LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles teachers strike entered its fifth day with hopes for a settlement building after a long day of negotiations.
Teams from L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles began new talks about noon Thursday and didn't finish their session until just after midnight Friday.
The length of the first day of talks was one hopeful sign. Another, perhaps, was a mutual understanding that neither side would discuss the content of negotiations in public. Competing news conferences had become a forum for harsh rhetoric and accusations of bad faith.
Talks were expected to resume about 11 a.m. Friday. Meanwhile, thousands of teachers and their supporters were expected to descend on Grand Park for a union rally at 10:30. Union leaders have told their 31,000 members on strike that they want to go into a weekend of negotiations strong. "We can't show one iota of relenting," union President Alex Caputo-Pearl said when he announced the return to negotiations Wednesday night.
The agreement to keep mum on details of the talks in progress was the first of any kind in recent days. Talks had ceased after union leaders rejected a revised district offer a week ago.
Another positive sign was a meeting just before negotiations began between L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner and Caputo-Pearl. They were brought together by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was hosting the bargaining at City Hall. Beutner and Caputo-Pearl did not take part in the bargaining session itself.
On Thursday, attendance at schools was the lowest yet during the strike, with about 17 percent of students showing up. L.A. Unified receives state funding _ its largest source of revenue _ based on attendance. Officials estimated the gross loss for the day at $28.1 million. Offsetting that somewhat is the fact that striking teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses are not being paid. Their pay adds up to about $10 million per day.
Schools are being kept open by skeleton staffs of administrators, substitutes and employees who are not members of the striking union. At some schools, employees of Local 99, which represents most non-teaching workers, have participated in sympathy strikes.
Juan Flecha, the head of the administrators union, said on Wednesday in a letter to Beutner that conditions at schools were "dire and unsafe."
In a note to the media he added: "The administrators have had enough and they are asking Beutner to stop threatening them, to stop forcing them to lie to the public and to even close down schools during the strike."
Beutner responded on Thursday. In a letter to Flecha, he thanked principals for their efforts but added that "students and families are counting on our schools to stay open."
There is still enthusiasm on the picket lines, especially with long days of heavy rains apparently coming to a close.
All schools seem to have active picket lines, but parents, students and teachers were planning their largest campus demonstration of the week at Third Street Elementary in Hancock Park.
The union was to hold its daily morning news conference and rally at Bell High School followed by the big gathering at Grand Park, facing City Hall.
But no details about negotiations were expected to emerge from either event.
After more than 21 months of back and forth, there was still much to hammer out. On salary, the two sides are not that far apart: L.A. Unified is offering a 6 percent raise spread out over the first two years of a three-year deal; the union wants 6.5 percent all at once, retroactive to a year earlier.
The district has sought to limit talks to a narrow range of topics. The union has laid out a more sweeping agenda, hoping to give teachers more say in decisions at schools and in district policy. The union also has demanded smaller class sizes and schools that are "fully staffed" with librarians, full-time nurses and more counselors.
The district has made revised offers that move in the direction of union demands, but officials said they can't afford to do more.
Garcetti, however, has said there were ways to break the deadlock quickly without breaking the bank.
