2020 Candidates for Citywide Officer
Candidates for Citywide office need to win with a 50% plus 1 majority vote. If no candidate has a majority, there will be a run-off in the Second Round.
Contested
2020 UTLA President
Marisa Crabtree
Hello, I’m Marisa Crabtree and a candidate for President of UTLA. I’ve lived in California for almost my entire life and attended public schools throughout. For the last several years I’ve lived in Lincoln Heights, which is the same community as the school that I work in, Lincoln High School. I’m running because I want to elevate teacher and student voice as well as the voices of our school communities in Los Angeles.
I want to advocate for Lincoln and schools like Lincoln that lack access to the resources they need to be successful. These are schools that are overlooked, students that are under-served, and teachers that lack access to adequate resources. I want to be able to speak up for the neediest schools and students in LAUSD. I want to organize for increased funding for all schools. I want to advocate for mental health resources for our students that are deeply in need and I want to expand these services for our teachers as well, because they will help stabilize the teaching profession and build morale among our members.
The challenges facing our District are a multi-tiered problem and deserve a multi-pronged solution.
I will lead UTLA by ELEVATING...
--DIVERSITY, not division.
--HONESTY, not hostility.
--ADVOCACY, not apathy.
--THE PROFESSION, not politics.This means I will work to bring...
- A focus on Equity rather than equality. We need to reduce class sizes for our highest need students to have a greater impact on the district as a whole.
- more paid preparation time before and after the school year.
- increased mental health resource access for both students and teachers on campus now.
LA has the greatest students, parents, teachers and families anywhere on the planet. Our strengths lie in our diversity and our thoughtful and effective teachers. I know that our teachers are prepared, passionate, and caring and I want to harness that power to improve outcomes for all. I ask that you vote for me and Team ElevatED for UTLA Leadership in 2020!
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Cecily Myart-Cruz
I have taught at both the elementary and secondary level for over 24 years, 22 of those while being actively involved in the union. I have served in various union roles including chapter chair, steering committee member, cluster leader, board of director, Area Chair, Negotiations team, Class Size Reduction Taskforce and Racial Justice Taskforce Chair and most recently as your NEA VP, where I am the acting local president for our NEA/CTA affiliates. Experience matters and as part of the Union Power team, I am asking for your vote for UTLA President.
I want to build on the foundation we have created over the last five years. We have become a fighting union, changing the outlook for public education nationally, building coalitions with other locals, creating power within the state and making significant strides with our contract. However, we still have much work to do together.
We need real investment in our educators, students and schools. My priority as your next President, will be organizing for Empowered School Communities, where educators feel supported and respected. This means securing your healthcare and a significant pay raise, but it also means increasing student support, shifting school site power and becoming community powerhouses.
We saw firsthand our strength during the Strike when communities stood with us and we need to continue to cultivate those relationships. We cannot back down from calling out the critical disinvestment of our public schools serving predominately Black and Brown students and we must fight back against all privatization efforts.
Through our historic strike, we have made unprecedented gains at the bargaining table, but we are still a long way from winning the schools our students deserve. Now we must continue to build power at the school site, in the district, and in the state-to defend what we won and to make further gains for our students and ourselves.
Vote for the entire Union Power Team.
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Innocent Osunwa
Candidate for UTLA PRESIDENT
Innocent Osunwa, B.A.,M.A.,M.A.Ed.Admin.,J.D.As a Lawyer and a 26 year LAUSD educator with experience covering university, adult, high, and middle schools, I know what educators go through, and I am angry. “Where is UTLA?” I sometimes wonder. It’s enough! No more empty promises. Elect a candidate who understands the issues and can deal with them.
