Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • … · 2020. 1. 6. · Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • Volume XLVIII, Number 3, December 18,

Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • www.utla.net Volume XLVIII, Number 3, December 18, 2018

Strike info

Pages 2-5

50,000+ in the streets for the December 15 March for Public Education.

STRIKE DATE: January 10‘Enough is enough’

UTLA is demanding that LAUSD immediately: • use the $1.9 billion in unrestricted reserves for smaller

class sizes; for more nurses, counselors, and librarians; and to fully fund our schools;

• commit to more support for special education, early education, bilingual education, and adult education;

• end the toxic overtesting of our students;

• empower parent and educator voices at the school site with stronger Local School Leadership Councils; and

• address the charter industry drain that siphons more than $600 million from our schools every year.

Unless these demands are addressed, educators will be on the picket lines beginning Thursday, January 10, at 7 a.m. Report to the picket line at your site.

United Teacher • for the latest news: www.utla.net December 18, 2018

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President’s perspective

The defining moment of educator courage is hereBy Alex Caputo-Pearl UTLA President

After 20 months of attempting to reach an agreement with the district—an agree-ment that would, after years of neglect, reinvest in our students, our schools, our jobs, and our healthcare instead of tearing them down—we have declared a strike date of January 10, 2019. For 20 months, we and our students have been disrespected by the privatizers, the district, and those whom they have sent to the bargaining table. Enough is enough.

If we have to strike on January 10, we will be carried by the momentum of more than 50,000 people marching in the streets of downtown LA on Decem-ber 15. We will be carried by the incred-ible energy, positive spirit, and desire to fight for our public neighborhood schools that pervaded through every moment and inch of that incredible march. Right before our eyes on December 15, through months of work on the part of thousands across the city, we saw a movement arise: a movement of educators, students, parents, community organizations, union workers, clergy, elected officials, state and national leaders, and more. This move-ment sees, with crystal clarity, that this is an existential fight. Will we reinvest in our public neighborhood schools, or will we downsize and privatize as Austin Beutner is calling for?

In my nonstop schedule of school visits to talk with members since August, it is obvious to me that our members are ready. From Augustus Hawkins High School in the heart of South LA, and their great chapter team of Kevin D’Amato, Travis Miller, and Alyssa Shepherd Moore, to Shirley Avenue Elementary in the San Fernando Valley, and their great chapter chair, Mabel Landaverde, our members are ready to strike not only to defend our public neighborhood schools, but because our students, and we, deserve more.

Moreover, LAUSD parents are ready, like those who came from the Valley, East-side, and Harbor to stand with us when we announced the January 10 strike date: Hilda Rodriguez, Ruby Gordillo, Silvia Agustin, Maria Osorio, Vicky Martinez, Eloisa Galindo, and Manuela Panjoj.

In the time since 98% of our members, in historic turnout, voted to authorize a strike, I have seen the resolve, determina-tion, and commitment of our members and parents grow exponentially.

Unless there are dramatic shifts in ap-proach on the part of the district toward spending money on our students and saving the school district, we will strike on January 10. We will strike on January 10 unless we see an addressing of the crucial issues that shape education: a fair wage increase, class size, staffing like nurses and counselors, school site decision-making, standardized testing, early education, adult education, special education, bilingual education, and commonsense regulation on charters to contain the existential threat of the $600 million charter drain from neigh-borhood schools.

What drives usThere is a set of fundamental truths that

drives us. Amidst the wealth of LA, we shouldn’t have classes with more than 45 students. We shouldn’t have 80% of our schools without full-time nurses. A super-intendent with no education experience, but lots of downsizing experience (which shows why he was brought to LAUSD), should not be permitted to keep a record-breaking $1.98 billion LAUSD reserve away from students to create austerity, justifying cuts and more turnover of schools to privately run charter operators. Moreover, there is a record-breaking $15 billion reserve at the state level, and an expected $15 billion ad-ditional state surplus. Make no mistake: The money is there to improve our schools. We just have to force the district and state to invest it in our kids, schools, and educators.

And, yet, Austin Beutner says, with his “Re:imagine LAUSD” plan, that the solu-tion is not to reinvest, but rather to become a portfolio district—a Wall Street model that has closed neighborhood schools, turned over more schools to unaccountable private operators, increased segregation, and undermined learning conditions in other cities. We are dealing with a district that, instead of investing in its own schools, gives itself over to billionaire privatizers and undermines its schools.

The district makes a sham of bargaining

The traditional bargaining process has not worked with this district, and we have exhausted bargaining options. We simply have not had a genuine bargaining partner in the district. Twenty months of negotia-tions. Almost no legitimate proposals from the district. District bargaining teams with no authority to bargain, and who had not even read our proposals. Refusal to mediate for an unheard-of 56 days. Lies about the budget. Refusal to respond to public records requests. Violations of the law to try to silence our members. High-priced consul-tants working in the shadows. Intentional starving of our schools. Constant rhetoric from Beutner about pushing for more state money, which UTLA has been relentless in doing, but no action from him when he

could use his unique investment banker and private equity connections to move school funding measures. The punchline: There has been one force at the bargaining table attempting to improve the educational experience for the 600,000 students in the district, and that has been UTLA.

The district’s disrespect of us and our stu-dents had an exclamation point put beside it by what happened last week. Beutner warped the fact-finding report, a report that was favorable to us in affirming the district’s almost $2 billion reserve, affirming our calls for investment in class-size reduction and staffing, and affirming our calls for charter co-location regulation. Beutner not only ignored these findings, but, consistent with past behavior, lied. This time, he said that LAUSD and UTLA had made an agreement on salary. This is not true. We immediately filed an Unfair Practice Charge.

For these reasons, we will not accept the district’s empty offer to go back to the bargaining table just so they can continue to delay action for what our schools need. We’re not going to go back and do what we’ve already been forced to endure for 20 months, and expect something different. We will meet with LAUSD officials when they demonstrate that they are ready to agree to our demands. If the district wants to deviate from its bad faith pattern, it knows what we’re looking for.

A strike to defend our schools and a strike of hope

If we are forced to strike, it will be a strike for our students. A strike with our parents. A strike for our schools, for educational justice, for racial justice, and to defend the future of public education, and the right of educators to be treated well for the vital work that we do.

If we are forced to strike, it will be because we think our kids deserve more, because we dare to have high expectations, because we dare to be audacious about all kids’ futures. In sum, if we are forced to strike, it will also be a strike of hope.

And there is hope in the air. Educa-tors and parents working together like never before, with meetings, rallies, film screenings, and joint work popping up

(continued on next page)

Community uprising for public schools: Alex at the December 15 march.

United Teacher PRESIDENT Alex Caputo-Pearl NEA AFFILIATE VP Cecily Myart-Cruz AFT AFFILIATE VP Juan Ramirez ELEMENTARY VP Gloria Martinez SECONDARY VP Daniel Barnhart TREASURER Alex Orozco SECRETARY Arlene Inouye

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jeff Good

BOARD OF DIRECTORSNORTH AREA: Karla Griego, Chair (Buchanan ES), Mark Ramos (Contreras LC), Rebecca Solomon (RFK UCLA

Comm. School), Julie Van Winkle (LOOC Liason)

SOUTH AREA: Maria Miranda, Chair (Miramonte ES), Aydé Bravo (Maywood ES), L. Cynthia Matthews

(McKinley ES), Karen Ticer-León (Tweedy ES)

EAST AREA: Adrian Tamayo, Chair (Lorena ES), Ingrid Gunnell (Salary Point Advisor), Yolanda Tamayo

(Lorena ES), Gillian Russom (Roosevelt HS)

WEST AREA: Erika Jones, Chair (CTA Director), Georgia Flowers Lee (Saturn ES), Noah Lippe-Klein (Dorsey HS), Larry Shoham (Hamilton HS)

CENTRAL AREA: Stacie Webster, Chair (West Vernon ES), Kelly Flores (Hawkins HS), Tomás Flores

(West Vernon ES), Claudia Rodriquez (49th Street)

VALLEY EAST AREA: Scott Mandel, Chair (Pacoima Magnet), Victoria Casas (Beachy ES), Mel House (Elementary P.E.), Hector Perez-Roman (Arleta HS)

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

(Henry MS), Javier Romo (Mulholland MS)

HARBOR AREA: Steve Seal, Chair (Eshelman ES), Karen Macias (Del Amo ES), Jennifer McAfee

(Dodson MS), Elgin Scott (Taper ES)

ADULT & OCCUP ED: Matthew Kogan (Evans CAS)

BILINGUAL EDUCATION: Cheryl L. Ortega (Sub Unit)

EARLY CHILDHOOD ED: Open seat

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Mallorie Evans (Educational Audiologist)

SPECIAL ED: Lucía Arias (Sub Unit)

SUBSTITUTES: Benny Madera

PACE CHAIR: Marco Flores

UTLA RETIRED: John Perez

AFFILIATIONS American Federation of Teachers National Education Association

STATE & NATIONAL OFFICERSCFT PRESIDENT: Joshua Pechthalt

CTA PRESIDENT: Eric Heins CTA DIRECTOR: Erika Jones

CFT VICE PRESIDENTS: Arlene Inouye, John Perez, Juan Ramirez NEA PRESIDENT: Lily Eskelsen Garcia AFT PRESIDENT: Randi Weingarten

AFT VICE PRESIDENT: Alex Caputo-PearlNEA DIRECTOR: Mel House

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

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Anna BakalisCOMMUNICATIONS SPECIALISTS: Kim Turner,

Carolina Barreiro, Tammy Lyn GannADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: Laura Aldana

EDITORIAL INFORMATIONUNITED TEACHER

3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Fl., LA, CA 90010Email: [email protected] main line: 213-487-5560

ADVERTISINGSenders Communications Group

Brian Bullen: 818-884-8966, ext. 1108

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 eight times a year (monthly except for November, January, June, and July) by United Teachers Los Angeles, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Subscriptions: $20.00 per year. (Price included in dues/agency fee of UTLA bargaining unit members.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, California. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to United Teacher, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Telephone 213-487-5560.


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Get connected to UTLA Facebook: facebook.com/UTLAnow

Twitter: @utlanow

YouTube: youtube.com/UTLAnow

4 Strike ready for 2019 FAQ on strike facts and the on-strike daily schedule.

6 Beutner’s “portfolio” scheme is a threat to public schools How the model opens the door to closing public schools and privatizing the system.

7 “People don’t strike for 6%; we strike for justice” Voices from our fight.

10 UTLA endorses Goldberg for School Board We need a fighter who knows the privatizers are destroying public education.

More rally photos on page 5.

In this issue

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE (continued from previous page)

in every corner of the city. Our members, school by school, committed to strike if we have to. Students demanding their voices be heard at the School Board, in rallies, and more. Unprecedented media coverage locally, nationally, internationally, and through all social media. An historic school funding initiative we are a part of, Schools and Communities First, on the ballot for 2020. Five hundred organiza-tions across the country supporting us, and growing. Tony Thurmond winning for state superintendent against $34 million from the privatizers. Moreover, Thurmond winning LA County by 14% because the people of LA agree that we need healthy neighborhood public schools. And, above all, the hope generated by more than 50,000 people in the street at our march, with the incredible art made by parents, students, and educators at Art Build, with a vision-ary spirit about what our schools can and should be, and with a powerful spirit of joy and resolve. That march was not just hopeful—it was beautiful.

If we strike, it is all of our strike—for us, and with constituents across the city. When we win, before a strike or with a strike, it is all of our victory.

What all of us need to do, heart and soul

As we prepare to strike on January 10, it is crucial we all own, in our hearts and souls, some key elements.

1. A strike is more effective and shorter when we are as close to 100% participation as possible. No crossing picket lines. Any last one-on-one conversations that we need to have at our schools to ensure as close to 100% participation as possible need to happen ASAP. Always be diplomatic—but be firm. This is a collective effort that ben-efits everyone. When your chapter chair is taking attendance on the morning picket lines, support and help her or him. An effective strike needs to be right and tight.

2. A strike is more effective and shorter when every single one of us treats every day on strike as a work day. Our work on a strike day is not lesson planning and reading groups, but rather, it is prompt, vibrant, energetic participation in all activi-ties of the union: the morning picket lines, the daily large actions, and the afternoon picket lines. This is essential.

3. A strike requires careful advance logisti-cal planning. Ensure that the logistical plan-ning sheet that was given to your chapter chair on November 14 and December 5 is completed, and that everyone at your school knows what the plan is regarding parking, bathrooms, picket spots, and so on. As you ask parents and businesses for help with logistics, remember, every single poll, in-cluding those in LA, show that educators are uniquely popular in the public. People are going to want to help you, so just ask.

4. A strike is more effective and shorter when every single one of us helps to stay connected to parents, and in fact, deepens connections with parents through regular conversations. Parents care about class size, nurses, counselors, our salaries, and they widely support our demands. We need to make sure that parents are deeply engaged and constantly visible publicly, showing support for our demands.

