200 + members strong
La Cañada Teachers Association
The La Cañada Teachers Association, is the exclusive bargaining agent for the approximate two hundred teachers, counselors, school nurse, librarians, speech therapists, and school psychologists in the La Cañada Unified School District. We are affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA) and the California Teachers Association (CTA).
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La Cañada Teachers Association La Cañada, CA 91011 Phone: (818) 851-1045 Email: lacanadateachers@gmail.com Send us a message
Get Remind
text @lcta18 to the number 81010 They’ll receive a welcome text from Remind. If anyone has trouble with 81010, they can try texting @lcta18 to (619) 828-9004. |
Safety ProtocolsNovember 2, 2020
As we see students returning to school sites, we want to share highlights of the protocols. 1-Find a one sheet list of the highlights of the protocols. 2-Find the specific protocols for LCE, PCY, and PCR. The LCHS protocols are still being updated to reflect recent changes. Look forward these when they become available. Please review these protocols so that you know what to anticipate and expect. Please reach out to your site LCTA leadership if something is not being done. We want to work with the district to ensure the integrity of these protocols and to do our best to help students and staff to have a safe work environment. Please make sure that you reach out with questions and or concerns. LCTA is here to do the best we can to support all members. In solidarity, LCTA Bargaining Team LCTA School Board RecommendationsHello! Recent events have afforded an excellent opportunity for LCTA to share our process for recommending candidates for school board. Out of the negative blooms positivity, mathematically speaking, two negatives make a positive. LCTA is made up of more than 200 educators from all of La Canada’s public schools. We are an organization of educators who deeply care about providing the best possible education for our students in a learning environment that is safe and inviting. LCTA is a volunteer organization. Every position from our Executive Board, Representative Council, Political Action Committee, active committees, and our scholarship committee are made up of people willing to graciously give their time in an effort to support children, and to those who support educators. Educators in our community are exceptionally driven to provide excellence in learning, and the rigor that we know will open avenues for future student success while providing vital social emotional support to students at the same time. The same is true of the volunteers who sit on the Representative Council and committees for LCTA. The educators who sit on the Representative Council are elected by their peers and governed by agreed upon By-Laws. The elected representatives appoint other volunteers to the myriad of committee positions that exist within the organization. One of those committees is our Political Action Committee (PAC). This committee comes together for many reasons, one of which is to recommend local school board candidates who share our commitment to support students and the staff working with these students in our public schools. Our Political Action Committee plays a vital role in the process of recommending candidates to our membership, but our Representative Council ultimately determines if and which candidates LCTA recommends for the school board election. The PAC Chairperson is responsible for organizing the interview process which includes outreach to the candidates, requesting candidates to complete a pre-interview questionnaire, sending the candidates a list of interview questions, and communicating with the members of the interview panel. The structure of all LCTA committees is to have representation from each school site. The interview panel of LCTA educators interviews the candidates using the same questions for each candidate. The committee is charged with the responsibility of actively listening to the candidate’s answers. Candidates are also encouraged to ask questions. Once the interviews are complete, the interview committee meets to determine if any candidates’ positions align with the goals of LCTA to support students and staff in our schools. When a decision is made, the interview panel sends recommendations to our LCTA Representative Council who votes whether or not to recommend candidates. On Monday, October 5th the Representative Council will meet to make recommendations and then will communicate this to its 200 members. I am truly thankful to LCTA members who have put in the hard work, time and effort to provide opportunities for LCTA membership to know their school board candidates through the interview process. As I told all of the school board candidates, those who decided to be a part of the LCTA interviews, and those who did not, “No matter what the future holds in the political world within our school board, or otherwise, LCTA looks forward to working with our LCUSD School Board to secure excellence in learning for all of our LCUSD students.” Sue Cronon President, LCTA 2020-2021 leadershipAugust 28, 2020
Your ITA leadership is asking for your help calling members in your own chapter to be sure they support Prop. 15, which will bring $12 billion more in annual revenue to California schools which means an additional $2.3 Million per year to LCUSD! (Need more info on Prop. 15? Click here: www.yes15.org)
If you or other CTA members want to save us the call and self-identify as a “Yes on 15” voter, just click this link to complete the survey! Finally, if you can spare some time to make a few calls, we would love to have you! Each session will start with a brief preparation meeting at 5:00 p.m., where you will get a link to the on-line system we use to make calls. Any member can participate! You will need your own computer or tablet and your phone. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! Once you click a link and register, you will get a registration email that will let you put the phone bank on your calendar – it will even send you a reminder 45 minutes before! Come help us give California students the schools they deserve! August 21, 2020
Sample elementary- Mandy Redfern created it. Sent out to our elementary members by our Elementary representatives. Click on the image to download the PDF. 
It's August 17, 2020 and We Are Back!
We are back at our school. Well, not exactly. We are doing the best Covid19 will allow. We are in the middle of a pandemic. We are rock stars supporting our students and teaching through it adversity. Thanks to our Bargaining Team for all of their hard work. Need the Safety Protocols? The MOU for your review. 
