Thursday, September 18, 2014

Cali Education Headlines 9-18-14

Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team | CSIS – California School Information Services:







Education Headlines

  • Coast Unified superintendent is ready for a new challenge

    • The new superintendent of Coast Unified School District faces such tasks as improving English language learner skills, attracting young families to a district with significant declining enrollment, and building a new Santa Lucia Middle School athletic field.
       

    Homeless ranks in Salinas schools on upswing

    • This past year, the district saw the biggest increase in its homeless students in seven years — a whopping 807 additional children, figures show.
       

    Long Beach school board gets earful from parents angry about hot classrooms

    • The district said this week that measures were taken to move kids into cooler buildings and limit physical activity, but that it would be cost-prohibitive to air condition every building.
       

    School police stock up on free military gear

    • School police departments across the country have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, stocking up on mine resistant armored vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles.
       

    Coachella boy: ‘They left me alone’ on school bus

    • According to the district, an autistic boy was left alone on a bus for 30 minutes before he was spotted by another bus driver about 9 a.m. The bus driver ensured the student was unharmed, then took him to a district office.
       

    Schools boss exceeds double-dip cap

    • San Ysidro schools Superintendent George Cameron, who has been drawing a simultaneous pension and paycheck since April, will halt the dual-track payments on Oct. 1 after exceeding state limits on the practice.


  • Richmond: District criticized for cost to house charter school for one year


    West Contra Costa school board members are taking heat for an April decision to spend $600,000 in voter-approved construction bond funds to place a charter school in a location that will only be available for one year.
     

  • EdSource: Fate of high school exit exam undecided


    While the state’s standardized testing program is being revamped during the transition to the new Common Core State Standards, the fate of the high school exit exam – the one test students must pass – remains murky.
     

  • Morgan Hill: Federal appeals court refuses to rehear challenge in American flag T-shirt case


    Rejecting free speech arguments from parents, Republican lawmakers and conservative groups, a federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to reconsider a ruling that found a South Bay high school had the legal right to order students wearing American-flag adorned shirts to turn them inside out during a 2010 Cinco de Mayo celebration.
     

  • L.A. schools police will return grenade launchers but keep rifles, armored vehicle


    Los Angeles Unified school police officials said Tuesday that the department will relinquish some of the military weaponry it acquired through a federal program that furnishes local law enforcement with surplus equipment.
     

  • New report on L.A. Unified’s iPads reflects problems with curriculum


    An evaluation of the iPads-for-all project in Los Angeles schools found that only 1 of 245 classrooms surveyed even used the costly curriculum. The analysis, conducted by an outside firm, also highlighted other problems, including the pace of the rollout last year at 47 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
     

  • Early literacy program expands in the Salinas Valley


    Just as in a library, students in the program check out a book each Monday and are expected to read to their siblings every day.
     

Note: FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.
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