Schools: February 2008 Archives

Councilman Richard Alarcon returned to school on Thursday and said he learned some important lessons.
Alarcon, serving as part of the "Principal for a Day" program with the the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the LAUSD, worked at Sylmar Elementary School where principal Susana Rubinstein showed him what her day is like -- and it involves a lot of walking.
"We must have walked for two hours straight and visited every classroom," Alarcon said. "And, she told me that's what she does every day."
And, the councilman came away with some self-assigned homework.
Among the things he plans to work on is raising enough money for Sylmar and every elementary school in his district to construct gymnasiums. "It's only $27,000 and I want to see what we can do to help them," Alarcon said, adding that his district has among the highest levels of childhood obesity in the state.
Also, he said he is going to help the school cut through some red tape when it comes to getting city permission to build a driveway for parents to drop off their kids as well as on the bus service requirements for disabled students.

Los Angeles Unified School District teachers gave union President A.J. Duffy their vote of confidence Thursday, re-electing him to a second term over three challengers for the top United Teachers of Los Angeles post. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Duffy gained 58.7 percent of the vote, with challenger Linda Guthrie next at 23.7 percent. Challenger Becki Robinson received 16.4 percent and Barbara Eisen-Herman received 1.2 percent.

Duffy ran on the United Action slate and said he is excited to continue leading UTLA toward change.

"My plans are to continue down the road of reform, which has been the big thrust under my administration," Duffy said.

Massive payroll glitches that left Los Angeles Unified teachers under- or overpaid last year are creating a new nightmare as thousands of year-end tax forms also have been found to be inaccurate, district and union officials said Wednesday. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

While LAUSD officials had promised that payroll problems would not affect teachers' year-end W2 tax forms, at least 3,400 have been identified as incorrect with less than two months remaining before the April 15 tax deadline.

And thousands more December pay stubs - which are usually used to verify annual income figures - now are not matching up with W2 figures, leaving many teachers concerned about possible errors.

More than a year after taking the helm of the nation's second-largest school district, Superintendent David Brewer III has yet to establish a critical inner-circle executive team even as key Los Angeles Unified professionals continue to leave.Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Seven upper-management professionals have left since Brewer took over and several top positions remain unfilled, including the head of instruction.

The gaps have begun to fuel quiet speculation that Brewer could be foundering in his role and might not be able to accomplish his vision for reforms in the LAUSD without such key advisers and managers.

"If you're not cleaning house as part of either rejuvenation or reforming the structure, then you're getting wholesale desert

Hands shot up even before third-grade teacher Tammi Berman had finished reading a sentence in "Flossie and the Fox," a book written in the dialect of the rural South.

"Yo'self," she read, and eager students waved their hands. "You ain't," she continued, as even more hands shot up. Naush Boghossian in the Daiy News.

"You a real fox," she read as more students clamored for her attention.

Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to share space on its campuses with charter schools, settling a lawsuit by charter groups that said the district was violating state law. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Charter school organizations sued the district last year, claiming that it was refusing to follow Proposition 39, which requires school districts to provide appropriate space on their campuses for recognized charters.

Settlement talks over the past six months resulted in an agreement under which the district agreed to provide space, with several exceptions.

Up to $400 million has been spent on new computers and software for classrooms, but the Los Angeles Unified School District has not tracked where all of the new technology has gone, officials said Monday Sue Doyle in the Daily News..

Since 2004, the district has purchased 129,000 personal computers. But because of haphazard tracking, some classrooms still do not have enough computers for students, while others have computers but not enough software. Meanwhile, some school computers still are operating with outdated systems.

But officials have begun pushing for all district schools to have up-to-date instructional computer facilities, a plan to ensure that obsolete technology is quickly replaced, and tracking on how many personal computers are in which classrooms.