needed.

The following members have been elected chapter chairs for the following special categories:

Adapted P.E.Chair: Steve Barba

Educational AudiologistsChair: Mallorie Evans

Occupational and Physical Therapy Chair: Hanna Morita

Psychiatric Social WorkersChair: Rosalyn WilliamsCo-chair: Laura Rubalcava

Pupil Services & Attendance CounselorChair: Norlon DavisCo-chair: Mary Yuk-Tour

School NursesChair: Donna HorowitzCo-chair: Linda Shields

School PsychologistsChair: Julie Schoenfeld

SubstitutesCentral Calling AreaCentral 1: Audrey LindenCentral 2: Eddie SmithCentral 3: Al D’sa

North Calling AreaNorth 1: Greg Russell (co-chair)North 3: Karen MorganNorth 4: Linda Everhart

South Calling AreaSouth 1: Janis Lukstein (chair), Sharon Yee (co-chair)South 2: Francisco MartinezSouth 3: Richard Grasso (co-chair)

Traveling Art, Dance, & Music Teachers Chair: Ginger Rose FoxCo-chair: Michael Blasi

Visually HandicappedChair: Vince Fazzi

Nominations have been reopened for the following unfilled special category po-sitions. See the form on this page if you’d like to nominate yourself. Nominations must be received by May 29.

AudiometristsDeaf and Hard of HearingElementary CounselorsElementary Literacy CoachesNon-Public SchoolsPH/PHH/LRE CounselorsPsychiatric Social WorkersSecondary CounselorsSubstitutes: Central 1, 2, and 3 (co-chairs), North 1 (chair), North 2 (chair and co-chair), North 3 and 4 (co-chair), South 2 (co-chair), South 3 (chair)Speech & LanguageVocational Education

Special category chapter chair election resultsNominations reopened for unfilled positions

Many teachers continue to be the victims of former superintendent John Deasy’s “teacher jail” system. Caught off guard and often falsely accused, they languish and suffer alone, under house arrest and unsure of what to do.

Don’t be a victim of unfair job actions and false charges. UTLA wants you to know: You are not alone. We are here for you.

Call or email the UTLA officers listed below and attend the Unjustly Housed Teachers Committee Meeting to get the assistance and support you deserve.

UTLA officer contacts: If you’ve been recently removed from the classroom, please contact UTLA Secondary Vice President Colleen Schwab (213-368-

6237, [email protected]) or UTLA Treasurer Arlene Inouye (213-368-6218, [email protected]).

Unjustly Housed Teachers Commit-tee: UTLA provides support, guid-ance, and assistance to all rehoused teachers through the Unjustly Housed Teachers Committee. The committee meets monthly at the UTLA building. The next meetings are May 19 and June 2 from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room 904. The UTLA building is located at 3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010 (213-487-5560).

UTLA is ready, willing, and able to help its falsely accused and unfairly treated members. Make the call, attend the meeting, and let UTLA help you.

UTLA support for housed teachers

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BACHELOR’S

hearings, School Board meetings, Article XXX meetings, and on numerous lobbying trips to Sacramento. “His dedication in responding to teachers is second-to-none,” adds Sucher.

Ernest considers one of his proudest moments to be winning a teacher $20,000 in back wages. His watch included wran-gling with DACE over holiday and illness pay, retiree benefits, and furloughs. In all, he estimates a half-million dollars from the District were returned to teachers. He further provoked the wrath of DACE higher-ups with a spectrum of legal chal-lenges, from misappropriation of funds to Ed Code infractions.

Representing teachers at RIF hearings engages Ernest presently and calls into question how it will be for him to “let go” in retirement. “He’s given so much of himself, so freely,” says Carson, alluding to an anticipated void in his life. Ernest’s answer, in part, may be in his plans to return for a while to East Africa. The other void is filling the shoes he leaves.

Achievements

Gardena High School teacher Lakisha Clark was presented with the Outstand-ing Teacher Award at the Gardena Moneta Lodge and Sunnyside Lodge’s 2015 Public School Award Night in Gardena on April 24.

Downtown Magnets High School English teacher Brian Jacobs has been chosen for a number of prestigious

fellowships and grants in 2015. Over the summer break he will be teaching in China as a grant recipient of the SABEH Sino-American Bridge for Education & Health, studying climate change in Ecuador as an Earth Watch Institute fellow, and attending the 2015 Program for Teaching East Asia at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

LAUSD students were among the more than 3,000 students from across the state who participated in the 2015 Cal-HOSA State Leadership Conference in March in Sacra-mento. This leadership conference brings California’s Health Occupation Students of America together for three days of competi-tive events; leadership, skills and knowledge workshops; and idea exchanging.

The Academy of Medical Arts, an LAUSD pilot school, won the Most Enthusiastic Chapter award and took first place in the talent show. The students were joined at the competition by their advisors, Terri Ann Sul-livan and Saili Tuitasi, and teachers Matthew Burger, Rebecca Frank, Joel Truitt, and Merri Weir, along with principal Doug Meza.

Sixteen members of the AMA Junior Upcoming Medical Professionals (JUMP) chapter competed in the JUMP conference under the direction of their Caroldale Learn-ing Community teacher, Tricia Brummer, and principal Hoff Brooks. The JUMP students were supported by a team of 10 AMA students who worked with them alongside the AMA advisors all year on Wednesdays after school. In the Health Career Display competition, three teams of Caroldale students were finalists, and Eudin Del Torre won a Bronze Medal in Medical Math in the JUMP category. AMA students also faired well in competition. Freshman Hanna Chan won the silver

medal in Healthy Lifestyles, sophomores Victoria Medina and Isabella Martinez won the bronze medal in Health Career Display, and seniors Eden Joy Tuplano, Angela Martinez, Jean David, and Leila Riego won the silver medal in Public Health. Thirty-six AMA students were finalists, or top ten, in their individual or group competitions in Public Service Announcement, Medical Photography, Medical Reading, Public Health, and Health Career Display.

Now the finalists and medal winners will begin work on preparing for the 2015 HOSA future health professionals National Leadership Conference in Anaheim in June.

HOSA is a leadership and training orga-

MILESTONES (continued from page 8)

nization for students preparing for careers in the health care profession. The mission of HOSA is to promote career opportuni-ties in health care and enhance the delivery of compassionate, quality health care to help students meet the needs of the health care community.

To submit an item: Send details to Mile-stones, UNITED TEACHER, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 or [email protected]. Material must arrive at least three weeks before publication date, and please include a daytime phone number. Photos welcomed. We reserve the right to edit text for length and clarity.

Academy of Medical Arts students took home numerous medals from the 2015 Cal-HOSA State Leadership Conference. The winners are shown above, with their advisor Terri Ann Sullivan (top right).


22

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Practical mattersYour health benefits in retirement.

