Education Headlines
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Coachella Valley Unified's remote schools suffer due to unreliable Internet, broken promises
While rural Salton City faces some of the steepest connectivity challenges, the Coachella Valley Unified School District has struggled for years to keep its far-flung schools online. The school district's attempts to upgrade access have been hampered by internal missteps and the aging infrastructure of the rural communities it serves.Teachers union leader put on leave by Twin Rivers
Twin Rivers Unified School District has placed its teachers union President John Ennis on paid administrative leave while police investigate an allegation that he was involved in an altercation Wednesday with one of his special education students.Car allowances for San Juan school officials separated from salaries
Car allowances aren't new. The San Juan Unified School District has been giving them for years to administrators who are expected to travel between school facilities, but you may not have known it. The board decided recently to pull the car allowance out of the base salary and list it separately to create more transparency.Cupertino Union hires new superintendent
The Cupertino Union School District has reached across the bay to hire its next superintendent. Wendy Gudalewicz, the chief academic officer in the New Haven School District in Union City, was chosen to replace Phil Quon, who will retire June 30. Gudalewicz begins a three-year contract July 1 leading the 18,650-student district.LAUSD plans solo effort for $25M in Race to the Top grants
With its eye on a $25 million prize, Los Angeles Unified is gearing up to compete in the Race to the Top, a federal grant program that for the first time is open to individual school districts.Most students eagerly count the days until summer vacation, but homeless children will lose safe havens
There were 220,738 homeless students attending schools in California last year. Nationwide, the number of homeless students could surpass 1 million this year for the first time, said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. Unlike most schoolchildren, they're not looking forward to summer vacation, she said.Increasingly, teachers rely on volunteers to fill gaps
Volunteer Curtis Winton is one man who stands out in a crowd. He's tall. Walks proudly. And has a smile that you just gravitate toward. It's no surprise that even in his 60s, Winton is popular with students within the Rialto Unified School District.Pajaro Valley board wrestles with bond measure
An aging water tank at Aptos High School is leaking and needs to be replaced. The estimated cost: $800,000 to $1.1 million. It's the latest in a series of breakdowns at Pajaro Valley schools.Inland Empire educators, administrators dance around California's deferrals
A cut in income is bad enough. Paychecks that arrive months after payday make it even harder. That's the situation California school districts find themselves in, because of a policy that since the 2008-09 fiscal year has delayed paying billions of dollars -- money that the California constitution requires go from the state's general fund to K-12 school districts -- until months after they're owed.Governor Brown's education aid plan in hands of voters
Public school officials and employees hope increased taxes will be able to help alleviate some of the hurt they've experienced from recent cutbacks.Potential teacher shortage developing in California's public schools
California could be facing a teacher shortage in the coming years if it doesn't find a way to attract fresh recruits to replace a wave of baby boomers set to retire soon, educational scholars say.Reign of state trustees at Alisal and Greenfield comes to a close
California officially ended its control of Alisal and Greenfield elementary school districts Friday as the two-year tenure of state trustees Carmella Franco and Norma Martinez drew to a close.Smith: No Child Left Behind’s successor, smartly written, can make impact
If you had $23 billion a year dedicated to improving low-income children’s education and addressing a wide variety of other congressionally negotiated purposes, what would you do?New high school academy teaches Oakland teens about land use and community health
The Sustainable Urban Design Academy at Castlemont instructs students to take stock of their surroundings -- green space and transit hubs, empty lots and liquor stores, churches and businesses -- with a critical lens. The new academy, now at Castlemont's East Oakland School of the Arts, is one of many interdisciplinary efforts in the city's high schools.Several Inland Empire school districts fall short of financial security
More than a dozen area school districts are among the nearly 200 public education agencies facing serious financial challenges, according to a report released by the California Department of Education.Epithet that divides Mexicans is banned by Oxnard school district
"Oaxaquita' (little Oaxacan) is used by other Mexicans to demean their indigenous compatriots — who are estimated to make up 30% of California's farmworkers.New research highlights need for better reporting on chronic absenteeism
A new report on chronic absenteeism confirms its status as a major barrier to pupil success but says efforts to define the scope of the problem are hampered by a dearth of absenteeism data.Two local districts listed by state as financially troubled
When students graduate from schools in Butte and Glenn counties over the next two years, teachers, courses and athletic programs may be leaving with them.Eight superintendents’ CORE push to improve California schools
Driven perhaps by frustration over what many see as California’s failure to properly prioritize education, eight of the state’s most influential superintendents have taken reform into their own hands.Fensterwald: Figuring out your district’s weighted funding
The state Department of Finance has released the district allocations under Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised plan for weighted student funding that shaves off the peaks, fills in the valleys, and includes other changes that make allotments flatter, arguably fairer, and potentially more politically palatable to those who criticized aspects of the formula.California schools rev up bond drives
Year after year of state budget cuts have pushed school districts throughout California – and several locally – to ask voters to approve new revenue streams in the form of bond measures for building repairs and new technology.Friday, May 25, 2012