L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

SACRAMENTO — Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner is calling on state and local health officials to immediately allow the district to turn its more than 1,400 schools into Covid-19 vaccination sites, focusing on shots for teachers and school staff in what would become California's biggest education vaccine push.

California has prioritized teachers among vaccine recipients but left distribution up to counties, and there is no large-scale effort yet to inoculate school employees in the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom altered the state's vaccine course Wednesday when he announced residents 65 years and older could receive shots in a bid to accelerate vaccinations and protect a high-risk population.

It's unclear, however, when the bulk of the state's 300,000-plus teachers will have access. After Newsom paved the way for seniors, vaccinators began making appointments for older residents, but most have not yet allowed teachers or other non-health essential workers to get in line.

Beutner asked in a Monday letter to California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly and Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer to immediately authorize his school system — the second largest in the U.S. — to vaccinate its teachers and school staff.

"This will not only protect the health and safety of our essential employees but will provide enormous benefit to children and their families, leading to a faster reopening of schools and of the economy more broadly by enabling the working families we serve to go back to work," Beutner said in the letter.

California's 6 million schoolchildren have remained in distance learning for nearly a year, and it is becoming increasingly likely that teachers unions will demand CONTINUE READING: L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

Los Angeles school board could sue California over Newsom reopening plan

Los Angeles school board could sue California over Newsom reopening plan

Los Angeles school board could sue California over Newsom reopening plan

SACRAMENTO — The Los Angeles Unified school board voted Tuesday to authorize the district to sue California over Gov. Gavin Newsom's new school reopening plan, escalating tension between the country's second largest school district and the governor.

Following a closed session on Tuesday, the school board announced that it had unanimously "authorized the initiation of litigation against the State of California, state entities and public officials related to California's Safe Schools for All framework."

The Democratic governor has come under intense pressure to reopen schools in California as most of the state's 6 million public school students have been out of classrooms since the pandemic forced closures nearly a year ago. But school districts and labor unions have tremendous power over local decisions, and Newsom has said he will not force them to open. He is instead offering $2 billion to pay for additional staff, testing and other expenditures as an incentive for districts to reopen the youngest grades as soon as Feb. 16.

California lawmakers seemed skeptical Monday during their first budget hearing that school districts could — or should — move as quickly as Newsom has asked. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office also said in its review of Newsom's budget that the governor's timeline is "likely unfeasible." But Newsom's Department of Finance responded in the hearing that a fast timeline is necessary to salvage a meaningful part of the remaining school year.

The district has not sued yet; there is no law to challenge because Newsom's plan is CONTINUE READING: Los Angeles school board could sue California over Newsom reopening plan

Teachers and students face COVID winter break challenges - Los Angeles Times

Teachers and students face COVID winter break challenges - Los Angeles Times

Facing a spike in Fs, winter break isn’t a vacation for many teachers and students

During her winter break, English teacher Keara Williams has hit the phone, making call after call determinedly trying to make contact with her students and their parents.

She needs to reach 28 students, including 11 seniors, who received an “incomplete” grade at the end of the fall semester. She tells them they will fail her class if they don’t complete make-up work to raise their grade to at least a D by the end of January. There is still time to get the work done, do not give up, Williams says. And she lets them know that she is here for them — all winter vacation if that’s what it takes to avoid an F.

She has reached 13 students and left messages and emails with the others. But when she last checked her computer, only one had signed in online to look at the make-up work.

Williams, like so many teachers in the Los Angeles school district, is grappling with wrenching grading decisions amid the hardships of the raging pandemic that has shuttered campuses for nine months. An F grade in a required class would delay or deny a high school diploma, require a make-up class and could ruin a GPA during the college admissions cycle. How do they balance compassion and empathy with the low grade points in their record books? How do they find and engage their lost students before it’s too late? The magnitude of work ahead for both teachers and students feels CONTINUE READING: Teachers and students face COVID winter break challenges - Los Angeles Times

Two School Board Members Fail To Hold Failing Charter School Accountable | by Carl J. Petersen | Dec, 2020 | Medium

Two School Board Members Fail To Hold Failing Charter School Accountable | by Carl J. Petersen | Dec, 2020 | Medium

Two School Board Members Fail To Hold Failing Charter School Accountable

Nick Melvoin and Monica Garcia are the lone votes on the LAUSD School Board to approve Prepa Tec charter school for another five years.

