LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):
LAUSD may create the nation’s largest saxophone ensemble ever
LAUSD just might create the largest saxophone ensemble ever tomorrow at the Make Music Los Angeles celebration to commemorate the 200th birthday of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone. Make Music LA, a city-based nonprofit, along with the district’s Beyond the Bell (BTB) program and other organizations are calling saxophone players of all ages and skill level to Silver Lake Meadow for the 11-ho
CA voters getting chance to tell districts how much to spend
A ballot measure that goes before California voters in November seeking to amend the state Constitution has a controversial section that deals with strings attached to money school districts have controlled on their own. In effect, the state would have the right to place a cap on how much money a district can keep in reserve, which sounds simple enough. But LA Unified and other big school district
Rousseau’s LAUSD legacy, a push for standard English learning
Sylvia Rousseau Sylvia Rousseau, the temporary liaison for LA Unified School District 1, is leaving her post on a high note. Throughout her four-month tenure, Rousseau has been an avid advocate for the district’s Standard English Learners, a group of “invisible” students, as she calls them, who consistently perform well below grade level on all types of standardized tests. Last week, her work pai
Morning Read: Charter schools use 100K to oppose bond
Charter schools’ $100,000 opposition helps sink district’s bond measure Earlier this month, and for the first time, the political arm of the California Charter Schools Association campaigned heavily against a proposed school construction bond in a district that hadn’t agreed to share the proceeds with charter schools. EdSource One more push for pesticide control on school grounds The third time m
JUN 19
Vergara aside, CA lawmakers considering bill to expand tenure
Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Democrat While much of the state waits out the appeal process in Vergara v. California, one member of the California assembly is moving forward with an effort to expand tenure to teachers in smaller school districts who have no tenure at all. The state law that grants tenure after two years was one of the five laws struck down in Vergara. A bill sponsored by Lorena Gonza
Analysis: CA’s season of change (maybe) for public education
Here’s one vision of the future for California public schools: Every teacher is effective. Schools are free of child molesters. Schools provide quality instruction time to every kid in every classroom. These are all possibilities, judging from this season of potential change for the state’s public schools. In recent weeks, a trio of separate but related actions has taken aim at the state in effort
Will water and school bonds contend on November ballot?
Via KQED News | By John Meyers The safe money, so to speak, in California politics for years has been that voters are usually happy to approve long-term government borrowing. In some ways, it has seemed like free money. But in the post-recession era, where debt has become a political hot potato and the incumbent governor has made debt reduction his mantra, a statewide bond measure is a bit more of
Morning Read: Immigrant education key to economy health
Report: Economic prosperity relies on boosting immigrant education Home to one-quarter of the nation’s immigrants and a top-destination for incoming refugees, California must significantly improve educational outcomes for immigrant youth if the state – and the nation – are to stay economically competitive, according to a new report. EdSource Appeals tie up teacher misconduct cases Two years after
JUN 18
Parent Revolution holding a forum to spread the ‘trigger’ word
Emboldened by the Vergara v. California ruling, which struck down state teacher tenure and seniority protections last week, Parent Revolution is trying to expand its reach. The advocacy group, which pushes for Parent Trigger laws across the country, plans to hold a one-day “Parent Power Convention” in October, the first meeting of its kind. It’s timed to coincide with the countdown to the fall ele
LAUSD honors 22 educators as ‘Teachers of the Year’
Click to view slideshow. The Los Angeles Unified School District honored 22 educators yesterday as the first step in competing for National Teacher of the Year honors in the coming school year. The LA Unified teachers now compete in a county-wide competition in September, with the winners there going on to the state competition. The nationals follow that. Among the LA Unified honorees are the winn
Kennedy High’s new principal moving on from Blake era
John F Kennedy High School Campus As the incoming principal for John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Richard Chavez said he is only vaguely aware of the volatile situation he will be facing on campus when school begins on August 12. Despite walking into the unknown, he says he will stay focused on his main priority which is doing what’s best for the students. “If it’s good for kids, we’ll
Morning Read: Legislature votes on school bond bill today
State school bond faces critical vote today With a key committee vote set for today on legislation that would place a $9 billion, statewide school facilities bond on the November ballot, one group backing the proposal is already nearly a third of the way toward reaching its campaign finance goal of $1.6 million. The fate of AB 2235 is far from certain inside the Legislature. It also would need app