If am elected UTLA President, I will start where UTLA failed and continue where it succeeded until all my mission is accomplished! I will fix the areas of nightmare for educators that UTLA has long ignored. I will expand UTLA Constitution for extra protection, have the contract amended to remove all loopholes subject to abuse, end favoritism, nepotism, and other forms of discrimination with impunity, including reprisals, bullying, displacements, lack of trust and support for educators, false accusations, administrative overreach and corruption in the system, lack of transparency and patronage, unfair and inequitable system of promotion, delayed investigations and indefinite teacher jail, unfair method of school scoring, onerous, capricious, and arbitrary evaluations and witch hunt.
I will advocate for more school safety, Charter school scrutiny, pay raise, more technical and vocational education, reasonable class size reduction, adequate number of nurses, counselors, social workers, librarians, and psychologists, more security for school safety, differentiated and fair means of scoring schools because every school is different, protected healthcare, if not expanded, reduction in time spent for professional development and meetings per session, deferred evaluation to eliminate conflict of interest for up to ten years or to the extent the code permits for Chapter Chairs, increased pay rate for Development /Early childhood and adult educators and general pay increase for all educators, and transparency in LAUSD Budget and Spending. Let’s make it happen!
Your Vote is the only way!
Greg Russell
Officer candidate debates @ UTLA Feb 1 noon-2pm & Feb 12 after HoR.On YouTube, search UTLA & debate.Please don’t mail your ballot until you’ve seen all 3 debates!Have you heard from leadership that UTLA is in crisis? United Teacher issues have been reduced from 8 to 4/year because we no longer receive Agency Fees.Our webmaster has been replaced with temps and Benefits has been added to the duties of a secretary.Our constitution is being ignored and altered without members' knowledge!I defended UTLA membership for educators fighting dismissal but UP Monopoly took it away by fictional motions.I fought to get legal defense funds to educators fighting dismissal but UP ignored them or voted them down.I brought transparency but UP ignored it for 3.5 years and got it rescinded 2 months ago.We are bargaining for a bilingual stipend but refused the same for UTLA staff.We expect open meetings from charters but our BoD mostly meets in secret.My attempts to have recordings of the HoR available for members to view at UTLA have been defeated.We want a say in electing our BoE and hiring the superintendent but UP did away with our debates and hides proof of their existence.UP says they are member-driven and want bottom-up leadership but they ignore our bylaws, ex: online voting for all citywide ballots.I remember chairs being asked to return their signed endorsements of BFFF before they’d had a Q&A or even time to read it.You paid for my arbitration of the 2017 race for UTLA Secretary.My attempts to have you hear it have been defeated.With that knowledge, I wrote the best version of our Election Manual, but it’s never been voted on.The version we are using is the worst it’s ever been.It allows for candidates to lie, cheat, steal, etc, if it isn’t in our bylaws and doesn’t affect the election results–very difficult to prove.So, we condone lying, cheating, stealing, etc.But if you are effective, then we don’t want you!Vote Francisco Martinez, Sub Director & Diane Newell, VW Director!
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Soni Lloyd
Under my leadership we will take our union back from disconnected labor bureaucrats who stifle dissent, allow working conditions to deteriorate and abet the privatization of public education. Every year additional duties are imposed on teachers, support decreases, admin become increasingly unaccountable and LAUSD approves more private charters-they are now the #1 charter authorizer in the nation. Despite our strike these injustices continue. As UTLA president I will democratize our union and organize us to:
WIN A TRUE TEACHER'S CONTRACT
- Just wages with annual cost of living adjustments and paid maternity leave
- Secure healthcare and retirement
- Reduce work load
- Increase staffing
- PD system that works for all teachers
- Strengthen due process and stop discrimination
- Open negotiations of contracts
END PRIVATIZATION
- School Board that proactively address needs of communities instead of authorizing charters
- Collect ALL fees from charters
- Pursue legislation to abolish private charters
- Stronger contract language to address privatization
ACHIEVE FULL FUNDING FOR OUR SCHOOLS
- Use the now $2.2 billion dollar reserve to increase staffing and pay
- Stop budget manipulation of LAUSD and require them to spend all taxpayer funds on their schools
- Statewide and nationwide demonstrations to prioritize education
ACTIVATE PARENTS AND STUDENTS
- Invest in real community organizing based on working with the public on education policy and divest from sell out politicians who abet privatization
- Student unions set up at every school overseen by new UTLA student involvement committee
MY RECORD
- Community organizer for numerous school site, contract and legislative campaigns
- Leading ongoing campaign for annual COLA for teachers
- Represent teachers as chapter chair, and on House of Reps
- Founder of new caucus, CORE-LA to re-prioritize working conditions
POWER TO THE TEACHERS AGAINST THE TRAITORS
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2020 UTLA NEA Vice President
Wil Page
Thank you for taking the time to learn about UTLA elections.