By Judith C. BrunerCompensation and Benefits Specialist

It may be that you have decided to retire this year. You think you’re all set? Before you have that party, be sure you’ve done what is necessary to carry your health benefits into retirement. Here is what you need to know.

Retirement benefit coverage: To have medical, dental, and vision coverage in retirement, you must:

1. receive a STRS retirement allowance;2. have no lapse in coverage between

your last day of work and the first day of retirement; and

3. meet the service requirements speci-fied in the UTLA/LAUSD Collective Bar-gaining Agreement, Article XVI, Section 4.0.

For a retirement package, including the LAUSD resignation and benefits continu-ation forms, contact LAUSD Human Re-sources at (213) 241-5100. It is very impor-tant that you also contact LAUSD Benefits Administration at (213) 241-4262 at least three months in advance of the planned retirement date to confirm eligibility for retiree health benefits.

STRS award letter: When you receive your notification of STRS allowance or “award” letter, send a copy to the LAUSD Benefits Administration, P.O. Box 513307, Los Angeles, CA 90051-1307.

Life insurance: Your basic life insurance

coverage terminates on the last day of the month in which you are employed. If you are enrolled in optional life insurance, you have a one-time opportunity to convert to an individual decreasing term policy. Contact ReliaStar Life Insurance at (877) 236-6564 within 31 days of your retire-ment. Be aware that your coverage will equal only 50% of the coverage amount in force while you were actively employed. This amount decreases each year by 10% of your original coverage amount. The minimum coverage amount is never less than $5,000.

At age 65: When you and/or your spouse or covered domestic partner reach age 65, you/they must enroll and remain enrolled in those parts of Medicare for which you/they are eligible. This is a requirement of the collective bargaining agreement. If you participate in Kaiser, you are required to enroll in Senior Advantage and must have Medicare Parts A and B. Secure Horizons (through UnitedHealth Group) also requires both Medicare Parts A and B as does HealthNet HMO under the Seniority Plus program. All of these plans require that the participant fill out a Medicare Assignment Form to enroll. Anthem Blue Cross also requires Medicare A and B, but you are not required to assign your Medicare benefits to the plan. It is not a Medicare Advantage plan as are Kaiser Senior Advantage, Secure Horizons, and Seniority Plus.

If you do not qualify for premium-free Medicare Part A either through your own employment or that of your spouse, you may qualify for the CalSTRS Medicare Benefits Program. The CalSTRS Medicare Benefits Program may pay your Medicare Part A premium provided you meet certain qualifications. Contact CalSTRS at (800) 228-5453 or visit their website at www.caltstrs.com for further information (click on “Members” under the top banner, scroll down to Medicare Premium Payment Program, and click).

There is a monthly cost to enroll in Medicare Part B. The enrollee must pay the fee; it is not paid by LAUSD. You can make arrangements to have Medicare B deducted from your CalSTRS retirement allowance. Contact CalSTRS for informa-tion on how to activate this deduction.

A retiree who moves out of the service area of their HMO plan can enroll in Anthem Blue Cross EPO.

Spouse and domestic partner coverage: LAUSD-paid health benefits are for the lifetime of the retired employee only. If you predecease your spouse, he or she will not be eligible to continue to receive District-paid health benefits. However, he or she may purchase COBRA con-tinuation coverage through the District. Be aware that your family must notify LAUSD Benefits Administration of the death of a covered employee/retiree within 60 days or the surviving spouse will forfeit the right to elect COBRA con-tinuation coverage. This is outlined in the Open Enrollment materials that go out each year.

If you have questions about your retiree health benefits or need further informa-tion, please call LAUSD Benefits Admin-istration at (213) 241-4262.

Eligibility for retiree health benefits: For those hired:

• Prior to March 11, 1984, you must

have five consecutive years of qualifying service immediately prior to retirement.

• On or after March 11, 1984, but before July 1, 1987, you must have ten consecutive years of qualifying service immediately prior to retirement.

• On or after July 1, 1987, but before June 1, 1992, you must have 15 consecutive years of qualifying service immediately prior to retirement, or 10 consecutive years immediately prior to retirement plus 10 nonconsecutive years.

• On or after June 1, 1992, your age plus the number of consecutive years of service, when added together, must equal 80. If there has been a break in service, this must include at least 10 consecutive years immediately prior to retirement.

• On or after March 2007, your age plus the number of consecutive years of service must equal 80, with at least 15 consecutive years immediately prior to retirement.

• On or after April 1, 2009, your age plus the number of consecutive years of service must equal 85, with at least 25 consecutive years immediately prior to retirement.

This information is outlined in detail, including info on breaks in service, in Article XVI, Section 4.0 of the UTLA-LAUSD Collective Bargaining Agreement. There is a lot of info in the LAUSD Ben-efits and Enrollment Guide, and I recom-mend that you keep it for your records when it is issued.

Warning on FSAs for prospective re-tirees: If you have a flexible spending account (FSA), be aware that FSAs cease to receive funding when you retire. Re-imbursements after retirement are issued only for services rendered while you were active. Claims for services rendered after retirement will not be processed. Retirees have 90 days after the date of retirement to submit claims for reim-bursement for services rendered while on active status.

UTLA online voter registration formTo sign up to vote online for UTLA balloting, please fill out and submit the below information.

Name

Employee number

Non-LAUSD email (required)

Cell phone (required)

I wish to register for online voting for UTLA elections.

Signature and date

To submit: Mail it to UTLA Membership Dept., 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, L.A., CA 90010; fax it to (213) 368-6231; or send a high-resolution cell phone picture of the completed form to [email protected].


23

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Human Resources Division

Peer Assistance and Review Program Summer Workshop Schedule

All LAUSD teachers are invited to take ANY of our 6-hour workshops that cover a variety of topics:

ABCs of Student Engagement August 6

Building Strong Connections at Gardena HS July 16

Classroom Management August 5

Classroom Management Plus July 22

Common Core Standards-Based Lesson Design July 29

Highly Structured Inquiry-Based Learning in the Common Core July 14

Interactive Direct Instruction July 21

Interactive Student Notebooks grades 4-12 July 23 August 4

Literacy Strategies in the Common Core July 28

Power of Presence July 31

Using Graphic Organizers to Support the Writing Process August 7

Writing Instructional Objectives Gardena HS August 3

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24

There are two open seats on the UTLA Board of Directors representing Adult Education and Early Childhood Educa-tion. To be eligible to run, you must be an active member in good standing for two years and must work at an adult education site for the Adult Education seat or an Early Childhood Education center for the ECE. Interested members

Two Special Category seats open on UTLA BoardElections to fill Adult Ed and Early Childhood Ed vacancies will be held in June.

must fill out the declaration of intent form on this page and submit it to Tara Thomas, UTLA Election Committee, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. The election will be held in June, with ballots mailed to eligible Early Childhood Education and Adult Educa-tion members, along with information on an online voting option.

Timeline for ECE and Adult Education Board of Directors special election

Special Adult Education Board election

Special Early Childhood Education Board election

There is a vacancy on the Board of Directors for a representative for Adult Education.

