OUR SERVICES

Our team specializes in fostering collaboration and strengthening relationships within school district labor-management teams. We are dedicated to enhancing organizational effectiveness and improving student outcome through the active engagement of all key stakeholders. Our tailored approach equips districts with the tools and strategies to build trust, align goals, and drive lasting systems change through sustained, meaningful partnerships.

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RECURRING SUPPORT SERVICES

Coaching and Facilitation: Interactive, hands-on support designed to meet the unique needs of your district/county.

• Agenda Development: Clear, strategic agendas aligned with session goals, created in collaboration with staff to address priority topics and outcomes.
• Presentation Development: Engaging, professional presentations incorporating best practices for adult learning.
• Preparation Meetings: Pre-session alignment with staff to finalize goals, logistics, and materials.
• Follow-Up Meetings: Post-session debriefs to review outcomes, gather feedback, and support next steps for sustained progress.

Peer Learning Networks: Dynamic regional and statewide peer learning networks focused on knowledge exchange, professional development, and strategic alignment.

• Leadership Development Sessions: Structured opportunities to enhance leadership skills, foster strategic thinking, and align individual development with district/regional priorities.
• Peer Knowledge Exchange: Facilitated discussions and activities that enable participants to share experiences, challenges, and innovative practices for mutual growth.
• Communities of Practice: Structured networks that drive sustained partnerships, collective problem-solving, and initiative implementation across identified geo-regions.

STANDALONE SUPPORT SERVICES

Professional Development Training: Custom training sessions designed to support the development of skills and strategies to address district/county goals and challenges.

• Full-Day Training (6 hours): Includes a comprehensive session, resource guidebooks for participants, and detailed preparation and follow-up meetings. 
• Half-Day Training (3 hours): A condensed yet impactful session, complete with participant guidebooks, preparation, and follow-up.

Both options include:

• Custom Agendas: Aligned with district/county goals.
• Engaging Presentations: Tailored to objectives and designed for effective adult learning.
• Resource Guidebooks: Comprehensive materials for each participant.
• Pre- and Post- Support: Preparation and follow-up meetings to ensure relevance and sustainability.

Regional Convening: Shared learning and team building experience for district/county teams to learn together and build the foundation for collaboration.

• Facilitated Team-Building Activities: Engaging exercises designed to strengthen trust and improve communication across teams.
• Interactive Presentations: Sessions focused on foundational labor-management topics, including establishing shared goals, developing collaborative structures, and measuring progress.
• Resource Sharing and Networking: Opportunities to connect with other districts, share best practices, and learn from successful models of collaboration.

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WHY PARTNER WITH US?

• Expertise in Education: Deep knowledge of labor-management dynamics in school districts.
• Customized Solutions: Tailored approaches to meet the specific needs of your district/county.
• Proven Results: A track record of fostering collaboration and achieving measurable outcomes.

Ready to strengthen your labor-management partnership? Contact us to learn more or schedule a consultation.

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WHO IS INVOLVED?

The districts participating in the CA LMI represent the diversity of California school districts. From large to small, coastal to inland, and including elementary, high school and unified districts, these school systems are working to build and strengthen labor-management partnerships. The CA LMI provides a venue to bring together teams of board members, administrators, and union representatives. Participating leaders across California have highlighted the value of the CA LMI providing a place to learn together and build trust and relationships.

The CA LMI Steering Committee is made up of the top leadership from state education associations and labor unions representing California’s diverse educational workforce, including:

• Association of California School Administrators (ACSA)
• California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE)
• California County Superintendents
• California Department of Education (CDE)
• California Federation of Teachers (CFT)
• California School Boards Association (CSBA)
• California School Employees Association (CSEA)
• California Teachers Association (CTA)

Key State Leaders in Labor-Management and District Support

• Ray Gaer, Vice-President, ABC Federation of Teachers
• Mary Sieu, Dr. Gina Zietlow, Superintendent, ABC Unified
• Shannan Brown, Executive Director, San Juan Teachers Association

As the CA LMI has progressed, we have worked to build and leverage our relationships with our state partners. That effort has mirrored the relationship building that we see as critical at the district and school site level. The CA LMI continues to develop opportunities to empower educators to improve our public schools. We have benefited from the ongoing support of the Hewlett and Stuart Foundations and the partnership of California’s state education associations, with previous support from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Topic: Improve Staff Well-being: Tools & Insights for Labor Management Teams

Date: Monday, March 10 12-12:45pm, 45 minutes

Register Today!