JUN 17
LAUSD board hears final arguments on the budget
In a surprising move, the LA Unified Board of Education today moved swiftly through multiple motions that had been expected to be quite contentious. Most board meetings these day, go well into the dinner hour. The highlight, aside from the meeting lasting less than two and a half hours, was a parade of speakers making their final pleas for funding pet programs in the 2014-2015 budget. The budget i
At midday rally, teachers union insist on cut of new state money
UTLA incoming-president Alex Caputo-Pearl speaks at a union rally. As a prologue to today’s LA Unified board of education meeting, UTLA members rallied outside of LA Unified headquarters calling for a double digit raise, especially after the state Legislature approved the largest budget in state history. “Even more money than what they prognosticated in May is coming in [to our schools],” Presiden
LIVESTREAM coverage of today’s LAUSD School board meeting
The LA Unified School Board will conduct a special meeting today starting at 2 p.m. That agenda is here, with the supporting materials available here. Then, starting at 3 p.m., the board will hear 30 public comment speakers on the topic of the District’s Final Budget and the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). That agenda is here, with the supporting materials available, here. Follow our cov
CA’s ‘egregious’ teacher bill shows power of collaboration
Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, vice chair of the Education Committee After years of trying, with students’ safety hanging in the balance, the state legislature has finally passed a measure that expedites the process for dismissing teachers accused egregious behavior. Unanimous votes of support for AB 215 in both the Senate and Assembly was not only encouraging news for children and their parents, it
Groups pushing ‘need index’ helping LAUSD shape the budget
Alberto Retana, Executive Vice President of Community Coalition Among the challenges poor kids in south LA are forced to overcome just to meet the most basic learning conditions in schools, are cockroaches. Not in their classrooms. In their bodies. LA Unified students in neighborhoods like South Gate and Watts regularly visit health clinics to have the insects that crawl inside their ears, plucked
CA budget deal has some major changes for public education
Gov. Jerry Brown and the the California legislature reached a deal on a $108 billion budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Here, as examined by John Fensterwald of EdSource, are some of the major education components: Proposition 98: $60.8 billion for K-12 schools and community colleges in 2014-15 through Proposition 98, the voter-approved school funding guarantee; $53.6 billion of that will go t
Morning Read: Child care spending rises, but still short
New child care spending a good first step Child care funding included in the final state budget adds thousands of new slots and restores reimbursement rates, but still leaves California nearly 40 percent short of the monies it provided for those programs prior to the recession. The $264 million Fair Start proposal aims to invest in early learning and childcare programs. S&I Cabinet Report Bil
JUN 16
Why I’m a parent in Vergara v. California teacher lawsuit
Via Sacramento Bee | By Evelyn Alemán Macias “Maybe you’re just not good at math. Some people are good at some things, and others aren’t. Maybe math isn’t your thing.” Those were the words my child, Julia Macias, heard from her second-grade teacher at a San Fernando Valley elementary school when she struggled to learn new math concepts. At the time, I didn’t realize that my daughter was hearing th
Labor groups split on support for McKenna and Johnson in runoff
Alex Johnson (left), George McKenna (right) The battle for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat is playing out not only among voters in the district, but also within the city’s labor unions. Both candidates in the Aug. 12 runoff, George McKenna and Alex Johnson, have drawn considerable labor support. But a substantial split suggests that this is the rare election pitting groups normally aligned
Public gets last chance to shape LAUSD 2014-2015 budget
The revised budget is in the hands of the LA Unified Board of Education, but the public has a final opportunity tomorrow to weigh in on how the district’s $7 billion budget will be spent. The board has set a limit of 30 speakers to address the six members for two minutes each, to advocate for their causes célèbres. But in all likelihood, the budget presented last week by Superintendent John Deasy
When the LA Unified watchdog watches too closely
Via Los Angeles Times | By Steve Lopez Commentary: If Stuart Magruder knew how to play the game, he might still have his volunteer watchdog job today. But he just had to speak up. The arrogance, the temerity, the insolence. How dare he challenge the leadership of the Los Angeles Unified School District? Exactly what sins did Magruder commit to get bounced last month from the district’s Bond Oversi
Morning Read: Teachers’ union lambastes US education secretary
Teachers’ union leader blasts U.S. Education secretary over comments American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten sharply criticized U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week for his praise of a ruling by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge deeming certain job protections for teachers in California as unconstitutional. The ruling represents a major loss for the unions a