MULTIPLE CTA LOCALS savored victories in the March Primary Election, electing pro-public education candidates to school boards, helping pass parcel taxes to fund essential school and district programs, and more.

While both big and small, urban and suburban locals worked hard to mobilize members and voters, the throughline for all was courage: The courage to stand up and advocate for what is right, and to call out what is not. The courage to confront tough issues and jump into tough races; and to not be afraid to assert their power in the interests of students, schools and educators.

Much of the work, of course, involved local members coming together to take action — to gather signatures, knock on doors, make phone calls, mail postcards and help raise visibility and funds. It also meant establishing alliances with community partners and elected officials, and talking to parents and others in the community about positive change that would make schools and communities stronger and more equitable.

Some locals have been engaged in struggles with extremist school boards and groups for a while. Others — sometimes smaller or more remote — are in areas where dynamic unionism is less expected but has been embraced. Their successes are paving the way for chapters currently building the structures and supports they’ll need for upcoming elections in June, November and beyond.

A few examples:

Glendale: Coalition-building makes the difference

For the past few years, Glendale Teachers Association leaders and members have built effective coalitions with their community, including elected officials and local leaders, and numerous labor and health care partners. These strategic alliances have stood up to a wave of hate, bigotry and disinformation that saw educators receive threats of physical harm, an increase in bullying among students, and violence when Proud Boy extremists chased pride supporters out of a Glendale Unified School District board meeting. Their success was capped in the March Primary when voters elected former CTA board member Telly Tse and another GTA-endorsed candidate to the school board. The pair joined UTLA/CTA member Ingrid Gunnell, an incumbent on the board.

“Our PAC committee, chaired by GTA Vice President Emily Rogers, ran a very successful campaign,” explained GTA President Taline Arsenian. “We had a consistent and solid group of members showing up weekly to phone bank on Wednesdays and canvass door-to-door on Saturdays. We made several thousand phone calls and visited hundreds of homes. Our PAC sent out six mailers to voters in
support of each candidate in the two election areas.”

Arsenian says GTA, with 1,215 members, also relied on external help. “Because teachers are working for most of the day, we also had paid canvassers and phone callers in addition to a paid digital campaign. We were lucky enough to be awarded CTA ABC funds and a CTA special circumstances grant that doubled our PAC budget.”

In addition, the Los Angeles LGBT Center had reached out to GTA early in the school year after bigoted comments at public school meetings and attacks on state-approved LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum became known. “We all shared a sincere concern for the safety of our LGBTQ staff, students and community members,” said Arsenian. “It was important for the center to organize a campaign to promote understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ+ folks in our community. They focused their canvassers in the two areas that had open seats for the school board.”

Coalition-building by Arsenian and GTA had started much earlier, resulting in strong relationships based on common goals and a united front. Arsenian notes that “many local organizations, like the NUHW, the LA Federation of Labor, CSEA, Equality California, Southern California Armenian Democrats, East Area Progressives, the LA County Democratic Party, Glendale College Guild-AFT Local 2276, Glendale Democratic Club, glendaleOut, the Iranian-American Democrats of CA, Planned Parenthood, GUSD Parents for Public Schools and more all endorsed our endorsed candidates.”

As recently as January, GTA, NUHW, parents, students, local and state lawmakers and LGBTQ+ support groups held a news conference to denounce the ugly climate of hatred and fear in their community, and to promote inclusivity. “Our community and especially our schools are for everyone,” Arsenian said at the event.

Davis teachers help renew a parcel tax to boost education

DTA President Victor Lagunes, right, with a Davis firefighter.

Parcel taxes are one of the few sources of funding for school districts to supplement state or local funding. But because Proposition 13 bans tax increases based on a property’s value, parcel taxes must be a uniform amount per property, regardless of whether it’s a cottage, an apartment building or multi-room mansion. Parcel taxes also require 2/3rds of the vote to pass, as opposed to, for example, bond measures that require a simple majority.

So while Davis Teachers Association, with 500 members, supported the renewal of a parcel tax that funds 10% of the school district’s budget, its leadership anticipated opposition. “Opponents wanted to remove the clause that specified no expiration date, to make it an evergreen parcel tax so there would be no need to renew every four or eight years,” said DTA President Victor Lagunes. “And even though Davis is an education-focused town, we have a local chapter of Moms for Liberty that is actively spreading harmful rhetoric about our students and schools.”

