Friday, April 10, 2020

UTLA Corona Virus Side Agreement

The Los Angeles Unified School District (“District”) and United Teachers Los Angeles (“UTLA”) agree to the terms of this Sideletter Agreement (“AGREEMENT”) regarding school closures during the 2019-2020 school year in response to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Parties recognize there is a need to close schools and move to an online/distance learning program to allow for social distancing as recommended by public health officials in order to prevent the spread of illness arising from COVID-19 during the 2019-2020 school year. It is understood by the parties that in our endeavors to implement distance learning, flexibility for all will be crucial. At this moment, we will all need to model resilience, critical and creative thinking, and empathy to ensure that students continue to grow personally and academically.
 Has the UFT negotiated something similar?
I thought you would be interested in this tentative agreement between LAUSD and UTLA. -- From a friend
This is interesting since it appears the UTLA - a more progressive and aggressive teacher union than the UFT -- LOL -- has negotiated a side agreement over the virus not long after signing a new contract last fall after a strike.
It may be meaningful or not but one thing to watch here is drastic education budget cuts with the current home schooling situation playing a role in justifying the cuts - hey, if we can do it for so many  months, why not continue during the financial crisis with less personnel.


Here are some articles:




Here’s a 4/6/20 video message from LA Superintendent Austin Beutner:

 https://achieve.lausd.net/latestnews

UPDATE

4/10/20

Hi, Norm!

The LA agreement was signed by all parties.

The version online replaced the one my cousin sent me which had only two of the four signatures.

I think Mulgrew and his negotiating team could learn quite a lot from how LAUSD and UTLA handled the situation.

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