Recently in Schools Category

Amid concerns that voters may hesitate to approve a fifth multibillion-dollar school construction bond in a decade, Los Angeles Unified officials and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have crafted a proposal to woo the public with promises to fund charter schools and small learning communities. Kerry Cavanaugh and George Sanchez in the Daily News.

At a hastily called news conference Friday afternoon, Villaraigosa and LAUSD leaders provided few details of the proposed bond measure but said a portion would be dedicated to developing charter schools and breaking up behemoth public schools into independent, mini-campuses.

"This is not about slapping another coat of paint on a problem," Villaraigosa said. "This reform-minded bond will create smaller, independent schools rooted in community and free from downtown bureaucracy."

With seemingly about as much thought as one of those old movies where kids came together to put on a show, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, School Board President Monica Garcia and a bunch of other folks came out Friday for a new multi-billion dollar bond issued to go on the November ballot.
The announcement came at a hastily called news conference -- less than an hour's notice was given -- and on a Friday afternoon, a move seen as guaranteeing little news coverage.
The purpose of the measure is to help create small charter schools as part of the new initiative at th Los Angeles Unified School District _ a program yet to be put into practice to even see if it works.
The bond measure is for an undetermined amount. The cost to taxpayers is not known. The language of the measure and what it would actually do is not available.
Local officials are fond of saying the devil is in the details. It would be nice to see them.

Sharply disputing a state report, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday said he believes the dropout rate at Los Angeles schools is even worse than the dismal 33 percent estimated by state officials. Daily News.

Villaraigosa, who previously used the dropout rate issue as leverage to take control of a handful of schools, said the new state figures released Wednesday did not take into account all relevant factors.

For example, he said, the state report did not count students who dropped out before ninth grade.

A proposed new admissions policy for the University of California system could give thousands of students a better chance of getting into the elite state schools, but critics say the changes threaten to weaken educational quality.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The proposal, to be discussed today by the Board of Regents, would reduce the grades, classes and admissions tests required of high school students before their applications are fully reviewed.

"All we are doing is guaranteeing more students a shot," said Mark Rashid, chairman of UC's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, which proposed the change.

Los Angeles Unified officials are considering opening as many as five long-closed school sites in the San Fernando Valley to house hundreds of charter school students. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The sites have been closed since the early 1980s because of declining enrollment, but growing demand for charter space has prompted officials to renew a plan that drew heated debate six years ago and is again drawing community resistance.

But with the LAUSD required to accommodate charters under state law, despite continuing strains on classroom space, district officials said they are eyeing all options.

The contractor for software that left Los Angeles Unified School District with massive payroll problems is now bidding on a $1.5 billion contract to run California's court-case management system. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

And the bid has created an outcry after an oversight official said Deloitte Consulting LLP failed to disclose in its bid documents that it is in the middle of a dispute with LAUSD over the system that left thousands of teachers with inaccurate paychecks.

"I was surprised they didn't mention the LAUSD issue," said J. Stephen Czuleger, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court system.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa takes on one of the biggest challenges of his career today as his partnership to reform education formally begins working with some of Los Angeles' worst-performing schools. Daily News.

The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools initially will team up with Roosevelt High School and the Santee Education Complex as about 20,000 students return for the summer session.

But they will soon be followed by students at Hollenbeck, Stevenson, Gompers and Markham middle schools and Ritter, 99th, Figueroa and Sunrise elementary schools.

And the stakes are high for the five-year pilot reform effort to prove that urban school districts can succeed in a move that could further escalate calls to break up the nation's second-largest district.

Maria Garcia hardly slept on the bus that left Los Angeles at midnight and brought her and more than 150 LAUSD employees to the state Capitol on Tuesday morning. Justine Agulia in the Daily News.

But once there, the Los Angeles Unified School District security monitor made sure her voice was heard, urging legislators to avoid deep slashes to the district's budget, which could mean the loss of her job.