Qualifications of candidates: Any person who has been an active member in good stand-ing for the past two years and who presents a Declaration of Intent to Run form to the Election Committee shall be eligible to run for any office for which he/she is qualified by affiliation or by category, provided that Area Board of Directors candidates shall be princi-pally employed at any site in the Special Category in which they are seeking election.

Should you wish to run for the seat, please fill out the coupon below and return it by Monday, June 1, 2015, at 5 p.m. to Tara Thomas, UTLA Elections Committee, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 12th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. The current UTLA Election Rules apply to this election. Candidate statements and photos are due June 1 at 5 p.m. NO faxes or emails for nomination form or statement.

There is a vacancy on the Board of Directors for a representative for Early Childhood Education.

Qualifications of candidates: Any person who has been an active member in good standing for the past two years and who presents a Declaration of Intent to Run form to the Election Committee shall be eligible to run for any office for which he/she is quali-fied by affiliation or by category, provided that Area Board of Directors candidates shall be principally employed at any site in the category in which they are seeking election.

Should you wish to run for the seat, please fill out the coupon below and return it by Monday, June 1, 2015, at 5 p.m. to Tara Thomas, UTLA Elections Committee, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 12th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. The current UTLA Election Rules apply to this election. Candidate statements and photos are due June 1 at 5 p.m. NO faxes or emails for nomination form or statement.

Declaration of Intent

I, (print name as you would like it to appear on ballot)

do hereby declare my intention to run for the office of Board of Director for Adult Education

Employee number:

Home address:

Email:

School:

School phone:

To the best of my knowledge, all of the above statements are true.

Signature date

The Declaration of Intent to Run form must be filed by 5 p.m., Monday, June 1, 2015.

Declaration of Intent

I, (print name as you would like it to appear on ballot)

do hereby declare my intention to run for the office of Board of Director for Early Childhood Education

Employee number:

Home address:

Email:

School:

School phone:

To the best of my knowledge, all of the above statements are true.

Signature date

The Declaration of Intent to Run form must be filed by 5 p.m., Monday, June 1, 2015.

May 15: Nomination forms and timeline in the UNITED TEACHER.

June 1: Deadline to submit nomination forms (due by 5 p.m.). Orientation and ballot order meeting to follow. Candidate statement and photos also due by 5 p.m.

June 8: Ballots mailed to eligible Early Childhood Education and Adult Educa-tion members. Online voting option opens.

June 17: Deadline (by 5 p.m.) to request a replacement ballot from Tara Thomas (213-637-5165).

June 25: Online voting closes at 5 p.m. Deadline for ballots to be received.

June 26: Ballots counted and results announced on www.utla.net. Financial disclosure forms due to Tara Thomas at UTLA by 5 p.m.

July 17: Ballot results and financial disclosure forms published in the UNITED TEACHER.

NOTE: Candidates can submit statements and photos to go with the ballot. They are due June 1 at 5 p.m. Go to www.utla.net/bod-vacancy-elections-2015 for more info or email [email protected].

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The Support Network Free OrientationsAre you interested in National Board Certification for 2015-16?

Monday, May 11, 2015, 3:30 pm - 8:00 pmTuesday, May 12, 2015, 3:30 pm - 8:00 pmThursday, May 14, 2015, 3:30 pm - 8:00 pm

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Thursday, June 11, 2015, 3:30 pm - 8:00 pm Saturday, June 13, 2015, 7:30 am - 12:00 noon

United Teachers Los Angeles3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010

(Validated parking in rear of building, off Berendo Street)

Please sign up by going to www.thesupportnetwork.net and filling out the online survey or by registering through The Learning Zone. You will receive an instant confirmation once you’ve submitted the survey. Signing up by phone will not be accepted. Walk-ins and late comers will not be admitted. RSVP will only be accepted up to 48 hours prior to an orienta-tion. 75 participants is the maximum for each orientation.

Please encourage your colleagues to attend a meeting.

TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE SUPPORT NETWORK, CANDIDATES MUST ATTEND AN ENTIRE ORIENTATION MEETING.

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WHO AWARDS (continued from page 7)

John Lincoln John Lincoln first start-

ing teaching as a substi-tute teacher, then got hired at Le Conte Middle School, where he worked as a sixth-grade teacher for 17 years. The past three years have been spent at Southeast Middle School in the South Area. He has been active in his area, becoming a cluster leader and now the area’s political coordi-nator. For the past five years he has gone to the NEA Representative Assembly, and he is always seen helping pro-union and pro-public education candidates for School Board and state-level office.

Rodney Lusain Rodney Lusain is a

20-year veteran teacher of history at Los Angeles High School and has been a vital organizer within the Schools L.A. Students Deserve grassroots coalition. He is an astute member of the UTLA Board of Directors whose intellect is outshone only by that of his daugh-ter, who has been seen at meetings on a blanket with daddy. Rodney has been a tireless soldier in the war against charter co-location and reconstitutions and a re-sounding voice for equity and civil rights in education.

Karen LutzKaren Lutz is a veteran

special education teacher of more than 20 years at Del Amo Elementary, where she was success-ful in getting rid of a bully principal. Her campus is located amidst various toxic industries, and Karen organized her school and community via town hall meetings and a shrewd media campaign against these businesses, which culmi-nated in the AQMD, CalFire, Department of Toxic Substances Control, Office of Environmental Health and Safety, and the city of Carson identifying all of the toxic polluters around her school for a three-mile radius. She is a vital member of the Harbor Area family. She has been a steering committee member for as long as anyone can remember and a Griev-ance Review Committee member and has served on numerous hiring committees. She is always there when UTLA needs her: organizing, phone banking, as well as patrolling as a frighteningly ruthless security person at demonstrations.

Gloria MartinezA National Board Certi-

fied teacher, Gloria Mar-tinez has been teaching for 14 years, nine of those years as a special education teacher. Her entire teaching career has been at Rowan Avenue Elementary, where her connections to the community helped her organize a fight against colocation at the school. Gloria is a UTLA Board of Directors member for the East Area and a member of the UTLA Raza Education committee, and she also serves on the UTLA Organizing Team. She is a representative to the NEA Representative Assembly and previously served on CTA State Council. As an NEA/CTA member, she attended the NEA His-

panic Issues Conference and the CTA Good Teaching Conference this year.

Maria Miranda Maria Miranda is an

outstanding teacher and an amazing organizer. She has worked endlessly to ensure a teacher voice and parent involvement in all decision making at Miramonte Elementary. Her fierce deter-mination was evident and needed when the entire Miramonte staff was removed from their school site without justification. She fought to have teachers returned and continue serving the community they had grown to love. Maria joined the UTLA South Area steering committee, where she became an essential member for organiza-tion and change. She accepted the chal-lenge and became a UTLA Board member for the South Area. Maria currently works with some of our neediest schools, con-necting parents and teachers to improve school sites. She is also a valuable member of the UTLA Raza Education committee and serves on the Executive PACE com-mittee. We know that her dedication and strength is immeasurable and that she is an integral part of South Area. UTLA is lucky to have an emergent leader like her in the horizon.

