With hours to go before a scheduled strike on Tuesday, the nation’s second-largest school district announced a tentative agreement with SEIU Local 99. It was the third and final tentative agreement needed by LAUSD to prevent a strike. Tentative agreements with United Teachers Los Angeles and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Teamsters were announced days ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand here before you today as your mayor,\u00a0but also as a proud LAUSD graduate, parent and grandparent\u00a0who was very happy to hear that\u00a0my grandson was going to school today,\u201d Mayor Karen Bass said at a Tuesday press conference.\u00a0\u201cIt has been a long night,\u00a0and it’s been a long few weeks of negotiations, but our schools are open!\u201d<\/p>\n
While admitting that the \u201ccity of Los Angeles has no direct jurisdiction over the school district,\u201d Bass said her job is to \u201cfight for all Angelenos.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the Los Angeles mayor, that includes students, teachers, school employees and parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stepped into negotiations to make sure that every effort\u00a0was made to find an agreement to reach a compromise\u00a0because a strike would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids and their parents who need child care,\u00a0need to go to school and need to go to work,\u201d said Bass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Acting Superintendent Andr\u00e9s E. Chait, who said he was receiving many emails and phone calls from parents, thanked the mayor for her leadership and support.<\/p>\n
Chait said the mayor \u201cplayed an integral role\u201d\u00a0in bringing all parties together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, parents, who are out there,\u201d said\u00a0Chait<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThank you to our community for believing in us\u00a0that we would get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never believed in an adversarial relationship between a district and its workforce,\u201d said Chait. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense, and I hope this is an opportunity for us to reset that.\u201d<\/p>\n Terms of the tentative\u00a0agreement<\/a>\u00a0with SEIU include a 24% wage increase that the union said \u201cwill make a significant difference in workers\u2019 livelihoods.” Health care benefits will be expanded for teacher assistants, after-school workers and community representatives. Meanwhile, layoffs for hundreds of information technology technicians are being rescinded, and LAUSD will not subcontract work to outside vendors.<\/p>\n Max Arias, executive director at SEIU Local 99, expressed gratitude for Chait, saying he came into \u201ca very difficult situation\u201d but showed leadership and gave members hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRemember who our members are,\u00a0parents in LAUSD, half of them, Black and brown women mostly,\u00a0that are doing this back-breaking work\u00a0and supporting teachers and supporting students\u00a0with education,\u201d said\u00a0Arias<\/a>. \u201cSo we must not forget.\u201d<\/p>\n The tentative\u00a0agreement<\/a>\u00a0reached with UTLA would increase their members\u2019 salary scales by 11.65%.\u00a0<\/p>\n The pact would also increase the beginning salary for a teacher to $77,000 per year.<\/p>\n UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz called this a historic win for all who make public education possible.<\/p>\n \u201cThis agreement represents a long overdue shift, prioritizing the educators who keep our schools running and putting resources back into our classrooms where they belong,\u201d said\u00a0Myart-Cruz<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIn Los Angeles, teachers will now earn salaries\u00a0that better reflect the true cost of living in communities\u00a0that they serve, with inflation remaining high\u00a0and economic uncertainty looming.\u201d<\/p>\n In March, UTLA member and high school English teacher Gina Gray\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0The Center Square that 21% of full-time faculty and staff would qualify for affordable housing facilities in California.<\/p>\n \u201cThis victory ensures that educators can afford to stay\u00a0in their neighborhoods and live closer to their jobs\u00a0and continue teaching in the schools that they are a part of,\u201d said Myart-Cruz at Tuesday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n The tentative\u00a0agreement<\/a>\u00a0with Associated Administrators Los Angeles Teamsters 2010 increases their members’ salary by 11.65% over two years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know what we\u2019re about, and we\u2019re about kids,\u201d said Maria Nichols, president of AALA Teamsters. \u201cWe\u2019re about ensuring that our students have what they need at the schools. We\u2019re about ensuring that the resources are at schools, human capital, so that my administrators can do their work and do it well.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, not everyone in Los Angeles is applauding.<\/p>\n Maria Luisa Palma, executive director of\u00a0Oleada Inc<\/a>., a coalition of LAUSD parents, does not see how students benefit from the labor agreements.<\/p>\n \u201cUTLA\u2019s agreements have never included requirements for student academic outcomes,\u201d Palma told The Center Square. \u201cThe spirit of California\u2019s requirement for parent participation in the\u00a0Local Control and Accountability Plan<\/a>\u00a0is supposed to address student outcomes, but the LCAP \u2014 a state of California-mandated plan \u2014 and its components do not appear anywhere in the\u00a02022-2025 UTLA Bargaining Agreement<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Palma also questioned whether the raises are affordable in the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cWill teacher layoffs be announced during the 2026-27 school year?\u201d asked Palma. \u201cAcademic outcomes for their own children and staffing levels overall worry parents, while LAUSD\u2019s structural deficit and future state funding for schools remain open questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Susan Shelley, vice president of communications at Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, also expressed concern about costs.<\/p>\n Shelley told The Center Square that LAUSD has a structural budget deficit, with expenditures exceeding projected revenues.<\/p>\n