I am Wil Page, candidate for UTLA NEA VP. My understanding of the importance of unions came to me as a six year old. In August 1983, my mother, Susan, and her CWA sisters and brothers struck for 22 days. Six years later Mom was on the line as a first year LAUSD teacher. 30 years after walking with Mom, I was on the line fighting with my UTLA sisters and brothers, rain and shine.
UTLA is at a crossroads. We have becoming an organizing union, but that has come at the expense of servicing members. It is essential in the post-Janus era that we are a more pluralistic union; one that listens and respects the needs of members.
Unlike my opponents for this position, I am an elected NEA delegate; one who is engaged with how UTLA fits into our state and national affiliates. I have taken the time to build positive connections with our affiliate sisters and brothers, ensuring that our local is one that has become more respected. I am passionate about my role over the last six years as a representative of UTLA at the NEA RA and also as a CTA State Council delegate.
By marking the first name on the UTLA NEA VP ballot, you are calling on someone who will:
- further our cause on the state and national level, while committing to a local focus.
- groom a bench of diverse and representative candidates for all seven Board seats by creating UTLA’s Board Leadership Training Academy.
- establish a network of CTA locals within LA County to build a strong educational labor coalition in our backyard.
- continue to promote and value healthy conversation and constructive debate amongst our members and elected leadership.
- guide efforts of UTLA members to influence state/national policies and legislation to best support our students’ learning and our working conditions.
I hope you will join me and visit my website to discover how, under my leadership as UTLA NEA VP, we will become a better UTLA.
With appreciation and unity,
-Wil
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Gabriel Serrano
(TL;DR) In 1975 our federal government passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Four decades later and they have yet to fully fund this act, never even coming close to half of what they promised, leaving the states and local districts with the bill. This has led to cuts in salary, services, student programming etc. We need to act as a national body of teachers to fully fund IDEA.
About me:
I currently teach the primary SLD program at Emelita Street Elementary in Encino. I am a product of Los Angeles Public Schools, through and through. I grew up in Sylmar (Herrick St., Olive Vista, Sylmar High) and was credentialed and cleared by our very own District Intern Program.I originally came to UTLA to join the Special Education Committee. My main concern was the lack of protection for District Interns of LAUSD. I saw then what I see now, a high need for special education representation in the ranks of our Union leadership. I will elevate our teacher voice by:
Elevating the prestige of the profession by fighting for salaries, health care and retirement and advancement opportunities that attract and retain the best and brightest to the future of our profession.
Advocating for Special Education by ensuring that full inclusion is rolled out with the students’ best interests at the forefront, not cost-cutting schemes.
Advocating for Social-Emotional Learning and Restorative Justice by fighting for our psychologists to have manageable caseloads and time away from paperwork in order to support students and teachers directly.
Elevating public education by fighting against the opportunistic profiteers of the corporate charter movement who feel that our children can get by with unqualified teachers and clever marketing.
And rising up to fighting for full funding of public education on a national level, and a fully funded IDEA so that states and local districts don't have to make dangerous and regressive cuts to barely scrape by.
I am here to put in work.
