UTLA Encourages LAUSD Parents To Demand Pay Raises, Smaller Class Sizes

NORTH HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Members of United Teachers Los Angeles were handing out leaflets to parents dropping their kids off at Los Angeles Unified School District schools Tuesday morning calling for smaller class sizes, increased staffing and salary raises.

UTLA president Warren Fletcher and other union representatives held a news conference at 7:30 a.m. at Roy Romer Middle School, 6501 Laurel Canyon Blvd.

"We're going to be out in front of the schools all over reaching out to parents because parents need to know that their students aren't getting the resources that they need," Fletcher told KNX1070.

This latest union action is part of a push for a new contract with the LAUSD, demanding the district use money to improve classrooms rather than on expensive programs such as providing iPads to students.

"We teachers and the community knows that the voters passed Proposition 30 in November 2012 in order to make sure that all of the cuts that had happened to schools during the recession got addressed, and it's been more than a year – it's been 16/17 months and those dollars still haven't found their way into the classrooms," he said. "Class sizes are still gigantic. We still have schools that don't have nurses, that don't have counselors."

UTLA calls on the Superintendent to stop talking about addressing the concerns and rather putting the resources in action to help serve the students.