The is currently negotiating its first contract with the 180,000-student Virginia district. It’s one of four school administrators unions that recently formed in the state, following the lifting of a nearly . And Virginia is not alone.

Similar law changes, coupled with revisions to school policies post-COVID, have fueled an increase in the number of school administrators unions and contract negotiations nationwide.

Since 2020, 11 new union locals have joined the , which now represents some 25,000 school and district leaders in 150 chapters across the country, said communications director Scott Treibitz. The new locals are in Denver; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; San Diego; Rochester, Minnesota; Imperial Beach, California; Frisco, Colorado; Chula Vista, California; St. Louis, Missouri; and Chester, Pennsylvania, as well as Fairfax.

Other unions, like the , have existed for decades but recently negotiated their first contracts.

Litz, who helped create the 1,400-member Fairfax County administrators union after the state law changed, has managed contract negotiations since April.

“It’s been really eye-opening for me, and over the past two or three years, I’ve actually become pretty passionate about ensuring that working conditions exist so that we can really do our best work for kids,” he said. “It has been a lot of hard work, but it has been good work.”

Administrators unions have seen “a huge growth spurt since the pandemic,” Treibitz said. The federation’s membership was roughly 20,000 in 2020 and has grown by about 5,000, he said.

“Since COVID, there has been a foot on the [gas] pedal of school administrators to organize, and COVID played a key ingredient in that,” he said. “School districts were changing policies, and in order to operate, they had to negotiate with teachers unions, and any other work that had to happen was dumped on principals, assistant principals and all the central office folks.”

The was and approved a collective bargaining agreement last year. The three-year contract includes a 4.5% cost-of-living adjustment, administrator stipends, $1,000 retention bonuses and a working group on school and leader safety, according to . 

In Minnesota, the became the state’s , in 2022. The union approved a in 2024 that includes roughly a 3.5% raise each year.

The Fairfax County administrators union was founded as a federation affiliate in 2023, after the allowed local governments to grant employee unions collective bargaining rights. The district’s teachers unions have existed for decades and were able to negotiate contracts after the law changed, but the administrators union had to be created from scratch.

In 2023, about 24% of elementary and secondary school administrators were union members, according to the . Nearly 70% of teachers were in a union in the 2020-21 school year, the latest data available from shows. On average, unionized school leaders earned roughly $500 more per week than their non-union counterparts.

The was a professional membership organization for years but was able to collectively bargain after legislation to allow the practice was signed .

“For the first time, Chicago school leaders have a guaranteed, enforceable voice in policies that directly affect their schools and students,” said union President Kia Banks in a press release. “Over the years, principals were often made the face of policies they didn’t support, left to manage failing systems and even targeted with retaliation. Many felt isolated in their roles and unappreciated in their communities, factors that negatively impacted schools.”

The — which still has to be approved by members and the school board — includes a retroactive 4% cost-of-living increase for the 2024-25 school year and baseline raises for the coming school year. It also creates more due-process protections for principals who face disciplinary actions.

Lack of voice and pay raises also fueled other administrator unions’ recent contract negotiations.

The is asking for higher pay to offset . It also wants more compensation for additional assigned duties and flexible scheduling when staff are required to stay after hours to address student mental health. In December, the group organized under the umbrella of the Teamsters union after they said their voices went unheard, according to the .

“Administrators remain undervalued and underpaid. Many are working 60-plus hours a week, sacrificing work-life balance and mental health, without the recognition or compensation they deserve,” union President Maria Nichols wrote in an August member . “This is not sustainable. How is it that teachers receive an hourly rate for work beyond their contracted day, while administrators — also salaried employees — receive nothing?”

In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, administrators at least one hour longer than their teachers each day in exchange for a 3.5% raise, in a contract approved in February. In Maryland, administrators with Prince George’s County Public Schools landed yearly raises and bonuses of up to $3,000 in a that was ratified by members in April. 

The United Administrators of San Francisco with its district in August. President Anna Klafter said school principals, supervisors and program administrators can earn up to $40,000 a year more in surrounding districts, are being tasked with extra responsibilities such as addressing student medical needs and have fewer support staff. These issues have contributed to a , according to the union. 