LCTA Reopening Schools Safely, Thursday, August 6th MOU Your bargaining team met with the district this morning to continue working on safety protocols for the return of staff to school sites. Please check your personal email for the MOU. On Monday, August 10th at 3pm the bargaining team will answer any questions you may have. Look out for a Zoom meeting link in your personal email. LCTA’s Statement at LCUSD School Board Meeting on Tuesday, July 14th July 14, 2020 I am speaking to you today on behalf of the 200 members of the La Cañada Teachers Association. We want to thank the LCUSD Administrative Team and School Board for all that you are doing to ensure the safety of all members of our learning community. Four weeks ago the La Cañada Teachers Association surveyed its members and approximately 70% of our bargaining unit members were eager to return to the school campuses and to begin the 2020-21 school year. At that time, we believed that with the use of PPE and social distancing was sufficient to keep everyone safe. During the last few weeks there has been a dramatic increase in active cases here in Los Angeles County. We surveyed members again and this time only 28% are confident in the plan to return to school campuses in August. Your dedicated and hard working teachers and staff are committed to providing the best possible education for the students of La Cañada. In order to do this, we need a working environment that is safe. Unfortunately, we do not feel that a safe physical environment is possible at this time. California Labor Code 6402 states “No employer shall require or permit any employee to go or be in any employment or place of employment which is not safe and healthful.” We are very appreciative of the great efforts that have been made towards securing safety. Unfortunately, the majority of teachers do not believe it is safe to return to school campuses even with a reduction in capacity to 50%. Some of the specific concerns that surfaced regarding safety include the poor ventilation and recirculated air in classrooms, lack of space to ensure 6 feet of social distancing, as much as 185 minutes in an enclosed space with shared air, safe arrival and dismissal procedures, and sufficient time and personnel to clean high touch surfaces. Just this week over 200 scientists have warned that airborne transmission of COVID-19 via aerosols is a concern. This is a good reminder that we simply do not know enough about this disease and it is not possible to guarantee a learning environment that protects the life, safety, and health of students and employees. We urge the School Board to delay the opening of the physical campus until a safe learning environment can be achieved. While we have safety concerns regarding the physical school campus at this time, your La Cañada teachers and staff remain committed to working together to provide a rigorous academic experience that challenges and engages all of our learners. We are confident that this can be achieved using a digital platform. La Cañada teachers and staff are also committed to returning to campus as soon as it becomes safe to do so. We too yearn for the day that we return to the collaborative, face-to-face learning that we love! We urge you to support a virtual learning environment for the beginning of the school year until we are confident that students and staff are safe when they return to campus. The sooner this decision is made, the more time we will have to prepare for an effective distance learning model. We look forward to and remain committed to working together to do what is best for our entire learning community. La Cañada Teachers Association Call to ActionJune 3, 2020
BITTERSWEET END TO 2019-2020 & EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION We are amazing. Our members quickly pivoted to online distance learning on March 13th and we persisted with our students until June 1st. But, before we can applaud our victory, we have to look at what is happening right now. Who could have imagined at the beginning of 2020 that the school year would end like this with a widespread pandemic and the political and social unrest that plagues our nation? For our students, it is even more confusing, maddening, and overwhelming as they begin their summer of uncertainty. As we move into the summer, remember that we will need to provide students with a foundation of resiliency, perseverance, tolerance and grit, if not now, when we return to school in whatever form. We do not know what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month. One thing I do know, there is no going back to "normal." Now is the time to create a new normal. We are educators facing the potential of enormous cutbacks in a time when every teacher is needed. We are called to action to make sure to put our legislatures to the task. Make sure they hear you! Send an email, Tweet, call! This is not the time to be quiet. TELL YOUR LAWMAKERS WHAT TEACHERS & STUDENTS NEED! -Gayle Nicholls-Ali, VP Publicity 
May 14, 2020
A LOOMING FISCAL EMERGENCY
Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, state and local budgets will be under siege across the country. The scale of this economic crisis will quickly deplete any financial reserves states and localities built before the outbreak. THE NEED FOR FEDERAL AID Unlike the federal government, states are required to have balanced budgets, meaning that cuts are likely coming without federal help. While Congress has allotted various rounds of COVID-19 stimulus, it has yet to fund states and local governments at the levels needed to avoid crippling public services. WE CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION Our members of Congress need to hear from us! Congress needs to step up and do the right thing for our students and educators by allocating resources to state and local governments. Specifically, Congress should provide $175 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund to distribute to states. We cannot afford a generation of students subject to underfunded classrooms due to this pandemic. Contact Your Representative We have to campaign hard to save our schools and our jobs. CTA is asking its members to call congress today! To get more information, please visit educationvotes.nea.org. If Congress hears from enough educators, we can secure federal funding for public education. Contact your representative today! Call 1-855-977-1770 and CTA will connect you directly to your member of Congress. If you can't get through, email or Tweet. Thank you for your support of public education! How to get your voice heard. Find your representation. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/CA#representatives 1-Call. Enter your zip code or address to find the designated representative. Leave a message. 2-Email. Find your district and click on the link to send a message. 3.Tweet. Click on the @ and tweet away! What do you say? Support providing at least $175 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund to distribute to states. Support $2 billion for the E-Rate program to close the homework gap. federal_covid-19_call_to_action-_final__1_.pdf March 2020 (CovID-19 Update)3/31/20
Download and read the MOU. 3/27/20
Check your email to read the MOU. It is in today's Zoom invite. 3/26/20
Distance Learning in the time of Covid19 Hello LCTA! Download the entire message from Sue here. 3/24/20
Meetings will be conducted online using Zoom. We will not be recording meetings, minutes will be taken. If you have never used Zoom video conferencing, you can learn how to join a Zoom meeting. 3/23/20
We have created the following doc to house questions, concerns, or other issues regarding Distance Learning: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cj1HJiqtGBV21dNq3P1IJPRFwsMWhcItgHQNkX9yAUE/edit?usp=sharing Please post any questions you may have in this doc by site. Feel free to help other members if you feel that you can answer their questions. Remember to contact your site reps for support or send an email to lctacontact@gmail.com. Thanks, LCTA Leadership |
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La Cañada Teachers Association is a proud chapter of the California Teachers Association and National Education Association.
