Great news for the teachers—less work. Bad news for the students, less education. The union which owns and run the LAUSD gave teachers more time off. It is to be used for teacher prep. Without an audit no one knows.
“You may recall in 2023, Carvalho pushed for a two-week winter break and the school board voted to implement the change without negotiating with UTLA. UTLA quickly filed an Unfair Practice Charge for the illegal change. Members, school staff, and parents flooded the school board’s phones and inboxes demanding the district negotiate changes to the calendar with UTLA. The district caved, reversed the change, and this year, proposed to maintain the three-week winter break.
However, this year the district moved to cut the optional paid prep days won in 2022 when UTLA members pushed back on Carvalho’s Accelerated Days. The UTLA team working on negotiating the school calendar said no.
Now th teachers get a three week winter break (Christmas) plus paid prep time. Add to this the promotion of DEI, sexual grooming, it is easy to see why students scores are going down. No time for education.
UTLA Wins Guaranteed Paid Prep Days for Next Three Years
UTLA, 3/14/25 https://utla.net/utla-wins-guaranteed-paid-prep-days-for-next-three-years/
This week, the school board overwhelmingly approved the LAUSD instructional calendar for the next three school years — with a guaranteed optional paid prep day at the start and end of each year and three-week winter break.
You may recall in 2023, Carvalho pushed for a two-week winter break and the school board voted to implement the change without negotiating with UTLA. UTLA quickly filed an Unfair Practice Charge for the illegal change. Members, school staff, and parents flooded the school board’s phones and inboxes demanding the district negotiate changes to the calendar with UTLA. The district caved, reversed the change, and this year, proposed to maintain the three-week winter break.
However, this year the district moved to cut the optional paid prep days won in 2022 when UTLA members pushed back on Carvalho’s Accelerated Days. The UTLA team working on negotiating the school calendar said no.
As the district tried to claim they couldn’t afford to pay educators for two prep days, UTLA members organized to contact their board members and let them know how crucial those days are at the start and end of the year.
Autonomous Schools Coach Marie Germaine reached out to board member Sherlett Hendy Newbill. “One of the first things I pointed out to her is that I’m speaking to her as a veteran elementary school teacher,” said Germaine. “I spoke about the amount of time that elementary school teachers put into classroom preparation, which is probably a week of time before school begins.”
When educators at Beachy Elementary caught wind that board member Kelly Gonez was visiting their campus, they seized the opportunity to make sure she knows what all goes into preparing for the first day of school and closing up at the end of the year. Beachy Elementary Vice Chapter Chair and second-grade teacher Rocio Lopez says members at Beachy had prepared talking points ahead of time.
“We didn’t know exactly when she’d be available, so the plan was simple: if you see her, speak to her,” said Lopez. “It happened to be recess when I saw her leaving. I ran after her, flagged her down, and asked, ‘Where do you stand on the prep days? Members want to know.’”
The calls and meetings to move board members worked. In a 6-1 vote on Tuesday, with Nick Melvoin as the only dissenting vote, the school board approved the two optional prep days and three-week winter break for the next three years.
The bar is now set to maintain the optional paid prep days — and to push for more — beyond the next three years. This major win would not have happened without the weekends that members spent walking and knocking on doors to get three UTLA-endorsed candidates elected to the school board in 2024. We now have a majority of members on the board willing to listen and understand the struggles of educators, which will make an impact in our fight for the Win Our Future platform.