“Our teachers got a really big raise — which we’re very happy they did — but while [they] were able to get a 5% raise last year, we were not,” she told The 74. “Now, we have teachers who are making more than their principals, and we have potential principals and leaders who aren’t willing to go into these roles, because they wouldn’t even be making as much money as they do as teachers.”

The national principal turnover rate declined from a high of 16% right after the pandemic to about 8% in the 2023-24 school year, according to the 2025 . The rate is still higher than pre-pandemic levels, which were roughly 3%.

“People don’t necessarily want to leave their jobs,” Treibitz said. “They’re just trying to find mechanisms to help protect them and help make their job a more sturdy job, because the changes are fast and furious.”

The Philadelphia teachers union and school district reached a tentative contract agreement late Sunday night, potentially avoiding a citywide teachers’ strike hours before students and teachers return to the classroom.

District and union leaders announced they had reached a three-year contract agreement, but they did not disclose any details about the contents of the agreement as of Monday.

“The PFT is thrilled that we have been able to reach a tentative agreement with the School District of Philadelphia on a three-year pact ensuring that school will open on time, as well as three years of labor peace,” said Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg in a joint statement with Superintendent Tony Watlington.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

Watlington said in the statement that the agreement “both honors the hard work of our educators and maintains our record of strong financial stewardship.”

Watlington, Steinberg, and Mayor Cherelle Parker appeared side by side to praise the agreement, at the district’s back-to-school welcome event at Edward Steel Elementary School on Monday,

“You don’t prove that you value public education by simply pumping your fist in the air symbolically,” Parker said. “We’re going to keep moving forward, and we’re going to keep working together.”

Union leaders had been preparing their members for a strike in the leadup to the school year. The PFT, which represents some 14,000 educators and school staff, was negotiating for salary increases, amending the district’s controversial sick leave policy that union members say punishes teachers for using sick days, and adding paid parental leave.

The state budget impasse made negotiations more fraught, Steinberg said Monday. District officials have been operating off of a financial plan that assumed major funding increases under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget, but Republican legislators have resisted approving those increases.

Steinberg said they came to a decision to rely on the budget figures Shapiro has proposed, and that “we’ll adjust on the fly if we have to.”

Parker said she believes teachers “should be paid what they’re worth.” She vowed that “every chance we get to generate more revenue to help them, we will,” but that under the deal announced Sunday, the district and union “did the best they could with what they had.”

Though neither Steinberg nor district spokespeople would comment on the details of the negotiation process earlier this month, Steinberg previously told Chalkbeat the district’s proposals “weren’t as irksome as they usually are” and that during negotiations “nothing that set a bad tone, as it has in the past.”

On Monday, Steinberg said while the collective bargaining process was “adversarial” at times, it “did not stray off into contentiousness very often.” He said Sunday morning both parties “sat down and had a frank conversation,” made progress, and then reached an agreement by late Sunday evening.

The three-year agreement will be put to PFT members for a ratification vote and if approved, it will also go to the Board of Education for a vote.

This story has been updated with additional comments from Mayor Cherelle Parker and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg.

The Philadelphia teachers union and school district reached a tentative contract agreement late Sunday night, potentially avoiding a citywide teachers’ strike hours before students and teachers return to the classroom.

District and union leaders announced they had reached a three-year contract agreement, but they did not disclose any details about the contents of the agreement as of Monday.

“The PFT is thrilled that we have been able to reach a tentative agreement with the School District of Philadelphia on a three-year pact ensuring that school will open on time, as well as three years of labor peace,” said Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg in a joint statement with Superintendent Tony Watlington.

Watlington said in the statement that the agreement “both honors the hard work of our educators and maintains our record of strong financial stewardship.”

Watlington, Steinberg, and Mayor Cherelle Parker appeared side by side to praise the agreement, at the district’s back-to-school welcome event at Edward Steel Elementary School on Monday,

“You don’t prove that you value public education by simply pumping your fist in the air symbolically,” Parker said. “We’re going to keep moving forward, and we’re going to keep working together.”