5. A strike is more effective and shorter when our picket lines involve many differ-ent constituencies and are energetic, loud,

8 Message from the officers

8 UTLA ad calls out privatizers

10 Charter educator: Unregulated growth hurts us all

12 Passings

14 Involvement opportunity: NEA Convention

15 Involvement opportunity: CFT Convention

16 UTLA-Retired

18 Committee events

22 UTLA-Retired election for Secretary

23 Grapevines

and vibrant. Every single principal is going to be directed to report on what picket lines look like outside their school. It dramati-cally increases our leverage when those principals report that all of the educators at the school are on the line, alongside parents, with community, with many others. Large, multi-constituency picket lines matter.

6. We all need to contribute to the collective effort. There will be moments during a strike when spirits flag, when a co-worker will need inspiration, etc. We all need to be supportive of each other, raising spirits, keeping our eye on the prize, making sure everyone is feeling good. Bring out the leader in yourself—for

our profession, our students, our schools.7. What happens during a strike helps

us build for the future. New leaders will emerge, new relationships will form, new structures will develop at your school that make your union chapter more powerful, and new collective confidence will emerge that will help you deal with school-site issues after a strike.

8. What happens during a strike helps us build politically. UTLA is thrilled to have en-dorsed Jackie Goldberg in the March special election to replace disgraced School Board member Ref Rodriguez in Board District 5. Jackie was a teacher and an elected School

Board member, City Council member, and State Assembly member. She has been a constant advocate for class-size reduction and charter accountability, and helped write the state laws that allow us to fight to reduce toxic over-testing, among other things. Jackie gave a rousing speech at the December 15 march. Our momentum in a strike, and work we do with her during a strike, will have a huge positive impact on the School Board race, helping Jackie win against the millions that will come against her from the charter industry. We are building a movement—in schools, and in elected offices.

Over the last months, as we’ve known we need to prepare for a possible strike, we have been pulling together in incredible ways as educators. Now, we pull together even tighter as January 10 approaches. We should think about all of the times that we haven’t had what we need for our students and for our co-workers, and all of the times we have been impacted by the existential threat of privatization, on the one hand; and on the other hand, we should think about the tremendous potential of an ap-propriately funded school system to meet the needs of students and to respect edu-cators. The defining moment of educator courage is here, to stand up for ourselves, our jobs, and our healthcare, to stand up for our students and their parents, and to stand up to send a message to the state and nation, a clarion call for educational justice and the civic institution of a public school district. We are in that defining moment, and we can make history.

Thank you for your incredible work with students, get your well-deserved rest and relaxation this break, but also stay connected with your co-workers, get your site ready, and be ready. I couldn’t be more proud to be in this struggle with you.

Alex at Orthopaedic Magnet

Alex at Chase Elementary


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FAQ on strike facts.

While virtually all UTLA members are committed to strike if we have to, many of us have reasonable questions, and having the facts will help us better prepare. Here are answers to some common questions.

Would a potential strike affect my health benefits?

As long as you are in paid status (work or paid leave) during the calen-dar month, the district-paid health ben-efits continue for that month and you continue receiving district-paid benefits for the next month. Those benefits in the second month are only retroactive-ly rescinded if you don’t work at all in that second month. Hypothetically, if we went on strike on September 4, we could be on strike until October 30, go back on October 31, and it would not be an issue. That’s 41 work days in that example. The 1989 strike was nine days.

What about probationary teachers. Can we strike?

Probationary employees absolutely have the right to strike, and you should! The law is clear. Union activities like strik-ing are legally protected. Look at teach-ers in West Virginia and Arizona: They

didn’t legally have the right to strike, yet they struck, they won, and no one got in trouble. Not a single probationary teacher has ever had any retaliation for past UTLA strikes.

Do I have to notify my principal or call for a substitute teacher when on strike?

No. The district should expect that ev-eryone is on strike. You do not need to take any action to notify your principal or call a substitute. Covering your classroom is the district’s responsibility. Substitute teachers will be on strike too!

What about the work I do for afterschool services, clubs, teams, and other efforts?

During a strike UTLA members will withhold ALL of our labor—both during and after the school day. We need to make sure that LAUSD sees how im-portant our work is. During a strike we make them see that by not doing that work—any of it.

Will I lose a year of CalSTRS service credit if I strike?

No. For more info on impact on pen-sions, see the next question

How will a strike affect my pension?

At the end of the day, any pay raise we get will likely more than make up for the very minimal impact. It is important to remember that winning this fight, and saving our public school system, is the only way we can protect our retirement in the long run.

That said, here are the technical details: CalSTRS, the retirement system, expresses a full year of work without any absences as 1.0 service credit; in other words, if you work every single day of a school year, you will earn 1.0 service credit for that year. There are 204 paid days (work and holidays) in a school year. Dividing that 1.0 by 204 shows that one day of missed work is only ap-proximately 5/1000th of an entire year of service credit, and even that may not be deducted, because of the STRS Defined Benefit Supplement (DBS) program. The DBS can be used to grant credit for any additional paid work you may have done beyond the regular time in the 2018-19 school year. You can be credited back for a portion of your unused sick days, any summer school/intersession you taught, any Z-time, X-time, B-time, Beyond the Bell time, etc. Also, any unused full-pay

illness time, at the time of retirement, is credited to you in the form of additional service credit when you retire.

What do we do during a strike?Every day starts with picketing at YOUR

school site. From there we will have dif-ferent actions every day: marches, rallies, meetings, delegations, and other actions to demonstrate our unity. See the likely schedule on this page.

Can students and parents join the picket line?

Community supporters are always welcome, and their presence is important. Members of your family should also join; we are fighting for our families too.

Strike ready for 2019

Harbor Area rocks the gauntlet for public ed

On strike: Our daily scheduleIf we go on strike, every working

day will start with picket lines at every school site—the public needs to see us on the line, united and determined. Itinerants and substitutes: Picket at the school you go to the most and report to that same site every day.

7 a.m.–9 a.m.: Picket lines at every school site.

10:30 a.m.: Central or regional actions.

12:30 p.m.: Break for lunch and head back to school sites to leaflet and talk with parents at dismissal.

2:30 p.m.: Leaflet and talk with parents at dismissal.

4:00 p.m.: UTLA Areas are likely to have additional actions, activities, and outreach programs.

WhyI am

ASKME i.READY TOSTRIKE

On November 28, UTLA educators from the Harbor Area took over five strategic intersec-tions on Western Avenue, forming lines of red from San Pedro to Gardena. The high-energy,

high-visibility action amplified our contract demands and encouraged the community to join us in our fight to give students the public schools they deserve.

There is power in art: The community came together over three days in December to create hundreds of amazing signs for our march and strike.

Strike Prep Art Build


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If we don’t have a settlement by next month, we will strike on January 10.

January 10: On strike for our students

Unless LAUSD dramatically changes course and offers UTLA members a con-tract agreement that reinvests in our schools, we will be on the picket lines be-ginning Thursday, January 10.

We are demanding that LAUSD immediately:

• use the $1.9 billion in unrestricted re-serves for smaller class sizes; for more nurses, counselors, and librarians; and to fully fund our schools;

• commit to more support for special education, early education, bilingual education, and adult education;

• end the toxic overtesting of our students;

• empower parent and educator voices at the school site with stronger Local School Leadership Councils; and

• address the charter industry drain that siphons more than $600 million from our schools every year.

The UTLA Board of Directors set the strike date after Beutner lied about a salary agreement and blatantly misrepresented the fact-finding report, which endorsed many elements of our contract demands. The neutral fact-finder confirmed three essen-tial UTLA positions: that LAUSD has $1.8 billion in reserves (total is now $1.9 billion); that LAUSD should increase staffing of nurses, counselors, and other professional staff; and that LAUSD should eliminate

On January 5, we’ll kick off our sprint to our strike date with a critical citywide meeting for all chapter leaders. Final strike plans, picket signs, and parent leaflets will be distributed. It’s critical that every site be represented.

UTLA building3303 Wilshire Blvd.LA, CA 90010

Two sessions to choose from:10 a.m. to noon2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Chapter leaders: January 5 citywide meeting

Section 1.5 of contract, which allows the district to unilaterally increase class size.

Community uprising for our public schools

The strike date follows our historic De-cember 15 March for Public Education that drew 50,000-plus people onto the streets of downtown LA. Educators, parents, stu-dents, and community members marched side by side from City Hall to the Broad Museum, bringing the momentum and energy of the national teacher rebellion to the doorstep of the nation’s second-largest school district. The love of public education—and the absolute commitment to fight for its survival—was palpable in every sign, every voice lifted up that day.

The message to LAUSD Supt. Austin Beutner: Unless you reinvest in our schools now, expect a strike in January.

“We have exhausted our options with this district,” UTLA President Alex Capu-to-Pearl says. “If we are forced to strike, it will be to defend our schools, but it will also be because we think our kids deserve more, we deserve more, and we dare to have high expectations.”

For almost 20 months, over multiple bargaining sessions, UTLA’s bargaining team has tried to reach a fair contract agreement but has been met with intran-sigence and worse by LAUSD officials.

“Look at what we’ve faced from the district,” Caputo-Pearl says. “Almost no legitimate proposals. Lies about the budget. Refusal to share public records. High-priced consultants working behind the scenes. Intentional starving of schools by refusing to spend the reserve so that cuts can be justified. If we do have to take dramatic action, it will be to draw a line in the sand and say no more attacks.”

Years of underfunding, the unregu-lated growth of the charter industry, and district neglect have starved our schools of necessary resources. More than 80% of LAUSD schools don’t have a full-time school nurse. LAUSD has among the highest class sizes in a state that has among the highest class sizes in the nation (California is 48th out of 50 states in student-to-teacher ratios). Overtesting

December 15 marchers on the steps of City Hall. When a union with 34,000 members pulls 50,000-plus people to an action, that’s the sign of a powerful coalition for public education.

The love of public education—and the absolute commitment to fight for its survival—was palpable in every sign, every voice lifted up on December 15.

If we are forced to strike, it will be because “our kids deserve more, we deserve more, and we dare to have high expectations.”

of students is crowding out instruction in arts, music, ethnic studies, and science.

Austin Beutner, a former investment banker, refuses to use the district’s record-breaking reserve (now topping $1.9 billion) for basic student needs and refuses to address the $600 million drained from neighborhood public schools by the corpo-rate charter industry. Instead of reinvest-ing in our schools, Beutner is attempting to dismantle them with his plan to break LAUSD into 32 networks. This so-called portfolio model has been tried in many cities, where it has increased school clos-ings, deepened segregation and disparities between schools, and compromised learn-ing conditions (read more on the portfolio model on page 6).

If we strike, we win by demonstrating our numbers

A contract agreement can be reached at any stage of the process, and UTLA is com-mitted to doing all we can to reach a settle-ment with LAUSD that improves teaching and learning conditions, but we all must be ready to strike starting on January 10.

Chapter chairs will be attending a city-wide meeting on January 5 to solidify strike plans and to pick up picket signs, parent leaflets, and other materials. All sites will hold critical meetings when the second semester begins. If we strike, ev-eryone needs to be on the line at their site every day, and itinerants and substitutes should picket at the school they go to the most and report to that same site every day of the strike. Each morning will start with school pickets and then move to citywide or regional actions. We must have strong pickets every day so that members of other unions stand in solidarity with us and don’t cross the line and so that parents see the educators they know on the line standing up for their children. We will win this strike not just by withholding our labor but by demonstrating our numbers and our commitment.

“This is our moment,” Caputo-Pearl says. “We have the chance to change the direction of the district and education in the city. If we strike, we stay out and we escalate every day until we get a contract that reinvests in public education.”


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“Portfolio district” is just another name for privatization and austerity.

Their salaries are being paid by billionaire privatizers.

Austin Beutner has revealed few public details about his “Re:Imagining LAUSD” plan to break the district into 32 networks, but we know from leaks to the media and the people developing the plan that it likely will involve the “portfolio district” model.

The portfolio district model has been gaining traction in dozens of cities, pushed by nonprofits funded by pro-privatization billionaires, including Eli Broad and John Arnold, who also have spent millions in promoting the corporate charter industry. Broad’s Great Public School Now group—created after his plan to push 50% of LAUSD students into charters was abandoned because of public outcry—is involved in pushing the portfolio model in LA.

How the portfolio model works“Portfolio” school districts take their

operational theory from Wall Street: If a stock in a portfolio is low-perform-ing, the portfolio manager sells it and buys others. In the case of schools, this means closing so-called failing schools and opening new schools at a constant pace. Portfolio school districts differ in many details, but they share key imple-mentation strategies:

1. Fill the local school board with people who support privatization, with financial backing from wealthy advocates of the charter industry. Three of the current LAUSD board members—Monica Garcia, Nick Melvoin, and Kelly Gonez—were elected with millions of dollars in dona-tions from the charter industry lobby. They in turn hired former investment banker Austin Beutner, who has no experience in education but years of experience in dismantling companies.

2. Use austerity to justify decentralizing school management, claiming it will cut bureaucracy and save money, as Austin Beutner is asserting that his plan will do. Decentralization allows the lack of over-sight that the charter industry needs to thrive and that the privatizers need to turn public schools into privately run entities.