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PAST EVENTS

CA LMI provides a safe, supportive learning environment where union and management leaders can collaboratively problem-solve utilizing structures, frameworks and research to collectively meet the needs of students and staff. CA LMI events are an opportunity for labor-management teams to learn from other districts, share insights, and plan their work together. Offerings range from half-day workshops to three-day-long conferences and feature keynote speakers, skill-building sessions, and facilitated team discussions. While some events such as webinars are designed for individual participation, most are designed with full teams in mind, and we encourage teams to participate together whenever possible.

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Discover the power of collaboration at CA LMI Regional Convenings!

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LEARN MORE!

Download the Resource Guidebook today.

The CA LMI Resource Guidebook is designed to support education leaders in developing deeper labor-management partnerships and augment CA LMI convenings for labor-management teams. The Guidebook provides an organized platform for tools, research, and strategies that help build and sustain labor-management partnerships engaged in collaborative solution-building. The Guidebook includes short descriptions of resources, suggestions for how to implement each element, and opportunities for joint reflection toward improvement. The guidebook is designed to be a working document for labor and management leaders throughout the school district or county office of education.

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The guidebook is a tool and not a step-by-step outline for building collaborative practices. Revisit sections as often as you need. We encourage you to use a highlighter, write on the book and focus on adapting the resources to your own context. This Resource Guidebook is an evolving document. We will continue to add tools and information. We encourage your feedback and submission of examples and materials for the continued development of this resource. With this guidebook in hand, education leaders will:

• Build, navigate and sustain effective labor-management partnerships
• Deepen their understanding of the issues of trust, equity and communication
• Review and practice learnings outside of structured convenings
• Improve the culture and climate of their school or system to improve outcomes for students and staff
• Develop solutions to the unique challenges of their community

This descriptive graphic from Simon Breakspear illustrates the three phases of organizational response to crises. COVID 19 was a crisis unlike any we had experienced. With the initial spread of the pandemic, organizations focused on the resilience needed to get through the crisis moment. But after that initial shock, institutions, including educational systems were in a period of necessary adaptation. It was clear at that time that the pandemic was not going to end quickly and educators had to adapt to the new reality. It is often noted that the pandemic put into plain view the many inequities of the education system. During the adaptation phase, new ideas began being tested for addressing the now starkly exposed education system deficiencies. In the Breakspear curve, and in life, the progression from crisis to adaptation leads to opportunity. Using collaborative problem solving, it is time for unions and management to come together to remove outdated and unuseful programs and strategies, grow the adaptations that show promise, and create a coherent education system that empowers its employees to collectively focus on meeting the needs of all learners.

Using the Resource Guidebook

This Resource Guidebook is designed to provide labor and management leaders and teams with accessible tools to build a sustainable culture that encourages teams to be engaged in problem-solving using collaborative professionalism. This is not a one-size-fits-all, rather, this Resource Guidebook is designed to assist you with implementing a labor-management partnership that best suits the needs of your education system.

Tools, frameworks and materials throughout this guidebook are meant to help education leaders deepen their ability to create positive change in their organizations. That effort requires education leaders to continuously focus on two key areas, self-awareness and systems awareness. Tools in this resource provide an insight into both.

RESOURCES

If you are interested in learning more about CA LMI you can also view our CA LMI Resource Library. The California Labor Management Initiative provides districts and county offices with three tiers of support to advance labor-management collaboration. Sign up for our monthly eBlasts to ensure you receive upcoming events and resources!

You can also download our 2025 Overview Sheet here, and our Comprehensive Support Services here.

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Our newest resources include:

• CA LMI Overview & FAQ sheet
• Three Pillars of Collaboration poster (visual below)
• Video: The CA LMI Three Pillars of Collaboration
• CA LMI Resource Guidebook 2024
• A Guide to Building a System of Collaborative Problem Solving

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Resources from Past Events & Partners 

• 2021 Summer Institute Resources & more!
• Leading Forward in 2021 – A self-paced video series collaboration between CA LMI and CCEE
• 2020 Virtual Summit Resources!
  • Five-minute Virtual Summit summary video
  • Virtual Summit keynote by  Dr Pedro Noguera
  •  YouTube channel Summit playlist
• Webinar: Leading Through Uncertainty: Organizational Learning and Renewal During COVID – View the Webinar Recording
• Webinar – Prioritizing through Uncertainty: Leading with principles of Trust, Equity, and Communication. View the Webinar Recording
• 2020 Southern California Network Convening: Shared Resource Folder
• 2020 Central Valley Network Convening: Shared Materials Folder
• Sacramento/El Dorado Regional Network: Shared Materials Folder
• Monterey Regional Network: Shared Material Folder
• 2019 Northern California Network Convening: Shared Materials Folder
• 2019 Summer Institute Pre-Conference & Summer Institute: Shared Materials Folder
• Learning Lab on Social Emotional Learning & School Climate: Agenda &
• 2018 Fall NorCal Network Convening: Agenda & Shared Materials Folder

