Hollywood and Fairfax High Strike in Support of SEIU
Teachers and faculty at LAUSD schools across the city are in the midst of a three-day strike that started on Tuesday morning.
From L-R: Marlee Ostrow, Anjie Klemon, Sara Martino and Sarah Finlay, instructional aides on strike in front of Fairfax High School, in Los Angeles, Calif. on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (Akemi Rico | The Corsair)
Parents, teachers, and support staff are on strike against Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in support of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99 for higher wages. The union and its supporters argue that a pay increase would support smaller class sizes, cleaner and safer schools, and would provide students, faculty and staff with a better quality of life in both work and education.
On Tuesday morning, Karen Cusolito, an English and Journalism teacher at Hollywood High School for 24 years, stood on the corner of Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in front of the school alongside her colleagues.
“We were out here on the same corner four years ago for UTLA Union, and now we’re striking in solidarity with SEIU,” she said. SEIU represents the teacher's aids, custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and security aids. The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) are striking in solidarity with SEIU.
A failed negotiation over the weekend resulted in LAUSD closing on Tuesday leaving parents and caretakers scrambling for childcare and food services. “It could have been avoided if the district would just negotiate in good faith. They haven’t done that,” said Cusolito.
Among the teachers striking in solidarity was Rashan Briggs, a special education teacher at Hollywood High School. He expressed the vital demand to support the service employees.
“They are our support staff, I call them our essential workers because they are the people that set things up so that we as teachers can come in and do what we do best, which is educate and mentor children” he said.
Many expressed their aggravation towards LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho.
“The superintendent is not negotiating, he is lying,” said Edwin Sinecio, a Teacher's Assistant for Special Education at Hollywood. “The lack of staff and support in our schools has affected the students most. We need a full-time nurse, we need more people to clean the school, and we don’t have much security.”
Hollywood High School has a part-time nurse only Monday through Wednesday. Art teacher Samantha Sparks said that for the remainder of the week, there is no on-site nurse, leaving students and teachers scrambling to find an alternative. During her school day, Sparks said she has six different classes with 42 students each.
“I feel like I am not able to give each one of them what they need and deserve,” she said.
Alice Strangeluv, the chapter chair for UTLA at Hollywood High School said, “Our jobs are not just showing up to our classrooms, we are taking care of kids, we are there to socially and emotionally support them, it's a lot when we are struggling at home as well.”
“Not only are we showing support to our sister union, but we are showing a strong united front as teachers,” said Strangeluv.
Less than three miles away, the staff and faculty of Fairfax High School were preaching similar change. Teachers from surrounding schools joined in marching the streets.
Marlee Ostrow, an instructional aide at Hancock Park Elementary School, shares, “When I started 18 years ago, I was in 1 class, now I’m in 4 classes.” Ostrow added that her elementary school is short-staffed despite job availability. “They say they have vacancies for paraprofessionals, but no one is applying because you can make more money starting almost anywhere than you can at LAUSD.”
“They just take advantage, any chance they can,” she said. “I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told ‘we can't compensate you, but we know you will do it for the kids.’”
Ostrow’s colleague, Anjie Klemens who is an instructional aid for transitional Kindergarten at the same school stood beside her in agreeance, “We’re working multiple jobs, just being there sometimes without taking a break since the kids are our #1 priority. We care. We just want more support.”
Tracy Cook took to the streets in an effort to build awareness around the budget that LAUSD is given every year. Cook is a parent whose son was in LAUSD schools from Pre-K through 12th grade. She started attending the LAUSD public meetings in recent years in an attempt to learn why so many people were struggling in an institution with a significantly large budget.
“We were given a lot of money in the last couple of years because of Covid but they have sat on it and then they rolled it over,” she said. “There are some reports that the rollover is $3.9 billion.”
Cook explained that the public meetings she has attended are disheartening.
“We rely on our school board members to ask serious questions and really dig in, and I’m not seeing it in the meetings,” Cook said, “The budget has become weaponized. We should never have gotten to this point.”
The strike is planned to continue into Thursday.
