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Only about one-third of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) attended school on Monday as thousands of Los Angeles public school teachers went on strike.
According to preliminary data obtained by the Los Angeles Times, 141,631 students showed up to classes on Monday. The district enrolls roughly 485,000 students.
District officials told the Times that 54 of the 1,240 schools had not yet provided their attendance numbers.
The United Teachers Los Angeles union began its strike after months of contract negotiations regarding pay raises, class sizes and staffing stalled.
An estimated 400 substitute teachers and 2,000 staffers have been brought in to teach students in the nation’s second-largest school district during the strike.
Thousands of picketing teachers and union members protested outside the district’s schools.
“We’re marching for the future of public education,” elementary school teacher Michael La Mont told the Times. “No one’s doing this for fun. We’re missing our kids. It’s raining. We’re not going to get paid.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) said he was hopeful that the two sides could reach an agreement before the strike went on for too long.
“This is the time to make an agreement,” he said. “There is not much that separates the two sides. And there has been movement toward what the teachers have demanded and what the district can afford.”
The strike is the first by the Los Angeles Unified union in more than 30 years. The United Teachers Los Angeles went on strike Monday following months of failed negotiations over pay raises, class sizes and school staffing.
The LAUSD teachers are demanding a 6.5 percent immediate pay raise to go into effect within one year, in addition to “fully staffed” schools. The district has offered a 6 percent raise over two years of a three-year contract.