3. Install a rating system (generally based on unreliable standardized test scores) to label schools. With the support of the pro-privatization school board members, in the spring the LAUSD School Board approved a new “school performance framework.”

4. Use that rating system to close “low-performing” schools. Schools are recon-stituted (teachers forced to reapply for

their jobs), handed over to a privately run charter, or closed altogether, forcing students to attend school away from their neighborhood.

5. Hire privately run education manage-ment organizations to run the portfolios. This is the underlying goal: to get public taxpayer money into private hands. Beutner’s plan to break LAUSD into 32 networks presents an especially lucrative opportunity for privatizers. If LAUSD is “decentralized,” watch for privately run education management organizations to be hired to run the networks and schools within them.

The portfolio model is toxic to public education

More than two dozen districts across the country are using some form of “port-folio” approach to running schools, and the impact on a healthy, thriving public education system is bleak.

The stepped-up expansion of unregu-lated charters decimates school district finances, causing budget cuts, teacher layoffs, and larger class sizes. Neighbor-hood public schools are left with fewer resources to educate their students, in-cluding the high-needs students (such as special education and English learners) that public schools serve at a higher rate than charters.

The portfolio model lends itself to in-creased segregation and systemic inequi-ties. Low-income communities of color usually suffer the most school churn,

restricting access for families to what is often the most convenient and appropri-ate option (i.e., the public school down the street). In Atlanta, one parent from the part of town where the school closures have been concentrated said the upheaval is “like a trauma.” In New Orleans, there are no public schools left—only a system of charters delivering inequitable educational opportunities.

The unequal political, economic, and social position of parents leads to unequal access to opportunities in the portfolio system. In Denver, white students are much more likely than students of color to enroll in “high-scoring” schools.

One thing that is explicitly not part of the portfolio approach: more public money for schools. “None of these structural reforms cost public dollars,” a presenta-tion by the pro-portfolio group City Fund claims. “Cities can increase the efficiency and equality of the system within existing budgets—with philanthropy supporting the transition costs.” In a state that ranks 43rd in the country in per-pupil funding, we know that increased money must be part of our schools’ future.

Our contract campaign—with its essen-tial demand to reinvest in public educa-tion—is how we push back on the portfolio model, along with fighting for increased state funding to bring resources and equity to our schools. The March 5 special election for the open seat on the LAUSD School Board is also critical, because Beutner will need four votes to pass his plan.

Beutner is ‘Re:Imagining’ LAUSD as a privately run district

Controversial consultants drive Beutner’s plan

Community demands transparency

In September, the Reclaim Our Schools LA coalition filed a Public Records Act request compelling LAUSD to provide documentation related to the influx of expensive consultants now working for the district, includ-ing notorious PR firm Mercury Public Affairs. Recently, Mercury Public Affairs represented former Trump adviser (and convicted felon) Paul Manafort; helped Flint, Michigan, spin its poi-soned water crisis; and advised Walmart on anti-union campaigns. The com-munity is demanding answers: Who is funding Mercury Public Affairs? How

To develop his “Re:Imagining LAUSD” plan, Beutner has tapped many of the same architects of the privatization schemes in Detroit, New Orleans, and Newark, includ-ing Erin McGoldrick Brewster, a partner at “portfolio district” specialists Kitamba, and ThirdWay Solutions founder Cami Anderson. These consultants—who are exercising power at the highest levels in LAUSD, without any accountability—are being paid off the books through a more than $3 million discretionary fund financed by Eli Broad and others.

As superintendent in Newark, New Jersey, from 2011 to 2015, Cami Ander-son pushed through a billionaire-bank-rolled “One Newark” universal enrollment scheme that led to numerous neighbor-hood school closures, mass firings, and multiple complaints of civil rights viola-tions. Parent outrage led to her resigna-tion. Newark Teachers Union President John M. Abeigon warns, “When you hear the name Cami Anderson, RUN IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. She cannot be trusted and will never put the students or schools first.” Here’s what else Abeigon says about Anderson’s tenure in Newark:

Under Cami Anderson, the district hemorrhaged money, pouring dollars into the coffers of consultants and corporate reformers. This intentional waste was directly connected to the closing of schools under the guise of cost. It’s no surprise that she soon became a consultant herself, seeking to take advantage of the financial and

educational crises that she helped to create. Teachers were driven from this district

by the attacks levied by Governor Chris-tie, and continued attacks by Cami Ander-son, who created an environment where teachers feared school closings and arbi-trary transfers. Her One Newark enroll-ment system has caused massive damage to community schools and disruption for students and their families. We have heard horror stories about children forced to Uber to school while their parents spent weeks and months trying to sort out in-appropriate placements. This has also led to many lawsuits about the district’s failure to provide services for Newark’s most vulnerable students.

She terminated state-mandated staff when she fired Newark’s Attendance Counselors—a position protected by Civil Service. This has not only caused attendance rates to plummet in the dis-trict, but also financial hardship to the district through another massive lawsuit.

Superintendent Anderson didn’t care about the financial and educational hardship she left in her wake as she had already moved on to the next town to put on her next snake oil show. Newark is only finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel as our new superintendent has made every effort to engage stake-holders at all levels about what needs to be done to fix the Newark Public Schools, something Cami Anderson failed to do at every opportunity. It was never about what the students, community, and school staff needed; it was about what funneled the most money into the coffers of reform-ists and consultants.

much are they getting paid? What are they getting paid to do for Beutner? Why, instead of making necessary investments in neighborhood public schools, is Beutner drafting secret plans to break apart LAUSD?

The district was supposed to produce the documents on November 19, but nothing has been turned over. To protest the lack of action, parents, students, and educators crowded the lobby at Mercury Public Affairs to demand transparency at LAUSD and to call out Beutner’s shadow government that is making decisions without public or parent involvement.


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Our potential strike is about meeting the diverse needs of our very diverse students.

‘People don’t strike for 6%; we strike for justice’

By Noriko NakadaEmerson Middle School

Like most fall weekends, this past one was busy. There was a Friday night festival at my child’s school, there was a homecom-ing football game, there were soccer games and birthday parties.

But this weekend was not like all the others, because I’m an LAUSD public school teacher, and like every other year, I had many papers to grade and many students on my mind as I made my way through the weekend, but unlike other years, this year held an added stress. All weekend I carried the weight of a looming work stoppage and very public contract negotiations that put my colleagues and me in the crosshairs of public conversation on the sidelines of sporting events or gathered around a table waiting for the cake to come out.

And in all of my interactions this weekend, I had to gauge, fairly quickly, where friends, old and new, stood when it came to public education. What did they already think about our public schools and what were they willing to learn? Did they ask me about what was happening with the teacher strike? Did they want to hear my perspective? Or, did they know

nothing about this issue, because their kid goes to a charter, or a private school, or they don’t have kids, or upon hearing I teach in a public school they want to explain to me why community public schools just don’t work?

I wish I could come up with an answer for everyone; a simple state-ment that could reveal all of the com-plexities within the current battle for Los Angeles public schools, because that is what is happening. Teachers are going to bat for schools because rea-sonable class sizes, teacher librarians, nurses, counselors, and other support staff help our students develop aca-demically and as people, and that is what our students deserve.

LA’s public schools serve all of our stu-dents. Not just the ones who can afford to attend, or the ones who get in by lottery, or the ones whose families choose us. No. Public schools teach everyone: the gifted and the struggling. The rich and the poor. The native English speakers and the new arrivals. And because our schools are such complex places, the reality is, there is too much to tell.

There is too much misinformation to un-teach about our schools. No, our schools are not failing. Yes, there are struggling schools and struggling teachers, struggling

students and struggling com-munities, but in every single one of our schools, there are educators working hard under worsening teaching conditions. There are kids showing up to learn every single day. There are families, worried about how their kids are doing, worried if their child is being seen within swelling class sizes, worried about what to do if teachers go out on strike.

Many people think this strike is about a 6% raise (because this is what media outlets are touting), but what I keep insisting when people ask what we’re striking for, is this:

People don’t strike for 6%; we strike for justice.

We strike for just teaching and learning conditions.

We strike for smaller classes (and yes, that charter school that shares our campus may have to find a different space if public school class sizes are lowered).

We strike for fully staffed libraries, and nurses on every campus every day.

We strike for the schools our students deserve, and because we want to be able

to meet the very diverse needs of our very diverse students.

This is about the heart and soul of public education.

That is why I will strike.

This piece originally appeared on wom-enwhosubmitlit.org. Women Who Submit empowers women and nonbinary writers to submit their work for publication.

Why LAUSD parents support a job action.

‘If the teachers go on strike, it won’t be for themselves’

By Tracy BartleyMother of two LAUSD students

I’m a parent of two LAUSD students, and I fully support a potential teachers’ strike. A strike may be the only way to get the state and the school district to invest in our children—all of our children.

My family’s story is not unfamiliar. When our daughter was four, we started looking at school options in earnest. We listened as our neighbors told us to stay away from our neighborhood public school. It had only a four rating on GreatSchools, they told us. The test scores are horrible, they told us. So we toured “better” schools, including charter schools and private schools.

Our daily walks continued to take us past the large asphalt campus of our neigh-borhood school, where we saw few trees but plenty of happy, laughing, playing children. One day, our daughter told us she wanted to go to that school. The school at the end of her street. The school with the smiling children. So we added that school to our list.

When we toured the campus, we didn’t find a fancy art space, yoga classes, or a 21st-century science lab like we’d seen at other schools. But what we did find were loving, enthusiastic teachers who gath-ered a diverse group of students into song, stories, and math activities. We found teachers who knew their students and their families and cared about more than just how their reading was progressing or

numbers were being learned but also about if their grandmother was feeling better or if they had a warm jacket to wear at recess.

We found a community. Fast forward and we now have two daughters in our neighborhood high school, and I am still impressed daily by the care and attention students receive from their teachers—teachers who have hundreds of kids pass through their classrooms each day and still know each child’s name.

If the teachers in LA go on strike, it won’t be for themselves. They are fighting for smaller class sizes to create better environments for our kids to learn in. They are fighting for more school nurses, counselors, and psychologists to address students’ social-emotional needs that hinder learning. They are fighting for more librarians so that all schools can have vibrant spaces for reading and research.

I’ve heard LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner and his school board allies claim that the district doesn’t have the money to meet the demands teachers are making on behalf of our children. At best, that asser-tion is disingenuous, considering that the district’s own financial documents show it has $1.86 billion in unrestricted reserves. At worst, these claims of fiscal crisis are part of a strategy to disinvest in public education in favor of the greater expansion of unregu-lated charters that don’t serve all students. That unchecked expansion already drains nearly $600 million a year from neighbor-hood public schools like my daughters’.

Of course, to fund public schools at the

level our children deserve, we also need changes in state education funding. There’s no excuse for California—one of the richest states in the nation—to rank 43rd in the country in per-pupil funding. The good news is that the state has a budget surplus of $14.5 billion for 2019-20, and our new governor, Gavin Newsom, can use that extraordinary surplus in his first budget to pull us up from the bottom.

To those who say that a teachers’ strike would hurt our children, I say that the status quo of disinvestment is the far greater threat. Teachers are fighting for a robust, healthy public education system that ben-efits every child who comes in the door. They are fighting to give our children the education they deserve and to teach them to be thoughtful, compassionate, problem solvers—and that is good for us all.

Tracy Bartley and family

Noriko Nakada

Voices from our fight


8

From the UTLA officer team.

We close the year a stronger union than we started it. Early in 2018, we took on threats to our healthcare and

finalized a three-year, no-cuts agreement—the kind of win that is essential to stopping the erosion of education as a viable profession.

After the Supreme Court issued the anti-union Janus de-cision, we more than weathered the storm—we emerged with the highest percentage of members (96% of LAUSD educators) in UTLA history.

And then our galvanizing strike authorization vote hit another historic mark: the highest strike authorization approval (98% yes) since UTLA was founded in 1970.

We built this power because we need this power. If we do not push back, our public school system will

not survive the attacks it is facing from the privatiza-tion forces: the deliberate disinvestment in schools, the unchecked $600 million drained every year from LA schools by the corporate charter industry, and the refusal by LAUSD to use the almost $2 billion in reserves for essential educator and student needs.

And now former investment banker Austin Beutner is pushing a plan to break LAUSD into 32 networks. This so-called portfolio model has been tried in many cities, where it has led to school closures, increased privatiza-tion, teacher layoffs, deeper segregation, and increased disparities between schools—all with no proven benefit to student learning.

Our contract campaign stands in Beutner’s way. We are fighting for a profound reinvestment in Los Angeles

schools, including smaller class sizes; competitive wages; real support for school safety; community schools; charter and co-location accountability; support for special educa-tion and bilingual education; and more nurses, counselors, psychologists, and librarians. That’s how we build a thriving, sustainable district that support students and educators.

LAUSD has yet to make any meaningful progress on our contract demands, including the ones that don’t cost money or would even save money, such as stopping overtesting and giving parents and educators more say in school budgets. Unless LAUSD dramatically changes course and offers UTLA members a fair contract agree-ment, we will be on strike January 10.

