On Tuesday, October 18th, Lab School families may have seen Demonstration Teachers at carpool with signs and wearing UC-AFT t-shirts. Demonstration Teachers, lab school family members, and other UC lecturers passed out more information about our contract negotiations with the Lab School administration and our continuing concerns that impact our teaching and student learning. Demonstration Teachers will continue to share information and advocate for the school until we reach agreement on a full range of mandatory subjects of bargaining. Please read our latest flyer and take action to help teachers who inspire and teach the children of UCLA Lab School.

UCLA Lab School Demonstration Teachers have long understood that UC Management and UCLA Lab School Administration’s refusal to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a violation of labor law. Management’s refusal to negotiate has needlessly delayed the bargaining process, which demonstration teachers intend to use to safeguard excellent teaching and learning conditions at the Lab School. On September 30, we found out that PERB (Public Employment Relations Board) agrees that UCLA has violated their legal obligation to bargain in good faith.

PERB issued a Complaint, which means that PERB alleges, based on the information we and UC Management provided, that UC Management has violated labor law with respect to our negotiations in four different but connected ways:

1. UC Management and UCLA Lab School Administration made Unilateral Changes to the school calendar without meeting and conferring with us as is past practice.
2. UC Management and UCLA Lab School Administration made Unilateral Changes to the past practice of negotiating a comprehensive side letter and refused to bargain any topic but teacher salary.
3. UC Management and UCLA Lab School Administration committed a Per Se Refusal to Bargain and interfered with Demonstration Teachers right to bargain topics in addition to teacher salary.
4. UC Management and UCLA Lab School Administration Failed to Bargain in Good Faith because they delayed the start of negotiations for 6 months, misrepresented plans to change our terms of employment, and took contradictory positions with the lab school community about their obligation to negotiate the school calendar.

PERB’s Complaint outlines the violations by UC and UCLA Lab School management in very clear and strong terms. UCLA Lab School Demonstration Teachers are heartened that an objective third party, and THE agency that unions and management go to to address labor disputes, recognizes there is evidence that UC Management has not acted in good faith!!! PERB will ask the parties to try to settle in an “informal settlement conference,” which is a mediation conducted by a PERB regional attorney. If agreement is not reached through the informal settlement conference, PERB will conduct a formal hearing with an administrative law judge and issue a decision and remedy.

View the PERB Complaint here.

Post PERB Complaint, Superintendent Dillon, Principal Lazo, and Outside Lawyer Continue to Refuse to Bargain All Mandatory Subjects and Create Further Delays in The Bargaining Process

At any time, Superintendent Dillon, Principal Lazo, and UC Management can choose to abide by the law, to bargain in good faith and avoid further delays in the negotiation process.

Even after PERB issued their Complaint citing four different charges against UC Management, Sandy McDonough, the outside lawyer and management’s Chief Negotiator, reiterated their previous position: “we believe that Article 21 (Compensation) is the only non-waived mandatory subject of bargaining for the Lab School following negotiation of the main contract with UC-AFT.” This demonstrates that Superintendent Dillon, Principal Lazo, and UC Management intend to continue to needlessly delay these negotiations. They will compel our community to endure an informal settlement conference and then possibly a formal hearing with an administrative law judge. If UC Management desired an expeditious bargaining process, they would simply negotiate all mandatory subjects of bargaining with us as they did with Geffen Academy and Preuss School at UCSD. See their comprehensive MOUs here:
 

Geffen Academy

Preuss School UCSD
 

Demonstration Teachers have a responsibility to our 145-year history of progressive and constructivist education. Over the past four years, this history has been undermined. We cannot allow our current Principal, an outside lawyer, or UC Management's refusal to negotiate in good faith to further erode our long history of democratic leadership, centering children, taking action in the face of injustice, and Safe School values.

You can help Demonstration Teachers fight for our right to a fair and timely bargaining process that promotes excellent teaching and learning conditions. Please ask UC Management to immediately begin negotiating all mandatory subjects of bargaining. You can reach out to Chancellor Gene Block, Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck, Vice Chancellor Michael Levine, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt, Dean Tina Christie, Associate Dean Jody Priselac, Superintendent Devin Dillon, and Principal Georgia Lazo.
 

Ongoing Concerns

• UCLA Lab School employs team-teaching to leverage the many skills and experiences of Demonstration Teachers for the benefit of students. Team teaching requires time to collaborate to share ideas, look at student work, respond to ideas that emerge from children in order to design responsive curriculum and meaningful learning experiences, create supports for all students (including neurodiverse children), and to partner with families. Without substantive planning time during the instructional day, it is difficult for teaching teams to be as effective as possible.
   
• Administration has chosen to budget for 2 Directors of Curriculum and Instruction. Using these funds instead to hire one more Specialist, and returning to the past practice of having 5 Specialists, could provide substantive planning time for Demonstration Teachers across all levels. An additional Specialist would directly benefit all children across the school and facilitate planning time for the onboarding of new faculty members at UCLA Lab School.
   
• Rather than negotiating a calendar that is equitable for all families, students, staff, and faculty, UCLA Lab School Administration imposed a regressive calendar just before school started in August. This calendar changed religious holidays (which were pupil free and unassigned days for many years) into instructional days. This does not align with our justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion lens and contributes to the sidelining of non-Christian beliefs.
   
• Superintendent Devin Dillon stated there is no money in the UCLA Lab School budget to provide cost of living increases, to Demonstration Teachers, that address inflation. We have questions about this budgeting strategy. Even though 40% of our students are in the Dual Language Program, three new administrators, who do not speak Spanish were hired. This doubles the number of administrators we have for a school of about 450 children. Two full-time security guards are being prioritized in the budget - even while we have UCPD on campus. We also do not know from which budget Sandy McDonough, the outside attorney, is being paid. Hiring an attorney outside of UC Labor Relations comes at a very high cost and was not done for the larger Unit 18 contract, for Preuss UCSD’s MOU, or for Geffen’s MOU. All of these items are being prioritized in the budget. During a time when attracting and retaining teachers is essential to student success, teacher salaries are not being prioritized. We want to know why.
   
• Our MOU expired nearly three years ago. We have not had a raise since July of 2019. UC Management has proposed a completely inadequate 4% raise, effective July 2022. UC Management delayed our larger Unit 18 contract negotiations and our UCLA Lab School MOU negotiations for years while not budgeting for a substantive cost of living adjustment for 2020, 2021, or 2022. Other Unit 18 lecturers received a 10% cost of living adjustment this year. In a time of massive inflation, UC Management’s compensation proposal demonstrates a lack of respect for our work and a lack of planning to attract and retain excellent educators for UCLA Lab School’s students and families.

UC Management can address these issues at any time if they choose to negotiate all mandatory subjects of bargaining in good faith with UCLA Lab School Demonstration Teachers.