Union leaders had been in the leadup to the school year. The PFT, which represents some 14,000 educators and school staff, was negotiating for salary increases, amending the that union members say punishes teachers for using sick days, and adding paid parental leave.

The state budget impasse made negotiations more fraught, Steinberg said Monday. District officials have been operating off of a financial plan that assumed major funding increases under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget, but Republican legislators have resisted approving those increases.

Steinberg said they came to a decision to rely on the budget figures Shapiro has proposed, and that “we’ll adjust on the fly if we have to.”

Parker said she believes teachers “should be paid what they’re worth.” She vowed that “every chance we get to generate more revenue to help them, we will,” but that under the deal announced Sunday, the district and union “did the best they could with what they had.”

Though neither Steinberg nor district spokespeople would comment on the details of the negotiation process earlier this month, Steinberg previously told Chalkbeat the district’s proposals “weren’t as irksome as they usually are” and that during negotiations “nothing that set a bad tone, as it has in the past.”

On Monday, Steinberg said while the collective bargaining process was “adversarial” at times, it “did not stray off into contentiousness very often.” He said Sunday morning both parties “sat down and had a frank conversation,” made progress, and then reached an agreement by late Sunday evening.

The three-year agreement will be put to PFT members for a ratification vote and if approved, it will also go to the Board of Education for a vote.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

The parents come at all hours of the day and night.

A nurse drops off her kids before starting a 12-hour day at the hospital. A father picks his kids up in the dead of night, after his warehouse shift ends at 1 a.m. Another mom sometimes needs childcare at 4 a.m. so she can make it to work.

Whatever the time, Leidy Bernasconi’s child care in Palmdale is open.

In an area considered a , Bernasconi said she feels obligated to keep her home-based business running for families in the neighborhood. But lately the cost of operating weighs on her. Her Costco bill has almost doubled due to inflation, and she had to sell the van she used to take kids to and from school.

“ Gas is going so high,” she said. “We keep cutting the transportation service because I cannot afford it.”

As Bernasconi battles her checkbook every month, a bigger fight has been playing out in Sacramento. Child care providers and their union want the state to significantly boost the subsidy rates it pays them for caring for low-income children. Facing a growing deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom has not included higher pay for them in the state budget.

“ Currently, the rates that we have only cover half of what it costs to cover for the children,” said Max Arias, the head of Child Care Providers United. “We’re saying we need the full cost of care now.”

The union’s contract expires at the end of the month, and Arias said some of the  The state and home child care providers have yet to make a deal. A spokesperson for Newsom’s office declined to comment on ongoing bargaining, but his office has been adamant that California needs to “.”

Where do negotiations stand?

The heart of the conflict between California and home child care providers is the rates the state pays in subsidies for low-income families.

Historically, those payments have been determined by market rates in the county where a child care provider operates. Market rates are low because  and families typically can’t pay the true cost of caring for their children.

The state has agreed to transition to a new, single rate system and to develop a new methodology to determine the cost of childcare. But the governor’s  does not include rate increases for providers.

According to the governor’s office, the number of providers receiving subsidies grew significantly from 2020 to 2024 — by more than 50%. Child care slots have grown, too.

The need for affordable child care is still gaping. According to the California Budget & Policy Center, most families eligible for subsidized care in the state weren’t receiving it as of 2022.

What does a child care provider budget look like?

While negotiations over the state’s budget continue, Leidy Bernasconi poured over her own expenses this week with tears in her eyes.

She said she brings in an average of $20,000 a month for serving 22 children. That’s mainly from state subsidies that pay for most of the families she serves.

That money goes quickly, and most of it goes back into her small business. She pays four employees between $19 and $25 an hour. After childcare expenses, her mortgage, and her family’s health insurance, she said she had around $2,500 leftover most months to provide for a family of four. Her husband used to help with the business, but had to look for new work to supplement their income.

“ I don’t know for how long I can be in business,” she said. “I believe if I go and I work as a teacher, I will be able to get paid better.”

She has her eye on July 1. That’s when the contract with the state is up.

This was originally published on .

The district originally offered a two-year contract with raises of 3% each year, but the agreement is for four years, with across-the-board raises of 2%, 3%, 0% and 3.5%. There are additional bonuses and salary schedule restructuring that, according to the union, brings the total raises to 14.5% over the four-year life of the contract.