With parents and the community standing strong with us, we are ready for this moment.

Every red T-shirt day, every afterschool conversation with a parent, every rally where we showed our power

We are ready for this moment

This was one to go to the newsstands for: In the December 2 Sunday Los Angeles Times, UTLA ran a full-page ad exposing the agenda of Eli Broad, Austin Beutner, and other wealthy privatizers who want to dismantle public education. The bottom half of the ad promoted our December 15 March for Public Education as the way to stand up and defend our schools. A version of the ad ran in Spanish in La Opinion over two consecutive Mondays.

And for people who find their news and opinion outside the print pages of the Times, our paid media campaign includes our message on more than 150 Southland buses as well as dozens of billboards and online ads, including on Pandora. To deepen promo-tion of the December march, we ran 60-second ads on seven radio stations, in both English and Spanish, and commissioned a rolling digital billboard truck to traverse LAUSD and travel by local schools and offices of prominent privatizers.

UTLA ad in LA Times calls out mega-wealthy for targeting public educationPrint ad complements media campaign on buses, billboards, online, and radio.

Who we are and what we are fighting for—that’s the substance of a new report from the Reclaim Our Schools LA coalition. “Give Our Kids a Chance” pairs the first-person stories of parents, students, and educators with research-based sections to make a compelling case for our demands. Members and allies are using the report in the field—with community groups, elected officials, and others—to build support for our fight to save public education by reinvesting in our schools and building a thriving, sustainable school district.

Download a copy of the report at wearepublic-schools.org.

Facts and faces: New report tells the story of our campaign

The “Give Our Kids a Chance” campaign report looks at all of the elements of our campaign—including funding our schools—and illuminates them through facts and personal stories.

has moved us to strike readiness. We couldn’t be prouder to be in this struggle with you. We’ll see you in January, ready to hit the picket lines together, if that is what it takes to reinvest in our schools.

Alex Caputo-PearlPRESIDENT

Cecily Myart-CruzUTLA/NEA VICE PRESIDENT

Juan RamirezUTLA/AFT VICE PRESIDENT

Gloria MartinezELEMENTARY VICE PRESIDENT

Daniel BarnhartSECONDARY VICE PRESIDENT

Alex OrozcoTREASURER

Arlene InouyeSECRETARY

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By Sylvia Cabrera Resource TeacherAlliance College-Ready Middle Academy #5

No legislation currently exists in California to regulate the fiscal and educational impact of charter school expansion on existing charter and district schools. Consequently, we see an oversaturation of new schools opening in certain areas, and existing schools suffer underenrollment as a result. Last year, my school, Alliance Middle School #5, laid off four educa-tors due to declining student enroll-ment. Over the past several years, our enrollment has decreased by ap-proximately 100 students.

The impact of declining student en-rollment means fewer staff and poten-tial program cuts. At my school, we no longer have the funding for an art teacher. We are no longer able to offer any honors classes. We simply cannot continue to have unregulated growth of new charter schools at the expense of our current schools and students. It is not sustainable for existing district schools or charter schools alike.

This lack of oversight is especially irresponsible in the parts of L.A. that are facing gentrification. My school is located in Lincoln Heights, and some of our students’ families are struggling with the harsh realities of housing costs rising substantially. It seems like every week we get an email notifying us of another student unenrolling because their family is being displaced, having to move inland to San Bernardino, Vic-torville, and even out of state. Between more charter schools being authorized and the impact of gentrification, we are

Voters in District 5 have a chance to return a familiar face to the LAUSD School Board next year: former board member Jackie Goldberg, who is running in a crowded field of candidates for the seat she held for eight years. UTLA’s House of Representa-tives overwhelmingly endorsed Goldberg for the special election. The election to fill the open seat will be held March 5, 2019, with a runoff if needed on May 14.

Goldberg’s resume stacks up like no other: She was a classroom teacher for 17 years before serving on the LAUSD School Board, on the LA City Council, and in the California State Assembly, where she chaired the Education Committee.

Lately Goldberg is well known to board meeting watchers for her blistering take-downs of the privatization agenda, including Eli Broad’s leaked scheme to send 50% of LAUSD students into unregu-lated charter schools and the secre-tive hiring of non-educator Austin Beutner as superintendent. She has been an unapologetic voice for the role of LAUSD as an essential civic institution in our city—a voice that’s needed on a divided school board with three members (including Board President Monica Garcia and Vice President Nick Melvoin) elected with millions of dollars in funding from the corporate charter lobby and its

finding it more and more difficult to meet our enrollment capacity with each passing year as the student population in the community declines.

As educators, we cannot be dismis-sive of these critical matters. When school programs get cut or our schools close, it affects students, parents, and our whole community. It was just this school year that a PUC charter school in Eagle Rock closed on the fourth day of school without notice to anyone because of underenrollment.

I became a teacher so I can advocate for my students and community, and I stand with the teachers across the city who are advocating for common-sense regula-tion to address these concerns. Educators across Alliance are coming together to col-lectively advocate for the best schools for our students and our profession. Through our union, we as educators can affect positive changes to make our schools sustainable and improve our students’ learning conditions at our schools and throughout our community.

billionaire benefactors. The School Board will be crucial

in pushing back on Beutner’s plan to break LAUSD into a “portfolio” district with 32 networks. In other cities, the portfolio model has been used to label some schools as “inef-fective,” close them down, and force the students into new unregulated charter schools. The results are ter-rible for students, as it increases seg-regation and inequities and threatens the survival of a high-quality public education system.

Ref Rodriguez stepped down from the District 5 seat in July after pleading guilty to a felony conspiracy charge and a series of misdemeanors for money laundering during his 2015 election campaign. For nearly a year, Rodriguez ignored calls from the community to step down, staying in place until he could be the deciding vote in the con-troversial hiring of Beutner.

Charter educator: Unregulated charter growth hurts all of us

UTLA endorses Jackie Goldberg for School Board

I stand with the teachers across the city who are advocating for common-sense regulation.

Divided School Board needs a fighter for reinvesting in public schools.

Tony Thurmond’s against-the-odds win delivers defeat to the charter lobby.

Tony Thurmond’s win for superinten-dent of public instruction took a long time to be confirmed—it didn’t happen until 11 days after the election—but that doesn’t make it any less momentous.

Thanks to the work of thousands of edu-cators, parents, and public education sup-porters, Thurmond prevailed over former Wall Street banker Marshall Tuck despite being outspent by more than 2-to-1 in what was the most expensive race for a state schools chief in U.S. history. Independent groups supporting Tuck spent more than $36 million on the election, including major donations from billionaire privatizers Bill Bloomfield, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Eli Broad.

Los Angeles County was critical to de-livering the win: local vote totals were 57% for Thurmond and 43% for Tuck (statewide percentages were 51% to 49%).

Thurmond ran on a clear-cut pro-public

education platform, calling for univer-sal preschool, increased funding for K-12 schools, better salaries for teachers, and accountability for the charter industry. Both Thurmond and governor-elect Gavin Newsom have called for a “pause” on the expansion of charters until funding and transparency issues are resolved. Califor-nia has been labeled the Wild West when it comes to charter operators because of repeated financial and other scandals in the sector. The state has more charter operators than any other state, and the corporate charter lobby has been relentless in its efforts to rapidly expand unaccountable charters, even in neighborhoods already saturated with schools.

“I intend to be a champion of public schools,” Thurmond said in announcing his victory. “All students, no matter their background and no matter their challenges, can succeed with a great public education.”

‘I intend to be a champion of public schools’

Tony Thurmond (center) with educators in the final get-out-the-vote days of the November 6 election.

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PassingsLila Dawson-

Weber died peace-fully at her home in Harbor City on October 23 at the age of 75.

Lila was born in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, and her family moved to California when she was five years old. She graduated from California State University Northridge in 1964 with a degree in teaching, which she continued to do, “requested or not,” until the day she died.

In 1984, she married the love of her life, fellow teacher and animal activist Jim Weber. She and Jim also shared a passion for teacher union activism. Lila served on the UTLA Board of Directors for Valley East for 20 years, including many years as UTLA Valley East Area Chair. Lila was an outspoken advocate for improving teachers’ and students’ lives, and she was frequently quoted in the press on critical issues such as fair salaries for educators, adequate facili-ties for students, and workers’ right to with-hold labor if contract agreements cannot be reached. She was a special education teacher at Fulton Middle School until she and Jim retired together in 2002.

Lila was a warm-hearted woman who loved her family with all her heart, and she will be forever missed. At the funeral services, her grandson placed one of the UTLA “We Stand With LA Teachers” signs in her casket as a reflection of her commitment to the union and the profession she loved so much.

Lila is survived by her son, Jim (Debi) Weber Jr., and her daughter, Ann Marie Weber. She had four grandchildren: Tim (Randi-lee) Helm, Chris (Vanessa) Miller, Jamie Weber, and Kyle Weber. She also had two great-grandbabies, as she called them, Jaycee-Lee and Danica Helm. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Jim Weber Sr.

Jeannetta (Jean) Ann Harris was born in 1945 in Val-liant, Oklahoma, to J.D. and Arvella Mc-Donald. Her love for family and teaching began early in life. As the eldest of eight children, she helped to raise her siblings. After attending Booker T. Washington High School in Idabel, Oklahoma, she moved to Los Angeles to fulfill her hopes and dreams.

In Los Angeles, Jean continued her education, first at Thomas Jefferson High School, where she earned her GED, and then Trade Technical College, where she graduated as class valedictorian and earned an associate degree in business adminis-tration, with a minor in accounting. She later received her bachelor’s degree in Pan-African studies and a multi-subject teaching credential from California State University Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude.

To continue her journey in the field of education, Jean began her career with the Los Angeles Unified School District as a teacher’s aide. It was clear to everyone around her that she possessed a special gift to reach children and to teach students in a caring and exceptional way. In 1984, she fulfilled her calling as a teacher when

she was hired at 24th Street Elementary. This opportunity ignited a long and suc-cessful career, and she became a stellar and sought-after educator. Teaching is a work of heart, and she truly showed love to all of her students. It was not unusual to see children waiting outside of her classroom for her to arrive in the morning: she was well-loved by students, parents, teachers, and staff.

During her tenure with LAUSD, she par-ticipated in many organizations, including UTLA, NEA, CTA and Kappa Delta Phi International Honors Society in Educa-tion, just to name a few. Jean was indeed a lifelong learner who showed passion and dedication to the career she loved.

After 27 years of loyal service, Jean retired from LAUSD in 2011, but contin-ued her dedication to children and the field of education by continuing to serve on the UTLA African-American Educa-tion Committee as Secretary, in addition to mentoring other teachers.

Teaching was just one of her extraordinary gifts. Jean was a phenomenal mother, grand-mother, and friend. She raised her children and grandchildren with a strong moral core and instilled in them the importance of assist-ing others, as well as reinforcing important life lessons. She was very strong in her faith in God. Jean truly led by example, as she was always helping someone in some way. She contributed to multiple charities because she had a heart larger than life. Another way Jean showed her love was through her cooking. She could put formally trained chefs to shame! She was the real deal, as she did not measure anything—she would simply “eyeball it.” Her family and friends always looked forward to her meals.

She leaves to cherish her memory her children: Jacqueline (Edward) McDonald of

Los Angeles; Charlotte (Wendell) Harris of Los Angeles; Cleavester (Kandice) Harris of Flemington, WV; Stephanie (Harry) Harris-Williams of York, PA; Jenise (Mark) Evans of Los Angeles; honorary daughters Cassondra Hold-Hightower of Los Angeles and Nadyne Hicks of Los Angeles. Her grandchildren: Darren Smith of York, PA; Morgan King of Los Angeles; Kristen Hicks of Los Angeles; Christopher (Cherolyn) Hicks of Los Angeles; Kevion Dotson of Los Angeles; Jordan Harris of Reseda; Brendan Dotson of Los Angeles; Kobe Harris of Reseda; and Laila Green of Charleston, WV; honorary grandchildren Tyler Hicks of Los Angeles; and Tyson Hicks of Los Angeles. Siblings: Debra Yearby of Oklahoma City, OK; Velma Watson-Gardner of Valliant, OK; Wanda Mary McDonald Roberts of Fort Worth, TX; James McDonald of Vinita, OK; Harold McDonald of Okla-homa City, OK; Roger McDonald of Pasa-dena, TX; honorary sister Cynthia Flowers of Los Angeles and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and colleagues.

Laureen (Lorrie) Mitchell passed away at home on September 27, 2018. A native Angeleno, she was born in 1944 to Billy and Arletta May. Her father was Billy May, the re-nowned musician, composer, and ar-ranger. Lorrie grew up with people like Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra visiting her home regularly, and Chuck Berry gave her and her sister rides in his Cadillac convertible. She remained a lover of music, especially jazz,

Lila Dawson-Weber1942-2018

Jeannetta Ann Harris1945-2018

Laureen Mitchell1944-2018


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for her entire life. In 1973, Lorrie married Jimmie Mitch-

ell, a musician. They shared a passion for music and traveling, as well as social justice. In 2004 Jimmie passed away.