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Alex Caputo-Pearl
Hello, great UTLA members. I’ve taught for 22 years and done labor/community organizing for 30 years. I encourage you to vote for the entire Union Power Team. As outgoing UTLA President, I’m proud to have worked with all of you across the city to transform UTLA. Together, we organized a strike that won on salary and classroom issues, defended healthcare, made historic breakthroughs on class size and staffing, and led to wins for school funding and against privatization. We’ve won School Board elections and seized the initiative with Jackie Goldberg. We expanded bargaining to community issues and protected healthcare 3 times. We built powerful community coalitions. We are financially strong, in the face of Janus. We’re fully merged, and because of state and national organizing, we’re more powerful than ever within NEA/CTA and AFT/CFT.
But, after 40 years of disinvestment, there is much more work to do. We must continue our momentum into a crucial 2020. As UTLA NEA VP, I will proudly support the next UTLA President and Officers. I will have 5 priorities – (1) Work with members to take all contract victories further, from class size to staffing to working conditions, (2) Work with members to win on school site issues, from bad administrators to school discipline, (3) Continue within CTA to build the state movement against privatization, and for funding for our schools, healthcare, and salaries, (4) Continue within NEA to accelerate the national strike and action wave against over-testing, and for Title I and Special Education funding, and (5) Organize for racial, gender, and social justice. Elect the team with a strategic vision, that has been leading for the last years. Continue our momentum. Vote for the entire Union Power Team. See FB UnionPowerforUTLA, TW UnionPower2020, and reach out to unionpowerutla@gmail.com. You are wonderful, and have a great night.
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2020 UTLA AFT Vice President
Juan Ramirez
My name is Juan Ramirez. I’m an elementary bilingual teacher and I taught for 15 years in elementary grades as well as 9 years as an adult education teacher. I am the current AFT Vice President and serve as one of the political officers. I also represent UTLA as Vice President for CFT, Los Angeles Federation of Labor, and at the California Federation of Labor.
We led a successful, historic strike because we were able to bring parents, community, and other union members together to fight for what was best for the student of Los Angeles. I think it is important to continue working with all the other unions in Los Angeles because many of those union members are the parents of our students. Our work is not done, I will continue working with the state and national affiliates to have their support and funding in our local struggles.I have learned that working with a united vision many things can be accomplished even in an anti-union environment. In the past five years we have gotten salary raises, maintained our health care, and other important wins. I believe we should continue in this path.
Our profession needs to be respected and our educators need to be given everything they deserve. That’s why I will work hard to change the LAUSD school board into a board that understands what educators need in the classroom. I will work to make sure that the issue of revenue in our district and state changes for the better. For that I know that we must work for the passage of Schools and community first in November of this year.
I am asking for your vote and support for the entire Union Power team to make sure that we finish what we started by becoming an organizing union and to make sure that this movement does not stop. Once again my name is Juan Ramirez and I am running for the AFT Vice President position.
Vote for the entire Union Power team. Contact us via email at UnionPowerUTLA@gmail.com or on Twitter at @UnionPower2020.
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Toni Henderson
My name is Toni Henderson. I’ve been a LAUSD educator for over a decade. I served as a Substitute, Math teacher, Sped teacher, and am currently a Special Ed. Coordinator. I represent the typical student, parent, and LAUSD teacher as I am apart of all three of these communities.
Like many of my colleagues, I spend countless hours working at school and at home to compensate for the lack of resources at our school. I am on several committees, including Instructional leadership team; I’m a co-chair of the CORE team which is designed to move students from at-risk towards high school/ graduation ready; As the Special Education Coordinator, I’ve become an integral part of a program that supports inclusion. Through all of my experiences, I have seen many of the challenges that myself, and other school staff experience. I have partnered with current educators, with similar experiences, who share the same sentiments about education as I do.
My team elevatED, and I, champion advocacy, diversity, honesty, and building the profession.
- I want to advocate for UTLA members' needs, so that we can better support our students. Additionally, school needs are a top priority and our conversations should reflect this priority.