Brian MullerBrian Muller has been

a devoted member of, and leader in, UTLA. At the site level as a chapter chair, he has protected the rights of members and fought for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve before it became a slogan. At the area level, he has served as a dedicated steering committee member, as a reliable cluster leader, and as a thoughtful House member and PACE member. He has recently been appointed as an area political coordinator to advance the cause of public education through political means. Brian has also lent his insight at the state and national level by serving on the CTA State Council and NEA Representative Assembly. Through all of his service, Brian has been a passionate advocate for fairness and equity. He can always be counted on to follow through on anything he signs on to do, and he never turns down critical work. UTLA is stronger for his efforts.

Loren ScottAn eighth-grade science

teacher at Cochran Middle School, Loren Scott has been very active in the union for the past six years—in fact, since then, you could barely go to a function that the West Area is part of and not see him there. He’s the guy who does whatever is needed. Whether it’s video-taping a conference, sitting at registration handing out name tags, being at a door working security, or stage managing a big production, Loren has done it for UTLA. The very definition of committed to the union, he even met his wife at a union event. His union resume is a mile long, with local, state, and national experience, but these days, he concentrates most of his time on politics. He currently serves on the CTA’s ABC, which is the CTA politi-cal action committee. He is UTLA’s PACE vice chair for political candidates, and he is the West Area political coordinator. In

UNITED TEACHERS LOS ANGELES

29th Annual

Christa McAuliffe Scholarship AWARDS BANQUET*

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Knollwood Country Club 12024 BALBOA BLVD

GRANADA HILLS, CA 91344 5:45 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

Cost: $30.00 Prepaid / $35.00 CASH at door

* There will be no pizza party this year due to escalating costs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL/RSVP: Judy Tejeda (818) 248-8793 (hm)

(818) 219-0202 (cell)

Valley East and Valley West Areas

present the

President-elect, California Teachers Association.


27

some capacity, he has worked on every campaign UTLA has run since he was first elected to PACE.

Debby SolisDebby Solis has been a

special education teacher for nine years and has been at Arminta Street Elementary School for eight years. She is the chapter chair of her school, and she is on the steering committee and is a cluster leader for the Valley East Area. As a cluster leader, she is in charge of rearranging all the clusters in Valley East for the current school year and assigning them to cluster leaders. She is a member of the House of Representative and a part of the charter school organizing commit-tee. Within CTA/NEA, she is a member of the elections committee; she is also a member of CTA State Council and very much involved in the Special Education Committee. She was elected to the UTLA/NEA Board of Directors and is a delegate for the Representative Assembly. Debby is passionate about making sure that ev-eryone has an equal voice in education. She is a fighter and truly believes that we must be involved in order to bring about the positive changes needed.

State “WHO” Award

David Goldberg A third-generation UTLA member, David

Goldberg has been dedicated to support-ing our members for nearly two decades. David became UTLA’s youngest elected

leader when he became UTLA treasurer in 2005. As a CTA director, David has spent the last six years focused on building a better connection between CTA and UTLA. He has been an active member in CTA’s charter school workgroup and participated in the charter school blitz and the first CTA charter school summit. David participated in de-veloping the long-term strategic plan. His organizing skills always come to great use. During the fights for Proposition 30 and against Proposition 32, David was often called on to speak for CTA. He even debated Molly Munger, the sponsor of a compet-ing tax measure. And no one can forget his participation in CTA’s State of Emergency events—he was one of the leaders arrested at the capitol. Now he will continue leading the way as CTA’s secretary/treasurer-elect. For his dedicated service in fighting for public educators in California and bring-ing unity and strength to UTLA and CTA, UTLA/NEA is proud to present a State WHO award to David Goldberg.

Community Gold “WHO” Award

Labor Community Strategy CenterThe recipient of the 2015 UTLA/NEA

Community Gold Award is the Labor Community Strategy Center, a long-time advocate for the less powerful and ignored communities of our city. The center is a think tank/act tank that has been leading in community organizing and civil rights since 1989. Its campaigns, programs, and publications are rooted in working-class communities of color and address the many facets of urban life. Two of its current

main projects that impact our students and schools are the Bus Riders Union and the Community Rights Campaign.

The Bus Riders Union is a grassroots membership organization of thousands of public-transit-dependent bus riders that has fought for and won more buses, clean fuel buses, lower fares, and low-cost student bus passes that many of our LAUSD students depend upon. The BRU is now leading the effort for free student bus passes.

The Community Rights Campaign is an organization of students and parents in LAUSD schools who have been fight-ing the “school-to-prison” pipeline. The CRC has won victories to decriminalize behavior on school campuses and instead invest in counselors and social-emotional support effort for students. The CRC has won victories stopping the ticketing of students at schools who arrive late, often

from late MTA buses. The CRC has been effective in having service centers created to get assistance for students and families struggling with truancy and other issues. The CRC has also been a big part of the fight against school reconstitutions and other top-down District mandates that have destabilized schools. The CRC has worked to create a “living and breathing social movement” based in LAUSD high schools by organizing Taking Action school clubs. The clubs at five schools (Cleveland, Roosevelt, Manual Arts, Crenshaw, and Augustus Hawkins high schools) meet on campus and work to improve their school environments.

The “WHO” Planning Committee is Debby Schneider-Solis (co-chair), Elgin Scott (co-chair), Carmen Acosta-Esterman, Regina Bryant, Sue Cirillo, Norlon Davis, Bruce A. Lee, Maria Miranda, and Donald Willis.

If you’re considering employment in another district, you must submit your resignation by June 30. If you have not submitted a voluntary resignation by that date, the District will hold you to your contract for the 2015-16 school year.

Holding you to your contract means that should you still elect to leave LAUSD, the District will place you on a “termination leave” until June 30,

2016. This is considered “abandonment of the position,” and such employees cannot work for another school district while on termination leave without jeopardizing their credential.

The District may make exceptions to the above, based on extenuating cir-cumstances. Requests must be submit-ted to the District in writing and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Deadline to submit resignations is June 1


28

UTLA bulletin boardUpcoming meetings

MAY 20Elementary Committee: 4 p.m., UTLA

building.

Secondary Committee: 4 p.m., UTLA building.

African-American Education Commit-tee: 4 p.m., UTLA building.

Capably Disabled Teachers Committee: 4 p.m., UTLA building.

PACE Committee: 6:30 p.m., UTLA building.

MAY 22UTLA-Retired General Assembly

Meeting: UTLA building.

JUNE 2Unjustly Housed Teachers Commit-

tee: 4 p.m., UTLA building.

JUNE 3UTLA House of Representatives: 6

p.m., UTLA building.

