UTLA is making sure no deadbeats hold leadership positions in the teachers union. While it seems like common sense — if you want to run for a union office, make sure your dues are up-to-date — some candidates might not have gotten the message. The teachers union’s board of directors discovered in December that a...

While American Federation of Teachers affiliates are holding a “National Day of Action” today, UTLA is planning four vigils in support of “housed” LA Unified teachers, those caught between allegations of misconduct and final rulings on their employment status. Currently 260 such teachers are caught in so-called “teacher jails,” the consequence of what UTLA President Warren...

If Warren Fletcher is reelected president of the LA Unified teachers union, UTLA, it won’t be easy. At yesterday’s filing deadline, the union announced that eight others – all men — are challenging him for a three-year term that begins next year. The size of the field, which includes one current UTLA officer, Secondary Vice...

With the filing deadline tomorrow, a new candidate has emerged to challenge Warren Fletcher as president of UTLA. Kevin Mottus, who frequently appears at LA Unified school board meetings to warn of adverse health effects of wireless digital devices, is the latest among three challengers to file for running, according to the union’s most recent...

A slight plurality of LA Unified teachers said they would favor continuing the iPad program, according to a new UTLA survey that produced mixed results in a district contemplating the next phase of a billion dollar digital device program. The union poll was conducted over a week in late October, with 255 teachers from the...

Over the past week Cynthia Van Houten, principal at Granada Elementary Charter Community, has been scrambling to get students in the right classrooms. Tomorrow is the deadline for principals and teachers throughout LA Unified to comply with a district policy that mandates all English learners be grouped by fluency, above all other criteria. Van Houten...

Could a teacher strike be on the horizon? In ratcheting up pressure on LA Unified to negotiate for salary increases for its members, UTLA President Warren Fletcher is raising the specter of a strike as a way to force the issue. He writes in the latest issue of the union’s monthly, United Teacher, “In any...