As a mother of three with a husband who's found very little work in the construction business lately, she doesn't know how she'd survive if her job were cut.

"If I don't work, I can't feed my family," said Garcia, 46, an employee at Richard E. Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley. "I've been on the job for eight years and without my steady job, I really don't know what I'd do."

As part of her job as a special-education assistant at Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley, Desiree Young knows what it's like to change diapers every day.Justine Agulia in the Daily News.

But recently her focus has shifted, knowing similar jobs could disappear thanks to massive budget cuts that would cripple the school system she has believed in for nearly two decades.

"I just can't sit back," said Young, 40. "I've been doing this for 18 years, long hard years. This is not good for the kids. They're the ones who'll end up shortchanged in a big way."

Midnight Monday, Young was set to board a bus with several hundred people - 45 she personally rounded up - to Sacramento, where she vowed to give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger some advice about cutting the Los Angeles Unified School District's budget.

Supt. David L. Brewer III was honored this past weekend by the Los Angeles National Association for the Advancement ofColored People (NAACP) Youth Council with a medal of valor.
"Superintendent Brewer is a role model for our youth to stay in school,
get an education and to build a successful career," said NAACP Youth
Council Advisor Meredith Wilson.
"He was chosen, not only because he is an outstanding leader in our society, but because he also served our country and is now in an influential position that is not commonly held by African-American men."
The event was held last Saturday with a crowd of 175 on hand. KABC anchor Marc Brown served as master of ceremonies.
"I am honored to accept the Man of Valor award from the Los Angeles
NAACP Youth Council," said Brewer." Although I do my job for the youth
of Los Angeles, it is important that we all work to mentor and help our
students become college prepared and career ready."

A nationally acclaimed alternative high school with a tough-love reputation for righting troubled teens will close this month because of dwindling enrollment. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

The West Valley Leadership Academy, a one-room schoolhouse that has turned around scores of gang members, drug addicts and truants, will close June 30.

While the Los Angeles County Office of Education says it must shutter 18 alternative high schools because of decreasing student enrollment and funds, academy founder Paul White says he's been targeted for his no-nonsense approach to teaching.

Charter schools in the San Fernando Valley, already among the highest-performing schools in LAUSD, are outperforming their traditional counterparts, a study released Tuesday by the California Charter Schools Association said.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Comparing state and federal test results in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the study found that nearly two out of three Valley charter schools performed better academically than their traditional counterparts, in line with schools district-wide.

Caprice Young, chief executive officer of the California Charter Schools Association, said she hoped the study would help legitimize charter schools in the eyes of parents.

"Parents have to make a choice of where to send their children," Young said.

Wading into what has become a politically sensitive issue across the country, a Los Angeles school board member will join with the City Attorney's Office today to explore whether students should be required to wear uniforms. Daily News.

"I look at this as the opening dialogue to see what works and what doesn't," Tamar Galatzan said of her hearing today with City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

"There has been a lot of debate over this, and we want to see if we can come up with a district policy.

Most importantly, we want to look at schools where it has had problems and look at why it didn't work."

Facing massive proposed state budget cuts, Los Angeles Unified schools chief David BrewerIII is weighing a mandatory, unpaid furlough program for all district workers - including teachers. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Brewer told the Daily News last week that he is continuing to lobby the state to restore $353 million for LAUSD, but he said that if legislators don't relent he's also looking at possible layoffs of more than 400 nonschool staff.

Although he said he will not seek any layoffs of teachers, Brewer said other reductions could include deferring workers' compensation payments and cutting back on book purchases.

Thousands of Los Angeles teachers wearing red T-shirts left their classrooms Friday and marched in front of their campuses in a one-hour protest against state budget cuts. Daily News.

The walkouts triggered none of the campus disruptions feared by Los Angeles Unified School District administrators, who had sought a court order to block the protests on grounds they would put students in harm's way.

At schools across the city, teachers, parents and students waved signs and chanted opposition to a budget that could cut as much as $353 million this year from the district's $13.9 billion budget.