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LAUSD Shortens Winter Break, Makes Summer Longer. But Teachers Union Calls For A Pause
Thousands gathered outside LAUSD headquarters in downtown L.A. on March 21 in support of the SEIU99 and UTLA strike.
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Ashley Balderrama
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Topline:
Earlier this week the Los Angeles Unified School District board approved new instructional calendars for the next three school years. They include changes in both summer and winter breaks. The district's teachers union has said the board violated state law by not getting union approval.
What's in the new calendar: The district will shorten winter break next year (2023-24) from three weeks to two-and-a-half weeks, and shorten it again the following years (2024-25 and 2025-26), to two weeks. That means school will be out by June.
Not so fast? The teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), released a statement Friday saying it wasn't given proper notice about the calendar change. UTLA says it has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the district. In UTLA’s statement addressed to Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, the union demands the district rescind the new calendars by next Tuesday.
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And the district says: "The development and approval of the instructional calendar is at the sole discretion of the superintendent and the board of education, and the board voted unanimously to adopt the 2023-26 instructional calendars," according to a spokesperson.
This feels familiar: Last spring, LAUSD approved four “acceleration days” to add to the current school year calendar — optional school days to help make up for learning time lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. The district maintained that it didn’t have to negotiate optional days with UTLA, but compromised after the teachers union threatened to boycott the first optional school day.
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