LAUSD Officials OK Settlement that Could End Seniority-Based Layoffs (CA)

October 6, 2010

After months of negotiations, Los Angeles Unified officials unanimously approved a landmark legal settlement Tuesday that could end the district’s practice of basing layoff decisions on seniority.

The proposed settlement has to be finalized by a judge but is not subject to negotiation with the teachers union.

According to district officials, the settlement would protect up to 45 LAUSD schools from suffering any teacher layoffs during budget cuts.

The tentative deal would also cap the number of teachers that can be laid off from any one campus so that no school loses more teachers than the district average.

"I am grateful today that there was a unanimous voice from the Los Angeles Board of Education," said Monica Garcia, LAUSD board president.

"We wanted to embrace the opportunity to be strategic around teacher layoffs. … This is one step but we still have a lot of work to do to help lift the rights of children."

The settlement was reached after the district was sued by a group of civil rights lawyers who claimed that budget cuts and massive teacher layoffs had created chaos for students at Gompers Middle School in South Los Angeles, Markham Middle School in Watts and John Liechty Middle School in Pico-Union.

The attorneys claimed that the conditions at these schools violated the legal rights of students to a fair and equal education. They said the settlement would ensure equity for all students.

&quo t;Literally, this means equality for everyone…that is what is path-breaking about this settlement," said Catherine Lhamon, director of impact litigation at Public Counsel Law Center, one of three groups who filed the lawsuit.

"This catapults this district to provide equal education opportunities for all kids."

Attorneys from Public Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the firm Morrison & Foerster LLP sued LAUSD in February.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger, then issued an injunction in May blocking layoffs at the three schools.

The announcement of the settlement was supposed to be made Tuesday by LAUSD officials, the civil rights groups and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a joint news conference.

After delaying the news conference for more than two hours because of closed door board deliberations, the press conference was held without Villaraigosa who had to catch a plane to attend an education reform event in Sacramento.

"Fundamentally, this lawsuit was about protecting some of our most vulnerable students in some of the city’s most challenging schools," Villaraigosa said in a written statement.

"These kind of sweeping reforms are exactly what I had in mind when I created the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, and I am thrilled to see the Partnership has once again proved itself a catalyst for District-wide change."

United Teachers Los Angeles officials declined comment on the settlement until seeing the final documents, said union spokeswoman Marla Eby.

If t he settlement is approved by the judge, union officials will be under court order to agree to the new rules guiding layoffs at all schools.

However, the union could also appeal the settlement in court.

Historically unions have opposed any efforts to eliminate seniority rules from labor agreements.

While details of the proposed settlement were not released Tuesday, district officials said the 45 "targeted" schools that would be spared from any layoffs would have to meet certain criteria that include being among the state’s lowest performing and showing marked academic gain.

The deal also includes a plan to explore incentive pay at the 45 "targeted schools" for teachers and principals.