Teachers Union Officials To Visit Schools In Push For Pay Increase, Smaller Classes

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Officials with the Los Angeles teachers union Wednesday were set to take their push for a pay increase to several area schools.

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl were scheduled to visit Palms Elementary School as part of the district-wide campaign that will take union officials inside hundreds of schools over the next month as Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) classes get underway.

More than 650,000 students returned to classrooms last week despite ongoing negotiations with UTLA, which is seeking smaller class sizes and fully-staffed schools in addition to 17 percent pay raise.

District officials are offering a 2 percent one-time bonus for the completed 2013-2014 school year and a 2 percent raise for the 2014-2015 year.

Caputo-Pearl will be joined by NEA President-Elect Lily Eskelsen, who told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO LAUSD teachers have been giving her a clear message.

"They said, 'We want you to see what we're doing in terms of really fighting for the schools our students deserve," said Eskelsen.

The school district has been accused of wasting valuable resources on recent technology programs like the botched iPad rollout last year and the current issues with the LAUSD's new My Integrated Student Information System (MiSIS) data system.

LAUSD officials say students at the vast majority of LAUSD schools are in class and that the MiSiS glitches have affected less than 1 percent of students overall.