For more than 35 years, Lorrie was a devoted and beloved preschool and kin-dergarten teacher at Commonwealth, 28th Street, Gardner, and Union elementary schools. She was a valued and active member of UTLA for her entire career. The impact she had on her students, and theirs on her, can be seen through those with whom she remained close friends.

Lorrie graduated from UCLA with a master’s in early childhood and bilingual education. She mastered Spanish as well. In Lorrie and Jimmie’s library one found an extensive and wide-ranging collec-tion of books on social justice, civil rights, African American studies, Latino culture and studies, environmental issues, and much more. Many are hard-to-find and important volumes that will be donated to appropriate archives.

In addition, Lorrie and Jimmie cared for his great-aunt, Ruby Dandridge, in her later years. Ruby was the mother of famed African American actress Dorothy Dandridge. They lovingly preserved items from Ruby’s career as a pioneering African American actress, musician, and entertainer in the early days of the movie and televi-sion industry. These important historical artifacts and papers will be donated to Emery University.

Lorrie’s advocacy for the health, well-being, and conservation of parrots was well known to her students, friends, and neighbors. She sometimes took birds to her classroom to share her love of them with her students. Retirement gave her more

time to care for her parrots and cockatoos, two of which were quite elderly, and to socialize and train her feathered family members. Lorrie was active in two parrot clubs in Los Angeles and participated in parrot rescue efforts.

Lorrie embraced new technology, from promoting word processors in the early days to always having the latest iPhone. She drove a Prius, had solar panels on her house, and in 2016 bought a Tesla, which was her pride and joy.

After retirement, Lorrie continued her love of traveling and was up for anything. On her trips to Australia she went to the Northern Territory where she saw Uluru and boated on a lake with crocodiles all around her, she visited a remote island off southern New Zealand to learn about con-servation efforts for a highly endangered parrot species, and she snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. Other wanderings took her to England, Cuba, a jazz tour through Scan-dinavia, and a trip to a Greenpeace ship. And if there was a chance for a plane or helicopter ride, Lorrie was ready. She flew over the Hoover Dam, Kakadu Park, and the Great Ocean Road. Most recently, she loved taking road trips around California in her beautiful blue Tesla.

Lorrie is survived by her sister, Cindy May, and her step-sisters, Linda Bates and Cris Pendarvis. She is also survived by her cockatoos Archie and Petey, and African Grey parrots Venus, Bo, and Richard.

What do we remember best about Lorrie? She always had the newest technol-ogy and knew how to use it, she loved fast cars, she was passionate about civil rights and social and environmental justice, she loved her parrots, and she was a lot of fun.

A celebration of life will be held in Lor-

rie’s memory on January 27, 2019, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 951 Keniston Avenue, Los Angeles 90019. Please RSVP at 323-855-0854 by January 25.

Retired UTLA member Alexander Philip Reisbord, age 80, passed away peacefully on Sep-tember 10 with his wife and best friend, Dorothy (Tagawa) Reisbord, by his side.

Alex was born in 1937 to Samuel and Jeannette (Marks) Reis-bord. He was a graduate of Marshall High School in Los Feliz and received his B.A. in 1959 from Occidental College in Eagle Rock. He went on to earn his master’s degree in mathematics at Brown University in 1968. At Oxy, he was a standout member of the track team, and he kept active all his life. He ran three marathons and completed two California AIDS rides from San Francisco to Los Angeles during his lifetime, the last ride when he was in his late 60s.

In the early 1960s Alex joined the Peace Corps, and he was assigned to Kenya, where he trained teachers of mathemat-ics at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. He spoke fondly of those years, and through-out his life he occasionally ran into people from Africa and the area where he was fortunate enough to have lived.

When Alex returned from Kenya, he began his career as a secondary teacher of mathematics. He taught many years, and it was at Narbonne High School in Harbor City where he met Dotti. As Dotti was a teacher—albeit in the elementary

grades—they had a lot in common. They were together for more than 30 years, during which they were able to travel and experience the wonders of 38 countries.

Teaching for Alex was a passion, and he guided his students into successful lives. He would see many students in passing as he strolled down the street who would call out, “Mr. Reisbord…” and he always thought that was special. That’s what the “Math Guy” was all about.

In retirement, one of his favorite places to hang out was the Mastick Senior Center in Alameda. He loved his stained glass class and especially the “chair yoga” ses-sions. He had many friends in both classes and looked forward to each session. His love for the Marina Village community in which he lived was one of the greatest joys of his life. The welcoming and warm friends he had there were very special and something he cherished. Alex’s passion for meeting and getting to know people as well as his love of travel and adventure made for an interesting and exciting life. Alex is survived by his wife, Dotti; his brother, David (Lizzy) Reisbord of Santa Monica; and his younger sister, Susan Martin of Abiquiu, New Mexico. Also left with wonderful loving memories are his children, Coriander Reisbord (William Aber-nathy), John Reisbord of Poughkeepsie N.Y., Jessica (Jim) Grove, Teresa (Dean) Milligan, and Kevin (Tracey) Hattori. Grandchildren Ryan Gooch, Sophie Reisbord, Anna Aber-nathy, Nicky Reisbord, and Meghan Reis-bord will miss their Grandpa Alex greatly.

Send news of passings and photos if available by email to [email protected] or U.S. mail to UNITED TEACHER, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, LA, CA 90010.

Alexander Philip Reisbord1937-2018


14

By Debby Schneider and Laura Carls UTLA/NEA Election Committee

Ready to become involved in education issues at a national level?

The NEA Representative Assembly will meet in Houston, July 2 to 7, 2019, during which delegates representing their local unions from throughout the United States, including overseas locations affiliated

UTLA holding elections for convention delegates.

Involvement opportunity

2019 NEA Convention set for Houston

with the Department of Defense, will give input, gather information, and formulate and update NEA’s positions on various legislative and policy issues.

Educational concerns affecting local, state, and national unions may be brought to the floor by any delegate. The excite-ment of deliberation and voting begins each day at 7 a.m. during the California state caucus and never slows down. This excitement, plus the numerous CTA- and NEA-sponsored activities, serves to en-tertain and educate exhausted but in-spired delegates.

UTLA/NEA members who run for the 2019 Representative Assembly and receive the highest number of votes (by a plurality)

will have an opportunity for a three-year term at the local level. One-year terms are available for state delegates.

Election process for delegatesThe process for the NEA Representa-

tive Assembly delegate elections will be as follows: Voting for local delegates will take place at the February 20 UTLA Area meetings. The top vote-getting candidates will be named as delegates following the counting of votes on February 22.

The UTLA/NEA election committee will then formulate the state candidates’ ballot from those names of people who turned in self-nomination forms for only the state delegate ballot (a one-year term) and those who self-nominated for both the state and local delegate but did not receive top votes in the local delegate election.

The voting for the one-year state delegate term will take place at the UTLA/NEA Service Center Council meeting on March 25, from 3:30 to 6 p.m., and the counting of the votes will follow on or before March 28.

Any teacher on dues-paying leave, year-round teachers who are off track, and early

NEA Representative Assembly Annual Convention slated for July 2019 in Houston

Would you like to become a UTLA/NEA delegate to the 2019 Representative Assembly Annual Convention in Houston? From July 2 to July 7, 2019, UTLA members affiliated with the NEA/CTA will be in attendance at that convention.

For a member to be eligible not only to become a delegate, but to serve in the UTLA/NEA Representative Assembly, a self-nomination form must be completed and returned to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA President, by 5 p.m., February 6, 2019. There will be two categories of delegates: local and state. Local delegates will be elected on Wednesday, February 20, 2019, at the eight UTLA Area meetings. State delegates will be elected Monday, March 25, at the UTLA/NEA Service Center Council meeting from 3:30 to 6 p.m.. A complete set of election rules will be sent to each person submitting a self-nomination form.

Term of office for local delegates is three years, beginning July 2019. State delegates are elected yearly.

UTLA/NEA Representative Assembly Self-Nomination FormPlease Print

Name

Employee Number

Mailing Address

Home Telephone

Non-LAUSD Email Address

School

UTLA Area (Circle One) N S E W C VE VW H

Ethnicity (Circle One)

Asian/Pacific Islander African American

Caucasian (not Spanish origin) Chicano/Hispanic

I wish to have my name placed on the (check one):

Local and state ballot

Local delegate ballot only State delegate ballot only

If my name appears on the local delegate ballot, and I am elected as a local delegate, I hereby give my permission to have my name removed from the state ballot.

I certify that below is the signature of candidate whose name appears above.

Signature

This request is due by 5 p.m. by mail (no faxes or emails) by February 6, 2019, at UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Attn.: Cecily Myart-Cruz. Until 5 p.m. on February 6, forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

UTLA/NEA RA election absentee ballots available

UTLA/NEA members on formal leave will be able to vote in the 2019 NEA Representative Assembly election by absentee ballot. The ballots are available to any teacher on formal leave from a school or worksite and can be obtained by completing an absentee ballot request (below) and submitting it to UTLA by U.S. mail (no faxes/email) by February 6, 2019, no later than 5 p.m. All ballots will be due back at UTLA by 5 p.m. on the appropriate date (use timeline).

UTLA/NEA Members on Formal Leave Request for Absentee Ballot for UTLA/NEA Representative Assembly Elections

Please Print

Name

Employee Number

Mailing Address

Name of School

Non-LAUSD Email Address

UTLA Voting Area

Check one: CTA/NEA Board member Formal LAUSD leave

I am requesting an absentee ballot for the following election:

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 (ballots due back 2/20—Local) Monday, March 25, 2019 (ballots due back 3/25—State)

All above information must be completed for this request to be valid.

I hereby declare that the above information is accurate.

Signature

This request is due by 5 p.m., February 6, 2019, at UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Attn.: Cecily Myart-Cruz. Until 5 p.m. on February 6, forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

All absentee ballots will be due back to UTLA by 5 p.m. on the appropriate date (see timeline).


15

childhood education teachers who are off track may vote by absentee ballot, accord-ing to CTA election rules.

Ballots can be requested by complet-ing the form below. Note: Our timeline is set in accordance with CTA submission requirements.

UTLA/NEA members running for the 2019 Representative Assembly must be sure to use the self-nomination form on the facing page instead of the form sup-

plied by CTA. No faxes or emails will be accepted. As a delegate, it is your re-sponsibility to attend all Service Center Council meetings (January 22, March 25, and May 28).

UTLA/NEA election committee members are Laura Carls and Deborah Schneider-Solis (co-chairs), Marcela Chagoya, Wendi Davis, Mike Gonzales, Karla Griego, Ingrid Gunnell, Mel House, Erika Jones, Rosa Melendez, and Elgin Scott.

Jennifer AlbrightLiliana AmezcuaOlga Araujo-DelgadilloLucia AriasJohn AstonDaniel BarnhartOlga CalacuayoLaura CarlsWendi DavisGreta EnszerCarmen EstermanJospeh S. Esterman

Delegates with terms expiring in 2018Jose EstradaHermenia FreemondRonald FutchMichael GonzalesIngrid GunnellOmer HassanKaren E. HempsteadAlberto HernandezJennifer McAfeeCherita McFrazierBlanca MejiaMaria Miranda

Janis NunoYvette Olivares-EstradaEstela RiosCarlos RodriguezNada ShaathGloria SimoskyJennifer VillaryoIngrid VilledaStacie WebsterLauren WeissSydney Yarbrough-Baune

UTLA/NEA RA 2019 election timelineNEA/RA Local Delegate election

December 18 and January 25: Nomination forms, timeline, and absen-tee ballot request forms in UNITED TEACHER.

February 6: Self-nomination forms and absentee ballot requests due to UTLA building by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail (no faxes or emails). Until 5 p.m. on January 4, forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquar-ters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

February 7: Letters sent out acknowledging receipt of nomination forms.

February 14: Absentee ballots sent out.

February 20: Local RA delegate elections at all UTLA Area meetings and at UTLA headquarters from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

February 20: Absentee ballots due back to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, at UTLA building, 10th floor by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail only (no faxes or emails).

February 22: Area and absentee ballots counted, 9 a.m. Letters sent to winners and results will be posted at www.utla.net by the end of the next business day.

March 4: Deadline to submit election challenge in writing to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, provided a runoff election is not required. Please contact Vivian Vega for appropriate form at 213-368-6259.

NEA/RA State Delegate election

March 12: State RA delegate absentee ballots sent out.

March 25: State RA delegate election at UTLA/NEA Service Center Council meeting at UTLA headquarters, 3:30 to 6 p.m.

March 25: State absentee ballots due back to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, at UTLA building, 10th floor, by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail only (no faxes or emails).

March 27: Election Committee meets at 9 a.m. to count all ballots. Letters sent to winners and results will be posted at www.utla.net by the end of the next business day.

April 7: Deadline to submit election challenge in writing to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice President, provided a runoff election is not required. Please contact Vivian Vega for appropriate form at 213-368-6259.

UTLA members will elect delegates at the January 24 General Membership Meeting at UTLA to represent the union at the statewide convention of the California Federation of Teachers.