The following committees also meet on the same day as the House of Rep-resentatives from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. (unless noted) in the UTLA building: Arts Education Committee, Asian-Pa-cific Education, Bilingual Education Committee, Chicano/Latino Educa-tion, Gay & Lesbian Issues, Health & Human Services, Human Rights, Inner City, Instructional Coaches, Kinder-garten Teachers, Library Professionals (4:45-6 p.m.), Middle Schools, Multi-Track/Year-Round Schools, Non-Classroom/Non-School Site, Options Committee, Physical Education Action and Dance, Professional Rights & Re-sponsibilities, Pre-Retirement Issues, Salary & Finance, School/ Community Relations, School Readiness Language Development Program, Secondary School Counselors, Special Education, Violence Prevention & School Safety, Women’s Education.

Substitute Committee General Meeting: UTLA building.

Note from UTLA-R President

By John PerezUTLA-Retired President

Health benefits renewed for two more years: The Health Benefits Committee (HBC) has successfully negotiated a new agreement that extends our current bene-fits for two more years (2016 and 2017). The agreement allows for a third year (2018) if certain conditions are met.

This is a victory for UTLA, the HBC, and you. The major source of funding for our health benefits will come from the Health Benefits Reserve in the LAUSD budget. The reserve totaled a bit more than $300 million in March 2015, and the reserve will not drop below $160 million, according to the agreement. Another source of funding will be an EGWP (Em-ployer Group Waiver Plan) that allows employer plans to lower costs without lowering benefits. The cost to fund our plans will top $1 billion in 2016 and is esti-mated to grow to more than $1.162 billion in 2017. So even though our benefits are safe for another two years, the District has signaled that the things they have tried to negotiate into our health benefits plans over the years are still things they want. The District still wants to put a date certain into our contract at which time no new employees would be eligible for lifetime benefits. They want to have everyone pay a monthly charge to help pay for the premiums, and they want

relief from the fact that the cost to insure retirees who are not yet 65 years old is HIGHER than the cost to insure active employees. Because of Medicare, the cost to insure retirees older than 65 is less than half what it costs to insure retirees under 65 and 30% less than it costs to insure our active colleagues. This fact alone shows why a national health plan works—if ev-eryone pays a bit more in taxes, everyone can have good health care.

This new health benefits agreement will expire in the same year that the contract for our active colleagues will expire, and UTLA’s leadership believes that the negotiations for a new health benefits agreement that will start in 2017 may be very contentious.

The Republican plan to destroy Social Security: Everyone but the Republicans in Congress knows that Social Security and Medicare work; just ask any senior who is benefiting from these wonderful govern-ment programs. Just about every family in America has a parent or a grandparent who uses and depends on Social Security and Medicare. The claims that Social Secu-rity is going broke and that the retirement age needs to be raised, and benefits cut, are just that—claims! Study after study has shown that if the cap (currently about $118,000) on earnings subject to the Social Security tax were lifted, Social Security would be sound for just about forever. The rich and super-rich now pay far less of their income into Social Security than

the average American. And yet, they don’t like paying anything into Social Security, so their Republican friends in Congress have a plan to eventually let the rich off the hook entirely. Their game plan is based on putting a “means test” in place for who can get Social Security benefits. This “means test” would be that people who make over a given amount would not get any Social Security benefits. If they can get this into law, they will then say, “Since the rich don’t get Social Secu-rity, why should we tax the rich to pay for Social Security for the poor?” What they want to do is make Social Security a poverty program, and we have seen over the past 30 years successful attacks on government programs that help the poor, the working class, and the middle class. If Social Security can be turned into a poverty program, it will be a lot easier to kill it than it is now, when everyone is eligible for Social Security benefits.

In memory of Herm Katz: In our lives we have many role models, the first, of course, being our parents. But as we grow and mature, we get to pick our role models, and one of mine was Herm Katz, who passed away this month.

I first met Herm when I was a new teacher at Roosevelt High School in the early 1970s. Herm, a graduate of Roos-evelt, was a counselor, and he was the consummate educator. The students who were his counselees loved him, and the teachers, other counselors, and adminis-trators respected him. For years after he retired, he showed up in the counseling office to continue to help Roosevelt and its students. If you look up the definition of a “good union man” in the union dic-tionary, you will see a picture of Herm. When he was chapter chair he settled most issues with a quiet conversation in the principal’s office. But when the

system negatively treated a student, Herm was there to defend the kid. One of his jobs at Roosevelt was to be the counselor for the special ed kids. Periodically we would have an LAUSD undercover cop on campus trying to get kids to buy drugs for them. One year we had a very comely young officer who was only on campus a hot two minutes before the students made her as a “narc.” She could not convince anyone to purchase any drugs except for a special ed student who had a deep infatuation for this pretty officer. He purchased a small amount of mari-juana and gave it to the officer. The City Attorney wanted to send him to jail, and the LAUSD wanted to expel him for drug use. Herm decided he would not let this happen, and it didn’t. Herm organized the teachers and the parents to stand up for this student. He took them to lobby the School Board, which eventually decided that it was not in this student’s best inter-est to be expelled and the City Attorney decided that justice would not be served by sending this kid to jail.

Herm got a lot of deserved credit as a counselor when it came out that he helped get former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa into college, but Antonio was not the first, nor the last, student whom Herm helped move on to a college career. Nor was the special ed student the first or last student whom Herm helped when they were in a tight place.

Over the years I came to count Herm as one of my close friends. He was one of my role models as an educator, a unionist, and a person. Herm will be missed, but he will live on in the hearts of his many friends.

We need you: Send your email address to [email protected] to sign up for updates on important issues and events for retired teachers.

Perez can be reached at [email protected] every student is entitled to equal access

to the curriculum, how can that be accom-plished if the teacher and the student do not speak the same language? Teach the student English, we say. But how will that equal access happen when the student is in the very beginning stages of English proficiency, ELD 1 and 2? There are ways to assist students in this difficult period if they are not fortunate enough to have cur-riculum delivered in their own language.

Firstly it’s important to understand that more than 200,000 students in LAUSD are ELs, and 94% of them are Spanish speak-ers. All the other languages in combination make up the other 6%. So, while remedies should attempt to address all ELs, this is overwhelmingly a Spanish language issue.

When the matrix is created at a school, the administrator must make every effort to ensure that, as far as possible, all students have equal access, a philosophy grounded in the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Was the matrix at your school prepared so that, insofar as possible, all students can understand what they are being taught?

1. Classes were organized by not more than two consecutive ELD levels whenever pos-sible (OCR 2013). The process may be waived by fulfilling specific District requirements.

