* UPDATED As contract negotiations plod along between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, the issue of class size reduction has taken on a new urgency for Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who plans to shrink the number of students in middle school and high school classrooms by the end of the year. “I’m not going...

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is planning rallies at five locations on Nov. 20 with the duel purpose of demanding a new contract from the district and to participate in the National Day of Action that is being organized by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools. UTLA is calling on all of its members to...

The bargaining session scheduled for today between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, has been cancelled, due to an illness of a union staff member, a district official said. The agenda had included discussions of teacher support and evaluation, parent empowerment and adult education. What was not expected to be part of the dialogue...

Time magazine is in hot water with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and other teacher unions over what they say is an unfair and misleading cover. On its Facebook page, UTLA posted a link to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) online petition that calls for Time to “apologize to America’s teachers for the misleading and...

In the first contract talks under LA Unified’s new superintendent, Ray Cortines, negotiators for the district and the teachers union, UTLA, hit another snag yesterday as the district reasserted claims that unions demands are unsustainable and would lead to severe cutbacks to key programs, resources, and personnel that would detrimentally impact students. The union is...

Via Los Angeles Times | By Steve Lopez It was back-to-school night in August. A time for new beginnings and high hopes at Thomas Starr King Middle School on the Silver Lake/Los Feliz border. Then came an awkward moment. With new parents and students in the room, a teachers union rep got up on a...

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl appeared at a press conference today outside North Hollywood High School where he and other speakers focused on the union’s demand for smaller class sizes in its ongoing fight for a new contract. Caputo-Pearl said that the most fundamental thing the union wants to communicate is “that our...

No one was more surprised that Ray Cortines became the latest LA Unified superintendent than Ray Cortines. “I hadn’t been planning to return, and I didn’t negotiate with the board,” he told LA School Report today. “The only caveat I put out was that it would have to be a unanimous vote, and I didn’t...