At the convention, CFT members from around the state will gather to debate and vote on important resolutions and con-stitutional amendments. The annual CFT Convention is the most important policy-making body of the federation.

All UTLA members are eligible to be elected delegates to this event; delegates who fulfill their official obligations will receive a stipend to cover a major portion of their expenses. Interested members can fill out

Delegates to CFT Convention to be elected January 24CFT to hold annual convention in Downtown LA, March 22 to 24.

the coupon below to nominate themselves.The coupon must be returned by

January 11.

Motions for the meeting: All motions must be submitted to UTLA/AFT 1021 four weeks prior to the general membership meeting on January 24. Motions can be sent to AFT 1021 President via fax at 213-251-9891, mailed to 3303 Wilshire Blvd. 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 or emailed to [email protected] by December 27, 2018. Please indi-cate “AFT 1021 motion” in the subject line. Motions submitted prior to the meeting will be posted on the UTLA/AFT 1021 link at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

Name

Employee No.

Home address

City/Zip

Email

School

Cell Phone #

I hereby declare that I am a fully paid member of UTLA. I wish to nominate myself as a delegate to the 2019 CFT Convention to be held in Downtown LA from March 22 to 24.

Signature

This form must be returned by January 11 to UTLA/AFT Vice President Juan Ramirez at 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010 during regular business hours (9 p.m. -5 p.m.) or by mail. Nominations will not be taken from the floor or by fax/email. Elections will be held at the general membership meeting on Thursday, January 24, at 6 p.m. at UTLA.

2019 CFT Convention self-nomination form

UTLA-R members and members of other unions are encouraged to sign up for the Adopt a School program to support a possible strike at the site level.

Here’s how the program would work: Now that active members of UTLA authorized a strike, the retiree would reach out to the chapter chair at the adopted site to offer any assistance needed to prepare for and support the strike. The retiree would leave contact in-formation with the chapter chair and be ready to help as directed with any of the below:

• organizing (families and communi-ty) with phone calls, meetings, window posters, etc.

• talking with UTLA members about other job actions you participated in and lessons learned.

• reaching out for logistics for the strike

days (water, food, facilities, security, sign-ins, posters) and whatever comes up that the chapter chair needs.

• being on the line and bringing others with you.

More than 100 UTLA-R members already have signed up to volunteer to assist chapter chairs at sites that were their alma mater, that are in their neighborhood, or that they worked at or sent their child to.

To sign up: Send your full name, union/local (or UTLA-R), email, phone, school you’d like to adopt, and UTLA Area (if known) to Evy Vaughn at [email protected]. Please also include your connection to the school (e.g., the site is your alma ma-ter, your neighborhood school, a site you worked at or sent a child/grandchild to).

UTLA retirees: Adopt a School for possible strike


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Report of the October 19 General Assembly Meeting.

Beutner’s “portfolio” scheme puts public education—and our health benefits—at risk.

By Mignon JacksonUTLA-Retired Secretary

President’s report: UTLA-Retired Presi-dent John Perez spoke briefly, reporting that the district has the same position that it had 18 months ago. The union is ready to strike. Retirees are invited to participate in a massive March for Public Education that will be held at Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles on December 15, 2018. UTLA-R members are needed to work with schools and chapter chairs by adopting a school (see box in this issue of the UT). Perez also spoke about the need for UTLA-R members to continue to support PACE. Introductions were made of candidates running for House of Representatives.

Treasurer’s report: UTLA-Retired Trea-surer Mike Dreebin presented the trea-surer’s report and the budget was adopted unanimously.

Health benefits report: Loretta Toggen-burger reviewed a health benefits FAQ from the LAUSD Health Benefits Com-mittee. Toggenburger and Perez said that UTLA-R members with concerns and issues dealing with health benefits should put them in writing and send them to UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and UTLA Treasurer Alex Orozco.

Membership and PACE reports: UTLA-Retired Vice President Cecelia Boskin re-ported that UTLA-R has 4,342 members. She then reminded everyone about the im-portance of joining PACE through monthly

CalSTRS deduction contributions. Contribu-tions can also be mailed to Cecelia Boskin at 3547 Federal Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90066.

Legislative report: Mary Rose Ortega, our legislative reporter, presented a report on the active retirement-related measures as of September 2018 and the CTA posi-tions on these current bills. She concluded her report with an appeal for UTLA-R members to vote for Tony Thurmond for state superintendent of public education and for Gavin Newsom for governor.

Guest speakers: Tom Morrison, consul-tant to the districtwide Health Benefits Com-mittee, and Mariam Hironimus, LAUSD health benefits representative, spoke about the upcoming 2019 benefits package. UTLA-Retired members Annual Benefits Open Enrollment dates were November 1 to 18, 2018. Here are changes to note for retirees:

• Anthem Blue Cross EPO will no longer be offered to retirees who have Medicare Part A and B.

• A new Anthem Medicare Preferred PPO Medical Plan will be offered by LAUSD.

• Kaiser Senior Advantage is adding Silver & Fit to the plan.

• Health Net Seniority Plus is adding Silver Sneakers to the plan.

• Life insurance benefits will now be provided by Met Life.

• United Health Care Medical will no longer be offered.

New cards will be mailed January 1, 2019. There was a Q&A period at the end of

By John PerezUTLA-Retired President

Superintendent Austin Beutner has just come up with another way to threaten your health benefits: Make the LAUSD a “portfo-lio” district. All across the country the priva-tizer/corporate charter folks are turning school districts into “portfolio” districts to destabilize and privatize them. Under this system, all schools are “rated” and “ranked” and placed in “portfolios” from which “inef-fective” or “failing schools” are closed. Then the students from these schools are either forced into neighboring public schools, or, more often, forced into new unregulated charter schools. The results are terrible for students, as it increases segregation and equal access and threatens the survival of a high-quality public education system.

The portfolio model puts financial pres-sure on public school districts. The large number of charter schools in LAUSD has placed our health benefits at risk as the dis-

trict has lost students and revenue. The lost revenue has made it more difficult for the LAUSD to fund our solid health benefits.

This game plan—reduce the number of stu-dents, teachers, and revenue in the LAUSD—puts added pressure on the district to start charging monthly premiums to make up for the lost revenue. Two of the three charter school board members—Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez—have introduced a motion to make LAUSD a “portfolio” district. The only way to stop this erosion of funds out of the LAUSD is to break up the charter school majority on the school board. That means winning the special election to fill the District 5 vacancy on the school board. To do this UTLA needs PACE political action funds, and that’s where you come in. I have been researching how our retired colleagues in other districts get their benefits. In most districts retirees who are under age 65 can keep their district plans, but they often pay a monthly premium to do so since few districts have what we have: premium-free lifetime health benefits.

Retirees’ corner

Note from the UTLA-R President

the presentation. If you have questions or need additional information on your ben-efits, call 213-241-4262 or visit the website at benefits.lausd.net.

House of Reps election: Congratulations to Cecelia Boskin, Mike Dreebin, Loretta Toggenburger, Jane Sakamoto, Jimmie Woods Gray, Susie Chow, Emily Ettinger, Sandy Keaton, Hattie McFrazier, Charlie

Tripp, and alternates Pat Stanyo, Peter Martin, Pete Paladino, Janet Lucar, and Andrew Otero. They were elected to the House of Representatives.

Thank you to Emily Ettinger for selecting the beautiful plants. And a special thank you to Tomas Junge and his committee of volunteers for organizing and preparing the healthy brunch.

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CABE's Project BESTTarget Audience

Preparation for Dual Immersion Success

Bilingual Educator Strategic Training

Project BEST

CALLING ALL TEACHERS WITH BILINGUAL AUTHORIZATIONS!

Professional Development Series March-June 2019!

Is your district experiencing a bilingual teacher shortage?

Do you have a bilingual authorization but are not teaching in a bilingual classroom?

Do you want to fine-tune your skills to be prepared to teach in a dual language immersion

(DLI) classroom in the Fall of 2019?

Join CABE's "BEST" Program!

Project BEST Outcomes:

Develop expertise around dual language immersion pedagogy, with a special emphasis on linguistic transfer and academic Spanish.

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Understand the role of designated ELD in dual immersion programs

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• Current K-8 teachers who possess a bilingualauthorization, are currently teaching in English-only settings and need training and support tore-enter the bilingual setting;

• Current or newly-hired K-8 bilingual authorizedteachers who will be or are currently providinginstruction in a dual immersion/dual languagedevelopment setting, who would like additionaltraining and support.

Capacity for this cohort is 40 participants.

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Register here: http://cabe.k12oms.org/1524-159630

The real problem is when we reach 65 and go on Medicare. Some districts, like Glendale, Norwalk-La Mirada, and Pasadena, make no provisions for those over 65, and our col-leagues from those districts have to purchase a Medicare plan on the open market. Here are some of the monthly premiums educators over age 65 pay to their districts to keep their health plans: Santa Ana, $150 for an HMO and $600 for a PPO; Corona-Norco, $215; Burbank, $270; Scotts Valley, $600; and South Tahoe, $600. Can you afford to purchase a Medicare plan or pay these monthly premiums?

Join PACE today: In the next couple of months, we will send retirees another PACE card so you can join. If all 4,330 of our retirees were to join PACE, we could help defend our health benefits by contributing $866,000 every two years to help elect good school board members. The LAUSD board elec-tions are the most expensive in the nation,

and Eli Broad and his charter school friends spend millions every two years trying to buy LAUSD. In the recently concluded gubernato-rial election Broad and the corporate charter people spent $75 million in the primary and general elections trying to get Antonio Vil-laraigosa elected governor and Marshall Tuck elected state superintendent. Lucky for us, both lost. Broad and friends outspent what educators were able to spend to defend public education by a 2-to-1 margin. BUT the recent national election and the Obama and Sanders campaigns have shown that if all of us contribute a little, we can spend as much as the billionaires. What is better for you and your family: Contribute $10 a month to PACE now, or wait until you have to spend between $200 and $600 a month for the benefits you get today premium-free?

John can be reached at [email protected].

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18

C O M M I T T E E E V E N T S

UTLA African American Education Committee Presents the

Forty-Sixth Annual Community Conference

Saturday, February 9, 2019

7:30am to 4:30pm

UTLA Building

3303 Wilshire Blvd. Room 815

Los Angeles, CA 90010

In Memory of our Dedicated Member

Jeannetta Ann Harris

Theme

Promoting A Healthy School Environment With:

Students Teachers Families

and Communities

Continental Breakfast and Lunch

Early Registration before January 28, 2019 $20.00

Register on Saturday, February 9, 2019 $25.00

Parents free! Students free with ID!

For more information contact: UTLA Conference Secretary:

Debbie Reid at (213) 368-6232

Healthy Living

Yoga

Examining the Food

Students

The Hidden History of Black

and Mexican Solidarity

UTLA 38th ANNUAL Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Scholarship Fundraiser

Sponsored byUTLA / African American Education CommitteeThursday, January 24, 2019

3:30 to 4:30Kings Kids Talent ContestSpeeches, Dance, Musical

5:00 to 8:00 Fundraiser and ProgramUnited Teachers Los Angeles

3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los AngelesCorner of Wilshire and Berendo, two blocks west of Vermont.(Parking structure off Berendo)

Door Prizes - D.J. “James” - Food, Drinks, Entertainment. Admission $5.00Tickets available now or at the door. For additional information call Debbie Reid at (213) 368-6232KINGS KIDS TALENT CONTEST APPLICATIONDeadline for submissions is Wednesday, January 16, 2019. All judgments and decisions by the AAEC

judges are final.

Student Name___________________________________________________Grade_____________School_________________________________________School Phone #_____________________Home Phone #_________________________ ______________________________________Will submit in the following category (check one):

Music Singing Dancing SpeechMusical Instrument Other

Parent’s Signature

ASIAN PACIFIC COMMITTEE’S Multicultural PD Conference featuring a:

“BUS TRIP TO MANZANAR”Saturday, April 27, 2019 6 am – 9:30 pm

(details below)WORKSHOP SESSIONS (5):

Wednesday, December 12, 2018 4 pm - 6:00 pm

(Includes light dinner & instructional materials)

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 4 pm - 6:00 pm


Saturday, March 9, 2019 7:30 am -3 pm

(Includes light breakfast, lunch, & instructional

materials) Monday, April 22, 2019 4:30 pm - 8:00 pm


Wednesday, May 8, 2019 4 pm - 6:00 pm


UTLA Headquarters

3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 2 blocks west of Vermont Ave. at Berendo. Parking structure is off Berendo

Asian Pacific Committee: 50th Anniversary Pilgrimage

BUS TRIP TO MANZANAR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

(Includes lunch/dinner, snacks, charter bus transportation, conference materials & point credit information)

Saturday, April 27th, 2019 Time: 6 AM – 9:00 PM

Bus pick up: 1st UTLA Parking Lot 2nd 170 Frwy commuter parking

3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles OR @ Oxnard St, east of 170 frwy

Cost: $150.00 (2 salary points) or $75 (Pilgrimage only) - Deadline: April 13, 2019

Enrollment: Min. 25 participants for salary points. Bus max: 47 participants.