This is quite a bit less than other areas of the country are seeing. United Teachers Los Angeles, for example, is demanding 20% over two years, and L.A. teachers already make more than those in Hawaii.

This has led to some grumbling from the rank-and-file on the Hawaii union’s Facebook page. “Teacher’s Unions across the nation were able to get their members 10%+ raises and yearly raises after, and HSTA comes to us with a 3.625% raise?! It’s laughable at best,” .

Teachers unions and school districts often have different interpretations of how much money is available for salary increases and other spending. In this case, the union appears to accept the state’s forecast of reduced future revenues.

“We had asked for significantly larger raises but understand that the state has less money to pay for numerous key priorities in addition to addressing teacher compensation, such as creating affordable housing, bringing down the state’s high cost of living and preserving our natural resources,” .

Even more unusual was the union’s willingness to not only before the ratification vote, but also provide its for each provision the new deal contains.

This is commendable. Sharing full information before any ratification votes might not affect the content of collective bargaining agreements, but the public deserves to know as soon as possible what is being agreed to in its name.

The overall tone of the union’s communications with members about the contract is defensive, and we can expect some significant pushback from teachers about the size of the raises. Whether this sporadic muttering coalesces into a rejection of the contract when the ratification vote is held April 26 remains to be seen.

Members tend to give their unions the benefit of the doubt when it comes to tentative agreements and accept raises already in hand over the uncertainty of returning to the bargaining table. But Hawaii teachers have gone on strike twice in the past and come close on other occasions. When they do walk out, they don’t kid around: The 1973 strike lasted for 18 days, and the 2001 strike ended after 21 days.

Upsurges in teachers union militancy grab headlines and lead to speculation about it spreading elsewhere. Perhaps Hawaii can stand as an example of cordial negotiations leading to a reasonable and transparent settlement that everyone, including the public, can live with. We’ll know for sure after next week’s vote.

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears most Wednesdays; see the full archive.

They sympathize with the workers. Some plan to join them on the picket line at LA Unified schools. 

But when it comes to union and district leaders, LAUSD parents are skeptical and angry.

SEIU Local 99, LAUSD’s 30,000-member union representing employees like custodians, bus drivers, and special education assistants, plans to strike next Tuesday through Thursday. In solidarity, United Teachers Los Angeles has asked its 35,000 members not to cross picket lines.

All district schools would shut down, affecting 420,000 students and their families.

Leaders from both unions say they are fighting for students. Better pay and working conditions, they reason, translate to a healthier learning environment. District leaders say the same. Closing schools during the work stoppage will keep students safe, they say, while refusing the unions’ full demands will safeguard the district’s financial health.

And then there are the families caught in the middle.  

“Anytime someone says, we are for the students, or students are first priority, and it’s all about the kids, I just have to take it with a grain of salt,” said Paul Robak, chair of LAUSD’s . “Because clearly, the ones who would lose most in any work slowdown of any union in the school district are the students.” 

The three-day strike would be the latest in four years of major disruptions across LAUSD, beginning with the six-day teachers strike in January 2019 and rolling through more than a year of fully remote schooling, during which and chronic absenteeism spiked. 

Parents sympathize with Local 99’s members. With an average salary of $25,000 a year, they struggle to make it in LA, and many are parents themselves. But they are also exhausted and fear the consequences a strike could have for their children and the district as a whole, especially after the pandemic kept district schools closed for a long time, and students’ academics and mental health suffered.   

They blame union and district leaders for the shutdown.

“It’s both the district’s fault and their labor partners’. They put parents in the middle of it,” said Christie Pesicka, a leader in the groups California Students United and United Parents LA.

Diana Guillen, chair of LAUSD’s , said a strike “violates kids’ rights” on the heels of the pandemic. “I think it’s an ethical failing from the unions,” she said, speaking in Spanish. 

Parents’ immediate concerns, however, are more basic. Where will working parents send their young children? How will students who depend on school-provided meals eat? After years of academic setbacks, how will students avoid further losses?