“They’ve had five years to figure this out and they haven’t figured it out.” - LAUSD Board Member Jackie Goldberg

When the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) considers the renewal of charter schools, it is supposed to do it in a public hearing that includes comments from stakeholders for each item. At last week’s meeting, the district ignored this rule and instead heard an hour of general public comment with phone calls selected at the beginning of the meeting. Charter school supporters dominated this conversation with only one speaker out of the 20 allotted spots speaking in opposition to these publicly financed private schools. Even with this advantage, one charter school was allowed to have an additional supporter speak during its hearing.

While I had planned to speak at the meeting, my call was not one of the ones that were chosen. The following is the text of my prepared speech:

AB1505 was passed by the California legislature to bring more accountability to the charter school authorization process. According to the CEO of the Extera charter, the California Charter School Association’s strategy to circumvent this law was to overwhelm this board by having as many charter schools as possible apply for renewal at the same time. They hope that there is protection in a herd and you will not CONTINUE READING: Two School Board Members Fail To Hold Failing Charter School Accountable | by Carl J. Petersen | Dec, 2020 | Medium

Los Angeles: Charter School Games the System for More $$$ | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles: Charter School Games the System for More $$$ | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles Charter School Games the System for More $$$

Parent advocate Carl J. Peterson writes here about a charter school in Los Angeles that figured out to game the system for more money and space.

He writes that “Citizens of the World” collects signatures of parents who are not likely to apply for the school and uses them as expressions of intent to enroll.

A Facebook post by Jirusha Lopez, the principal of COW’s Hollywood campus, provides some insight into how this charter chain scams the system. While the estimate of attendance is supposed to be based on students who have expressed a “meaningful interest” in the program, Lopez took to social media to ask parents to sign a Prop 39 form even if they had no plans to attend the charter school. In fact, she promised that completing the form would “not impact your family’s plans for what school you would like to attend or currently attend.”

While Lopez seems to think that the collection of these signatures is a “fun game schools get to play each year”, it is actually part of a legal process. By submitting names of students who never expressed any interest in attending the school, COW committed fraud against the students of the LAUSD. The district needs to take this action seriously and hold the charter chain responsible, to whatever the greatest extent possible might be. Additionally, all data provided by COW to the LAUSD CONTINUE READING: Los Angeles: Charter School Games the System for More $$$ | Diane Ravitch's blog

Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse

It’s high time to be paying closer attention to the $14.7b (p. 31) of taxpayer’s money that Covid19 has left in essentially the sole charge of our LAUSD Superintendent, Austin Beutner.

On March 10, 2020 under Covid19, the LAUSD’s publicly elected school board signed over sweeping authority for fiscal and management decisions to Superintendent Beutner, a former investment banker who remarks that the “guiding principle in my career, … is to put myself in uncomfortable positions and take risks.”

The emergency powers relinquished the board’s fiduciary responsibility to stakeholders regarding oversight and regulation, policy and budget, with no sunset date attached. The breathtaking subrogation was to a Superintendent appointed by a former board, chaired at the time by a member charged with and subsequently convicted of felony campaign misconduct, indebted to a different, neoliberal and privatizing ideology of public education.

At next Tuesday’s LAUSD board meeting some more fallout from this power shift will become evident. To date a tremendous amount of emergency spending has been brought to the board as simply courtesy, for ratification rather than actual approval. And the circumstances of this spending is fraught; criticism – even questioning – is awkward at best, difficult in practice. Feeding the hungry during this health and economic emergency is crucial; keeping our community safe is vital. But what happens in the long CONTINUE READING: Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020 – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020 – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020

Seventeen hours from the close of polls in LA County (LAC) leaves a mixed set of results – from polar opposite wins, to hopeful-anticipation.