2. All classes requiring a teacher with special credentials, authorizations, and re-quirements were noted in writing on the actual matrix. This includes SEI classes of ELD 1 and 2, which require a BCLAD teacher if there are any on site. This is to provide support, not instruction, in the student’s lan-

Bilingual education issuesEqual access for English learners.

guage. Support may consist of translation or clarification in the primary language. If there are no BCLAD teachers, a CLAD teacher with A-level fluency should be assigned. If there are no teachers with any level of fluency, a bi-lingual paraprofessional would be a solution.

3. Classes are assigned by seniority within the category in which a teacher is qualified to teach.

If there are ELD 1 and 2 students who are neither newcomers nor in primary grades, teachers need to look for answers. Could the student have a disability? Is the disability language-based or, more broadly, learning-based? Higher-grade teachers with low ELD-level students must consider these possibilities.

If teachers are assigned correctly, the chances of students understanding what they are being taught will almost certainly increase and we will more likely meet the standard of equal access.

Bilingual Education Committee: There were some new attendees at the April Bi-lingual Ed Committee. We had a serious discussion about how to begin implement-ing outreach for the “Multilingual Educa-tion for All” initiative. With about 7,000 BCC/BCLAD teachers in the District, we are hoping that more of you will be excited about helping roll out this outreach. Please do come to the June 3 meeting at 4:30 p.m. in Room 828 of the UTLA building (3303 Wilshire Blvd., LA 90010).

—Cheryl OrtegaDirector of Bilingual Education

[email protected]


29

GRAPEVINE (continued from page 31)

QuikiTech offers summer rate for salary point classes

QuikiTech.com is offering 10 online courses that are salary point-approved at the summer special rate of $70 per salary point. All classes are online and self-paced, and you have one year to finish the class from the time you start. These include Microsoft Word (1 salary point), Microsoft Excel (2 salary points), Microsoft PowerPoint (1 salary point), the iPad Enabled Classroom (1 salary point), Gmail and Google Tools (1 salary point), Equipping Students with 21st Century Technology Skills (2 salary points), Technology for Math Enrichment (3 salary points), Apple Keynote (1 salary point), Equipping Students With the Mindset of an Achiever (1 salary points), and Mastering ELD Standards (3 salary points). To regis-ter for a class go to http://quikitech.com. For any questions, contact the instructor at QuikiTech at (424) 256-9789.

Salary point classes on cultural competency

“Cultural Competency” and “Valuing Difference” are interactive seminars on cultural diversity, family history, media and societal impacts, and effective communica-tions. The salary point workshops cover the important role your own culture plays in day-to-day interactions and includes interactive exercises in which participants review various issues from a variety of viewpoints. The next session for “Cul-tural Competency” is June 7 and 14, and “Valuing Difference” is July 11 and 12. The workshops run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The

fee is $95. Location: 8339 W. 3rd Street, L.A., CA 90048. One salary point avail-able. For more information or to register, call Kari Bower at (323) 653-3332 or email [email protected].

Salary point class on yogaSCHOOL Kids Yoga has an upcoming

teacher training. The summer course runs July 13 to 16 (Monday to Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.). The fee is $250, and one salary point is available. Learn the calming tech-niques of yoga and meditation, designed specifically for public school classrooms. Kelly Wood has taught weekly in LAUSD schools since 2002. Public school teach-ers learn methods to enhance listening, focus, and pause within their students. The course reaches all elementary-aged children. No prior yoga experience re-quired. The workshop will take place at Milagro Charter School (1855 North Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90031). Please email Kelly Wood for details at [email protected] or call (323) 240-8711. View details at www.school-yoga.org/about-teacher-training.

LAUSD summer institute for special ed teachers

SPED teachers who work with students K-5 on core curriculum with five years or less of experience in LAUSD are invited to attend a two-day Summer Institute 2015, “Weaving a Tapestry of Student Success,” on August 3 to 4 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Conference Center in downtown L.A. Highly focused work-shops on evidence-based literacy inter-vention, classroom management, and

strategies to support English learners and students with Autism Spectrum Disorder will be offered. Teachers will be compen-sated 12 hours at hourly rate. Breakfast and lunch provided as well as materials and curriculum. To register, contact Rachael Sawyer Perkins at [email protected].

Salary point workshop on women in Latin American History at UCLA

This five-day workshop (June 15 to 19) for K-12 teachers will examine women’s experiences in Latin America to investigate and compare the distinct historical, cul-tural, and political contexts through which beliefs and expectations about gender have emerged in the region. Participants will gain an understanding of the role and experienc-es of women from the pre-conquest period through the 21st century and recognize how women have played an instrumental role in their societies. Interdisciplinary pre-sentations will explore concepts that have structured Latin American beliefs about gender as well as historical figures such as Frida Kahlo, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and La Malinche. Sessions will also examine women’s social movements, the experi-ences of female guerrillas, and women’s soccer. Approved for two LAUSD salary points (multicultural). Registration: $125 (includes parking, breakfast, and course materials). Visit www.international.ucla.edu/lai/outreach for more details and to apply. Contact: Cynthia Gomez at [email protected] or (310) 825-4572.

Art Center offers 2015 Summer Institute in Design-Based Learning

Art Center College of Design is offer-ing its 2015 Summer Institute on July 22

Los Angeles schools have a critical shortage of well-prepared special education teachers. Earn your Special Education Mild / Moderate teaching credential and make a difference in someone’s future.

Intern teachers start working as paid classroom employees while completing program requirements with extensive support from the university and school. Teachers certified in other credential areas may qualify for an accelerated program and reduced tuition.

Program Benefits:

• 100% online

• Accelerated program available

• Financial aid available

• Designed for the busy adult learner

• Instructors who are experts in the field

Visit uclaextension.edu/UTLAsped or contact us at [email protected] or (310) 206-8342.

Want to make a difference? Become a special education teacher.

16747.indd 1 5/6/15 8:14 AM

to 24 and 27 to 28. The Summer Institute for Teachers is an intensive five-day in-teractive workshop based on a meth-odology called Design-Based Learning. Design-Based Learning taps students’ natural creativity to develop higher-level thinking and enhance comprehension of the K-12 curriculum. The institute offers four salary credits, and this course is open to K-12 educators, principals, administrators, college instructors, and after-school program directors and staff. Scholarships available. For more infor-mation, please visit www.artcenter.edu/teachers or contact Paula Goodman, di-rector of K-12 programs, at (626) 396-2347 or [email protected].

Salary point PD at the Skirball “Teaching Through Storytelling” is a

salary point PD for K-5 teachers at the Skirball Center. The session will run June 23 to June 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Storytelling has the power to enliven your classroom curriculum and to inspire students to develop creative modes of communication and collaboration. In this three-day workshop, participants will participate in hands-on, artist-led work-shops; design interdisciplinary lessons that support language arts, social studies, math, and science curricula; receive early registration for Skirball 2015-2016 school tours; and more. One salary point avail-able (details upon registration). Fee: $100 per person for all three days (includes light breakfast and program materials). Limited space; advance registration re-quired. To register: Skirball.org/teaching-through-storytelling. Questions? Email [email protected].