At a Wednesday press conference, LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the district is partnering with community organizations to make food available at 60 locations across the city and to provide childcare. As for academics, students will receive homework packets to keep them occupied. 

The LA Times community groups and agencies, from the Boys and Girls Club of the Los Angeles Harbor to the LA County Department of Parks and Recreation, are preparing for an influx of students during the day.

Some students, whose parents fully support the striking workers, will spend at least part of the week on the picket line.

“When the teachers originally went on strike a couple years ago, I was all for it. My kids were out there marching,” said Yazmin Arevalo, whose 4th grader attends Gates Elementary in Lincoln Heights. “I would do it again…because they deserve it. If they haven’t been able to come to an agreement, then why not?” 

But she added other parents at Gates Elementary, who also supported teachers in 2019, felt betrayed when many of their children languished through remote schooling. This time, they’re wary of supporting striking workers. 

Based on recent messaging alone, Carvalho’s chief concern is the safety and wellbeing of students.

“We should not be depriving our students of an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to feel safe, or an opportunity to receive social and emotional support — and food,” he said at Wednesday’s press conference.

But that evening, at a massive joint rally held by Local 99 and UTLA that filled up Grand Park in front of Los Angeles City Hall, union members demonstrated their commitment to students in a way Carvalho, on his own, could never match. 

Among the thousands of rally participants, there were children everywhere. 

They clambered over playground structures, and held their parents’ hands as they threaded clusters of attendees. Some wore UTLA red, others SEIU purple. When UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz shouted over the loudspeaker, asking parents in the crowd to identify themselves, a wave of hands shot up. Local 99 often points out 43% of its members have school-age children.

Attending the rally was Jesus Flores, a special education assistant at 75th Street Elementary who’s worked in the district for 18 years. He spends six hours a day on the district’s clock and picks up extra work as an Uber driver. 

Flores has three kids, ages five, six, and eight, all at LAUSD schools. He considers striking a short-term sacrifice that’s in their long-term interest.

“At the end of the day, I’ll be thinking about my kids’ future,” he said. 

Next week, he and his wife, also a special ed assistant with the district, will be switching off on childcare duty. But he said he hopes the union and district will come together before Tuesday to work out a deal. 

“Let’s hope it doesn’t happen,” he said of the strike. Missing that pay “really does take a toll.”

The district meeting Local 99’s demands would mean a 30% wage increase for Flores and other union members, among other benefits.

So far, the district’s core offer includes three 5% wage increases, the first two retroactive, respectively, to July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022, and the third to take effect July 1, 2023.

UTLA, which is further behind in negotiations, is asking for a 20% raise over two years, part of its sweeping platform.

Local 99’s scheduled three-day strike is what’s known as an unfair practice charge strike, meant to protest by district officials. 

The union’s other weapon is an economic strike, which would last indefinitely, but is only legal once the state-facilitated negotiation process has been exhausted.

At the district’s Wednesday press event, Carvalho and board president Jackie Goldberg urged union leaders to meet them at the negotiating table before Tuesday, where they would be ready “24/7” to hash out an agreement that goes beyond what has already been offered. 

“I’m ready, willing, available to meet nonstop, day and night, with our labor leaders to avoid a strike by finding a solution where everyone is a winner, beginning with our kids,” Carvalho said. 

“We have more resources to put on the table. There is time.”

Information for families — including where they can pick up meals for their children during the work stoppage — can be found at this LAUSD website: . 

Last month, by unanimous vote, the 78-year-old representative of Board District 5 was elected president of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education. She last held the position in , before moving on to stints in city and state politics and academia. 

In an interview with The 74, Goldberg discussed both long-term and immediate difficulties facing the district, saying that negotiations with the unions representing LAUSD’s teachers and service workers would be resolved “in the next four to six weeks.” Her statements echo superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s recent promises of “a multi-year contract” that will “offset the pressure of inflation for all our workforce.”  

Goldberg must also lead the board in deciding how to spend the district’s $14.3 billion in a way that addresses the emotional and academic impacts of the pandemic and prepares for a future of declining enrollment and swelling costs. 

