Friday, July 13, 2012

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Education Headlines

Friday, July 13, 2012

Claremont Unified approves agreements with organizations

Claremont Unified School District board members voted to approve agreements with a number of employee organizations Thursday night using $2.4 million in reserve funding to temporarily increase the district's contribution to each groups benefits and give an immediate pay raise for 2012.

Alvord district calls for bond election

The Alvord school board will ask voters in November to approve $79 million in reauthorized bonds. The board unanimously approved a resolution Thursday night, July 12, to place the bond measure on the ballot. If passed, the measure would save about $260 million in interest over the life of the bonds, but property owners would pay about $51 more per $100,000 assessed valuation each year.

LAUSD moving to better review teachers

At 30 pages, the performance evaluation that Los Angeles Unified wants to use to rate its teachers is 27 pages longer than the one that's been in place for years. Instead of the cursory review that now nets nearly every teacher a satisfactory rating - despite the district's dismal 56 percent graduation rate - the new Teaching and Learning Framework plots a teacher's knowledge and skills in more than five dozen categories.

Frey: Amended versions of key discipline bills move forward

Three key bills aimed at changing school discipline policies were approved in the state Assembly before the summer recess and will be ready for a final vote on the Senate floor when legislators return from their recess in August. But in the process, the bills have been softened to give districts more discretion to implement harsher punishments than the authors originally intended (see chart below).
Thursday, July 12, 2012

Fruitvale approves administrator furloughs

Fruitvale School District's board on Tuesday approved five unpaid furlough days for administrators and other non-represented certificated staff, such as counselors and district directors, for the new school year to cope with budget cuts.

Lodi and Galt school districts could face more cuts

If the November tax initiative is passed, the state budget and education funding will remain as is. If the initiative fails, up to $460 per student per year will be withheld from Lodi Unified, or about $12.3 million.

Galt high school district hires Michael Roberts as new superintendent

Michael Roberts has been chosen as the new superintendent of Galt Joint Union High School District and will earn $139,382 annually. His three-year employment contract was approved at Tuesday's board meeting.

Signatures turned in for Support Our Schools initiative

The Irvine city clerk received more than 18,000 signatures for the Support Our Schools initiative, which would more than double city support for Irvine schools from 2013 to 2016 if it qualifies for the November