The teachers union, UTLA, and LA Unified officials will be back at it today, for the last contract negotiations of the year. The final bargaining session has no set agenda, but Vivian Ekchian, the district’s Chief Labor Negotiator, told LA School Report salary discussions are likely to be front and center. To that end, the...

Back to the drawing board. Following the most recent bargaining session last Thursday, the teachers’ union, UTLA, has reportedly rejected a pay increase offer from LA Unified negotiators that fell short its goal of a 10 percent salary increase. The latest district offer included a 2 percent salary increase retroactive to July 1, a 2 percent...

LA Unified’s latest offer to the teachers union, UTLA, represents either a hint of progress in negotiations for the teachers’ first contract in more than seven years or fertile ground for moving toward a strike. Here’s why the uncertainty: The 6 percent package includes the same salary increase that the district has offered all its...

* UPDATED LA Unified today increased its salary offer to the teachers union, UTLA, offering a one-year deal with a 6 percent increase. The district said in a press release the money would be distributed through a 2 percent ongoing salary increase retroactive to July 1; a 2 percent lump-sum payment based on 2013-14 earnings;...

Negotiators for UTLA and LA Unified are meeting for another contact bargaining session today, the first since mid-November. UTLA did not respond when asked what topics might be on the table today, but the previous session saw UTLA adding to its demands to include supports for displaced educators, improved UTLA representation for substitute educators facing...

* UPDATED There’s a new report that negotiators for United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) might be pulling out at the next round of contract negotiations with LA Unified. A new study by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), finds that LA Unified teachers rank near the bottom of the 113 largest districts in the...

The LA Unified school board, gathering again tomorrow, will appear in open session long enough to hear the introduction of a largely symbolic measure, a resolution to support President Obama’s executive order on immigration. Then, the members will disappear into a closed meeting to review the usual subjects of closed meetings — personnel moves, litigation...

The message was clear from United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl as he spoke to hundreds of energetic, amped-up supporters yesterday: If teachers are going to get the raise and other concessions they are demanding from LA Unified in a new contract, it is going to be a fight. “Now folks, we’ve got...

LA Unified said today it has altered its salary offer to teachers by eliminating any contingency on a package that includes raises of 2 percent for this year, 2 percent for next year and 2.5 percent for the year after that. The district’s previous offer to the union, UTLA, had been with the same percentage...

LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, met in another bargaining session today, but from the union’s perspective, not much happened to draw the sides closer. The union announced late this afternoon that it was “rounding out” its list of demands, to include supports for displaced educators, improved UTLA representation for substitute educators facing termination,...