Goldberg spoke with The 74 about these challenges, her goals for her one-year term as president, and her thoughts about superintendent Carvalho as he approaches one year on the job. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Are you confident that the budget you’re going to craft can accommodate demands from the labor unions? Let’s start with the service workers. 

…I am absolutely confident that we will conclude successful negotiations with all our bargaining units [including UTLA and SEIU Local 99], in probably the next four to six weeks — without any strikes or work stoppages… 

This board is very supportive of very good compensation packages because we know that the folks that have worked in our schools and in our offices have been through a lot of distress, and we want them to know that they are valuable to us and that they are the critical features of the district…There aren’t going to be any cuts to their benefits. That’s not where we’re looking. We need those people. The people at the schools are the only people who interact with children… 

All of those folks make schools a place of learning and safety for children and young people, and we’re not going to do anything, if we can possibly avoid it, that would lead to anybody thinking of, first, not working for us any longer, second, not helping us recruit for our vacancies, and third, for feeling the need for a work stoppage.

One thing the teachers are asking for is smaller class sizes. In order to achieve that, you would need to hire more teachers.

We’ve held class sizes down this whole year, with schools [that] lost enrollment not losing teachers unless they lost significant enrollment. So class sizes are actually smaller than they’ve been in recent years…I don’t think we will need to hire people to continue that because, unfortunately, in the entire state of California and in Los Angeles Unified, enrollment is declining. 

People are leaving because they can’t afford to live in the state. People are leaving because of immigration policies that have slowed immigration, which was a big part of our increase in population through the eighties and nineties and the beginning of 2000.

And also the birth rate in Los Angeles County is down considerably from what it has traditionally been. So all of those factors mean that we will have fewer students next year than we have this year…

Are you saying that natural demographic shifts will resolve that one point of tension between the district and the teacher’s union?

I doubt that it will ever resolve that point of contention. But I do think it will mean that the actual teaching experience for teachers in our system will be with significantly smaller class sizes than they have had when we were growing enrollment. 

I want to ask about enrollment decline. What is the board doing to make attending LA schools more attractive? 

It’s really done school by school, but we do a lot of things to make school more attractive. We have a very large sports program. We have a very large music program, and a growing music program. We have a very large arts program that is now beginning to grow again…We have festivals of cultural types all over the district. We have dual-language programs. We have programs with robotics. We have programs with STEM, we have programs with STEAM…

Are those making a dent in the enrollment decline?

I think so. We have a fairly significant number of schools in my board district with an increased enrollment this year. A lot of them in Southeast and South Gate. Huntington Park and Bell. Those schools are full and filling up. MACES Academy has a waitlist. Southeast Middle has a waitlist. 

There are different efforts being done regionally. There are different efforts being done at individual schools. And there are different efforts that the board is paying for, like extended transportation after school so that more students can participate in after school fun activities.

We’re coming up on a year since superintendent Carvalho came to the district. How would you say he’s doing?

Well, I think he’s doing pretty well. He will get a formal evaluation sometime in early February. We have a process we’ve developed and board members have been asked to review some materials and to rate him on certain issues, and all of that will be gathered at a closed session sometime in February…But I would say he has done some very important things very quickly. Certainly getting us a strategic plan, which the district has not had for many years…And very quickly when he came in, he set up ways to get feedback and information from the public…as well as staff…

He certainly has taken up the issues that are most important to this board, which are the social-emotional crisis in many of our schools, with many of our students, and some of our teachers. 

He also is pointing to real goals — specific, measurable goals in student achievement, and also how to support our personnel so they feel like this is the best place they ever wanted to work and to be able to help us recruit for still vacant positions… 

What are some areas for improvement for the superintendent?

I’m really not able to say that I have any at this moment…what he is doing is taking a look at not just the present, but the history and the future of this district…I have never seen a superintendent take a backward look at everything that has been going on as a way to understand how to move forward. 

It came out that [the cyberattack in September] started more than a month earlier than was disclosed by Carvalho…Is Carvalho trustworthy?

He’s trustworthy. He did what was necessary to protect this district. Making things public at a time earlier than he did would have endangered all of the efforts of the federal government, the state government, FBI, local police in trying to stop this. 

