LAUSD and UTLA, the teachers’ union, recently reached an agreement to extend fully funded healthcare benefits and raise teachers’ salaries 10 percent. The LAUSD School Board approved it on April 14. LAUSD is one of the few school districts to provide healthcare benefits without any employee contribution to premiums, according to UTLA.
The 10 percent salary increase was effective four percent retroactively to last year, two percent this year, and two percent the following two years, according to utla.net. Teachers are supposed to vote on it this week.

New lower caps, the maximum number of students in a class, have been established by making it three students above average for each school type and grade level category. The averages for the students need to be lower than the caps.

Overall, the union has been struggling to lower student-classroom averages and caps over the last few years. At Venice, grades 9-10 academic classes will have a cap of 30, grades 9-10 non-academic classes will have a cap of 39, and grades 11-12 classes will have a cap of 39.

A goal of a 500-1 student counselor ratio has also been stated in the contract. The current ratio at Venice is 6000 students to one counselor.

“It’s just a suggestion from what I have been told, it’s not necessarily going to go through,” said World Language Magnet Counselor Bonnie Roche-Blair. “It’s not a guarantee, it’s a goal.”