Schools: June 2008 Archives

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.

For one last time, she watched them walk by in single file, sporting smiles and decked out in celebratory garb. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

It was a cool, sunny day for Tyree Wieder's last graduation ceremony after 14 years as president of Valley College.

As she took pictures of her graduating students, Wieder reflected on her long education career and what she will leave behind when she retires this summer.

"I will miss the students, the people I work with and the challenges," she said.

Holding up signs and sporting matching T-shirts, thousands of parents, students and teachers from charter schools across Los Angeles marched downtown Thursday to ask for more charter funds, protest potential cuts and announce formation of the first statewide charter advocacy group. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Although charter schools have begun to work with Los Angeles Unified School District officials, families and teachers still complained about the district's treatment of charters.

"Charter schools are still not getting their fair share. They get $3,000 less per kid, and they don't get any facilities," said Jacqueline Elliot, who chairs and co-founded the new advocacy group, Families That Can, which organized the protest.

Construction has started on a new LAUSD high school in Granada Hills, one of two schools to start construction this week in the San Fernando Valley.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Sitting on the former site of Granada Hills Community Hospital, Valley Region High School No. 4 will alleviate overcrowding at Granada Hills, Monroe, Kennedy and Northridge Academy high schools.

Today the district will break ground on a new elementary school in Canoga Park.