How long have they been at it now, four, five six months? Whatever it is, negotiators for LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, appear as close to agreement on a new labor contract as they were when bargaining began. Maybe they are inching forward on some issues. But the fact remains, teachers are still...

The LA Unified teachers union, UTLA, dropped its salary demand yesterday to an 8.5 percent increase from a 9 percent, the union’s third consecutive lowering of what many teachers consider the most important issue in negotiations for a new contract. As part of the change, UTLA negotiators also asked the district for an annual $1,000...

As part of its contract negotiations, the teachers union, UTLA, is asking LA Unified for a new approach to school oversight, a demand that seeks to move decisions on school management and operations into the collective bargaining process. In effect, the proposal would insinuate UTLA into areas now the sole province of the board and...

In case you missed it, here are the top five stories from LA School Report this past week: LA Unified, citing new money, ups its offer to teachers Bolstered by a more robust state budget, LA Unified said it was doubling its offer to UTLA. Survey: Teachers support changes in state job protection laws The...

* UPDATED Bolstered by a more robust state budget, LA Unified today said it was doubling its offer to union teachers for a raise. The latest salary proposal, unveiled during today’s contract negotiations, is a four percent boost across all salary bases. The offer comes on the heels of Governor Jerry Brown’s 2015-16 proposed state budget, which is...

The majority of public school teachers who participated in a new survey support changes in state teacher job protection laws that were the focus of last year’s landmark ruling in Vergara v. California. The findings were somewhat of a surprise in that the poll, conducted by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research for Teach Plus, a national nonprofit that...

As negotiations between LA Unified and its teachers union, UTLA, stumble along with still a wide gap on salaries, two Bay Area school districts, have made significant progress in their own deals with teachers. San Francisco teachers have agreed to a double-digit raise over three years while Oakland teachers are in line to get at...

A bargaining update from LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines yesterday to district employees may prove ominous for the teachers union, UTLA, and ultimately the district’s 650,000 students. In his three-page review of negotiations so far, Cortines concedes that all workers “deserve additional salary increases, particularly in view of the recent past years of salary freezes...

Representatives for the teachers union, UTLA, lowered their salary demand yesterday, asking LA Unified for a one-year 9 percent pay increase for the current academic year, with future increases tied to that. Vivian Ekchian, the district’s chief negotiator, said the proposal “is under review and we will ascertain the cost to the District.” While the...