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ICEF Public Schools, the operator of 15 charter campuses mostly in South Los Angeles, is facing financial insolvency, according to reporting today from the LA Times' Howard Blume. A group of big-name L.A. philanthropists are rallying to save the charter management organization.

ICEF runs two schools in Inglewood: ICEF Inglewood Middle Academy and ICEF Inglewood Elementary Academy. Both opened in September 2009 and are chartered by Inglewood Unified.

Billionaire businessman Eli Broad and former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan are working with a group of local philanthropists to save the respected charter management organization, which faced a $2 million deficit this year, Blume says. Riordan will become chairman of the ICEF board, and Caprice Young, former head of the statewide California Charter School Association, will take over as part-time CEO. Founder Mike Piscal will remain to oversee academic programs, Blume reports.

Riordan is contributing $100,000; Broad $500,000, and philanthropist Frank Baxter $100,000--jump-starting a short-term $3-million campaign to stabilize ICEF. All are longtime supporters of charters and frequent critics of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

ICEF is one of the groups that have applied to run South Region High School No. 4, a new campus that's rising in Long Beach. Still under construction, the campus is set to accommodate about 1,800 students from Banning and Carson high schools.

As I reported in a story that ran over the weekend, LAUSD officials are in the process of writing a plan to retain control of the campus, which is subject to the Public School Choice process that lets outside groups bid to control new and troubled campuses.

ICEF has also applied for control of seven other campuses under this year's Public School Choice 2.0. Three of those schools were recently removed from takeover consideration because of marked improvement on API results earlier this month.

Apparently ICEF's quick expansion over the past decade contributed to its financial troubles, Blume writes. It's not clear how or whether the current restructuring will affect ICEF's bids for Public School Choice campuses.

Los Angeles Unified School District announced the names of 22 teachers who have been awarded the title of 2010-2011 LAUSD Teacher of the Year.

Four are locals. Here's the information directly from a district press release:

• Lisa Butler, a resident of Carson, has been a teacher for seven years. She teaches multiple subjects to second grade students at Budlong Avenue Elementary School.


• Karen Orpe, a resident of Lawndale, has been a social studies teacher at Henry Clay Middle School for nine years. She has been a teacher for 12 years.


• Trevor Oystrick has been a science teacher at Susan Miller Dorsey High School for nine years. He has been a teacher for 12 years and is a resident of Manhattan Beach.


• Patricia Thornton, from 15th Street Elementary School in San Pedro, has been a second grade teacher there for four years. She has been teaching for 34 years and is a resident of Carson.

The district says the teachers are chosen for "exemplary and creative teaching" that makes a difference in student lives, the school and the broader community.

The winners go on to compete for the L.A. County title, and that winner can compete to be California Teachers of the Year.

Los Angeles Unified School District watcher and blogger Scott Folsom makes a quick point about the design of the new Public School Choice website: the achievement arrow points down. And why aren't parents on there?

The new list of schools that will be up for bid by outside operators was released yesterday. A campus that's under construction in Long Beach -- set for students at Carson and Banning high schools -- is on the list (our story).

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines is not happy with the complicated methodology used by the state Department of Education to determine a list of the lowest 5 percent of "persistently low-achieving schools."

In a March 18 letter to members of the State Board of Education and Education Secretary Bonnie Reiss, Cortines called the list "an embarrassment to the district and the state."

His frustration? LAUSD has seriously low-achieving schools that were left off the list, while some not-so-bad campuses -- such as Carson High School -- made it on. That's just what his special assistant Sharon Robinson told me when we talked last week about Carson's addition to the list, which now includes 31 LAUSD campuses.

The list was finalized at a state board meeting March 11 where several schools were swapped out (and where Carson High was added).

The 188 schools named are eligible for between $50,000 and $2 million in federal stimulus funding, but they must complete one of four fairly drastic interventions. Options include shutting down completely, reopening as a charter, firing at least half the staff and the principal, or replacing the principal and embracing less specific educational reforms.

Cortines, who heads the largest district in the state and is certainly not alone in his complaints about the state's methodology, sent state officials a list of 28 schools that he believes should be targeted by the initiative. Carson High is not on his list.

Cortines did keep Gardena High -- which was also named to the lowest-achieving 5 percent -- on his own recommended list.

He requested a review of the process for creating the list. You can look at a PDF of his letter here.

Carson High and LAUSD's local district office in Gardena are inviting parents to a set of workshops this Thursday.

A school official emailed me to say that only 27 parents had signed up last week, even though more than 5,500 invitations had been sent out to parents of current students and incoming eighth graders. So there should be plenty of space left!

The event, from the school and Local District 8 GEAR, is the first-ever Parent Empowerment Workshop.

Refreshments and registration will begin at 5:00 p.m. Parents will have the opportunity to attend three 30-minute workshops throughout the evening. Free childcare will be provided and a raffle will be held, with prizes including $250 worth of $25 gas cards, $75 worth of $25 Home Depot cards and other items. RSVP and receive an extra raffle ticket.

