Schools: December 2007 Archives

Los Angeles Unified School District is forfeiting millions of dollars in federal funds because just half of its eligible students are taking advantage of a lunch program in which kids eat for free or at reduced prices, the Daily News has learned. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

While 74 percent of the district's 700,000 students are estimated to be eligible for the federal program that subsidizes meals for low-income students, only 37percent of those in middle schools and high schools participate, LAUSD officials said. Despite higher participation by elementary students, the total rate lags far behind that in other large urban school districts - adding pressure on the LAUSD as it strains to boost food services on an increasingly tight budget.

"What is outrageous is that this is an absolute necessity and a valuable service, ... and I'm concerned we have a low participation rate because administrative costs are great, and we haven't made the necessary investments," school board President Monica Garcia said.

Online data base of schools.

A week after announcing seven Los Angeles Unified schools had voted to
join the mayor's reform effort, teachers union officials announced
Thursday that two of the high schools lacked the required majority to
participate. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

United Teachers Los Angeles said Watts' Jordan High will not join the
mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and dozens of Santee High
teachers will vote in January.

About 60 teachers at Santee High who were off-track when the vote took
place Dec. 11 didn't get the chance to vote and now will cast ballots
Jan. 8.

Charging that students from low-income homes will be evicted from athletic fields, a law firm representing the San Fernando Valley's largest youth sports program has asked the Los Angeles Unified School District board to reconsider plans to charge for after-school facilities use. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Many of the 10,000 students who participate in the nonprofit Valley Youth Conference's programs will lose their only regular after-school activity, John Carpenter, a partner at Carpenter & Zuckerman, wrote in a letter to the board.

"This is an illegally imposed tax on families, and these school grounds are already paid for by our tax dollars. This is an unfair policy of charging school-age children to use their own schools," said Carpenter, representing the Valley Youth Conference.

Marking a major political coup, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won his bid to manage seven Los Angeles Unified schools as a majority of parents and teachers voted to partner on education reform, according to results released Wednesday. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The hard-won victory culminated several failed attempts by the mayor over the past two years to assume a role in the district and capped an aggressive weeks-long campaign to win support for his plan.

Villaraigosa's nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is set to begin managing the schools in the 2008-09 school year, promising campuses greater resources and control over budget and curriculum.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's practice of using race as a
factor in enrolling students for its popular magnet programs doesn't
violate an anti-discrimination law, a judge has ruled.Daily News.

In a ruling filed Monday, Superior Court Judge Paul Gutman upheld the
nation's second-largest school district's integration plan, which also
buses volunteer minority students to schools in certain parts of the
city.

The American Civil Rights Foundation had filed a lawsuit in 2005
claiming the district's practice violated a voter-approved initiative
that outlaws racial preferences in all public programs in California.

The Los Angeles Unified school board will consider today awarding more than $4.7 million in new contracts to fix its computerized payroll system - funds that will come on top of $16.5 million in contracts already approved for the system since February. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The contracts would pay for more consultants to come in and fix the system as well as for hardware to support the system's recovery efforts, said Dave Holmquist, the LAUSD's interim chief operating officer.

Thousands of LAUSD employees have been underpaid or overpaid since the district rolled out the new $95 million computerized payroll system in February.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took off his jacket, grabbed the microphone in Jordan High's auditorium and began trying to convince more than 200 Watts parents, teachers and students to join his educational reform effort. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The pitch was reminiscent of a one-month blitz of town hall meetings last year in which Villaraigosa exhorted support for legislation that would have given him a substantial role in Los Angeles Unified.

"I believe there's no magic wand, that this isn't going to be simple, that we're not going to put this partnership together and overnight turn around the schools," Villaraigosa told the crowd last week.