No bus trip refunds after April 13, 2019

LAUSD Approved, two salary points available. Article 3.3 Multicultural Specific Conference.

To qualify for salary points, you must attend the Pilgrimage on Saturday April 27, 2019 and Pre-trip workshop Monday,

April 22, 2019 4:30 pm – 8 pm Contact presenters (bottom of flyer) for any questions regarding salary points/payment.

How to register on-line: Go to UTLA.net, click on CALENDAR, and then enter

"Manzanar" in SEARCH EVENT. Click 2019ManzanarConference

This will take you to the UTLA on-line registration. Register on-line to reserve your space.

Registration questions to Jenny Lam (213)368-6229 or [email protected] (email is preferred).

Presenter contact: Diane Newell: [email protected] Put “manzanar” in the subject bar, or text: (818) 642-0981 Rosie

Van Zyl: [email protected]

Please Post


19

CTA State Council Unexpired Term election notice

CTA State Council Unexpired Term election timeline

CTA State Council Year-Round Absentee Ballot Request

Are you interested in representing UTLA/NEA members at the state level? CTA (California Teachers Association) State Council, a policy-making body that meets quarterly, has openings for representatives to fill unexpired terms. If you wish to run for one of these positions, complete and return the self-nomination form by U.S. mail to UTLA/NEA VP Cecily Myart-Cruz at UTLA. The form must be received by 5:00 p.m. on December 19, 2018. The election will be held at the January 16 Area meetings. For those members who cannot vote at their Area meetings, voting will also be held at the UTLA building from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on January 16.

Self-Nomination Form

Name

Employee number

Address

City Zip

Home phone

Non-LAUSD email address

School

School Phone

I certify that below is the signature of the candidate whose name appears above.

Signature Date (Required)

Return this request to UTLA/NEA VP Cecily Myart-Cruz by 5:00 p.m., December 19, 2018, via U.S. mail to UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters on the 10th floor during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (attention: Cecily Myart-Cruz). NO FAXES OR EMAILS.

Form must be received by UTLA by December 19, 2018.

Involvement opportunity

CTA Unexpired Term electionsBy Laura Carls & Deborah Schneider-Solis UTLA/NEA Election Committee

UTLA/NEA members will elect CTA State Council representatives for unex-pired terms at elections scheduled this year for the January 16 Area meetings. These delegates will join the other UTLA representatives when the council continues for the 2018-19 school year.

The State Council acts as CTA’s pol-icy-making body, meeting four times a year. Each representative is expected to serve on a standing com mittee, which debates business items involving aca-demic freedom, retire ment, civil rights, political action, teachers’ rights, and state-wide nego tiation issues. State Council represen tatives also vote for CTA’s state-wide officers. In the 2018-19 school year, all State Council meetings will be held in Los Angeles. All necessary expenses

for represen tatives are covered by CTA, including hotel, mileage, and food costs. Meetings begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, 7:15 a.m. Sunday, and usually end around 4 p.m. both days. Subcommittee meetings on Friday evenings and voluntary caucus meetings before and after the general weekend meeting times can enrich the representative’s knowledge of issues facing California educators. UTLA del-egates are rewarded for their time and effort by getting a chance to make a state-wide difference in education.

If you find the idea of participating on a statewide level intriguing, fill out and mail in the self-nomination form on this page to run for CTA State Council. Forms are due by December 19 via U.S. mail (no faxes or emails). Forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquar ters on the 10th floor (attention: Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA VP) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

I am requesting an absentee ballot for the CTA State Council Election for the unexpired term.

My vote will correspond to CTA’s election guidelines, which allow for voting by mail for CTA members on formal leave. This request must be received by 5:00 p.m., December 19, 2018, by U.S. mail to UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Attn: Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA VP. I understand that my request will be checked for accuracy by election committee members. Absentee ballots will be mailed January 7, 2019, and must be received via U.S. mail by 5:00 p.m., on January 16.

Name

Employee number

Address

City Zip

Home phone

Non-LAUSD email address

School

School Phone

UTLA area (Circle one) N S E W C VE VW H

Absentee ballot requested for:

CTA State Council

January 16 February 20

Check one: CTA/NEA Board member Formal LAUSD leave

I hereby declare that the above information is accurate.

Signature Date

October 29, December 18: Nomination forms, timeline, and absentee ballot request forms in UNITED TEACHER.

December 19: Self-nomination forms and absentee ballot requests due to UTLA building by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail (no faxes or emails). Forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters (see the receptionist on the 10th floor) during regular business hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

December 20: Letters sent out ac-knowledging receipt of nomination forms.

January 7: Absentee ballots sent out.

January 16: Elections at all UTLA Area meetings and UTLA headquarters from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

January 16: Absentee ballots due back to UTLA by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail only (no faxes or emails).

January 18: Area and absentee ballots counted. Letters sent to winners and results will be posted at www.utla.net by the end of the next business day.

January 28: Deadline to submit elec-tion challenge in writing to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice Presi-dent, provided a runoff election is not required.

February 11: Absentee ballot for runoff sent.

February 20: Runoff election, if needed, at Area meetings and at UTLA head-quarters from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

February 20: Absentee ballots due back to UTLA by 5 p.m. by U.S. mail only (no faxes or emails).

February 22: Area and absentee ballots counted. Letters sent to winners and results will be posted at www.utla.net by the end of the next business day. Those who are not elected delegates will become alternates.

March 3: Final date for challenges to be submitted in writing to Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA Vice Presi-dent, provided an additional runoff election is not required. Please contact Vivian Vega for appropriate form at 213-368-6259.

Return this request to UTLA/NEA VP Cecily Myart-Cruz by 5:00 p.m., December 19, 2018, via U.S. mail to UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Forms may also be dropped off at UTLA headquarters on the 10th floor (attention: Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA/NEA VP) during regular business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. NO FAXES OR EMAILS.

Form must be received by UTLA by December 19, 2018.


20

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The PAR program’s goal: To support and renew quality teaching in classrooms across the district.

Many teachers have heard about Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) but may not know the whole story behind this program, which is designed to support quality teaching.

Origins: PAR was the brainchild of Dal Lawrence, past president of the Toledo Fed-eration of Teachers. Teachers’ unions began to include PAR in their contracts through col-lective bargaining in the early 1980s. In 2000, under then-UTLA President Day Higuchi, UTLA negotiated PAR into our contract.

Purpose: The purpose of the LAUSD PAR Program is to provide confidential in-structional support to teachers who request support or who are referred to the program because they have received a Below Stan-dard evaluation. PAR Consulting Teachers provide one-to-one support that includes collaborative goal setting, lesson planning, observation of practice, and reflection con-ferences. Teachers who are receiving PAR services are called Participating Teachers.

Services: The PAR Program consists of three components.

• Component 1 is service to teachers who have received a Below Standard evaluation. The UTLA-LAUSD contract requires all Component 1 Participating Teachers to fully participate in the program, to the extent that services are provided. Component 1 is the first priority of the program.

• Component 2 consists of service to non-permanent teachers who request support, with priority given to teachers at high-needs schools. Component 2 is the

second priority of the program. • Component 3 provides support to

permanent teachers who request PAR ser-vices. Component 3 is the third priority of the program.

Additionally, the PAR Program provides a full slate of Professional Development that is open to all teachers. Each workshop is six hours and is approved for salary point credit. All registration fees and related costs are paid for by PAR, so all workshops are free of charge to LAUSD teachers.

Confidentiality: The PAR Consulting Teacher does not share any information about a Participating Teacher’s instructional practices with the administrator, or with anyone outside of PAR. Confidentiality is ab-solute in this respect. The only exceptions to confidentiality are anything that falls under mandatory reporter requirements, any threat or injury to adults or students, and if district policy or the contract are not adhered to.

Oversight: The PAR Program is overseen by the PAR Panel. The panel consists of five teachers appointed by UTLA, and four administrators appointed by the district. The panel sets the LAUSD PAR policies and vision, in accordance with Ed Code. There is a PAR Coordinator whose job it is to implement the policies and vision as determined by the PAR Panel.

Associations with other programs: The most common misconception in this regard is that PAR is somehow associated with the Certificated Performance Evalua-tion Support (CPES) program. The CPES

program, per their website, “works col-laboratively with the Local Districts, Staff Relations, Field Directors, and Principals/site-based Administrators to develop spe-cific action plans in support of underper-forming employees at their schools.” The PAR Program and the CPES Program are completely separate and have completely different goals. PAR’s one and only purpose is to support effective instructional strategies with and for teachers. PAR is nonevaluative and has no input in the formal evaluation, as that is the purview of the site administrator. Instead, PAR works solely with the teacher to improve instruction. If instruction improves as a result of PAR support, and the adminis-trator observes improved implementation of

strategies, that would be the only way that PAR might impact an evaluation.

Consulting Teachers: PAR Consulting Teachers are UTLA-represented teachers—hence, they are peers supporting peers. They support, do not evaluate, and do not provide any input in the formal evaluation process of the administrator.

For more information, check out the PAR website at https://achieve.lausd.net/PAR, where you’ll find a schedule of PD workshops, more about PAR and a link to PAR publications. Still have questions? Call the PAR Office (Susan Masero, Coordinator; Laura Murphy, Specialist) at 213-241-5501.

Peer Assistance and Review: Teachers supporting teachers

GRAPEVINE (continued from page 23)

techniques to increase the dramatic effect in filmmaking. The class is for all grade levels, all subject and content areas. One salary point available with successful completion of the course. The instructors are LAUSD teachers Selena Stewart and Linda Guthrie. Location: Thomas Starr King Middle School (4201 Fountain Ave.). Registration deadline: January 20, 2019. Dates: January 26 (9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.), Feb-ruary 23 (9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.), and March 14 (3:30 p.m.- 6:30 p.m.). To register, email [email protected] with your full name, employee number, and contact email.

Support for Computer Science Teachers

MfA Los Angeles is accepting applica-tions for a five-year Master Teacher Fellow-ship in Computer Science. Benefits include an annual stipend of $10,000, cutting-edge professional development geared toward computer science (CS) teachers, support to attend conferences, and more. Candidates must apply with a partner at their school site and be teaching CS or math (with an interest in teaching CS) for grades 7-12 in a high-need public school in the greater Los Angeles area. Master’s degree required (in CS, other STEM field, or education). Please visit www.mfala.org/mtcs.html for more information.


21

ADVANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Are you ready for a new challenge? Are you ready for a position outside the classroom?

Are you interested in administration?

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NEW COHORTS CLOSE TO WORK OR HOME STARTING January 22, 2019 Spring Semester

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interested in pursuing a career in educational administration.

Students benefit from the real world experience and expertise of the instructors, the close student-to-faculty ratio, the convenient schedule designed for the working professional, and the strong peer relationships one

develops, all while learning the skills required for successful entry into an administrative position upon graduation." - Jay Benoit, Restorative Justice Teacher, Van Nuys High School, ESC North

Classes meet one night a week beginning at 4:20 PM

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies California State University, Northridge

(818) 677- 2591 http://www.csun.edu/coe/elps

Friday, April 26, 2019

UTLA/NEA “WHO” Awards Dinner

Save

The

Dat

e

See you there!

UNITEDTEACHERSLOSANGELES/NEASERVICECENTERCOUNCILCALIFORNIATEACHERSASSOCIATIONNATIONALEDUCATIONASSOCIATION

UTLA/NEA“WHO”[email protected]

We Honor Ours

Nominations due February 25.

WHO awards: A chance to honor someone you know

Ever wonder how you can recognize a colleague or chapter chair who has shown true leadership by going above and beyond the call of duty to help members at your site? Or maybe a member who is involved in the Area steering committee or House of Representatives and has dedicated time to speak to our members, help where needed, and walk that mile or two for the good of all our members? Or what about that colleague who has spoken about professional matters at the state or national level to make sure our voices are heard?

Here is your chance to recognize them by nominating them for the We Honor Ours (“WHO”) awards, which are given annually in these categories:

• The WHO Local Award is for active UTLA/NEA members who have given outstanding service in support of UTLA/NEA and its members.

• The WHO State Award is for active UTLA/NEA members who have given out-standing service in support of UTLA/NEA and its members at the state or national levels of UTLA, CTA, and NEA.

• The UTLA/NEA Community Gold Award may be awarded to any person or organiza-tion whose leadership, actions, and support have demonstrated that the person or orga-nization is a true friend of public education, educators, or students and merits UTLA/NEA recognition of their accomplishments.

The WHO Awards Committee looks forward to honoring special members who you know are doing what it takes to make us stronger, keep us united, and stand for the good of all.

Deadline for nominations is February 25. Nomination forms will be posted next month at utla.net. Recipients will be honored at a dinner on April 26.

Teachers: Help keep the Labor Movement alive with our youth! Bring UTLA’s award-winning Collective Bargaininig Education Project to your school site.

At our Collective Bargaining Institute, your students will spend several exciting hours learning about the labor movement by participating in a hands-on simulation of contract negotiations, aligned to content and Common Core standards.