OUR APPROACH

We convene labor-management teams from across California to promote inquiry into the processes that promote effective system-wide collaboration. We catalyze and promote collaboration in districts through ongoing support and by connecting union-management teams in regional and statewide peer networks. We facilitate communication across districts, state associations and educational stakeholder groups.

Building capacity in school systems and educators to increase collaboration and collective trust is central to creating the conditions for change that improve outcomes for students and staff. Recent research from Professors Saul Rubinstein and John McCarthy of Rutgers and Cornell Universities respectively has demonstrated the powerful impacts of labor-management collaboration on student achievement and staff retention.

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DISTRICT STORIES

The CA LMI works with leading education researchers to highlight stories of labor-management partnerships across California.  These stories from practitioners in the field highlight the work of educators transforming labor-management practices in school systems to intentionally move across the partnership continuum and improve outcomes for students and staff.  Please use these examples to learn about approaches to drive change and improvement in your organization.

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Labor-Management Cooperation in Times of Crisis: The St. Helena Unified School District – December 2022

What’s inside: ”A catastrophe a year.” That’s how teacher union president Brandon Farrell described life in the St. Helena Unified School District begin­ning in Fall 2017. In the two years between October 2017 and October 2019, this small Napa Valley district experienced several major wildfires-the Atlas and Tubbs fires in October 2017, the Camp Fire (which destroyed the town of Paradise) in November 2018, and the Kincade Fire in October 2019. Though flames did not directly threaten district buildings, heavy drifting smoke and intermit­tent PG&E blackouts forced schools to close for days at a time. Then on March 13, 2020, Covid shuttered schools for nearly eight months. As fall 2020 approached and the district began to consider reopening schools, the LN U Lightning Complex and Glass fires struck, putting those plans on hold.

This CA LMI Spotlight examines St. Helena’s experiences with these serial crises. How did the district prepare for them? What role did labor-management relationships play in crisis management? Download the Report PDF here.

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Grappling with Covid’s Impact on Education: Labor and Management Confront the Crisis – May 2021

What’s inside: The CDE Foundation is proud to release the report Grappling with Covid’s Impact on Education: Labor and Management Confront the Crisis, by Dr. Julia Koppich. As we move into fall and the beginning of a new school year, California school districts are facing myriad decisions. This new PACE commentary focuses on the kinds of decisions districts and unions are confronting together as well as on the ways in which collaborative labor-management relations can contribute to a stronger education system designed to meet all students’ needs. Researcher/Author Julia E. Koppich suggests that districts and unions collaboratively address challenges; focus on equity; allocate resources for sustained impact; think creatively about staffing needs; ensure schools are safe and healthy environments; and consider giving expanded decision-making authority to school-level labor-management teams. A solid labor-management partnership is essential to rebuilding and reinvigorating education systems in the wake of COVID-19.

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Dinuba’s Journey: From Conflict to Cooperation – October 2020

What’s inside: Before collaboration was a labor-management norm in Dinuba, principals would bring school level problems to the district to resolve. As both the district and DTA acknowledge, district-developed resolutions often satisfied night principals nor teachers.

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CCEE – Building a Culture of Trust – June 2020

What’s inside: A two-year partnership with Monterey County Office of Education and district labor-management teams across the region is at the center in this new publication from the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE).  It also includes information on the regional network, set up by CA LMI, to support and strengthen labor-management partnerships at County offices.  The work of Alisal Union School District, a four-year partner of LMI,  is also highlighted.

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CCEE – The SJUSD Approach –November 2020

With evolving state guidelines and considerations, local partnerships are critical in ensuring a safe return to schools. The #ComeBackCASchools campaign spotlights LEAs’ collaborative approaches to support instruction and address all potential factors that could influence the continuity of learning.  CCEE’s spotlight on San Juan Unified School District (SJUSD) showcases the long-standing partnership between SJUSD and its teacher union, the San Juan Teachers Association (SJTA), that allowed for the last-minute shift back to distance learning more manageable. Built on a foundation of trust, this collaborative relationship operates from a theory of action and a core set of shared beliefs, which guided SJUSD’s strategic priorities for the 2020-21 school year.

