Will LA’s Union Challenge Lawsuit Settlement
I have written extensively about the plight of Markham Middle school in Los Angeles Unified (here andhere). After years of half hearted reforms, Markham implemented a school turnaround strategy under the leadership of the Mayor’s new school partnership. Unfortunately, after hiring a new principal and largely new staff, the district faced with budget cuts, laid off over half of the new teachers at the school because of teacher seniority rules. This lead to a lawsuit by the ACLU to protect Markham and two other schools decimated in similar ways. Last week, the district, state and ACLU came to a settlement that makes a lot of sense. I recommended a similar type of compromise a while ago (here). Basically, these schools would be protected from disproportionate layoffs. So, if the district had to cut 5 percent of teachers in the district, it could only cut 5 percent of the teachers at one of these schools.
And, faced with ongoing state budget problems, the end of stimulus/edujobs funds, flat/declining enrollment and