Monday, July 1, 2013
Money management at City College of San Francisco is rife with problems - from payroll headaches to infighting to poorly trained staff - even after a year of transformation, concludes a new analysis of how the troubled school manages its $343 million budget.
Wayne Martin, whose demeanor is the very embodiment of the cautious and serious budgeting wonk, is retiring from Stockton Unified this week, and those who know him may find his first after-career destination to be both ironic and counterintuitive.
The grand jury, in a report released last week, found there is a lack of solid and consistent training when it comes to preparing school employees for emergencies. It said schools in the county's 18 districts struggle with evaluating their safety plans, keeping safety teams intact when there are staff turnovers and maintaining adequate emergency supplies.
A planned reorganization of Elk Grove Unified School District's administration that would have raised salaries of top employees was postponed Wednesday night after most of the school board and audience spoke out against it.
By erasing California's current testing program, the measure appears to throw a monkey wrench into the accountability movement, which is rooted in test score results. Thereby, it serves the interests of the California Teachers Association, which detests "parent trigger" laws, charter schools and teacher evaluation proposals.
The Folsom Cordova Unified School District has violated special education rules 63 times in the past four years, according to state records. The violations ranged from placing a child in a restraint chair without informing the child's parents to failing to provide families with progress reports in a timely fashion.
A Laguna Beach Unified School District administrator submitted her resignation Friday, hours after a public hearing at the district office where parents accused the superintendent of cronyism.
Pomona Unified School District and the Learning Centers at Fairplex are working together to open a satellite campus of the School of Extended Educational Options on the Fairplex grounds in time for the start of the new school year in the August.
Still in labor negotiations with employees, Capistrano Unified School District trustees Wednesday passed a conservative but provisional 2013-14 budget; the lion's share – $306.8 million – allotted to payroll costs.
A group of South County citizens is circulating petitions in hopes of getting measures on a 2014 ballot that would restrict school board members to two four-year terms and require that they be elected by voters from specific geographic areas within the school district, rather than from the entire district.
Alvord Unified School District is still looking for a new superintendent as Superintendent Nick Ferguson retires again. Ferguson came out of retirement in 2011 to accept a two-year contract, which officially expires Sunday, June 30.
The Jurupa school board is set to hear a report on expected residential growth in Jurupa Valley – growth that officials hope will reverse an eight-year period in which the district lost more than 1,500 students.
Denair Unified School District's nonunion workers will take a pay cut starting Monday, but top managers will lose far more than their administrative helpers will, trustees ruled.
School board members are keeping their fingers crossed and the district's pocketbook open for parcel tax revenue in the coming school year despite a court battle still underway over the legality of the tax.
Two senior Los Angeles Unified administrators have been demoted and a principal has left the district following a two-month investigation into the handling of sex-abuse allegations against an elementary school teacher in Wilmington, Superintendent John Deasy said Saturday.
A judge is expected to issue a ruling on whether yoga is a religious practice that shouldn't be allowed to be taught in public schools.
California schools urgently need strategies for discipline that help children learn from mistakes, make reparations for harm and go on to succeed, a group of educators said last week in support of a bill that would dramatically change school discipline practices by banning the use of “willful defiance” in meting out expulsion and restricting its use in mandating suspension.
Friday, June 28, 2013
The Coachella Valley Unified school board on Thursday adopted a budget with a $14.7 million deficit, which would nearly exhaust the district’s cash reserves.
Cesar Morales will be the new Oxnard School District superintendent effective July 1, succeeding Jeff Chancer, who is retiring after leading the elementary district for two years.
Linden Unified and former Superintendent Michael Gonzales have reached a separation agreement that will pay the administrator up to $84,400 as he leaves the district.