- Diversity within the union, schools, and leadership is inevitable. Allocating adequate resources equitably will ensure we meet the needs of all stake holders. Decision around staffing (teacher, counselors, psychologists, nurses, etc.), special education resources and inclusion, trauma support, among many others should be strategically distributed.
- A LAUSD Educator embodies dedication, hard work, creativity and sacrifice. This profession needs more consideration for our mental health, financial and professional development needs.
- Changing systems takes time. Members deserve honesty and transparency about the realities of our system.
As UTLA AFT, VP, I want to make sure UTLA member needs takes precedence over everything.
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2020 UTLA Elementary Vice President
Gloria Martinez
It has been my honor to serve as your Vice President of Elementary Schools for the past three years. These have been some of the most exciting and challenging years of my 19 year career. I am an NBCT and proudly serve on your bargaining team. As a special education teacher, I am most proud of fighting for and winning an article dedicated to the specific needs of our special education educators and students. We have more to fight for and more to win, and this team will do just that. With the organizing happening at school sites and upcoming bargaining on special education, we are the team dedicated to addressing issues that have been ignored for too long. Together we do this through fighting for stronger language and organizing for strong implementation.
The battles we face are many and the Union Power team is the team with a vision and strategy to continue leading us in the right direction. It is because of the work we have done over the last five years, and our collective strength, that we have been able to push back on the privatizers; collectively we drew attention to the impact of privatization and demanded for legislative language that allows for more local charter accountability. Since winning language on co-locations, our district has seen a decline of the intrusive charter schools that have been a thorn on our side for far too long. Language won for our co-located sites have helped us organize for strength and power. And our ability to turn out 60,000 people on the streets of LA, has sent a message to CCSA that this union will not back down from leading the charge against the corporate billionaires profiting off the back of our students and communities. Let’s build on our momentum and continue moving forward together. Elect the team with a vision and strategy that is leading the way. Vote for the entire Union Power team. Contact us via email at UnionPowerUTLA@gmail.com or on Twitter at @UnionPower2020.
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Melissa Tellez
My name is Melissa Tellez and I am running for the office of UTLA Vice President of Elementary.
I am currently teaching fifth grade dual language at Gates St Elementary school. I come from a proud family of LAUSD Educators.I am running for the office of VP of Elementary because I feel that I need to become more involved in educational policy after last year’s historic strike. I feel educators know best in regard to what their students and classrooms need, however we are often left out of the discussion. Educators should be strongly involved when it comes to the decisions and policies that affect our schools. As educators, we have the first hand experience and knowledge of our profession that allows us to see what many policy makers overlook. I also feel that the union needs to be accountable to the promises made to our members. Many of our members feel disenfranchised after the strike because they feel that they have little say in the aftermath.
Educators deserve a seat at the table, especially when it comes to important decisions that affect not only our members, students and classrooms but our communities as well.
As UTLA VP of Elementary I will work hard to ensure:
- Smaller class sizes
- Equitable funding for our schools and our high-need student populations
- Greater accountability and cross-sector collaboration with union members, schools, district, and communities.
- Educators are respected as the professionals they are and that they have a voice in issues that most affect them
- Policies are student centered and work in a real classroom not just idealistic
- We elevate the educational profession, not the politics
As UTLA VP of Elementary I will work hard to ensure that we provide our members and students the excellent schools they deserve
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2020 UTLA Secondary Vice President
Jeremy Zwang-Weissman
First and foremost the job of an educator is the complete health and safety of their students. It is an educator's job to educate students about all of the challenges that life has to offer them; how to navigate the world. Every student faces their own individual challenges, and even if we as educators don’t know exactly what those challenges are, it’s our job to always help them.
A lot of students feel that many topics adults present them with, aren’t relevant to them. They feel that we’re just doing the job. They don’t understand how much we as educators would actually do, and already do outside of the classroom for them. With classroom sizes ballooning above 30 it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to reach students on an individual basis.