We are one of the very few districts that has been hit hard by this stuff that paid no ransom and managed very carefully to also protect all our payroll, for example. We lost nobody. They got no payroll information with all the Social Security numbers, for example. They got none of it. In fact, the only Social Security numbers they got were from the original place they broke in, which was Facilities. And that was with a few contractors.

There was some student information. Not Social Security numbers, but things like birth dates that were accessed. Right?

Yes. There were other smaller things — none of which, however, could prevent us from opening the schools, running the schools, paying people on time and appropriately. So I would say, considering what a terrible mess — and we’re not done with it, by the way. We still, every day, every week, every month have a series of checks that are being done…

I know a lot of one-time funding is going towards academic recovery efforts and there were these two acceleration days over winter break. Only about 9% of students in the district showed up. Do you see that as a success?

But about 65% of the ones that showed up were exactly the kids we were looking for. And we learned a lot. We learned that elementary kids are less likely to go to get help at a school they don’t regularly attend.

We learned that we should count on about half the students showing up — we figured that it would be 75% [of students who signed up]. We predicted wrong. In other words, we learn. So how we do the next two [acceleration days] in spring will be better.

How else should the district be tackling academic recovery in order to attract the students who didn’t show up for acceleration days?

We’re going to probably accelerate the amount of after school on your own campus with your own teacher support. That’s something we’re looking into for the following year. Saying…let’s see if we can do it two or three days a week all year long.

So, extended after school programs.

Extended after school, Saturday programs, additional teacher assistants we hope to hire to put into the classroom, so there’s a lower adult-to-student ratio. That makes for a lot of extra help for kids who are struggling. I spent 17 years teaching in Compton. I’m well aware of what it takes to make movement with kids who are struggling in school.

What about recovery for students with disabilities?…I’ve heard from a lot of parents and advocates that during [individualized education plan] meetings, the team is not bringing up compensatory education…Is that acceptable?

I have no idea if what you’re saying is accurate or not. So, without knowing that I can’t answer that question.

What specifically can the district be doing for students with disabilities, who are going to need way more than just some extra after school time?

Well, the [individualized education plan] will determine their individual needs and the district will meet them. That’s our goal. We don’t have any subordinate goal to that. We don’t say we’re going to try or anything else. We’re going to meet them. 

We had trouble meeting them [early in the pandemic] because, for example, all the kids that needed speech — most of the speech teachers went online. The parents didn’t want to do speech online. They wanted it in person, and we weren’t willing to require speech therapists to meet in students’ homes. So yes, they didn’t get it. You’re right. That was terrible. But it was a decision the parent made not to do that…

What we’re trying to do now is to overdose. So if [the students] were going to get [the services] once a week, we’re going to try to see if we can get it for them twice a week and things like that…

We’re going to try to figure out ways to deal with that loss, which has been extreme. No doubt.

How would you describe the district’s financial health?

Well, on the macro level, not good. On the micro level, fine. 

On the macro level, we, every year, spend more than we receive. And the two areas which bust our budget, is special education — which is about a billion dollars from the general fund that should not have to come from the general fund — and are benefits paid to retirees. Both the healthcare benefits that we pay to retirees and pension benefits that we pay part of and that the employee pays part of. Both of those put us in a long-term situation of having to ultimately…not be able to do what we have done for many, many decades, which is to pay the existing bills and to keep putting off some of the things that we haven’t yet figured out how to rectify.

SEIU Local 99 announced on Feb. 11 that the strike authorization had passed with 96% support from members who voted. The authorization does not guarantee a strike but allows the union’s bargaining team to call one if necessary. The union’s first state-run mediation session with LAUSD is scheduled for Feb. 21. 

If LAUSD workers, parents, and administrators agree on one thing it’s that nobody wants a strike.   

Earlier this month, the union representing Los Angeles Unified’s service workers — including 30,000 custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and special education assistants  —  issued its clearest threat to date in its years-long contract negotiations with LAUSD, announcing that it would hold a strike authorization vote this month. 

SEIU Local 99’s members regard the prospect grimly. Earning an average annual salary of $25,000, many said they could not afford to forgo a paycheck.

Yet, between now and Feb. 10, they plan to vote in favor of the work stoppage. 

