The Los Angeles Unified School District’s three-week winter break is back.
The district reached a deal Friday with the unions that represent teachers and support staff. The agreement restores days the district had planned to cut from winter break. It also adds three instructional days to each of the next two years of school, to make up for the unions' joint three-day strike in March.
There will also be three voluntary instructional days during winter break, but the district won’t be calling them acceleration days anymore.
The LAUSD School Board approved new instructional calendars in March that shortened next year’s winter break to two-and-a-half weeks and the following year’s break to two weeks. The unions representing teachers and school support staff— United Teachers Los Angeles and Service Employees International Union Local 99, respectively— filed unfair labor practice charges against the district for making the changes without bargaining.
The deal also resolves several legal claims made by both the district and the unions. In addition to the unfair labor practice charges related to the calendar changes, the unions alleged district staff harassed its members during contract negotiations. The district said the March strike was unlawful because it was conducted for an ulterior motive.
“While UTLA and SEIU 99 remain confident we would prevail in [Public Employment Relations Board] hearings on all of the charges, it is in the interest of both UTLA and SEIU 99 members to try to reach an agreement on all of the issues within this school year,” UTLA wrote in a message to its members.
The district said in a statement the resolution was “in the continued interest of promoting harmonious labor relations.”
The tentative new calendar:
The school board and unions must approve the changes. UTLA and SEIU Local 99 will hold ratification votes next week and the board could consider the calendar at its regular meeting Tuesday, June 6.