It’s time that we take on a systematic approach for what has become a systemic problem. Educators and students need to be connected in a more individual way. It’s time that we address the issue of classroom size holistically.
This means that we only put the number of students in each classroom that adults can effectively educate. Therefore, I want to get more people directly involved in education. Envision physics teachers across the district Skyping in Elon Musk! It’s time to mount our collective resources as a union to do what no individual educator ever could.
I want to bring families back into schools. We should look at every example across our nation and beyond to figure out just what it takes to get buy-in, not only from students and educators, but from parents and community members alike. Schools are and always have been community centers. It’s time to return to that model.
If we do not support, promote and increase every opportunity to connect our students to their interests, our fight will be lost. We are a strong valued union; we rise in solidarity for our brothers and sisters; it’s time to use our strength where it’s needed most; our sons and daughters, our future generation of leaders, our students.
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Julie Van Winkle
I am a National Board Certified Teacher with over a decade of classroom experience and a long history of UTLA activism, which started in 2007 during the RIFs/budget cuts.
Since then, I have held many UTLA leadership roles. I currently serve as North Area Chair and represent North Area on the UTLA Bargaining Team. I am proud of our bargaining victories and hopeful that our wins around Community Schools will transform our district, but I also know that we must continue organizing to defend our victories, and we must continue to push for more resources at our schools.
As Secondary Vice President, I will work with the officer team and the Bargaining Team to take our contract wins further. Even with our significant class size victory, we must continue to fight to lower class size and increase school staffing. We must continue to lead the charge for Ethnic Studies at our schools to ensure that the content we teach is relevant to the students and communities we serve. I recognize that discipline is a major issue for secondary schools, and I believe that reducing class size and providing socio-emotional support for students – along with establishing strong Local School Leadership Councils at all school sites – will help school leaders create discipline plans that work for their school communities. I will work to ensure that UTLA continues to support student activism and works together with student and community groups to end the school-to-prison pipeline.
Let’s build on our momentum and continue moving forward together. Elect the team with a vision and strategy that is leading the way. Vote for the entire Union Power team. Contact us via email at UnionPowerUTLA@gmail.com or on Twitter at @UnionPower2020.
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David Feldman
I would be honored to represent you and all UTLA members as Secondary Vice President. UTLA is an organization of which I have I have given my time, passion, and energy for many years. Whatever the outcome of this election, I will continue to be an activist in this union for a long time to come.
I have been UTLA Chapter Chair and have served on Steering Committees in Valley West and Central Area. I am chair of The UTLA Human Rights Committee and a member of The House of Representatives. I am also an elected member of CTA State Council and The PACE Executive Committee. I won The Central Area Unsung Hero Award for Central Area in 2017 as well as The NEA WHO Award last year.
I believe area representatives should have classroom experience. Currently UTLA is hiring many people as reps who have never worked at a school. We deserve a raise with a cost of living adjustment! I recently passed a motion in Central Area for a raise with a COLA. Principals should only be able to impose one after school meeting a month on school staff. Meetings during our conference period should be eliminated. Also, we must put an end to the arbitrary, often punitive, and onerous evaluation system we work under.
I believe in being an organizing union, but let’s organize our members around our daily struggles. UTLA has become disconnected from the daily reality of our members. It is largely because we have one slate that runs our union. We need a diversity of views in leadership. Members deserve a teacher to represent them as Secondary VP not someone who works at LAUSD central office.
As Secondary Vice President I pledge to:
- Be responsive to all your problems in a timely manner, no phone call will go unreturned
- Help school staffs push back against bully principals
- Make UTLA an organizing AND a service union, we must do both!
- Fight to force LAUSD to spend the $2 billion surplus on our students and schools
- Push UTLA to call for the removal of Austin Beutner as LAUSD Superintendent
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2020 UTLA Treasurer
Tomas Flores
Fellow UTLA member, thank you for taking time to gain perspective on our internal elections. Do vote for INDIVIDUALS who are qualified for each position. Being on A SLATE DOES NOT GUARANTEE a candidate is highly qualified.