Call 310-354-3467 to reserve workshop spaces.

Students at the California Academy of Math and Science, the highly regarded magnet school in Carson, pleaded with LAUSD board members on Tuesday to let three core teachers remain at their campus.

The school district has allowed the three instructors -- Greg Fisher, Michael Denman and Vanessa Cerrahoglu -- to teach at CAMS for years on leaves of absence. Now, because LAUSD does not want to be on the hook for their expensive lifetime retirement benefits, the district is recalling the three.

CAMS, run by Long Beach Unified, accepts students from 11 local school districts. More than a quarter are from LAUSD.

Here's my story on the conflict from a couple of weeks ago. There are 175 reader comments, many of them very thoughtful.

At a board meeting Tuesday, nine CAMS students and alumni explained that they saw the three teachers as integral to the school. (The video is posted here; it's near the end of the meeting.) Several speakers teared up as they spoke.

"You're destroying our school ... it breaks my heart," said student Sylvia Alvarez.

In response, Chief Operating Officer Jim Morris repeated an explanation that he offered me: This is a policy decision needed for financial reasons. Teachers have been recalled for the past two years. He said their retirement benefits cost the district about $250,000 per employee.

"it really is an issue for us of disadvantaging students in LAUSD -- to the tune of about $250,000 for every employee who is on leave to another district and eventually retires from LAUSD," Morris said.

Board member Yolie Flores-Aguilar called for Morris to "explore any other options."

"it's obvious to me that children - students - are benefiting. Yet we have a financial challenge with this," she said.

I'll try to keep you posted. The "Save CAMS!" Facebook group is here.

Three local Los Angeles Unified schools are among those where parents and members of the campus community may have purchased baked goods that were later recalled by a food supplier, the district said this week.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced July 10 that the company, Colorado-based Country Creations, was recalling frosting packets that were included with its braided bread and cinnamon rolls, which were sold as school fundraiser items last spring.

The frosting may be contaminated with salmonella, the FDA said. Consumers are urged to destroy any packets that have not been eaten.

The items were sold at three elementary schools in the South Bay: Lomita Math/Science Magnet, Westport Heights and Carson Street. Three other LAUSD campuses also held fundraisers with the frozen bread products.

The district was last week notified by the California Department of Education which campuses were affected by the recall. There have been no reports of illness, a district official said.

More information is available at the Country Creations website.

Hi folks, I just got back from a lovely 10-day vacation and am resuming normal posting.

Here's our first local item:

Construction of a new Los Angeles Unified high school that will cater to Carson students may continue unabated, following an appellate court decision last Thursday.

The city of Long Beach had argued that the school district did not adequately account for the impact of the new campus in a state-required environmental report. The 14-acre campus is being built just over the Carson border in Long Beach, in property that the district acquired several years ago. (That portion of Long Beach is within LAUSD boundaries.)

Long Beach last year appealed a Los Angeles Superior Court decision in the school district's favor -- a ruling that was affirmed last week by a three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal.

The $145 million school, set to open in 2011 at the corner of Carson Street and Santa Fe Avenue, is expected to house about 1,800 students, relieving overcrowding at Carson and Banning high schools. Construction began in October.

In other news here at the Daily Breeze, our new full-time education reporter started today. Douglas Morino, a former Breeze intern, will be covering 10 local school districts in the South Bay.

We're very happy to have him. Doug will start posting here on School Notebook in coming days/weeks.

Del Amo Elementary School today will host a lunch to promote literacy at the campus, 21228 Water St. in Carson.

The event begins at 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. and parents can read to their children or to a group of students as part of the festivities. Information: 310-830-5351.

California State University, Dominguez Hills on Tuesday will host a viewing of the Presidential Inauguration in the campus University Theater, 1000 East Victoria St. in Carson. The free event is open to the public and will begin with a continental breakfast at 6:45 a.m.

It will be followed by a panel of elected officials and political science scholars discussing issues facing the country and the political and policy changes anticipated with the new administration. Information: (310) 243-2001.

California State University, Dominguez Hills officials mistakenly told us yesterday that the salary freezes of its top administrators will only affect President Mildred Garcia and four campus vice presidents through the 2009-10 school year.

Spokeswoman Amy Bentley-Smith corrected herself and said the CSU system's budget reductions will lock in Garcia's $295,000 annual salary and FIVE vice presidents who earn $140,000 to $190,000 each year.

Ambler Avenue Elementary School will host a walk-a-thon fundraiser at its Carson campus on Jan. 24 -- and the organizers are still looking for vendors to participate

The school's Red Wagon Wildcats O Ambassadors Club, a national program affiliated with Oprah Winfrey, will raise money for development programs in East Africa and U.S. disaster areas.

Sponsors will pay fourth and fifth-graders for every lap they complete around the school track. The event will also feature music, games, and food and clothing vendors.

Those who are interested in become vendors should call Michelle Heard at 310-532-4090.