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Collaboration and Addressing Student Needs: A Rural District’s Response to COVID-19 – June 2020

What’s inside: COVID-19 has disrupted California’s education system in fundamental ways. Districts across the state are quickly creating strategies to serve all students, and many are designing their responses around the needs of their most vulnerable students. This brief highlights the response of Mother Lode Union School District (MLUSD) to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which district staff and teachers were able to collaborate—despite the unprecedented crisis—to meet student needs. The district has been a part of the CA LMI Sacramento/El Dorado Regional Network.

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  Impact of the CEC Labor-Management Partnership in Santa Clara California – October 2019

What happens when a concerted effort is invested in promoting healthy relationships between education leaders and practitioners? The Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) in partnership with the Santa Clara Labor Management Partnership has spent the last five years focused on doing just that. This case study highlights the impact of the efforts to support stronger relationships and collaboration to improve teaching and learning in Santa Clara Unified School District, Santa Clara, California. CEC facilitated the effort to repair frayed communication throughout the district with the end goal of improving communication structures between the school sites and the district office, and elevating teacher and student performance and satisfaction.

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The ABC’s Partnership: Creating a Labor-Management Partnership Focused on Student Achievement – 2012

Since 1999, ABCUSD and ABCFT have built and sustained a partnership that now serves as a strong example of labor-management collaboration. Their early and ongoing experiences are inspiring other unions and districts—from as far away as South Africa—to create a new way of working together. This handbook is intended to provide a more detailed look at how the district and the union achieved their successful partnership, and to offer suggestions that other school districts and employee unions can follow to reach a similar level of trust and collaboration.

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Case Studies of Three California School Districts – Alhambra, San Juan and Pomona – Spring 2016

Responding to recommendations of the former SPI Tom Torlakson’s Blueprint 2.0, CDE Foundation collaborated with the leaders of California’s largest public education organizations and launched the California Labor-Management Initiative (CA LMI) in spring 2015 at a symposium in San Diego. Teams of superintendents, labor leaders, and school board members from 47 school districts across California participated in the symposium to learn about labor-management partnerships and their impact on student learning. An additional 50 district and county office teams attended similar regional events later that fall. In 2016, 42 of the 97 teams that attended these introductory meetings participated in a round of regional convenings that explored labor-management practices in greater depth. To build on the state’s knowledge base about how these partnerships work and their impact on school effectiveness, the CDE Foundation sponsored case studies of 3 California school districts that are engaged in labor-management collaboration and have participated in at least one of the CA LMI convenings.

HISTORY

“Partnership and teamwork are critical to closing the achievement gap in California’s schools and districts. Since the launch of the California Labor Management Initiative, the CA LMI has sought to advance continuous improvement and make labor-management collaboration an integral part of improving public schools and advancing equity in California” — Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction

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The initial public convening of the CA LMI in 2015 was the result of significant planning with state education leaders, as well as the desire of State Superintendent Tom Torlakson to focus on building in-district collaboration to improve outcomes for California public school students. By 2017, the CA LMI engaged over a hundred school systems across California. The Initiative continues to focus on capacity building at the district and site level to support collaboration, goal alignment, accountability and pedagogy.

Utilizing Michael Fullan’s Coherence Framework and Patrick Dolan’s School System Boundaries approach, the CA LMI focuses school and district leaders on developing structures and practices that foster collaboration and staff voice, building systems for continuous improvement to improve outcomes for students and staff, parents and communities.

To improve our ability to deliver effective capacity-building opportunities for educators, we embarked on a strategic planning process with the generous support of the Stuart Foundation. Bringing together key partners such as the Consortium for Educational Change (CEC), leadership from the California Department of Education, California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and Saul Rubinstein from Rutgers University, we began our latest strategic planning work in the summer of 2017.

These partners were joined by leaders from districts across the state that included superintendents and administrators, certificated and classified union presidents and school board members from a variety of districts that have engaged with CA LMI over the past two years. With the help of the CA LMI Steering Committee, we have further refined and developed our plans resulting in the 2018-2020 CA LMI Strategic Plan. 

We invite and encourage educators and civic leaders across California to join us in the work of making collaborative problem-solving and capacity building a key driver for public school improvement. We continue to be energized by the broad level of support for building the capacity in California to drive deep authentic partnerships and improve school culture. Recent research demonstrates that this work can make a lasting impact on public education’s ability to ensure that all our state’s children have a strong educational foundation and equitable outcomes.

