LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):
LA Unified District 1 special election narrows to 9 candidates
The original field of 13 candidates vying for the vacant LA Unified school board seat just got smaller. Thirteen candidates had expressed interest in the District 1 race, but at the 5 p.m. deadline today, only nine filed the required petitions to qualify to appear on the ballot. The June 3 special election was called after longtime school board member, Marguarite LaMotte died in office. The nine w
School board race gets ugly with accusations of resume padding
Genethia Hudley-Hayes, Candidate for School Board The race for LA Unified’s open board seat took a dramatic turn today as Alex Johnson’s campaign accused a rival, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, of “deliberately falsifying” her academic credentials. Roy Behr, Johnson’s political consultant, said research into her background found discrepancies in her resume and, in a meeting yesterday with his counterpart
Teacher in Vergara trial blames student for performing poorly
Vickie Decker For the second time this week, the defense in Vergara vs. California today turned to a teacher characterized as “ineffective” by a plaintiff in the case to show a starkly different picture. Vickie Decker, a middle school math teacher, refuted assertions by Jose Macias, the father of student plaintiff, Julia Macias, who had claimed in earlier testimony that Decker was harmful to his d
As deadline nears, only 3 have qualified for District 1 race
With the 5 pm deadline just hours away, only three of the 13 candidates who expressed an interest in running for the vacant District 1 LA Unified board seat have qualified for the ballot. By the close of business yesterday, according to the city clerk’s office, George McKenna, Sherlett Newbill and Alex Johnson have submitted the required signature petitions and fees to qualify for the June 3 speci
Morning Read: Budget cuts push young teachers out
New teachers scarce after state funding cuts Young teachers have become far more scarce in California classrooms after school districts slashed their budgets to survive the recession. From 2008 to 2013, California saw a 40 percent drop in teachers with less than six years’ experience, according to a Sacramento Bee review of state data. Sacramento Bee California school spending goal would cost $3
MAR 06
Vergara witness says state laws governing teachers work
Cal-Berkeley professor Jesse Rothstein The battle of the experts continued today in Vergara vs. California as an expert in labor economics and public policy called by the defense provided rationales for keeping in place the state laws governing teachers that are under challenge in the case. Jesse Rothstein, a professor at Cal-Berkeley and a former senior economist on the U.S. Council of Economic A
Quietly, LA Unified gets a voice in place for District 1
Sylvia Rousseau After school board member Marguerite LaMotte died, her district — which stretches from Palms to Central Los Angeles — went without a voice for 89 days. That ended Tuesday, when the Los Angeles Unified School Board hired Sylvia Rousseau as a temporary “liaison” for the community. The appointment approved by unanimous consent after little fanfare and no public debate. Rousseau, who w
E4E poses questions, 10 candidates for union chief answer
Educators 4 Excellence, a teacher advocacy group comprised of members of the Los Angeles teachers union, UTLA, has developed an interactive election guide focusing on the 10 candidates running for UTLA president. The guide poses four questions and provides audio responses from each candidate. The interviews were conducted earlier this week and are included in a larger package of information about
Morning Read: LA schools welcome sweeping changes to the SAT
Students, area school staff embrace changes to SAT Pablo Muñoz is no stranger to academic rigor. And don’t expect him to shirk additional work. As many cheered sweeping changes to the SAT — such as the optional essay — the 15-year-old Loyola High School sophomore is likely not to skip that portion. “I would probably do the essay because I think it could give me a slight edge over test takers,” he
MAR 05
In Vergara, defense witness says districts can overcome ineffective teachers
Robert Fraisse The defense in Vergara v California began its case today, calling to the witness stand a veteran educator whose testimony about identifying and dealing with ineffective teachers came in stark contrast to the views of earlier witnesses in the case. Robert Fraisse, whose career included serving as superintendent in three California school districts, appeared to give the defense a boos
Tensions rise as UTLA candidate take on issues, each other
David Garcia (left), Alex Caputo-PearlCandidates for President of UTLA Tensions deepened last night among the candidates running for the top job at United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) as one of them came close to a physical confrontation with another after the event ended. Hosted by the teacher advocacy group, Educators4Excellence, at City Hall in Boyle Heights, the event played before a crowd of a
Commentary: Where I would spend the ‘Local Control’ money
Want to play the least fun game in the world? It’s called “Principal for a Day.” I know, back when you were five, it used to sound so fun to follow the principal around, issuing commands—Extra recess for everyone! Free donuts in the cafeteria!—but thanks to years of budget cuts, the game is no longer any fun, unless you really love crying over a pile of spreadsheets. After the passage of Prop 30,
LA Unified board votes to pay Deasy for unused vacation
Superintendent John Deasy: Little time for vacation Superintendent John Deasy works too much. So much so, that he rarely takes time off for vacation. As a result, the Los Angeles Unified School board voted at its monthly meeting yesterday to pay him for up to 24 days of unused vacation time, the equivalent of nearly $30,000 added to his annual salary of $330,000, according to Megan Reilly, the dis
