The long-running Little Lake teachers’ strike is taking on a large, national significance

The small Little Lake school district, which serves mostly low-income families in southeast Los Angeles County, has become the scene of one of the longest teacher strikes in the district’s history — reaching the 10-day mark Wednesday — as its 200-member union grapples with key issues affecting districts across California.

The teachers walked out because of health care costs that are rising by $14,000 a year for some, overcrowded special education classrooms and proposed class increases in a district that has struggled with declining enrollment and past unsustainable spending. Teachers aren’t asking for a raise – but their most expensive benefits are worth a big pay cut.

Although the settlement of the negotiations to continue on Wednesday afternoon is close, the dispute has been affected. Even though schools are open, there have been other strikes, but the strike has consumed about 6% of the academic year. Most parents have kept children at home, while trying to manage disrupted activities and household routines – especially difficult in a school system where about 80% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch due to family poverty. Teachers often lose several thousand dollars in wages that are unlikely to be recovered.

“We try to stay positive but every day feels like it hurts,” said Sabrina Ireland, a 6th grade math and science teacher, speaking on the picnic line Wednesday in front of her campus, Lake Center Middle School. “I’m losing sleep… We have teachers who teach both husband and wife here. They are leaders at the moment.”

It’s hard for Little Lake to be seen next to the larger LA Unified School District, which has about 390,000 students. A strike at LA Unified was dramatically averted with hours to spare on April 14 in a dispute that generated local and national attention for weeks.

But the district — which has seven elementary and two elementary schools — is enduring a crippling strike, affecting about 3,400 students drawn from Santa Fe Springs and parts of Norwalk and Downey.

In terms of lost teaching days Little Lake ranks high. Earlier this school year, teachers walked out for 12 days in the Twin Rivers Unified School District in northern Sacramento County. New Haven Unified teachers in Union City in Alameda County are on strike for 14 days in 2019. And the Oakland teachers’ strike in 1996 lasted about a month.

The teacher wants the whole country

Several walkouts and near-strikes have occurred across the state this year, part of an effort loosely coordinated by the California Teachers Assn. to streamline union contract expiration dates and benefit from collective power. The union called this effort “We Can’t Wait.”

The problems that have arisen in Little Lake are echoed in LA Unified and elsewhere.

“Up and down the state, teachers have won life-changing health care benefits and special education supports and have pushed districts to create the safe and stable classrooms our students deserve,” said Gabriella Landeros, spokeswoman for the California Teachers Assn.

In the big picture, district budgets across the state are likely to be a little bigger, the same or a little smaller — and schools could still get a big boost when the state budget is adopted in June.

But cost pressures have increased rapidly in many regions. In Little Lake, as in LA Unified, the cost of services for students with disabilities and the percentage of students identified as having disabilities have increased significantly. Health care costs have also risen rapidly.

Meanwhile, enrollment is declining, reducing the benefit of the state’s increased per-pupil spending. Inflation has hit hard in recent years, while encouraging labor groups, especially in urban areas, to fight for wage increases to keep pace. This comes as a one-time relief package for the pandemic has expired.

Thousands more for health care

In Little Lake, strike supporters say they are fighting on issues that justify sacrifice. Starting in January, monthly premiums for the health plan used by most teachers increased from zero to $1,400 a month paid for 10 months each year — a significant reduction in take-home pay.

Backing away from that case, district officials proposed increasing the average class sizes in kindergarten through fourth grade from 24 to 1 to 28 to 1, according to the district. Union negotiators want to keep class sizes where they are.

County officials admit their proposals are painful, but say they are dealing with an unmanageable financial situation.

“We are in a financial period where the district can no longer support 100%,” said Acting Supt. Monica Martinez-Johnson, a district employee who started out as a teacher.

The fact-finding report confirmed that account, but also noted that the district abruptly ended health funding on Jan. 1, when the previous agreement expired. Workers are forced to pay about 40 percent of their monthly expenses.

“This decision … ruined the relationship again [affects] all aspects of these negotiations have been reopened,” said Donald S. Raczka, who prepared the fact-finding report, which was released on April 12, as chairman of a panel that included district and union representatives.

Jennifer Conforti, center, a teacher at Lake Center Elementary, picks up picks at Lake Center Middle School in Santa Fe Springs on Wednesday.

(Gary Coronado/The Times)

Dollars and sensitivity

It is difficult to calculate the financial impact of the strike at this time, but the district is not losing money. Subscribers make $500 a day, but there are fewer subscribers than teachers and striking teachers who lose pay.

Personal student attendance ranges from 18% to 31%, which means a financial loss related to student attendance. The district’s annual operating budget is $73 million, of which salaries and benefits are $53 million, according to the district.

Many parents and students joined the teachers in the picnic lines.

“We’ve held it for so long, we wouldn’t want them to close a deal that doesn’t benefit them,” said Melissa Maggard, who has two daughters at Lakeland Elementary.

Therapist Sherry Gonzalez kept her fourth-grade son at home, rearranged work hours, hired babysitters. Her son receives special disability services at Lake Center Elementary, and household chores are difficult without this support.

“I don’t feel comfortable taking him when there is a strike with fans who don’t know my son’s needs,” said Gonzalez. “As a parent it was just difficult, very painful, we feel tired, exhausted and like we are not being noticed and helped.

“To see this conflict between the community, it is painful,” he added. When asked how he was trying to cope with the situation, he replied: “Crying.”

What’s next?

The chaos included the sudden resignation of then Supt. Jonathan Vasquez a week on strike. After a 10-hour negotiation session on Monday, an argument or what was feared to be an altercation — accounts differ — led the district to call the police.

A potential deal in the works involves workers paying zero to $630 a month in health care premiums — depending on their choice of health plan. Class size would not increase. Budget cuts may be necessary. In the selection stage there are six teachers who help students who need intensive help in education.

The union this week was pushing for a one-time bonus of $4,000 for its members, but not a permanent raise. The salary range for teachers ranges from $58,752 to $118,363.

Negotiations resumed on Wednesday afternoon in an area considered more secure than the district headquarters.