30

UTLA Classifieds

©2015 United HealthCare Services, Inc. Health plan coverage provided by or through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company and UnitedHealthcare of California. Administrative services provided by United HealthCare Services, Inc., OptumRx or OptumHealth Care Solutions, Inc. Behavioral health products are provided by U.S. Behavioral Health Plan, California (USBHPC) or United Behavioral Health (UBH). UHCCA732195-000

At UnitedHealthcare, we’re dedicated to those we serve — providing affordable, innovative health care programs that honor hard work and commitment with comprehensive solutions.

We provide a broad portfolio of customizable health care plans as well as dental, vision, life and disability offerings to help you get the right coverage at the right price.

Supporting communities with union expertise and long-term alliances.

For more information, call Anthony Campbell at 415-778-3845.

We’re with you all the way

How To Place Your UT Classified Ad Print your ad from your computer or use a typewriter. Count the number of words in your ad. Area code and telephone number count as one word. Email and web address count as one word. Street address counts as one word. City and state, including zip code, count as one word. Abbreviations and numbers are considered words and are charged individu-ally. The classified ad rate is $1.50 per word for each time your ad runs (there is no charge for LAUSD job share/employment available ads). Multiply the number of words in your ad by $1.50. This is the cost for running your ad one time in UNITED TEACHER. If you’re run-ning your ad in more than one issue, multiply the one-time total by the number of issues you wish the ad to appear. We have a ten word minimum ($15.00). All ads are payable in advance by check or money order. Please make check payable to UTLA. The deadline to receive your classified ad at the UTLA Com-munications Dept. is noon on the Monday that falls two weeks prior to the publication date. Any questions? Call (213) 637-5173. Mail ad and payment to Classifieds, UNITED TEACH-ER, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Ange-les, CA 90010.

CLASSIFIED AND DISPLAY AD POLICY: UNITED TEACHER will not accept ads for legal services in the areas of worker’s compensation or personal injury; nor advertising for tobacco

or alcoholic beverages; nor advertising deemed misleading or offensive to members; nor advertising inconsistent with the programs and purposes of United Teachers Los Angeles.

Looking to job share at your school for the 2015-16

school year. I have experience in primary and upper

grades and have taught gifted, ELD, and students

with special needs. I prefer to teach the afternoons

in the West or North Valley areas. If you are look-

ing for a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher, please

contact Angineh Andreas at (818) 515-9477 or

[email protected]. Thank you.

Job share partner wanted as soon as possible at

your school or mine. My school is on Westside.

Third grade. I have 20 years’ experience teach-

ing and I’m very flexible, responsible, and open to

learning new things. Please call or text for more in-

formation. Thanks. Adrienne (310) 494-8422.

Enthusiastic and experienced elementary school

job share partner wanted for the 2015-2016 school

year. Location must be at their school. Preferred lo-

cations include West L.A./Mid-City. Please contact

me at [email protected].

Job share partner wanted for 2015-2016 for a RSP K-4

program at a traditional school in Local District 4. My

partner teacher went back to full time. Position is for

the afternoons, split days. Great program, assistant,

and school! Must have a special education credential.

Thanks! Contact M. Abraham at [email protected].

Job share partner needed for the 2014-2015 school

year to share my RSP position. I am at a wonder-

ful school in Highland Park (East Area). I would like

to split days. Must have experience with Special

Education, have a clear Special Education Creden-

tial and knowledge of Welligent to complete IEP’s.

Forms must be submitted by April of 2015. Please

contact Leandra at (323) 304-8045.

Job share partner needed. I teach Social Studies

at a Southside high school. Looking for a partner

to teach in the spring of 2015 and possibly longer.

Please contact Sarah at [email protected].

The mathematics department at Downtown Magnets

High school is seeking a job-share candidate for the

2015-16 school year. We are a high-functioning, estab-

lished, collaborative department and we are looking for

a candidate who loves to be in the classroom and is

primarily focused on student learning! If you’re interest-

ed, please email your resume to: [email protected].

LAUSD EMPLOYMENT

Job share/employment

available ads in LAUSD

employment section are FREE.

LAUSD POSITIONS AVAILABLE

William J. Johnston Community Day School is ac-

cepting applications for a full-time science/technology

teacher. Those interested should send letter of intent,

resume summarizing experience, and letters of rec-

ommendation to: Barbara Politz, Johnston CDS, 2210

N. Taper Ave, San Pedro, CA 90731 or email to Barba-

ra Politz [email protected] or fax to (310) 832-7914.

South Shores Elementary Magnet School for the Vi-

sual and Performing Arts (located in San Pedro, ESC

S) is seeking highly qualified applicants for teaching

positions for the 2015/2016 school year. Candidates

must be knowledgeable in teaching Common Core

curriculum, as well as demonstrate initiative in ap-

plying the new standards in creative and engaging

ways in the classroom to reach all learning abilities

and modalities. Extensive experience working with

children in the visual and performing arts, with a

strong emphasis in dramatic performance, directing,

or vocal music instruction, is required. Experience in

integrating technology into the classroom is favored.

Please email a cover letter with your resume to

Please email a cover letter with your Please email a

cover letter with your resume to [email protected].

LAUSD JOB SHARE

If you are interested in a job share for the 2015-2016

school year, please email [email protected].

Job share partner needed for spring semester

2015-2016 at a fantastic elementary school in East

L.A. I have 16 years’ experience, bilingual, flexible

and collaborative. Looking for a teacher with excel-

lent qualifications and previous experience teach-

ing 4th or 5th grade and willing to work together to

give the students a great education. Please send

resume (so I can present to my principal) to clo-

[email protected]. Carmen Lopez, (818) 633-4165.

Seeking a job share at your school for the 2015-

2016 school year. I am an enthusiastic and com-

mitted educator with a wide range of experience in

elementary and middle schools. Passionate about

teaching Science and Art. Team player very open

to collaboration. Preferably looking for a school on

the Westside but open to commute for the right op-

portunity. Please contact me if interested: Bryan.

(323) 842-9549.

Job share position wanted at your Westside school

for 2015-2016 and beyond. I have taught SDC,

RSP, and General Ed. I would prefer afternoon shift.

Lots of experience and very dedicated! Contact:

Deb at (310) 505-5596.

Looking to job share for 2015-16 school year in an

RSP program in District 8 or close by under LAUSD

reduced workload program. I am credentialed in

special education and have more than 25 years’

experience. Please email me at [email protected].

Job share for 2015-2016 with an experienced, enthu-

siastic, bilingual teacher on the Westside in our Span-

ish Immersion school. Fluent in Spanish preferred, but

not necessary. We have a wonderful parent communi-

ty and collaborative staff and administration. Contact

Jeri Lynn at [email protected] or (310) 420-0611.

Job share partner needed for the 2015-2016 school

year for a wonderful elementary school in the Tu-

junga area. I am an experienced teacher working

at a California Distinguished School with an API of

900+. Supportive principal and great staff. Please

contact Laura at (818) 400-6069.