I ask for your vote and trust to elect Tomás Flores UTLA Treasurer. I will assure you:
- True financial planning, budget transparency and accountability via reports at Board, House, Area meetings, school sites and UT
- Accurate cost forecast of policy initiatives and how member dues are spent.
- Advance a UTLA constitutional amendment to merge Treasurer/Secretary positions, same as our CTA/NEA, CFT/AFT affiliates and use saving to fund a NEW AREA REP WITH CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE FOR DIRECT SERVICES TO MEMBERS AT SCHOOL SITES.
- I WILL NOT RUN FOR THE NEW POSITION
Unlike other candidates I have:
- 10 years of professional experience in finance
- MBA from Stanford.
In this post-Janus era, with the continuous attacks on public education, our profession and organized labor, UTLA must have the best elected leadership team with the most qualified individuals in each office. I have the knowledge, training and perspective needed to a) make hard financial decisions, b) safeguard MEMBER DUES and c) provide accountability on how they are SPENT in this post-Janus anti-union era. Unlike the incumbent, I know zero-base budgeting, can read financial statements, review the Strike Fund investment portfolio for risk/return, manage and direct the UTLA professional accounting staff.
UTLA ENGAGEMENT and LEADERSHIPBoard of Directors, Central Area UTLA Bargaining Committee
PACE Treasurer and VP of Candidates UTLA Financial Sustainability Task Force
BFF Campaign IE Committees for School Board Candidates
Committee to rewrite Master Plan Chapter Chair
Chair, Bilingual Education Committee Chair Sub-Committee Bilingual Differential
Humbly and in solidarity,
Tomás
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Antoine Taylor
Dear Colleagues,
My name is Antoine Taylor. I am running to be your next UTLA treasurer. I am a life long citizen and resident of Los Angeles. As a student, I both attended and graduated from LAUSD. I am currently a 5th grade teacher at Virginia Road ES.
I have been a teacher for LAUSD for 25 years. It has brought me great joy making a difference in the lives of children and families over the past few decades. I believe I can make an even greater impact to all students across the district as an UTLA officer ad serving as Treasurer.
Throughout the years, I have worked tirelessly and extended myself outside the classroom to help students and families as teacher and outside the classroom. While serving as a member of School Site Council SCS at Grant ES for over 10 years, I had the opportunity to work with other teachers, parents, administrators, and students to make decisions to review and evaluate improvement programs and school budgets. Additionally, as a member of the Local School Leadership Council, I also worked with staff development programs, student discipline guidelines, code of conduct, as well as school activities and events and special schedules.
I have also served as the Site Coordinator After school Program, worked as the UTLA Chapter Chair, served as grade-level chairperson across different grade levels, and plan special events for our school as a member of the School Leadership Team. Moreover, i have worked endlessly as a teacher to help kids with their reading and math skills in intervention, intersession, Beyond the Bell, Saturday and Summer School programs. I truly enjoy extending myself to help children.As your next UTLA Treasurer, I want to work with other UTLA officials, parents, administrators, teachers, and students alike to create a budget that can move us forward and give teachers and students the resources they need including trainings and classroom support for our kids.
I asked for you to vote for me as treasurer for our future.
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Alex Orozco
It has been an honor serving as your UTLA Treasurer this term and I am humbly asking for your support once again. As a teacher for almost 20 years and your current Treasurer, I am proud of what we have accomplished working with the Union Power officers, directors and you! As Treasurer, my main objectives have been to make UTLA financially and organizationally strong and I have!
Under my tenure, UTLA fought off fiscal challenges and led historic events that made us stronger. The Janus decision, a historic strike and healthcare bargaining are just three of the events that we led on successfully.
In anticipation of the Janus decision, one of the most aggressive attacks aimed at crippling and bankrupting UTLA, as Treasurer I made sure that our membership remained strong by leading in a massive and successful re-carding campaign.
