All is not well at the UCLA Lab School

First there was the recently-settled student-worker strike. Now comes the UCLA Lab School strike. From the LA Times:

For decades, UCLA Lab School, an elite pre-K-through-sixth-grade school nestled in a quiet corner of the UCLA campus, has offered a nurturing environment for students whose parents won a coveted spot for their child.

Run by the university’s School of Education and Information Studies as its hands-on education laboratory, multiple expert teachers curate lessons based on evolving practices. The student body is diverse, students are selected for admission, and tuition is up to $25,000 with about a third of students on financial aid, the school website says.

But the teachers — who welcome UCLA researchers into their classrooms, conduct studies themselves and report their findings to educators — have become dispirited over working conditions and went on strike Wednesday morning. Their public actions offer rare insight into long-simmering conflicts at a school dedicated to modeling the best practices in education...

The faculty, who are members of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, say that UC management has violated their rights to bargain by delaying the process and denying them the right to negotiate a side letter that includes working conditions specific to the needs of a lab school. Teachers also say that the administration has made changes to the school’s practices, including extending the number of school days without their input or negotiation. The university is open only to negotiating salary, which is part of their primary contract, ratified in 2021.

On behalf of the teachers, the union filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board in June. A hearing on the complaint is scheduled in spring. The university declined to comment on specifics of the negotiations. “We value the work of our UCLA Lab School Demonstration Teachers represented by UC-AFT. UCLA is negotiating in good faith with the union, and we are hopeful that an agreement can be reached soon,” the university said in a statement...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-01-25/ucla-lab-school.