Hundreds of teachers in southeast Los Angeles County went on strike Thursday in the Little Lake City School District, marking the first teacher work stoppage in the district’s 150-year history.
After months of stalled negotiations over healthcare costs, class sizes and support for special education, the teacher union, the Little Lake Education Assn., said recent changes to their healthcare have amounted to steep pay cuts, while the district has spent unnecessarily on substitute teachers and consultants.
“They’ve spent millions on outside contractors instead of investing in our classrooms. Our students deserve better, and we refuse to accept cuts that harm both educators and the learning conditions our students depend on,” Maria Pilios, the union’s president, said in a statement.
Over the past year, health benefits have been an issue for teacher unions up and down the state. Some have been trying to prevent steep rises in costs for employees. Others have joined a push to win benefitssimilar to those in Los Angeles Unified, where teachers and most other employees do not have to pay monthly premiums for themselves and immediate family members.
In a memo the district provided to parents on social media, Supt. Jonathan Vasquez said that with rising healthcare costs across the state and country, it could not continue to maintain its level of direct contributions for employee’s healthcare while also maintaining class sizes and student support services.
Vasquez said that in the last few years the district has spent more than the revenue it had received, and used reserve funds to continue to subsidize benefits and students services.
According to the Little Lake Education Assn., in January, the district imposed a cap on healthcare contributions — in effect, steep pay cuts to educators — pushing some employees’ monthly costs as high as $1,400. The district also proposed increasing class sizes while it allocates 20% of its total budget to outside contracts, significantly higher than surrounding districts and the state average, the association said.
State figures show a district enrollment of about 3,500 students — down from more than 4,000 students five years ago. The school system is about 90% Latino and 78% of students are part of low-income households. The district was formed in 1871, and serves students in parts of Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk and Downey.
In his memo to parents, Vasquez said “it is difficult to say” how long the strike would last.
The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday morning, parents and students joined hundreds of striking teachers rallying at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs. Families gathered around tables set up with snacks and beverages. Younger students played and ran around, while older children blew on whistles between chants.
Denise Godinez, a support teacher across various elementary schools in the district, was among them.
“The cost of everything is going up, groceries, gas, all of that and on top of that, teachers are expected to pay this,” she said, adding that she has colleagues whose family members are receiving cancer treatments and have seen their costs rise. “Everyone is feeling it. It’s hard all around.”
Sherry Gonzalez, whose daughter Dani is a student at Lakeview Elementary School, said her daughter’s teacher last year created a classroom where her daughter “felt understood” and was able to grow, but that the teacher had been laid off and won’t be back next year.
“For families like mine, that kind of stability is not a small thing. It matters,” she said.
Gonzalez said her son Alex has special needs and was in a smaller classroom with teachers who had the time and training to support him. But his class of about 10 students has grown to 25, and now parents are being told those numbers could further increase.
“I have to ask, how is that acceptable? How is one teacher supposed to meet the needs of 25 students?” Gonzalez said. “Teachers are being asked to do more with fewer resources and less support. That is not sustainable.”
Michelle Lanning, a first grade teacher at Studebaker Elementary, said some teachers have had to switch away from doctors that know them and their family to save money. She said she had to remove her daughter from her insurance because she couldn’t afford it.
“She had to go on her dad’s insurance because it was too expensive,” Lanning said, as one of her students ran up and handed her a protest sign.
Lanning said she and other teachers frequently buy classroom materials out of pocket, but healthcare costs severely restrict their ability to continue to do so.
“But we can’t do that anymore. Everything is limited,” Lanning said. “It’s been hard.”
The district said it “will do everything in its power” to stay open during the strike, operating on a minimum day schedule with a 1:30 p.m. dismissal.
Extended day child care and after-school programs will continue to operate from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. with adjusted staffing.
Times staff writer Howard Blume contributed to this article.
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