The Brief

Los Angeles Unified support staff reached a labor deal with the district early Tuesday morning, hours before a strike was set to begin — meaning schools will remain open for nearly 400,000 students.

"The tentative agreement makes strides in addressing key issues raised by school workers in negotiations," SEIU Local 99 said in a statement Tuesday morning.

The district had previously reached new deals with its teachers union and its principals union over the weekend.

”Our commitments reflect the dedication of our entire workforce. We are grateful for the collaboration that made this possible and hopeful that this marks a new chapter of partnership," Andrés Chait, the acting superintendent, said in a statement Tuesday morning. "At the same time, we are clear-eyed about the challenges ahead and know that meeting them will require continued trust, shared responsibility, and a united focus on what matters most — our students."

How did the deal come together?

The unions had given the district an April 14 deadline to reach a deal, or face a walkout. A strike by all three would have shut down district schools and disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of students and the lives of families scrambling for child care.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass joined the negotiations with SEIU Local 99, which continued late Monday night. The deal was announced at 2 a.m. Tuesday.

 ”Over the last 24 hours, we've experienced a lot of lows, exhaustion," said Yolanda Mims-Reed, a special education assistant and member of SEIU Local 99’s bargaining team. “We have not given up. We would not leave anyone behind.  We experienced push, drive, and finally victory.”

The unions had been bargaining with the district over pay, benefits and additional support for students for more than a year. The members of each union voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders the power to call a strike after contract talks stalled.

What are the deals? 

District, union and city leaders held a press conference Tuesday morning in City Hall, just across the street from where the strike date was announced about a month earlier.

SEIU Local 99

• 30,000 members include: bus drivers, cafeteria workers, classroom and campus aides
• Contract expired: June 30, 2024
• Deal reached: Tuesday, April 14, 2026
• Approximate annual cost upon full implementation, per LAUSD: $490 million

The union’s proposals included: 

• A 30% wage increase over three years. 
• More hours for workers who don’t have enough to qualify for benefits.

The tentative deal includes: 

• A 24% wage increase
• Increased work hours, which will result in health care coverage for more members and their families
• Rescinding layoff notices for about 200 information technology positions
• The expansion of healthcare benefits to more employee groups, including teacher assistants and afterschool workers

Mims-Reed said expanding members' hours will bring students much-needed support.

“ It's never, ever only about the money,” Mims-Reed said. “We abandon our kids at the end of the day because we do not have the hours to remain on campus and stay with them, and that breaks our heart.”

Now she expects that to change.

About one in five of the union's workers are full time and make an average of $57,000; part-time workers average about $30,000, according to data provided by the union. Many are LAUSD parents and Black and Latina women. Arias estimated the new deal will bring the overall average wage up to about $43,000.

“ We're hopeful that we can start working toward not having workers live in poverty and making sure that we have robust staffing to be able to care for our students, and that we finally achieve clean, safe, supportive schools for all,” Executive Director Max Arias said.

Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA)

• 3,000 members include: principals, directors and other administrators
• Contract expired: June 30, 2025
• Deal reached: Sunday, April 12, 2026
• Approximate annual cost upon full implementation, per LAUSD: $75 million

The union’s proposals included: 

• A 12.5% wage increase.
• The ability to use flex time more easily.

The final deal includes:

• A 12.15% wage increase
• A defined eight-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek 
• Flex time with notice and no pre-approval
• Read more.

AALA President Maria Nichols acknowledged the union was the “new kid on the block” when it came to negotiations. The administrators affiliated with the Teamsters in 2024.

In addition to the salary gains, Nichols highlighted the new “defined, reasonable workday.”

“We know that we work more than that,” Nichols said, noting the weekend events and afterschool performances and games principals often attend. “But we also have the flexibility as professionals to use our own judgment … to get the work done but still have some flexibilities within our schedule.

United Teachers Los Angeles

• 35,000 members include: teachers, psychologists and counselors
• Contract expired: June 30, 2025
• Deal reached: Sunday, April 12, 2026
• Approximate annual cost upon full implementation, per LAUSD: $650 million

The union’s proposals included: 

• A 17% raise over two years. 
• A minimum starting teacher salary of nearly $78,000 — a 13% increase. 
• Changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly.
• Reducing class sizes and adding more mental health support for students. 
• Learn more. 

