Los Angeles school district, unions praise new agreements

With hours to go before a scheduled strike on Tuesday, the nation's second-largest school district announced a tentative agreement with SEIU Local 99. It was the third and final tentative agreement needed by LAUSD to prevent a strike. Tentative agreements with United Teachers Los Angeles and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Teamsters were announced days ago.

“I stand here before you today as your mayor, but also as a proud LAUSD graduate, parent and grandparent who was very happy to hear that my grandson was going to school today,” Mayor Karen Bass said at a Tuesday press conference. “It has been a long night, and it's been a long few weeks of negotiations, but our schools are open!”

While admitting that the “city of Los Angeles has no direct jurisdiction over the school district,” Bass said her job is to “fight for all Angelenos.” 

For the Los Angeles mayor, that includes students, teachers, school employees and parents.

“I stepped into negotiations to make sure that every effort was made to find an agreement to reach a compromise because a strike would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids and their parents who need child care, need to go to school and need to go to work,” said Bass. 

Acting Superintendent Andrés E. Chait, who said he was receiving many emails and phone calls from parents, thanked the mayor for her leadership and support.

Chait said the mayor “played an integral role” in bringing all parties together.

“Thank you, parents, who are out there,” said Chait. “Thank you to our community for believing in us that we would get this done.”

“I’ve never believed in an adversarial relationship between a district and its workforce,” said Chait. “It just doesn’t make sense, and I hope this is an opportunity for us to reset that.”

Terms of the tentative agreement with SEIU include a 24% wage increase that the union said “will make a significant difference in workers’ livelihoods." Health care benefits will be expanded for teacher assistants, after-school workers and community representatives. Meanwhile, layoffs for hundreds of information technology technicians are being rescinded, and LAUSD will not subcontract work to outside vendors.

Max Arias, executive director at SEIU Local 99, expressed gratitude for Chait, saying he came into “a very difficult situation” but showed leadership and gave members hope. 

“Remember who our members are, parents in LAUSD, half of them, Black and brown women mostly, that are doing this back-breaking work and supporting teachers and supporting students with education,” said Arias. “So we must not forget.”

The tentative agreement reached with UTLA would increase their members’ salary scales by 11.65%. 

The pact would also increase the beginning salary for a teacher to $77,000 per year.

UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz called this a historic win for all who make public education possible.

“This agreement represents a long overdue shift, prioritizing the educators who keep our schools running and putting resources back into our classrooms where they belong,” said Myart-Cruz. “In Los Angeles, teachers will now earn salaries that better reflect the true cost of living in communities that they serve, with inflation remaining high and economic uncertainty looming.”

In March, UTLA member and high school English teacher Gina Gray told The Center Square that 21% of full-time faculty and staff would qualify for affordable housing facilities in California.

“This victory ensures that educators can afford to stay in their neighborhoods and live closer to their jobs and continue teaching in the schools that they are a part of,” said Myart-Cruz at Tuesday’s press conference.

The tentative agreement with Associated Administrators Los Angeles Teamsters 2010 increases their members' salary by 11.65% over two years.

“We know what we’re about, and we’re about kids,” said Maria Nichols, president of AALA Teamsters. “We’re about ensuring that our students have what they need at the schools. We’re about ensuring that the resources are at schools, human capital, so that my administrators can do their work and do it well.”

Still, not everyone in Los Angeles is applauding.

Maria Luisa Palma, executive director of Oleada Inc., a coalition of LAUSD parents, does not see how students benefit from the labor agreements.

“UTLA’s agreements have never included requirements for student academic outcomes,” Palma told The Center Square. “The spirit of California’s requirement for parent participation in the Local Control and Accountability Plan is supposed to address student outcomes, but the LCAP — a state of California-mandated plan — and its components do not appear anywhere in the 2022-2025 UTLA Bargaining Agreement.”

Palma also questioned whether the raises are affordable in the long term.

“Will teacher layoffs be announced during the 2026-27 school year?” asked Palma. “Academic outcomes for their own children and staffing levels overall worry parents, while LAUSD’s structural deficit and future state funding for schools remain open questions.”

Susan Shelley, vice president of communications at Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, also expressed concern about costs.

Shelley told The Center Square that LAUSD has a structural budget deficit, with expenditures exceeding projected revenues.

“These agreements will worsen budget deficits significantly,” said Shelley, whose nonprofit is based in Los Angeles. “If the district is planning to ask voters to approve a tax increase, they can expect opposition from LA residents who are already burdened by the affordability crisis in California."