DTA went to work in November immediately after Measure N was certified for the ballot, informing the community about the need to vote yes and building effective partnerships. “We were at the local farmers market week in week out with a crew talking to people, passing out flyers, getting commitments,” Lagunes said. “We knocked on or dropped literature at thousands of doors across Davis. We had a lot of people writing letters to the editor and submitting video to Davis Media Access about our ‘Yes’ campaign.

“We attended all PTO, PTA, Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club meetings. We got endorsements from each PTO/PTA to demonstrate support on our mailers.” They also reached out to community groups and former and current legislators for their endorsement, including from former state superintendent of public schools Delaine Easton.

“The number of DTA’s member volunteers — the actual workforce we brought to the campaign where teachers were actively promoting the importance of parcel tax funds for students and education — got a lot of visibility,” said Lagunes. “The standpoint of doing what was right for students gave us credibility.”

He credited earlier chapter efforts for the Measure N victory. “DTA has grown in its capacity to take political action over the last six-to-eight years. We’ve put in the time to build relationships with community. We go through pains to ensure that we are truly doing the will of our members and making sure everyone is informed and participates in the decisions we make. By the time we made the decision to support Measure N, I was certain we had members’ buy-in.”

TRUE votes out corruption

Below, TRUE members support Sascha Vogt.

Twin Rivers United Educators (TRUE) outside of Sacramento worked hard to unseat a corrupt, longtime school board trustee. In January, local news outlet ABC10 aired a 10-part investigative report that found a lack of transparency and oversight by the Twin Rivers school board and the board of one of its charter schools had resulted in misuse of funds. In addition, Linda Fowler, a Twin Rivers trustee since 1971 who also served on the charter’s board and had been instrumental in its 2014 founding, had been paid a hefty consulting fee; the state Fair Political Practices Commission said this was a conflict of interest. Fowler left the board but continued to draw a salary as a charter school employee for work the report found questionable. She also continued to be re-elected to the school board until TRUE mobilized members and community for the March Primary. TRUE’s endorsed candidate, Sascha Vogt, ousted Linda Fowler, and won with 55% of the vote.

In the wake of the ABC10 report, members of the California legislature have requested an audit of the charter school, its online division and foundation, and the Twin Rivers Unified School District. Watch the report at bit.ly/HighlandsCharterSchool.

Orange educators recall extremists

Orange Unified Education Association members joined their community to recall two conservative school board members, including the board president.

In the fall, a board majority had approved an illegal and harmful forced-outing policy. (Similar policies have been passed by governing boards in Anderson in Shasta County, Chino, Murrieta, Rocklin and Temecula.) The recall effort began in January 2023 when the board majority fired the school superintendent and placed an assistant superintendent on paid leave without explanation and over the objections of
many in the school community. It heated up when volunteers collected signatures to qualify the recall for the ballot; they attended festivals, stationed themselves outside schools and went door to door. Three hundred volunteer signature collectors signed a code of ethics, committing to acting in good faith and staying true to the campaign message. Teachers, many of whom live in the district, were among the canvassers.

OUEA President Greg Goodlander told the Orange County Register that the union’s message of “collaboration with parents to end the corruption and chaos” resonated with voters. In November’s general election, when more school board seats are on the ballot, he said, “I do not believe parents and teachers are done being involved in our school governance.”

Temecula’s critical June election

On June 4, Temecula Valley residents cast their ballot in a recall election of Joseph Komrosky, Temecula Valley Unified School District board president. The Temecula Valley Educators Association and One Temecula Valley PAC led efforts to recall the extremist. At press time, Komrosky was trailing by a narrow margin.

TVEA educators demand a board change.

“Temecula active and retired educators [have been] knocking on doors, making phone calls, rallying on corners to spread the word that student success is not a priority with this board,” said Edgar Díaz, TVEA president, of member efforts in the recall.

Komrosky, current trustee Jennifer Wiersma and former trustee Danny Gonzalez have been criticized in the past year and a half for banning Critical Race Theory, censoring instruction of California’s LGBTQ+ rights movement, supporting a forced outing policy, firing the superintendent, and more. After multiple educators and students were targeted and harassed for speaking out, TVEA joined a lawsuit in August against the school district for censoring instruction.

(Gonzalez resigned in December; his seat will be filled in the November election.)