The Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles are at a standstill in their contract talks, making it more likely there will be a strike on January 10.

If no compromise is reached, over 33,000 teachers and staff from LAUSD could walk off the job on Thursday. 

"We have to make sure everybody understands the facts," LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said during an appearance on The Beat on 1 Friday morning. "Then we have to go forward. What we'd like to do is resolve things, the path forward is to quickly resolve this in the interest in our students and families and start working together witih Sacramento."

To reach an agreement, the union is asking for a 6.5 percent pay raise, which the district has countered by offering 6 percent. The union also wants overcrowding in classrooms addressed as well as lack of counselors and nurses, and inadequate technology.

Beuther said the district has offered to invest $30 million in further reducing class size as well as hiring additional counselors, nurses and librarians. He also added that a state-appointed neutral fact-finder who was hired to help broker a deal, agreed that a 6 percent raise is reasonable. However, the $2 billion surplus the district currently has, and the union has said could be used to reinvest in schools, will disappear soon if spending continues to rise.

"We're spending about half a billion dollars more than we take in," Beutner said. "You're running out of money, you're spending the reserve, and when it runs out you'll be in big trouble."

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On Thursday, LAUSD filed a legal application to move forward with a complaint to prevent special-education teachers and support staff from leaving the classroom if a compromise is not met.

"We have to serve our students and a strike has consequences - it impacts children, it impacts their families," said Beutner. "Our obligation, our duty is to make sure schools are safe, children are safe in school, that they're learning and we have to do everything we can for that student, which means keeping school open, keeping that student learning, and allowing that family to still have a normal life."

According to a blog post from UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl published Thursday, the union has grown weary after 20 months of bargaining.

"We and our students have been disrespected by the privatizers, the district, and those whom they have sent to the bargaining table. Enough is enough," Caputo-Pearl wrote.

"If we have to strike on January 10, we will be carried by the momentum of more than 50,000 people marching in the streets of downtown L.A. on December 15. We will be carried by the incredible energy, positive spirit, and desire to fight for our public neighborhood schools that pervaded through every moment and inch of that incredible march."

Beutner said the district still hopes to reach an agreement.

"We've said consistently, we'll meet anywhere, anytime around the clock to solve this," Beuther stated. "We don't want a strike. A strike hurts students, it hurts families, it hurts our community, so we're going do everything we can to avoid a strike. Last I heard there's a meeting set for Monday. The mayor invited us to come to city hall, we'll take him up on that invitation... I intend to go, I'll be present, I hope Mr. Caputo-Pearl will be present so we can resolve this."