The final deal includes: 

• An increase in salary scales by 11.65%. UTLA says the average member will see an average increase of nearly 14%
• A new-teacher salary of $77,000 per year
• Four weeks of district-paid parental leave
• Expanded student mental health supports
• A first-ever 20:1 ratio for special education specialist teachers

“ Teachers will now earn salaries that better reflect the true cost of living in communities that they serve,” Myart-Cruz said.

UTLA’s bargaining team met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February. The union declared an impasse in December, a legal step that triggered a “fact finding” intervention from a neutral mediator appointed by the state’s labor relations board.

How much do the deals cost? 

The ongoing annual cost of the three labor agreements, once fully implemented, is approximately $1.2 billion, according to a Los Angeles Unified spokesperson.

Chait said Tuesday that the agreements “ in some cases will call on us as a leadership team to find resources.”

Chait gave two examples of how the district might do that. One, through a “a laser-like focus” on the district's current spending, including on third-party contractors.

“We also want to be collectively fierce advocates to Sacramento for the funding that our students frankly deserve and need,” Chait said.

State funding comprises the vast majority of local school funding, and this year’s state revenue projection is higher than expected, in part because of high salaries tied to artificial intelligence.

Gov. Gavin Newsom will release an update about the state’s budget, including for public education, in May.

Whether or not the district could afford the union’s proposal was a matter of debate even for the fact-finding chair, Donald Raczka.

“Due to the complexity of LAUSD’s budget, thoroughly examining these claims would be time consuming and labor intensive — tasks that go beyond the chair’s current capacity given the available information,” Raczka wrote.

The union contended that such an analysis was the fact finder’s key responsibility.

“The failure of the fact finder to even attempt to figure out the finances is a disservice to the educators and students of LAUSD and to the fact-finding process itself,” wrote Brian McNamara, a UTLA director and fact-finding panelist in a lengthy dissent.

In a statement, the district said it “appreciates the report’s balanced, fiscally responsible framework.”

How did Mayor Bass get involved? 

Mayor Karen Bass joined the district’s mediation session with SEIU Local 99 on Monday.

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

Bass is also the grandparent of an LAUSD student.

“[My]  daughter was very happy to hear that my grandson was going to school today,” she said.

The Mayor’s Office has no direct jurisdiction over the district. Bass also helped break a negotiating impasse during a 2023 strike that closed schools for three days.

What happens now? 

The district called the deal with SEIU Local 99 an “agreement in principle.” Arias said the economic proposals are secured, but the union and the district still need to hammer out the final details of the contract.

The agreements with UTLA and AALA are more finalized.

The so-called “tentative agreements” would then go before union members and the LAUSD Board for a ratification vote.

Typically, the unions do not present their members with an agreement that they don’t believe will be approved.

The district and unions are also scheduled to be back at the bargaining table within the next year because negotiations stretched so long beyond the contracts’ expiration. For example, SEIU Local 99’s newly won contract will expire in June 2027.

“My hope is that this presents a new day of opportunity for partnership and collaboration going forward,” Chait said.

Throughout the arduous process to rebuild the Altadena home where she lived for nearly 50 years, Mary Landau has sometimes felt like giving up. Much of what has sustained her is the encouragement she receives from her disaster case manager.

“She said, ‘You can do this,’” said Landau, a 78-year-old retired teacher who enjoys studying Altadena history and cannot imagine living anywhere else, even after the Eaton Fire destroyed her house. “She gave me hope and strength.”

Landau meets weekly with Veda Ashby Romero, a trained recovery expert who helps her navigate insurance, complete online forms and qualify for financial assistance.

Now Landau is one of roughly 1,400 households affected by the 2025 Los Angeles fires who are set to lose their disaster case managers by the end of October, as a standoff between California and the Federal Emergency Management Agency over the program’s funding drags on.

The news has rattled Landau. “The safety net has been pulled out from under me, and the hope is not as strong as it was,” she said.

The program’s early termination is the latest setback for L.A. communities in the middle of recovery and awaiting billions of additional federal dollars. It also highlights how some disaster-impacted communities still face issues like delayed FEMA payments and inconsistent communication, despite President Donald Trump’s administration pledging to streamline processes after long criticizing the agency’s bureaucracy.