While 100% of LAC’s precincts have reported partial results, VBM (Vote By Mail) ballots continue to be delivered to ballot counting facilities statewide, including LAC’s Norwalk, where the count is on-going. Updates to LAC counts will not come before the close of day and starting next week, only twice per week.

When registration for delivery of VBM ballots closed last month, 5,709,853 were registered to vote in LAC. Registrations at Vote Centers since that time, including right up through the close of election day, remain unreported.

Of the 5.7K (minimum) registered voters reported, 55.8% (3.2K of 5.7K) have currently been tallied. Approximately ¾ of those were VBM (74%; 2.4K of 3.2K) and ¼ (26%; 0.83K of 3.2K) were VCB (Vote Center Ballots).

In LAUSD’s school board races, board district 3 (west Valley) incumbent, former District principal Scott Schmerelson is winning with 54% of the currently tallied vote. In board district 7 (southern reaches), former PLAS (Partnership for LA Schools; a public-private partnership operating a CONTINUE READING: Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020 – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Failing grades surge for poor L.A. students amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

Failing grades surge for poor L.A. students amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

Ds and Fs surge, attendance slips among L.A.'s poorest students amid distance learning

Grades of D and F have increased in the Los Angeles Unified School District among middle and high school students in a troubling sign of the toll that distance learning — and the coronavirus crisis — is taking on the children, especially those who are members of low-income families.

The district released a chart Monday indicating that based on 10-week interim assessments, failing grades are increasing across the board, but are surging the most in lower-income communities. Compounding the disturbing trend, students in these same communities, hard hit by the spread of COVID-19, have the lowest attendance.

“The attendance figures and interim assessments don’t reflect the desire or capability of students,” said L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner in remarks recorded for broadcast Monday. “They’re eager to learn and every bit as capable as they were before school facilities closed. But the struggle to cope with COVID-19 and online learning for children and their families is very real.”

The data on grades made another announcement all the more painful, even though school board leaders foreshadowed it last week: Campuses will not reopen for most students before January, the superintendent said. And even that timing could prove doubtful, Beutner said, unless the coronavirus pandemic subsides and unless the state and local agencies offer more guidance and resources.

In the meantime, the district is expanding attempts to reach more students in person, providing instruction for groups of up to three students at a time. All participants, including teachers, will have to take a coronavirus test, even if they’ve had one recently. This gradual growth of in-person services is expected to reach several thousand of the district’s 460,000 K-12 students.

The district also will be speeding up the in-person assessment of students with special needs and will allow sports teams to begin conditioning work — outside with physical distancing and no team drills.

The next two months need to be spent in an all-out effort to get ready for a hoped-for January opening, Beutner said in an interview with The Times and in his broadcast remarks. As part of that effort, Beutner said that L.A. Unified is part of a coalition of seven California school districts calling for “a common standard of health, education and employee practices so schools have a clear path to open in the safest way.”

Some state legislators expressed overlapping concerns in a legislative hearing last week, directing their comments to the governor’s office and state agencies, including CONTINUE READING: Failing grades surge for poor L.A. students amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever.

Are you wondering whether the vote is effectively all over. Whether so many early ballots have been returned there’s, say, little point still in advocating for Schools And Community First (prop 15)? For community college board members? For Schools local bond measure RR? For your LAUSD BD3 (Schmerelson v Koziatek) or LAUSD BD7 (Castellanos v Franklin) board member?

The TL;DR is Your vote is still needed! Your advocacy is crucial. At best 4 in 5 ballots have not yet been counted as returned. Students are needing their voters’ support.

Who’s already gotten their VBM in? Who votes in the districts electing a school board member?