“We’re having a hard time making it,” said Hugh Alston, a special education assistant at 93rd St. Elementary. “I would reluctantly have to vote yes. All of us. We’d stick together.” 

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at a press conference earlier this month that concluding contract negotiations with Local 99 was his “highest priority,” and promised to “offset the pressure of inflation for all our workforce” with “a multi-year contract that will, at all levels, outpace what has been provided to other workforce groups across the country.” 

“If we are to retain, incentivize, and recruit the highly skilled workforce we need as far as teachers and support staff, we need to provide adequate compensation that addresses the critical challenges facing anyone in this community,” he said.

LAUSD offered the union 5% wage increases for multiple school years, but union leaders called that insufficient, accusing the district of ignoring proposals regarding increased work hours and expanded health coverage. 

Though financially padded for the current school year, LAUSD officials expect budget cuts over the years to come, with persistent absenteeism and , the latter due in part to exasperated parents fleeing the district. Families still recovering from remote schooling and other pandemic disruptions worry that a strike could be the “nail in the coffin” for LAUSD. 

“I can absolutely tell you that one more major disruption like that, that’ll be it,” said Christie Pesicka, a parent advocate in the district. “Enrollment will plummet again.”

An LAUSD spokesman declined to comment on how the system would respond to a strike, refusing to lay out a backup plan for services like bussing, food prep, cleaning, and after-school programs. He also would not say if the district was considering remote schooling. 

What is clear is that workers are angry. In an interview with The 74, Local 99 executive director Max Arias described the union’s rally in front of the district’s administrative headquarters in December as “militant.” 

“I fully expect that it’s gonna go through,” he said of the strike authorization vote. 

The union’s members have been working without a contract since June 2020. 

Initially, that was because of the pandemic. While teachers and administrators carried out their duties remotely, many service workers kept at their on-site tasks, cleaning facilities and preparing sack lunches. Little time, said Arias, was left for collective bargaining. 

Negotiations resumed with the easing of COVID restrictions, but the two parties have been at  loggerheads. The district’s latest move came in December, when it offered the workers a 5% wage increase for each of the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 school years and a couple of one-time bonuses. 

Local 99 characterized the offer as , and in late December declared impasse before California’s labor relations board and requested a mediator to shepherd the parties towards an agreement. 

“To date, LAUSD is not engaging in good faith negotiations regarding proposed contract

language changes,” reads the request for mediation. “Ever since we started this process, LAUSD has not seriously considered most of our proposals.”

Workers say poor conditions, a lack of respect, and resulting staffing shortages harm morale and threaten the smooth operation of school facilities, making some of them unusable 

“We have urinals, toilets — we have sinks — that haven’t been serviced in two years,” said Edna Logan, a building and grounds worker at Manual Arts High School in South Central LA. “It’s across the board where we are low-staffed.”

Logan said she plans to vote yes on authorization even though she doesn’t “want it to come to that.”  

“We have to send a strong message,” she said.  

Alston, whose role as a special education assistant guarantees him only six hours a day, works a second job nights and weekends in order to afford the rising cost of living in Los Angeles.

He’s considered leaving the district — and he’s not alone. 

“Oh yes, I’m looking now,” said Elizabeth Thomas-Parker, a special education assistant and vice president of Local 99. “I’m looking at other districts.” 

Thomas-Parker, whose husband supports the family with a second income, said her main demand is more respect for her work.

“It’s so rude and so toxic to where I don’t want to have nothing to do with them,” she said. “It used to be fun to work for LAUSD. It’s not fun anymore.” 

Until Feb. 10, Local 99 representatives will collect ballots from the union’s 30,000 members at designated sites. Meanwhile, California’s labor relations board has assigned a mediator to the case.

Logan, also a member of the union’s bargaining team, wants one thing to come across clearly during mediation: “Without me, without my counterparts, the school would not be able to function.”

Parents, many of them service workers themselves, understand that keenly. According to Pesicka, they fear a reprise of the chaotic remote-learning months. 

“Everybody’s exhausted,” said Pesicka. “It’s so much easier just to go to a neighboring school district, or to go to a charter school, or to go to a private school if you can afford it.”