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment but has previously touted the assistance it has provided for the program. The White House says California has mismanaged the crisis.

Case managers simplify a notoriously opaque recovery process

Landau kept her insurance policy up to date for the 1938 two-bedroom, one-bathroom ranch home where she raised her three children and tended a wildflower garden. She still faced a shortfall of at least $200,000 to rebuild the modest home and owed $225,000 on her mortgage.

Ashby Romero supports her through the insurance process — a tedious one that has involved multiple adjusters and required creating an inventory of the half-century’s worth of possessions she lost. She also found Landau a grant to cover a year’s worth of mortgage payments. “I would never have gotten it without her,” Landau said. “I’m very bad with paperwork.”

Trained disaster case managers help people find rental assistance, new employment and money to close the gap between what insurance pays and the actual cost to rebuild. They guide survivors on how to avoid scams, challenge insurance payouts and appeal FEMA decisions.

“The recovery process is very complicated, and a lot of the systems are not designed to make it easy for people,” said Matt Gsell, disaster recovery manager at CORE, the nonprofit managing Landau’s case and one of five participating in LA’s case management program.

Late reimbursements and insufficient funds led California to end the program

After the January 2025 fires, California requested $28 million for case management. FEMA instead awarded $13.2 million for 24 months, to be paid in four equal installments.

FEMA can fund disaster case management for presidentially declared major disasters. The money is reimbursed to the state, which usually contracts with one or more nonprofits to administer the program. In the case of an exceptional disaster, states can request extensions for up to 36 months.

By August, FEMA had made only one of the four payments, leaving the state to front the rest despite “numerous requests” for reimbursement, according to the California Department of Social Services.

FEMA also had not answered a March request for an additional $6.5 million to sustain the program the full 24 months, in light of high demand. Seven hundred households remain on a waitlist for services.

California then announced it could no longer float the costs and would shutter the program at the end of October. FEMA eventually reimbursed the outstanding payments but did not give an answer about the additional money.

Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat whose district includes Altadena, told The Associated Press that FEMA also had not responded to questions from her office about the additional money. Failing to fund the program the full 24 months “risks abandoning survivors,” Chu said, adding that FEMA should also be prepared to extend the program for longer if needs persist.

Nonprofits scramble to reassign clients

With the projected end date looming, nonprofits are triaging open cases and trying to move as many as possible to other organizations that can continue the work using philanthropic dollars.

But there won’t be enough resources to keep everyone in case management.

“They are overloaded,” said Bree Jensen, spokesperson for the Eaton Fire Collaborative and an Eaton Fire survivor. “You can’t put everything onto the local nonprofits.”

The uncertainty is destabilizing, as more than 100 case managers stand to lose their jobs and must weigh whether to seek new work now or wait for answers, Jensen said.

“We can’t go month to month,” said Gsell. CORE has already closed some of its less severe cases and is trying to transfer 200 of its 450 clients to other nonprofits.

The case management program is just a small part of the federal support California has requested to recover from fires that destroyed more than 16,000 structures.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, asked Trump, a Republican, and Congress for $15.7 billion, pared down from an earlier request of $33 billion, much of which would go toward rebuilding housing. Trump has not sent the Republican-controlled Congress a supplemental disaster request for the L.A. fires.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the Trump administration has obligated billions of dollars for L.A.’s recovery.

Landau is waiting for construction to begin on her new home. She is still wrangling with insurance and a bank to receive her final payment. She and her children lean on each other for support, she said, but pressing on won’t be the same without Ashby Romero.

“To meet with somebody who cares about you, wants to see that you land on your feet in a good situation,” she said, ”it was so important.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed the state’s 100th lawsuit against the federal government since President Donald Trump took office for a second time in 2025.

Bonta reached that milestone in 21 months. During the first Trump administration, California officials sued the federal government a total of 123 times in four years.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleges that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement overstepped its Constitutional limits by taking people into custody at state courthouses, a practice forbidden by a U.S. District Court judge that the lawsuit alleges ICE nevertheless continues to employ.

For instance, the California Justice Department found that ICE detained 34 people at state courthouses in June 2026. In July 2026, the month after the judicial order to stop making arrests at courthouses, ICE detained 28 people at courthouses.