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FAQs

What is the CA LMI?

The California Labor Management Initiative, a project of the CDE Foundation, brings together public school union and management leaders to co-develop structures and practices that lift staff voices and build systems for continuous improvement to create better outcomes for students and staff, parents and communities. The CA LMI fosters and supports labor-management partnerships as a foundational element of improving public schools and advancing educational equity in California.

Why should my team participate?

CA LMI convenings provide safe, supportive learning environments in which public school union and management leaders can have tough conversations that lead to collaborative problem-solving utilizing structures, frameworks and research to collectively meet the needs of students and staff.  The CA LMI provides labor-management teams hands-on tools to lift issues and co-develop practical solutions to improve outcomes.

How do we get started?

We encourage teams to sign up to attend our convenings to begin the process. Events for new teams are held several times a year. You can find upcoming events on our CA LMI website. Please contact labormanagement@cdefoundation.org for additional information on engaging your team.

Who should participate in my labor-management team?

Most teams typically include at a minimum, the Superintendent, Classified and Certificated Union Presidents and a school board member. Additional key leaders may include the Asst. Supt for HR, Chief Academic Officer and other top union executive officers. As teams continue to participate they typically add site labor-management leaders such as principals and building reps.  Larger districts often roll out the effort via cohorts of school site teams once the district level leadership has engaged.

Can I participate as an individual?

We encourage you to connect with your labor and management leadership to organize your labor-management team attendance at CA LMI events.  Some virtual events such as webinars are designed for individual participation but we encourage teams to participate together whenever possible.

What state agencies and associations are involved?

The CA LMI works closely with the California Department of Education and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence. State educational associations representing teachers, classified staff, administrators, and school board members, also play a critical role in advancing labor-management collaboration on a broad scale.  CA LMI has had ongoing support from leaders of state associations and agencies, as demonstrated by their participation on our Steering Committee and involvement in CA LMI statewide institutes and trainings. The CA LMI Steering Committee members meet at least once a year to provide high-level guidance to the CA LMI team and connections to their members. Representatives from state partners include: 

• • • ACSA: Association of California School Administrators
    • CCS: California County Superintendents 
    • CCEE: California Collaborative for Educational Excellence
    • CDE: California Department of Education
    • CFT: California Federation of Teachers
    • CSBA: California School Boards Association
    • CSEA: California School Employees Association
    • CTA: California Teachers Association

What research supports this work?

Studies from researchers such as Anthony Bryk have highlighted the importance of developing collective trust among school staff.  In a labor-management context, more recent research from Saul Rubinstein and John McCarthy from Rutgers and Cornell Universities has shown the impact of labor-management partnership and collaboration on student achievement and staff retention. These impacts are particularly pronounced in high poverty schools. For instance, their work found that teacher turnover in high-poverty schools was 3.5 times the rate of that in low-poverty schools when school-level educator collaboration was low. However, when collaboration was high, there was no statistical difference between turnover in high-poverty and low-poverty schools.

Additionally, Rubenstein & McCarthy found that formal union-management partnerships at the district-level seem to be a catalyst for building highly collaborative schools, finding that district partnerships are positively associated with school collaboration.

How does labor-management partnerships interact with district bargaining processes?

Developing labor-management partnerships is not a substitute for collective bargaining and the CA LMI does not get involved in negotiations. Participating with the CA LMI and building labor-management partnerships is often cited by labor and management leaders as being helpful in providing additional problem-solving strategies/opportunities outside the formal bargaining process.

Is this work supported at the national level?

The effort of the CA LMI has been joined on the national level with the recent activity of the National Labor Management Partnership (NLMP).  The NLMP is a working group comprised of the American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, National School Boards Association, and the National Education Association (NEA).  From their 2018 National Call to Action to their recent NEA workbook Collaborating for Student Success, there is a growing recognition of the importance of effective labor relations in improving public education.  

What labor-management teams have participated?

Over 185 district and county office labor-management teams have participated with the CA LMI since our start in 2015. 

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If you have any questions that are not listed here, please contact our team at labormanagement@cdefoundation.org. 

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LET’S WORK TOGETHER!

Ready to strengthen your labor-management partnership? Contact us to learn more or participate in our initiatives.

• Email: LaborManagement@cdefoundation.org
• Newsletter Signup: Learn more and sign up here!
• Contact Number: 866.259.0521