The event is set for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 319 East Sherman Drive. Entrance is free.

California Academy of Math & Science engineering teacher Joseph Carpenter has recently received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The award program began in 2007 in order to give IIT students the opportunity to recognize the excellence of some of their former teachers. Martin Pena recommended Carpenter for this award because of the impact he made on his education at the Carson-based campus. Information: www.iit.edu or 312-567-3202.

U.S News & World Report today released its annual list of the top 100 high schools in the nation -- and four of them are local.

Three were charter schools (two from Lennox Elementary School District); one was a magnet campus. Here they are, listed with their ranking:

21. Lennox Mathematics, Science, and Technology Academy, chartered by Lennox Elementary School District

26. Carson-based California Academy of Math and Science, a magnet run by Long Beach Unified. Here's a video feature the magazine did on a robotics program at CAMS.

70. Hawthorne Math and Science Academy High, a Hawthorne Elementary School District charter

94. Animo Leadership High School, a Green Dot-affiliated Inglewood campus also chartered by Lennox

Here's another video feature on the two Lennox schools, looking at their charter status and their focus on math/science. And ... here's a lengthy print feature on CAMS and the two Lennox schools' math/science emphasis.

The survey, which was based on data from the 2006-2007 school year, honored schools that were found to serve all students well -- regardless of whether they come from traditionally disadvantaged groups -- while preparing them for college.

Tomorrow morning, students at Carson's Ambler Avenue Elementary School will celebrate the election of the first African-American president with a morning event for "Barack Obama Day."

From a Los Angeles Unified press release:

Various classes will recite poems and sing songs about president-elect Obama. The entire student body will celebrate the presidency of the first African American president and the 44th president of the United States of America.

"Students will also articulate how they now know they can aspire to be the president of the United States because he looks like us," said Althea Sidney, the school's Title I Coordinator. "We are a school of color and proud of Barack Obama's accomplishments."

Ambler's student body is almost 85 percent black and a little over 11 percent Hispanic, according to last year's data from the California Department of Education.

A Carson High School nurse revived a ninth-grader who collapsed and was found unconscious today.

The student, who was known to have a heart condition, was revived by the nurse's rescue breathing, a Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman said.

The student was found on the ground during lunch period between the dean's office and the library. He was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. No other info right now.

Continuing their months-long battle to oust Principal Anna Barraza, teachers at Dolores Street Elementary School will hold a "sit-in" at the Carson campus next week.

The event follows multiple demonstrations since May that have brought attention to the staff's effort to get rid of a woman they call a "lemon principal." Barraza and her union have defended her strict adherence to district policy and pointed to increased academic achievement.

The sit-in will take place Monday at 3 p.m.

*It's been moved to Thursday, UTLA folks tell me.

The students of 232nd Place Elementary School in Carson recently raised more than $6,400 for the American Heart Association.

The school tied the efforts to maintain heart health with the yearly effort to remain drug, alcohol and violence free by celebrating both Jump Rope for Heart and Red Ribbon Day together.

All of the students participated in a one hour jump, dance, and sing-along and dressed in Red Ribbon Week "red" clothing to underscore their intent to life a safe and healthy life.

After reading about the apparent murders of five homeless people who were found dead today in Long Beach, I realized the site where the bodies were discovered is less than three-quarters of a mile from the location of a planned Los Angeles Unified campus.

Of course, there does not appear to be any link whatsoever, but I thought I'd point it out.

Here is a map that is close to where the bodies were found. (The LAUSD site is to the north, northeast of the intersection of Santa Fe Avenue and Carson Street. The San Diego (405) Freeway runs between the school site and the place where the bodies were found.)

The district just broke ground on the site Oct. 23. The planned new high school that would cater larger to Carson students. It is being build on property that the district purchased in the city of Long Beach, which is continuing a legal battle against the district to stop the project.

The campus is next to a Dominguez Park and Dominguez Elementary School (both are to the north). To the west and north of the school are more residential areas.

To the south, closer to the site where the bodies were found, is a large shipping container yard. The areas south and east of the campus are largely industrial, which caused some critics of the district's plans to call the site inappropriate.

Teachers at Carson's Dolores Street Elementary School are again taking their continued battle for the removal of Principal Anna Barraza to L.A. Unified district headquarters on Friday. This time they'll have tents.

They'll be camping out in front of the 24-story downtown Los Angeles skyscraper, with the 110 Freeway practically running beneath their sleeping bags. This move is a less grass-cushioned repeat of the teachers' UTLA-backed camp-out at their elementary school campus in August.

The teachers contend that Barraza is not collaborative and has an overly rigid adherence to district policy. They've been protesting against her weekly since May. Barraza and her union say she's trying to bring change to the campus, and they point to a 33-point jump in the school's API score last year (Barraza's first at the campus after being moved from two other campuses).

The event begins Friday at 6 p.m. at the LAUSD building, 333 S. Beaudry Ave.

Expect lots of TV news crews!