“ICE’s directive on courthouse enforcement and the resulting enforcement activities have had a profound chilling effect that has hindered California’s ability to enforce the law and protect public safety,” the state Justice Department said in a news release.

Picking people up at a courthouse can have a chilling effect on witnesses, victims and even suspects who are afraid to show up for court, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said last year.

“Making courthouses a focus of immigration enforcement hinders, rather than helps, the administration of justice by deterring witnesses and victims from coming forward and discouraging individuals from asserting their rights,” Guerrero said.

In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a measure that requires federal immigration agents to present a judicial warrant and identify themselves before making arrests within 1,000 feet of a state courthouse.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Rancho Palos Verdes’ landslide woes have hit the city’s coffers hard. By the end of June 2027, the city will have spent around $75 million just on landslide-related damages over the last three and a half years.

So now, they are looking at one of the city’s best-known attractions for help: the Terranea Resort. Voters in the city are being asked to vote in November on Measure RS, which would increase the tax overnight hotel guests pay from 10% to 13%.

A two-star inn in the city would also be affected if the tax measure passes.

How would the tax help?

If Measure RS passes, it could bring in around $2.2 million annually.

“We reached out to Terranea as we were exploring different revenue streams and talked to them about the possibility of increasing the [transient occupancy tax] from 10% to 13%,” said Ara Mihranian, the city manager. “We looked at comparables of similar resort hotels in the greater Los Angeles area and Orange County that are generally their competitors or similar establishments to see where they ranked. And Terranea was below the market rate in terms of the transient occupancy tax.”

The 102-acre resort sits on bluffs along the coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean and offers guests casitas, villas and rooms that start at $350 and can exceed $1,500 during peak seasons.

A spokesperson for Terranea Resort declined to comment for this story.

How we got here

The Portuguese Bend area in Rancho Palos Verdes was once green rolling hills offering spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. Now, much of that land is riddled with 20-foot chasms, some spanning 12 feet.

For decades, land movement was minimal. But with above-average rainfall in 2022 and 2023, that movement rapidly accelerated — up to 1 foot per week in some places. Land movement has since slowed to about an inch a week, thanks in part to wells the city installed that suck water out of the ground. But damage to the area remains and will likely never be abated.

RPV has spent a significant amount of money to lessen the erosion.

Mihranian said the city has filled fissures in the landslide area, installed protective lining in the canyons and has checked all the deep dewatering wells to make sure they can pump water out of the ground so it cannot collect and cause land movement — especially important ahead of El Niño.

“We're also making sure that the wells and the generators that support and energize the wells are encased and housed so that in the event of extreme weather, they are protected from any elements,” he said.

The city has also installed pipes along the main road through the landslide complex so that, instead of flooding the road, water will be diverted to the ocean.

Still, even if the measure passes, the $2.2 million annually will still not cover all landslide-related costs. A spokesperson told LAist the city is still “aggressively” pursuing grants to cover mounting costs.

"No Kings" protests are returning for a fourth round Saturday, Oct. 17.

This time, the focus is on the November midterms and getting people prepared to vote. Previous protests had drawn large crowds.

"We expect tens of thousands of people to attend the various No Kings rallies throughout the greater Los Angeles area, and we would not be surprised to see tens of thousands at the downtown rally itself," said Nick Miller, a press coordinator with 50501 SoCal, a partnering organization.

That protest is taking place at 1 p.m. at Gloria Molina Grand Park.

LAPD said they are aware of the rally and don’t anticipate any issues.

Pasadena, Long Beach and Riverside are also holding rallies.

Where are they happening in SoCal?

• Burbank: 10 a.m. to noon at Abraham Lincoln Park
• Culver City: 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Culver City Hall
• Downtown L.A.: 1 to 5 p.m. at Gloria Molina Grand Park
• Fontana: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Seville Park
• Huntington Beach: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Huntington Beach Pier
• Irvine: 3. to 5 p.m. at Trabuco Center
• Pasadena: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue
• Riverside: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Market Street and University Avenue
• Santa Clarita: 9 a.m. to noon at Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway
• Torrance: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Torrance City Hall
• Whittier: 12:30 to 2 p.m. at Whittier City Hall