Schools: April 2008 Archives

For nearly two decades, the Los Angeles Unified School District has relied on its staff to flush hundreds of campus drinking fountains every day to help lower any lead levels in the water, but tracking began only six months ago on whether the procedures are being properly carried out.

News that the nation's second-largest school district has not vigorously protected its children's water comes just days after school officials acknowledged that high lead levels were found in a drinking fountain at Woodlake Elementary School in Woodland Hills.Susan Abram in the Daily News.

While acknowledging that staff members in charge of flushing water fountains and keeping logs on it were negligent on some campuses, Superintendent David Brewer III and other LAUSD officials are trying to reassure parents that their children have not been at risk.

But some parents remain skeptical about whether it is safe for their children to drink water from school fountains.

About 85 percent of students in Los Angeles Unified School District's Class of 2008 have passed the state's exit exam - required to receive a high school diploma - but English learners continue to lag, with just 53 percent passing the mandatory test. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The overall results are up 1 percentage point from the same time last year, when 84 percent of the Class of 2007 had passed the English and math tests of the California High School Exit Exam.

The results are up 6 percentage points over the Class of 2006 at the same time.

Despite criticism over how it spent $2.2 billion in previous bond funds, the Los Angeles Community College District board is expected to vote today on placing another bond measure of up to $5 billion on the November ballot. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

If it passes, Los Angeles city residents could expect to pay $17 to $25 more in taxes per $100,000 of assessed property value to cover the bonds.

The decision comes even as district officials say they have more than $1 billion remaining from two previous bonds and about 200 unfinished projects.

But with 27 construction projects under way - including some at Harbor College in Wilmington - and several new vocational demands on the horizon, that money won't last long.

"We are spending about $15 (million) to $20million a day on construction," said Larry Eisenberg, director of facilities,

For thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District employees, tax time this year has been even more stressful than usual. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The district's payroll system fiasco resulted in about 3,400 incorrect W-2 forms being mailed to employees earlier this year, leaving many of them worried about facing penalties if they file late or incorrect tax returns as Tuesday's filing deadline approaches.

As of Friday, however, district officials said they've managed to resolve most of the outstanding tax filing issues.

District chief operating officer David Holmquist said there are about 50 employees who still have issues to resolve with their W-2s and another 200 who may have had problems with incorrect contributions to an employee retirement plan.

Thousands of Los Angeles Unified parents and students packed the Los Angeles Convention Center Saturday for a parent summit, to get advice on everything from identifying attention-deficit disorder to improving their children's test scores. Rick Coca in the Daily News.

Parents and students were offered the chance to air some gripes, interact with school board members and hear directly from Superintendent David Brewer III during some of the more than 50 seminars and activities at the 12th annual Parent Summit.

During a workshop with school board members, Jenny Mangandi, a 13-year-old student at Thomas Starr King Middle School in Los Angeles, complained that substitute teachers are used too often in one of her classes and that her school is overcrowded.

Even as the Los Angeles Unified School District grapples with wide-ranging problems, including lagging student test scores, more than a dozen San Fernando Valley schools were honored Wednesday by the state for exemplary academic performance.Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The recognition is a coup for the Valley, where 16 of the newly honored schools, or two-thirds of all California Distinguished Elementary Schools named in the LAUSD this year, are located - and also where the bulk of such schools in the area are perennially found, district officials believe.

"We've been working really hard in the Valley for a very long time to bring scores up and improve schools. It didn't just happen yesterday," said school board member Julie Korenstein, who has represented the Valley for 21 years.

Even as Los Angeles Unified finally boosted efforts last week to give charter schools more space on district campuses, the move has caused dissent that could lay the groundwork for conflict between the district and the popular education movement. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Two months after LAUSD settled lawsuits challenging lagging efforts to share its facilities with the independent schools, the district has offered space on traditional campuses to 39 charter schools - the majority of the 54 that applied.

The placement offers are the most the district has ever made and triple the 13 space assignments it offered last year.

Although still near the bottom in writing skills compared with other large urban districts, Los Angeles Unified eighth-graders have made significant gains in the past five years and outpaced both state and national improvements, according to a national report released Thursday. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The LAUSD - along with districts in Atlanta and Chicago - improved overall writing scores "significantly," according to the Nation's Report Card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The assessment is designed to measure whether students can communicate effectively in essays, letters and stories.

"For our middle schools, this was really a significant growth and an improvement," said Esther Wong, assistant superintendent of planning, assessment and research at the LAUSD.