The Collective Bargaining Institute engages ALL students. They will be grouped into small (4 students) union and management teams, and each student will be responsible for a different bargaining issue. And it gets better! All teams will be mentored by labor relations professionals who volunteer to “coach”!

There is no cost to your school. Our UTLA Collective Bargaining Education Project is co-sponsored by the L.A. County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO and the Labor and Employment Relations Association, with support from LAUSD.

Deadline: ASAP. Scheduling a CBI day requires three weeks in advance to recruit the team “coaches” from the L.A.-area labor movement. Also in advance, students need to be released from classes for the CBI (with a “trip” slip), to a large space with tables for 3 to 4 hours.

Contact Linda Tubach, Collective Bargaining Education Project teacher, ASAP at (626) 233-2284

or email [email protected].

27th Annual Collective Bargaining Institutes for

LAUSD High School Students

NEGOTIATIONS

BARGAININGLABOR MOVEMENT


22

We wish you and yours a season full of good health, good friends, loving family, and abundant joy and prosperity for 2019.

Happy holidays from UnitedHealthcare Labor & Trust team.

MT-1162223.1 11/18 ©2018 United HealthCare Services, Inc. 18-10527

Insurance coverage provided by or through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or its affiliates. Administrative services provided by United HealthCare Services, Inc. or their affiliates. Health Plan coverage provided by or through UHC of California DBA UnitedHealthcare of California.

Facebook.com/UnitedHealthcare Twitter.com/UHC Instagram.com/UnitedHealthcare YouTube.com/UnitedHealthcare

We wish you and yours a season full of good health, good friends, loving family, and abundant joy and prosperity for 2019.

Happy holidays from UnitedHealthcare Labor & Trust team.

MT-1162223.1 11/18 ©2018 United HealthCare Services, Inc. 18-10527

Insurance coverage provided by or through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or its affiliates. Administrative services provided by United HealthCare Services, Inc. or their affiliates. Health Plan coverage provided by or through UHC of California DBA UnitedHealthcare of California.

Facebook.com/UnitedHealthcare Twitter.com/UHC Instagram.com/UnitedHealthcare YouTube.com/UnitedHealthcare

A special election will be held at the January 18 UTLA-Retired General As-sembly for the office of UTLA-Retired Secretary. The term of office will begin immediately following the announce-ment of the balloting results and end on June 30, 2020. In the event there is a runoff election, the runoff will be held at a subsequent meeting of the General Assembly.

Special election timeline: UTLA-Retired Secretary for balance of term ending June 30, 2020

This timeline is for the Special Elec-tion of the UTLA-Retired Secretary with voting on January 18, 2019.

July 18, 2018: UTLA-Retired membership deadline for members to be in good standing to self-nom-inate to run for UTLA-Retired Sec-retary.

December 18, 2018: Declaration of Intent forms available for self-nomination.

January 7, 2019: Deadline for UT-LA-Retired membership to be eligible to vote in this special election.

January 8, 2019: Declaration of Intent forms are to be submitted to Tara Thomas, 12th Floor, UTLA Building, no later than 10 a.m.

January 9, 2019: Email submis-sion of candidate’s statement (250 words or less and may contain only one graphic/image) to [email protected]. The submission dead-line is 12 noon. Statements must be either in MS Word, PDF, or text format. The candidates’ statements will be distributed to the UTLA-Re-tired Email Listserv. Statements will be emailed to the listserv January 11-12, 2019.

January 18, 2019: Voting will take place at the January 18, 2019, UTLA-Retired General Assembly meeting from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon.

January 18, 2019: Deadline for can-didates to submit financial reports (if expenses are incurred) to Tara Thomas, 10th Floor, UTLA Building, no later than 3 p.m.

For election rules or a download-able version of the Declaration of Intent form, go to www.utla.net/mem-bers/utla-retired-committee.

UTLA-Retired to hold special election to fill Secretary position

Declaration of IntentUTLA-Retired Secretary Election

Term of Office: The remainder of the current term ending June 30, 2020

I, , (Please print your name, as you would like it to appear on ballot.) do hereby declare my intention to run for the office of UTLA-Retired Secretary to com-plete the balance of the current unexpired term.

Permission is given for the UTLA-R Election Committee to verify my membership quali-fications and to determine that I meet the requirements to be a candidate for the office for which I have declared my intent.

(Please Print)

(Home Address: Street and Number)

(City and Zip)

(Area Code) (Contact Phone Number)

(Personal E-mail Address)

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

(Signature and Date)

Complete and return to: UTLA-R Election Committee, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Attn: Tara Thomas

(Date & Time Received)

All forms must be submitted no later than 10 a.m. January 8, 2019, to Tara Thomas on the 10th Floor at UTLA. No exceptions.

HumanResourcesDivision

PeerAssistanceandReviewProgramWorkshopSchedule

AllLAUSDteachersareinvitedtotakeANYofour6-hourworkshopsthatcoveravarietyoftopics:

ClassroomManagement-ResearchBasedStrategiesforSuccess September19,2018&December19,2018

InformationalTextandProjectBasedInstruction September10,2018

UsingGraphicOrganizerstoSupporttheWritingProcess October6,2018

DesigningLessonsforthe21stCenturyLearner December18,2018

BuildingStrongConnectionsforStudentSuccess December18,2018

ABCsofStudentEngagement January4,2019

InformationalTextandProjectBasedInstruction January4,2019

PowerofPresence February16,2019

InteractiveStudentNotebooks March9,2019

ABCsofStudentEngagement March9,2019

ClassroomManagement-ResearchBasedStrategiesforSuccess April17,2019

DesigningLessonsforthe21stCenturyLearner June18,2019

PowerofPresence June18,2018

InteractiveStudentNotebooks June19,2019

Signupthrough:MyPLNhttps://achieve.lausd.net/mypln#spn-content

1

All workshops can be applied toward Salary Point Credit!

*unlessnoted,allPARclassesareheldattheBeaudryBuilding

333SBeaudryAve,LA,CA90017


23

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

GRAPEVINESalary point workshop on Charles Lummis and the culture of the Arroyo Seco

Spring session registration is now open for the LAUSD professional development workshop “The River Runs Through It: Charles Lummis and the Culture of the Arroyo Seco” scheduled for two Saturdays, February 16 and 23, 2019. Conducted by retired LAUSD teacher Carmela Gomes, the workshop has expanded the professional staff to include retired Mercyhurst University professor Keiko Miller and master Franklin High School teacher Yim Tam. During the course of the two days, participants walk in the wilds of the Arroyo Seco River, visit the native plant garden maintained by the National Park Service at the Audubon Center, tour the Lummis Home and Garden with a docent, experience the Los Angeles River in new ways with Friends of the Los Angeles River, take part in a walking tour of historic homes in the Sycamore Grove community, learn about the work of Charles Lummis as an archaeologist in Peru at the Southwest Museum, and sit with holders of Tongva and Chumash traditions for a hands-on work-shop. To receive one point credit for the work-shop, teachers are required to use the infor-mation they acquire to create lessons for their

classrooms that reflect the concept of a sense of place and to support the Common Core cur-riculum for their discipline. Workshop fee is $85. Registration form and schedule available online at www.LummisDay.org. Registration closes February 8, 2019. For more information, contact Carmela Gomes, ([email protected] or 818-429-8755).

Salary point class on “Mexican California”

Earn salary points and expand your knowledge of local history by enrolling in “Mexican California.” The class will visit Olvera Street, the Dominguez Rancho, and the San Fernando Mission. This district-ap-proved class is open to all K-12 educators and is worth two salary points. It will also expose participants to resources and Common Core-based strategies that can supplement their teaching. Participants will meet at Francis Polytechnic High, on January 27 and Febru-ary 3, 10, and 24 (all Saturdays). From Francis Polytechnic High, the class will commute to the three locations (one each class day, except for February 24). The course fee is $175 for two units, preregistered ($185 on the first day), which includes breakfast, materi-als, and museum admissions. Enrollments will be accepted until—and including—the

first day of class (January 27), or until cap is reached, whichever happens first. For further information, email [email protected] or visit www.en4ed.com, or call/text Larry Carstens at 818-645-4259.

Evenings for Educators at LACMAFor more than 30 years LACMA’s Eve-

nings for Educators program has provided K-12 teachers with opportunities to talk about, discover, and create works of art. On February 5, “Parallels at the Core: Reading, Writing, and Visual Art” will cover strate-gies for integrating visual art with English language arts and literacy instruction and will feature museum educators, teaching artists, and special guests. In this thematic session, participants will explore artworks from across the museum by U.S. American, Korean, German, and Sri Lankan artists. Teachers enjoy complimentary parking and dinner as well as a thematic curriculum packet containing discussions of individual artworks, image reproductions, and lesson plans. The session runs from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 when purchased the day of the event. For more information and to register, please visit www.lacma.org/evenings-for-educators. If you have additional questions, please call 323-857-6093 or email [email protected].

Salary point conference on Manzanar

The UTLA Asian Pacific Committee is organizing its annual Manzanar Conference. The conference includes a bus pilgrimage to the Manzanar National Historic site, along with the chance to earn two salary points. To qualify for salary points, you must attend the pilgrimage on April 27 and the pre-trip workshop on April 22. Cost: $150 (two salary points) or $75 (pilgrimage only). Minimum 25 participants must enroll for salary points. See the flyer on page 18 for more information and how to register online.

STEAM professional development classes

Encouraging student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math-ematics (STEAM) is becoming more and more important, which is why Educa-tion4Equity has created four courses to advance STEAM education for LAUSD teachers. Subjects include Steam Everyday for Everyone, NGSS for All, Cognitively Guided Instruction Math, and Arts Inte-gration: Music. These LAUSD-approved professional development courses provide training to help teachers improve their knowledge, understanding, and ability to promote STEAM education in the classroom. To sign up, go to www.educa-tion4equity.com/steam.

Salary point course on mindful awareness

UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center is offering a salary point course in Mindful Awareness Practices for Educa-tors. Through this course, teachers will learn the principles of mindfulness and how to apply them to daily life and the classroom. Mindfulness has been shown to have a beneficial effect on students and school communities, contributing to greater ease, focus, and mental health. Participants will learn tools so they can directly apply mindfulness strategies to their lives, to the stressors they may face in schools, and to their classrooms. This six-week course meets on Thursdays from January 17 through February 21, from 4:30 to 7 p.m., at UCLA and is appropriate for beginning and experienced practitioners. Participants are eligible to receive one LAUSD salary point. Cost: $225 (scholarships available). Informa-tion and registration: www.uclahealth.org/marc/maps-schedule#MAPS-I-Ed-ucators. Contact: Linda Yaron, NBCT, at [email protected].

Free salary point class on advanced story-telling and filmmaking

“Advanced Story Telling and Film-making: Focus on Cinematography and Editing” will provide teachers with tools and resources to conduct primary source lessons using text analysis questions that are modeled after the ELA SBAC. It will also provide lessons for narrative writing and adapting stories based on historical events into scripts. In addition, partici-pants will get in-depth instruction on the use of cinematography and editing

ESTATE PLANNINGWant to avoid probate?Seeking peace of mind?

Don’t do it yourself. Let a fellow teacher be your lawyer. Sheila Bayne is a full time

teacher with LAUSD and has been an active member of the California Bar for over 30 years.

Complete Estate Planning Package: n Living Trust n Living Will/Advance Health Care Directives n Power of Attorney

n Trust Transfer Deeds n Pour-over Will and supporting documents n Personal consultation

Discount for UTLA Members:

$750(Joint trust for spouses: $ 1095)

Also: n Probate n ConservatorshipsCONTACT THE LAW OFFICES OF SHEILA BAYNE

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(continued on page 20)

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phonicsforlatinos-abcsincommon.com(310) 836 - 6730

Terms & Conditions1Offer available to current school employees only. Restrictions apply. $100 offer applies to NEW checking accounts for NEW members only, who enroll in Digital Banking and establish a recurring Direct Deposit with a minimum of $500 per month. Recurring Direct Deposit must be a Direct Deposit or Payroll Deposit from a school or district. Limit one (1) bonus per member. Direct Deposit must be established within 120 days of membership opening to qualify for bonus. Three (3) months of recurring Direct Deposits must be credited to the account before qualifying for the bonus. The bonus will be added to the checking account within 8-12 weeks from the qualifying date and will be reported as income. Refer to the current rate sheet for regular dividends to be paid on eligible balances. The bonus is not included in the calculations of regular dividends and is not recurring. The bonus will be forfeited by the member if the account does not remain open for a minimum of 6 months. This offer is subject to change without notice. Offer valid through December 31, 2018. 2$2 monthly paper statement fee waived with eStatements, or direct deposit ($500+/mo. minimum into checking that receives the direct deposit), OR if under age 18 or 65+. 3With enrollment in Overdraft Protection. 4Balances over $10,000 will earn dividends. See current rates, terms and conditions online. Federally insured by NCUA. © 2018 California Credit Union.

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Documents

Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • … · 2020. 1. 6. · Award-Winning Newspaper of United Teachers Los Angeles • Volume XLVIII, Number 3, December 18,