During our historic strike and under my leadership as Treasurer, we led the way in making sure UTLA stayed well below budget and functioned as efficiently as possible. Our strike was one of our most successful, shortest and as Treasurer I made sure it was our most efficient financially. Including a massive paid media campaign that shifted the narrative in our favor, resources and a well-organized plan, we won the hearts of Los Angeles.
As Treasurer, I am also on the Health Benefits Committee representing UTLA. Because protecting and fighting for our healthcare is critical and a focus of our team, I am proud to have successfully participated in negotiating our current health care package and I’m committed to fight and win on heath care this year as well!
My experience and leadership qualities make me the best candidate for UTLA Treasurer. I will keep UTLA’s finances strong, continue to grow our membership and provide the needed resources to win on bargaining. Elect the team with a vision, strategy and experience to win!
Vote for the Entire Union Power Team. Let’s keep the momentum and build power!
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2020 UTLA Secretary
David Lyell
The strike was a great symbolic victory, but we need to follow it with “real” dollars-and-cents wins for our members.
I'm asking for your vote so that together we can refocus UTLA on the things that classroom teachers and Health and Human Services professionals really care about:
- Your Pay
- Your Benefits
- Protecting Your Retirement
- Protecting Your Job
UTLA needs to be a union that listens to you, and reflects your priorities.
I will be your voice in UTLA.
The current leadership is very well-intentioned, but sometimes they operate as if they're in a bit of an echo chamber.
They don’t always hear the voices of classroom teachers and HHS professionals.
UTLA represents every single one of us, but it doesn't always feel that way.
When decisions are made without the input of all members, or when decisions are rushed -- like last year’s strike Ratification vote -- that hurts our collective voice.
We need to ensure that the voice of every single union member is listened to, respected, and heard.
I’ve been involved in our union’s many fights for pay and benefits, and for a good and enforceable contract for all members.
My experience includes having served as a member of the UTLA Board of Directors from 2011-14.
During last year’s strike, I served as the leader of the UTLA Flying Squadron. At the direction of the UTLA House of Reps, the Squadron deployed to sites in need of picketing support.
After the strike, I led the fight to get justice for the senior teachers and HHS professionals who were retaliated against because and only because they went on strike (please see www.facebook.com/RetaliatedStrikers). I believe a real union fights for all members, and doesn’t leave anyone behind.
You deserve a union that delivers.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and concerns. Please contact me anytime at www.davidlyell.net.
Thanks for your consideration.
Statement
Q&A
Arlene Inouye
It has been an honor and joy to serve as your UTLA Secretary with the Union Power Leadership Team over the past three years. The Officer and Board of Directors Team has worked powerfully together in our different roles which is centered on organizing our schools, raising up emerging leaders, building strong parent/community alliances and winning our contract demands around the schools our students deserve, and the dignity our members deserve. Please see the statements of the Union Power Officers for different aspects of our platform.
- As Secretary of UTLA, I have stream lined our data and communication system to track membership, motions, other organizing actions and to begin the process of revising our most important document, the UTLA Constitution.
- As bargaining co-chair, it has been a tremendous privilege to transform the bargaining process as we brought in more voices yet maintained a strong unified vision and built collective power around our contract demands. We are preparing for reopener bargaining on three articles, and I look forward to building on what we have won, as we expand participation and fight for “Common Good” issues that affect students and our communities.
- Additionally, to make our bargaining gains “real”, aggressive contract enforcement has also been my focus. This includes providing training and support for chapter chair leaders specifically around the contract and school site fights.
As a speech therapist I look forward to continue to build the broad diversity of our union, to lift up females who are the majority, and to address systemic racism, sexism and other oppressions.
It is critical that we build on what we have won, and as a union continue to evolve. Vote for Arlene Inouye and the entire Union Power Team. UnionPowerUTLA@gmail.com
Statement
Q&A