Turns out, there are 2.6m registered voters in LAUSD (according to PDI as of 10/10/20). Table 1 shows which districts have the most voters. Nick Melvoin’s board district 1 serving the westside and Hollywood area all the way up to Toluca Lake and into Topanga Cyn, has the most registered CONTINUE READING: Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Money and Power in LAUSD Contests - LA Progressive

Money and Power in LAUSD Contests - LA Progressive

Money and Power in LAUSD Contests

“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows” -Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, 10/13/20

Senator Whitehouse laid out beautifully on Tuesday the context surrounding Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings in Washington as the pushing and pulling of ‘actors inside the frame of a puppet theater.’ He argues that not only are outside forces controlling these actors in the main show but they are integral to the narrative of it. And some of the evidence for broadening focus beyond the proscenium is when characters in the drama adopt “the practice of claiming … moral standards or beliefs to which [their] own behavior does not conform”:  hypocrisy.

Just so has Marilyn Koziatek – or the independent expenditure committee (IEC) from which she proudly accepts endorsement of her West San Fernando Valley campaign for school board in the LAUSD3 board district – swerved from insinuation of responsibility for scandals that occurred before his tenure, to antisemitism to anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice bigotry. Schmerelson’s defeated opponent who has endorsed Koziatek, has even hypocritically alluded to Scott Schmerelson’s former republican registration. Meanwhile, swearing brand new allegiance to a political party is precisely the maneuver employed by her endorsed-candidate, Ms Koziatek. The hypocrisy is not CONTINUE READING: Money and Power in LAUSD Contests - LA Progressive

“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows” – Los Angeles Education Examiner

“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows” – Los Angeles Education Examiner

“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows”

Senator Whitehouse laid out beautifully on Tuesday the context surrounding Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings in Washington as the pushing and pulling of ‘actors inside the frame of a puppet theater.’ He argues that not only are outside forces controlling these actors in the main show but they are integral to the narrative of it. And some of the evidence for broadening focus beyond the proscenium is when characters in the drama adopt “the practice of claiming … moral standards or beliefs to which [their] own behavior does not conform”:  hypocrisy.

Just so has Marilyn Koziatek – or the independent expenditure committee (IEC) from which she proudly accepts endorsement of her West San Fernando Valley campaign for school board in the LAUSD3 board district – swerved from insinuation of responsibility for scandals that occurred before his tenure, to antisemitism to anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice bigotry. Schmerelson’s defeated opponent who has endorsed Koziatek, has even hypocritically alluded to Scott Schmerelson’s former republican registration. Meanwhile, swearing brand new allegiance to a political party is precisely the maneuver employed by her endorsed-candidate, Koziatek. The hypocrisy is not without irony, because Koziatek’s unacknowledged switch is in suspicious temporal proximity to her bid for this non-partisan office. Schmerelson’s, on the other hand, is in sharp ethical contrast since CONTINUE READING: “When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows” – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Did School Board Candidate Go AWOL From Her Last Elected Position? | by Carl J. Petersen | Sep, 2020 | Medium

Did School Board Candidate Go AWOL From Her Last Elected Position? | by Carl J. Petersen | Sep, 2020 | Medium

Did School Board Candidate Go AWOL From Her Last Elected Position?

Records show that Tanya Franklin was removed from her position on the Del Rey Neighborhood Council. Her campaign says she resigned. Why should this matter to voters?

“On May 14, Del Rey Neighborhood Council members voted 9–0 to remove council Secretary Tanya Franklin and Area H Director MeiWah Wong for repeated absences, a violation of council attendance requirements.Neither attended the meeting.”
- The Argonaut

Members of Los Angeles’ neighborhood council system volunteer our time to represent the members of our community as part of “the closest form of government to the people.” As with any team, each council’s ability to work effectively can be jeopardized when its members fail to fulfill their individual responsibilities. This is especially true when there are excessive absences as boards must have a minimum number of members present to do business. If this quorum is not established, then the meeting must be canceled, even if there are time-sensitive items on the agenda.

