In a memo the district provided<\/a> to parents on social media, Supt. Jonathan Vasquez said that with rising healthcare costs across the state and country, it could not continue to maintain its level of direct contributions for employee\u2019s healthcare while also maintaining class sizes and student support services. <\/p>\nVasquez said that in the last few years the district has spent more than the revenue it had received, and used reserve funds to continue to subsidize benefits and students services. <\/p>\n
According to the Little Lake Education Assn., in January, the district imposed a cap on healthcare contributions \u2014 in effect, steep pay cuts to educators \u2014 pushing some employees\u2019 monthly costs as high as $1,400. The district also proposed increasing class sizes while it allocates 20% of its total budget to outside contracts, significantly higher than surrounding districts and the state average, the association said.<\/p>\n
State figures show a district enrollment of about 3,500 students \u2014 down from more than 4,000 students five years ago. The school system is about 90% Latino and 78% of students are part of low-income households. The district was formed in 1871, and serves students in parts of Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk and Downey.<\/p>\n
In his memo to parents, Vasquez said \u201cit is difficult to say\u201d how long the strike would last.<\/p>\n
The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
On Thursday morning, parents and students joined hundreds of striking teachers rallying at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs. Families gathered around tables set up with snacks and beverages. Younger students played and ran around, while older children blew on whistles between chants.<\/p>\n
Denise Godinez, a support teacher across various elementary schools in the district, was among them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of everything is going up, groceries, gas, all of that and on top of that, teachers are expected to pay this,\u201d she said, adding that she has colleagues whose family members are receiving cancer treatments and have seen their costs rise. \u201cEveryone is feeling it. It\u2019s hard all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherry Gonzalez, whose daughter Dani is a student at Lakeview Elementary School, said her daughter\u2019s teacher last year created a classroom where her daughter \u201cfelt understood\u201d and was able to grow, but that the teacher had been laid off and won\u2019t be back next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor families like mine, that kind of stability is not a small thing. It matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez said her son Alex has special needs and was in a smaller classroom with teachers who had the time and training to support him. But his class of about 10 students has grown to 25, and now parents are being told those numbers could further increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to ask, how is that acceptable? How is one teacher supposed to meet the needs of 25 students?\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cTeachers are being asked to do more with fewer resources and less support. That is not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle Lanning, a first grade teacher at Studebaker Elementary, said some teachers have had to switch away from doctors that know them and their family to save money. She said she had to remove her daughter from her insurance because she couldn\u2019t afford it. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe had to go on her dad\u2019s insurance because it was too expensive,\u201d Lanning said, as one of her students ran up and handed her a protest sign.<\/p>\n
Lanning said she and other teachers frequently buy classroom materials out of pocket, but healthcare costs severely restrict their ability to continue to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we can\u2019t do that anymore. Everything is limited,\u201d Lanning said. \u201cIt\u2019s been hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district said<\/a> it \u201cwill do everything in its power\u201d to stay open during the strike, operating on a minimum day schedule with a 1:30 p.m. dismissal. <\/p>\nExtended day child care and after-school programs will continue to operate from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. with adjusted staffing.<\/p>\n
Times staff writer Howard Blume contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of teachers in southeast Los Angeles County went on strike Thursday in the Little Lake City School…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,90325,117952,4579,828,1431,83685,31116,117953,7087,117954,225,4574,10384,105313,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-271879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-class-size","12":"tag-daughter-dani","13":"tag-district","14":"tag-employee","15":"tag-family","16":"tag-health-benefit","17":"tag-healthcare-cost","18":"tag-jonathan-vasquez","19":"tag-parent","20":"tag-sherry-gonzalez","21":"tag-state","22":"tag-student","23":"tag-teacher","24":"tag-teacher-union","25":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}