Job share partner wanted for 2015-2016 school

year. I teach upper elementary at a wonderful school

in North Hollywood, near the 101 and Universal

Studios. This elementary school is rated 9 out of 10

on greatschools.org. Split day partner wanted, but

would consider split year. Please contact Jude at

(818) 941-0223 or email me at [email protected].

Dear colleagues, I am looking for an elementary

school teacher to job share with for the 2015-2016

school year, and hopefully for longer if possible. I

have taught first, second and fifth grade. I would

have to job share at your school. I have job shared

before. I am looking to job share in the West Valley

area if possible. Please call or text me. Thank you

for your consideration. Natalie at (818) 309-3993.

Job share partner wanted for 2015-16 school year.

Elementary school in Eagle Rock. Position is for the

mornings. Please call/text Heidi at (818) 400-7260.

Looking to job share for 2015-16 school year in an

RSP program in District 1. I have experience in co-

teaching, a special education credential, masters

in SPED and fluent with Welligent. Please email

[email protected].

HOME-BUYING SEMINAR

Thinking of buying a home? Learn how to go

through the process from beginning to end in our

fun, interactive educational session. Perfect for

first-time homebuyers, buyers reentering the mar-

ket, or anyone who wants to learn how to navigate

today’s sellers’ market. Down payment assistance

will be explained. Pre-qualification available after

class. Refreshments will be served. “The way they

explained the purchasing process and protections

for buyers made a significant impact in educating

me about real estate.” Jacky Flores, February at-

tendee. Saturday, May 30, 2015, 1:30-3:00 p.m.

Century21 My Real Estate Company 7825 E. Flor-

ence Avenue, Downey. Call (213) 909-1349 with

questions or to RSVP.

SOLAR INSTALLATION

I’m an LAUSD graduate, taught 9 years in LAUSD

and was UTLA Chapter Chair. Now I’m an expert so-

lar professional. Nationally certified (see NABCEP.

org), contractor’s license, bonded, insured. Use the

best equipment and installation techniques. Don’t

pay corporate overhead or CEO salary surcharges.

Call or email Armando: mando@cleanraysenergy.

com (323) 684-4473


31

U N I T E D T E A C H E R

GRAPEVINEFree LAUSD arts education workshop

Would you like to bring the arts into your classrooms? Would you like to incorporate more project-based learning to stimulate and engage your students? If so, LAUSD’s Arts Education Branch is offering a free four-day workshop this summer. You can receive one salary point if you attend all four days, and two points if you also complete homework. Each day you will learn foundational skills in a different art form: dance, music, theater, and visual arts. These skills will be presented in a clear, easy-to-replicate manner so you can repeat the activities in your classes. You will be participating and practicing the art forms, so this is not a dry lecture-based PD. In the afternoon, you will have the oppor-tunity to participate in integrated lessons and collaborate with job-alike teachers to brainstorm and plan cross-curricular proj-ects that use the art forms and address the Common Core state standards. The classes will be taught by LAUSD’s four arts ad-visers. All four instructors were classroom teachers who now work as instructional coaches, helping others to teach the arts. Each class contains many resources and tips. Additional arts integration strategies will be provided by the K-12 arts specialist, who will travel among the classrooms. The dates

are Tuesday to Friday, June 23 to 26, 2015. Class will meet from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the first and fourth sessions and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the second and third sessions. All sessions are at Wilson High School. Register by email to [email protected] or by calling (213) 241-2078. Information needed is name, employee number, school, grade and/or subjects taught, and email address. Enrollment is limited.

Salary point class on SoCal architecture

Expand your knowledge of local archi-tectural wonders by enrolling in “Vaunted Mansions: So Cal’s Architectural Wonders of the Early 20th Century.” The class will visit the Gamble House, the Hollyhock House, and Greystone Mansion. This District-ap-proved class is open to all K-12 teachers and is worth two salary points; it will also expose participants to resources that can supplement their teaching. Class will meet at Francis Polytechnic High, on August 15, 22, 29, and September 12, at 8 a.m. From Poly High, participants will commute to the three locations (one each class day, except for Sep-tember 12). The course fee is $175 per unit, preregistered ($185 on the first day), which includes course materials and breakfast, site admissions, and docent-led tours. Enroll-

ments will be accepted until—and includ-ing—the first day of class (August 15, 2015), or until cap is reached, whichever happens first. For further information, email [email protected], visit www.en4ed.com, or call Larry Carstens at (818) 645-4259.

CASA seeks volunteersFounded in 1978, Court Appointed

Special Advocates (CASA) of Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that recruits, trains, and supports volunteers to transform the lives of abused and neglected children in the foster care system. Volunteers gather infor-mation about the present circumstances of foster children in order to advocate for their best interests both in the courtroom and in the community. In many cases, advocates help children to achieve academic success and are involved in individualized education plans or even hold a child’s education rights. With advocates, a foster child is more likely to be adopted or returned to his/her family and less likely to reenter the child welfare system. Join one of CASA’s information ses-sions where you can learn more about this opportunity. To sign up for one, or learn more about CASA, visit www.casala.org/volunteer or contact Camrin Christensen, volunteer recruitment and outreach director, at [email protected] or (323) 859-2888.

Salary point class: Classroom management through connection and compassion

Echo Parenting and Education is offer-ing a two-day salary point workshop for K-12 teachers. Instructors will share a range of tools to support teachers in navigating classroom conflicts in ways that help chil-dren and youth to thrive and help maintain the quality of connection you really want with your students. Participants will walk away with critical information about be-havior, the brain, and strategies to support students who have experienced trauma; communication and conflict resolution skills; and alternatives to classroom man-agement systems based on punishment and rewards that don’t address the roots of behavior or create the quality of con-nection that you want with your students. Details and logistics: Classes will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28 and 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1226 North Alvarado St., Los Angeles CA 90026. Cost of the class is $225 (limited partial scholar-ships available). One salary point available, with homework. For more information or to register, visit www.echoparenting.org or email [email protected]. Regis-tration deadline is July 14.

Salary Advancement Courses for Educators

Convenient | Relevant K-12 Applications | Practical Curriculum

$299 FOR THREE SEMESTER UNITS OF GRADUATE EXTENSION CREDIT

Contact us for the latest schedule at nine Los Angeles Locations.

West Lost Angeles | CarsonKaren Rose | [email protected] | 310-745-1099

Downey | Downtown Los AngelesCraig Yokoi | [email protected] | 310-874-4090

Sherman OaksJennifer Krauss | [email protected] | 805-559-3060

Santa Clarita | BurbankScott Cody | [email protected] | 323-496-3318

Los AlamitosTim Brown | [email protected] | 310-292-1039

Monterey ParkJim Burk | [email protected] | 1-800-664-6130

Visit our website http://sandiego.edu/educatorsprograms


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