LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor
Los Angeles, California 90017
Telephone: (213) 241-7000 │ Fax: (213) 241-8442

AUSTIN BEUTNER
Superintendent

August 15, 2018

Alex Caputo-Pearl
President
United Teachers of Los Angeles
3303 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Dear Mr. Caputo-Pearl,
As I shared with you and Mr. Orozco today, we have the opportunity to better support the dedicated
professionals of UTLA to help them provide every child in the District with a great public education. Our
shared responsibility is to make sure all we do puts the interests of our students and their families first.
L.A. Unified has already reached agreements with SEIU Local 99, AALA and CSEA which together,
represent more than 60 percent of the District’s workforce. With raises totaling about six percent, these
agreements demonstrate the District’s commitment to our school leaders, teacher’s assistants, bus drivers,
custodians, food service employees and librarians who, alongside teachers, work tirelessly every day to
make each of our schools places of great teaching and learning. L.A. Unified aims to reach a similar
agreement with UTLA in this bargaining process.
The District remains committed to continue working with UTLA on a fair contract and will begin the
mediation process with UTLA in the coming weeks to resolve all open contract issues. L.A. Unified’s
desire is to make sure all of our students have a great start to the school year in a safe, welcoming school
environment to best support their learning. We want to minimize any disruption to students, their hardworking families and the communities we serve. We hope UTLA shares this goal. I am reminded of an
old adage, “when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” It is a responsibility we share, despite our
differences, to make sure students are protected.
The work teachers do today, tomorrow, and throughout the school year can change the life of a child. We
must do everything possible to keep our schools open so our students don’t miss the opportunity to
receive the best education possible. Working together, we can help our students do great things.
I am available to meet with you at any time in advance of the mediation date if you feel we can chart a
quicker path to an agreement. We found common ground today on a number of issues and we need to
build on that. Our students, their families and the communities we serve are waiting for us to resolve this.
We have much work to do together to help every student in L.A. Unified reach their full potential. The
sooner we can resolve this agreement, the sooner we can focus all of our efforts on improving our schools.
We have lots of work to do and the kids are counting on us.
Sincerely,

Austin Beutner
Superintendent
c: Los Angeles Unified Board of Education