On June 12, 2014, Tanya Franklin was sworn in as a member of the Del Rey Neighborhood Council (DRNC). The very next month she was excused to be absent for the monthly meeting. After attending meetings for three months in a row, she missed the November meeting. According to the council’s minutes, she was present for the December meeting, but this was the last one she would ever attend as a board member. In total, she was present for 38.5% of the meetings that were held during her tenure on the board. CONTINUE READING:  Did School Board Candidate Go AWOL From Her Last Elected Position? | by Carl J. Petersen | Sep, 2020 | Medium

Los Angeles: Vote for Scott Schmerelson and Patricia Castellanos for LAUSD School Board | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles: Vote for Scott Schmerelson and Patricia Castellanos for LAUSD School Board | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles: Vote for Scott Schmerelson and Patricia Castellanos for LAUSD School Board

Control of the Los Angeles Unified School District is up for grabs in the 2020 election.

You can be sure that the LAUSD prioritizes public schools by voting for incumbent Scott Schmerelson and newcomer Patricia Castellanos.

The issue now is the same issue that has drawn a sharp divide on the school board for the past decade. Will the schools be controlled by a cabal of billionaires who favor privatization by charter schools or will it be controlled by people who are dedicated to the public schools of Los Angeles, which enroll 80 percent of the district’s children?

The charter lobby supports privatization and high-stakes testing for students and teachers.

California state law defines charter schools as “public schools” because the law was written by charter lobbyists. They have private management, private boards, and they are almost entirely free from scrutiny by public agencies; due to lack of oversight, several charter executives in California have been arrested and convicted of embezzlement from school funds. Lack of oversight explains why so many charters felt empowered to apply for and receive federal Paycheck Protection Program money as “small businesses.” They are charter schools when it is time to collect money available only to public schools, then they shape shift into “small businesses” or “non-profits” when it is time to collect money that is not available to public schools. That is called “double dipping.” It is wrong. It is unethical.

The charter industry is powerful in California due to the CONTINUE READING: Los Angeles: Vote for Scott Schmerelson and Patricia Castellanos for LAUSD School Board | Diane Ravitch's blog

Can Los Angeles Schools Test 700,000 Students and 75,000 Employees? That’s the Plan - The New York Times

Can Los Angeles Schools Test 700,000 Students and 75,000 Employees? That’s the Plan - The New York Times

Can Los Angeles Schools Test 700,000 Students and 75,000 Employees? That’s the Plan
Classes will start remotely. But the nation’s second-largest school district has perhaps the most ambitious plan to test students and employees for the coronavirus.

Amid public alarm over the inadequacy of coronavirus testing across the nation, Los Angeles schools on Monday will begin a sweeping program to test hundreds of thousands of students and teachers as the nation’s second-largest school district goes back to school — online.

The program, which will be rolled out over the next few months by the Los Angeles Unified School District, will administer tests to nearly 700,000 students and 75,000 employees as the district awaits permission from public health authorities to resume in-person instruction, said Austin Beutner, the district’s superintendent.

It appears to be the most ambitious testing initiative so far among major public school districts, most of which are also starting school remotely but have yet to announce detailed testing plans.

New York City, where the virus has been under control, is the only major school district in the country planning to welcome students back into classrooms part time this fall. The city is asking all staff members to be tested before school starts on Sept 10 and has said it will provide expedited results.

Staff members should be tested regularly throughout the school year, New York City has said. It is not yet clear how often students will be tested or whether the city will take random samples from the 1.1 million children at its 1,800 public schools.

Mr. Beutner said that Los Angeles’s program, developed over the past four months, would begin this week, well before schools are expected to let students into classrooms, and that it would augment — and probably far exceed — existing testing efforts run by the city and county of Los Angeles. CONTINUE READING: Can Los Angeles Schools Test 700,000 Students and 75,000 Employees? That’s the Plan - The New York Times