Morning Read: CA moving away from bilingual education
Calif. Bill Would Repeal Bilingual-Education Restrictions A new bill that seeks to repeal California’s long-running restrictions on bilingual education may be only the most recent signal of a shifting political climate around English-language-learner instruction in that state. California drew national attention in 1998 when voters passed Proposition 227, a ballot measure that severely restricted t
MAR 04
Judge rules Vergara case goes on; defense case starts Wednesday
Judge Rolf Treu, L.A. Superior Court After giving lawyers one more chance to make their arguments today, Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled that Vergara v California will proceed, denying the defendants’ request to throw the case out. As defendants, the state and its two biggest teachers unions tried to persuade the judge that in four weeks of testimony, the plaintiffs — nine students — did not
Breaking News: Judge allows Vergara case to continue
Elizabeth Vergara Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu resumed the Vergara v California trial today by telling lawyers for both sides that he would allow the case to continue. After hearing oral arguments from both sides, he denied the defendants’ request to dismiss the case based on a lack of evidence. “The court finds sufficient evidence, credible evidence, to move forward with a trial,” Treu said. De
With testing moratorium, LAUSD crafts its own for ELL shift
With a year-long state moratorium on standardized testing, LAUSD is crafting its own assessment to determine if English learning students are ready for an English-only curriculum. The new tests will look a lot like the tests they replace, said Hilda Maldonado, director of the LAUSD Multilingual and Multicultural department. The district had initially sought to purchase the old CST tests independen
Livestream coverage of today’s LAUSD school board meeting
LA Unified School Board members meet today with a hefty agenda that includes charter school renewals, approving building repairs and a possible discussion about how to spend the new local control funding (though that will likely be put off for a future meeting). 1:00 p.m.: LA Unified School Board Meeting click LIVESTREAM LAUSD
Hamilton High School Students Perform “Happy” at Oscars 2014 (VIDEO)
19 students from LA Unified’s Academy of Music at Hamilton High School performed “Happy” with Pharrell at Sunday’s Academy Awards Ceremony, a show viewed by 300 million people across the globe. The video has gone viral – enjoy!
Vergara trial resumes but for how long — a day or maybe weeks
Judge Rolf Treu, L.A. Superior Court It could be a monumental day in the Vergara vs. California trial. Or it could just lead to more testimony. Lawyers are expecting California Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu to decide whether to throw the case out, as the defendants are asking, or keep it going, as the plaintiffs are urging. The decision turns on whether he believes the plaintiffs, after four week
Does experience count? LAUSD candidates vie for attention
An experience gap is emerging as an election issue — that’s one of the takeaways as south LA residents got an early look yesterday at some of candidates in the highly contested race to fill the vacant LA Unified school board seat. The forum attracted 5 of the 13 contenders in the special election scheduled for June 3. They mostly agreed with each other on the issues but offered only few specifi
Morning Read: UTLA leader threatens complaints over ‘jails’
In survey, union leader vows to file complaints over ‘teacher jails’ Los Angeles teachers union president Warren Fletcher lashed out at the school district Monday for its handling of teachers accused of misconduct, vowing to file federal and state age-discrimination complaints. LA Times Severely disabled are to face double testing this spring Thousands of the state’s most severely disabled studen
MAR 03
Teachers union plans leaflet push for raises, smaller classes
The Los Angeles teachers union, UTLA, is planning to blanket the district with leaflets tomorrow to build support among parents for smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools and raises. With help from health and human services workers, teachers intend to pass out informational leaflets before and, in some cases, after school. The leaflets ask parents to contact LA Unified board members to push fo
Zimmer introducing plan to give students a role with school board
Fresh off his (unsuccessful) effort to get a District 1 voice onto the LA Unified school board right away, trustee Steve Zimmer is returning to the monthly board meeting tomorrow with a plan that would lead to another voice with influence on the board: Students. Zimmer is introducing a measure — the Student Engagement and Empowerment Resolution of 2014 — that would create a student advisory member
Vergara lawyers await decision on whether to let case proceed
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Marcellus McRae After a one-week recess, the court resumes tomorrow in the case of Vergara vs. California. Attorneys for both the defense and the nine student plaintiffs are gearing up for what could turn out to be a critical juncture in this landmark case. Before Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu is whether to throw the case out or let it proceed with the defense calling its serie
Morning Read: LAUSD board to consider more computer science
L.A. school board to consider expansion of computer science offerings An initiative to address the shortage of computer science offerings in the L.A. Unified School District will go before the school board Tuesday. Only one-in-three of the district’s high schools are offering a basic course this year, and far fewer are offering the Advanced Placement Computer Science course. KPCC Boyle Heights s