Schools: February 2012 Archives

Despite the school board's desire to end social promotion, Los Angeles Unified lacks the money and personnel to eliminate the practice of passing academically unprepared students to the next grade level, officials said. Barbara Jones in the Daily News.
The school board approved a resolution last July seeking a new policy to promote students to the next grade only if they meet academic milestones.

Although officials wanted the policy in place for the 2012-13 school year, the committee studying the issue has recommended indefinitely postponing any significant change because of the ongoing budget crisis.

School board candidates would be able to raise more money per donor starting in the 2015 election under a recommendation Thursday by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. Daily News,

The panel voted to increase the donation cap for Los Angeles Unified candidates to $1,100, up from the current $1,000 to account for inflation. But the commission deferred a similar move for candidates for City Council and other city offices, saying it needed more study.

sLos AngeleeUnified Superintendent John Deasy said Friday the district broke state law by waiting a year to tell California's teacher credentialing agency that it was firing an instructor under investigation for alleged lewd acts with students. | Watch video here Barbara Jones in the Daily News.

Deasy issued a statement saying he'd ordered his staff to investigate why the district had failed to notify the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing within 30 days that teacher Mark Berndt had been fired.

"State law requires that school districts report changes in a teacher's employment status as a result of allegations of misconduct within 30 days of the change in employment status," Deasy said in a stateLos men

Averting what some feared would be a Valentine's Day massacre, the Los Angeles Unified board decided Tuesday to delay making crippling cuts to adult education and arts and preschool programs in the hope of finding money to fund them. | See photo gallery. Barbara Jones in the Daily News,

After hearing adult-ed success stories from a parade of speakers, board member Steve Zimmer introduced what he called "an amendment of hope" that gives officials a month to either find additional funding sources or other programs to cut. Zimmer said there is no way to salvage every program, but he hopes to be able to make "drastic" rather than "catastrophic" cuts.

"Our school families have endured so much that one more blow would have been more than we could come back from," Zimmer said after the meeting. "These cuts would have been unconscionable. I had to craft a way to give us more space and time to ensure we've exhausted every option.

There's a computer center, a creative writing table, a math area and a library.
What sounds like a traditional school campus is actually an early-education center, where pint-size preschoolers are eased into the rigors of the three R's. Barbara Jones in the Daly News.

"By the time they reach kindergarten, they have a very strong grasp of school readiness," said Sheila Hardy, the principal at the Pacoima Early Education Center, one of the 107 such facilities in Los Angeles Unified.

"They can read, they can use a pencil, the social skills are there. And these are skills that would be affected without the preschool experience."

Los Angeles Unified's budget deficit has swelled to $557 million, and the district faces layoffs of up to 7,500 employees and cuts to some of its most successful programs without a revenue trifecta to bring in cash, officials said Tuesday.Barbara Jones in the Daily News,

An outline of the 2012-13 financial plan set for a vote next Tuesday shows the district will have only enough state revenue to fund core K-12 programs, along with district facilities and critical health and safety services.

Lower on the list of priorities - and with no funding source guaranteed - are some of the district's most popular programs. According to officials and documents, those include adult and early-childhood education, after-school and arts programs, and even the high-profile Academic Decathlon and All District Honor Marching Band.
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