Recently in CHARTER SCHOOLS Category

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.

Port of Los Angeles High School in San Pedro received a boost from local dignitaries on Wednesday, with the visit of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilwoman Janice Hahn and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.

School official say they have the support of the trio in seeking to purchase their campus from a powerful landowner: the Port of Los Angeles.

School Executive Director Jim Cross said he believes the Harbor Commission will vote early next month on the school's offer to purchase its building, a former shipping company office structure on West Fifth Street. To the frustration of POLAHS officials, there have been multiple delays since negotiations began in fall 2008.

Cross and other POLAHS officials consider the building's purchase vital to the future of the six-year-old charter school. It currently pays about $800,000 per year in rent to the port.

Meanwhile, the school this fall is celebrating having reached its goal enrollment of 850, and recent achievements on state tests.

It earned an API of 778 this week -- a gain of 47 points that it put it well above all of LAUSD's traditional comprehensive high schools in the South Bay and Harbor Area. In results released in August, POLAHS also outperformed those campuses on results from the California High School Exit Exam: 93 percent of 10th graders passed the English section on their first try, and 91 percent passed math.

Next Wednesday, the school will host a ceremony marking the dedication of a new science classroom to FTR, the firm building the new port police headquarters next door. FTR made an in-kind donation of about $90,000 to the school by constructing a new sewer line. The dedication is the fifth such ceremony for the school, which recently built five new classrooms on its once-empty second-floor space.

Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan has won the first annual Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, White House officials announced today. President Obama will travel to the school later this spring to deliver the commencement address.

More than 1,000 schools across the nation submitted applications in February to compete in the contest. From there, six finalists - including Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School - were selected. With the help of MTV producers, students made a three-minute video about their school, which was then submitted to the White House and posted online. The public rated each video on a one-to-five scale during a four day voting period last week. Obama selected Kalamazoo Central High School as the national winner from the three high schools with the highest average public ratings.

"I congratulate our winner, Kalamazoo Central High School, and all of our six finalists for their innovative and effective approaches to teaching, learning and preparing students to graduate ready for college and a career," Obama said in a statement. "I look forward to visiting and speaking at Kalamazoo Central High School later this spring."

Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School did not make the final cut. More than 160,000 votes were cast during the three-day voting period, the White House announced this morning. President Obama will now choose a winner from the top three rated schools and deliver their commencement address later this spring. The final winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 4.

The three finalists, in no particular order:

• Clark Montessori Jr. & Sr. High School in Cincinnati, OH

• Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI

• Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver, CO

The deadline to vote in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge is 9 p.m. Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale was among six finalists chosen by the White House. Students from each school were required to make a three-minute video, which was posted online. President Obama will choose the winner from the three highest vote getters and speak at the school's commencement ceremonies. If you haven't voted yet, you can do it here.

The winner will be announced May 4.

Like a highly contested political campaign entering its final hours, the nationwide contest to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies is heating up.

As the voting deadline nears for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, students from the six schools across the country selected to compete - including Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School - are urging the public to vote. There have been YouTube videos and Facebook pages, mass e-mails, newspaper articles, even billboards.

Now come the celebrity and political endorsements.

Michigan's Kalamazoo Central High School has two high-profile alums - Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees and Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers - campaigning for the school to host President Obama.

Clark Montessori in Ohio has the state's governor, Ted Strickland, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus urging Ohioans to vote. Even former Cincinnati Mayor and congressman David Mann - he has a granddaughter at the school - has sent a letter to Obama highlighting the school's accomplishments.

But tiny Environmental Charter is bringing its own star power.

On Monday, actress Rosario Dawson was at the campus, urging the public to cast their vote.

"These kids are innovative, strong," said Dawson, a noted environmental advocate, shortly before submitting her vote online. "What they're doing at ECHS right now can be implemented across the country. They're a model not only for California, but for the world."

Dawson played Ruby in Larry Clark's 1995 cult classic Kids, and appeared more recently in Eagle Eye, Seven Pounds and the film version of Rent.

And in the wake of Dawson's endorsement, ECHS has received more celebrity backing.

Shaquille O'Neal, current center for the Cleveland Cavaliers and former star for the Los Angeles Lakers, had this to say on his Twitter account, The_Real_Shaq: Slam Dunk! Only 1 Green school in final 6 to win Pres. Obama speech at grduation. DO This: VOTE.

Then there's American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who tweeted: Tweeps! Help me help LA's Environmental Charter High...theyre in running for @barackobama to speak at graduation! Vote!

Even Chaske Spencer (of Twilight fame) tweeted his endorsement.

The school has also received support from a number of other celebs and high-profile organizations, including Virgin founder Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra and - perhaps not surprisingly - the Surfrider Foundation.

With the help of producers from MTV, students at each school submitted a three-minute video to the White House, which was posted online. Voters are encouraged to rate each school's video on a one-to-five scale.

Obama will personally select the winner from the three receiving the most votes and speak at the winning school's graduation ceremonies. In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, White House officials said Obama's choice will not be political, rather it will be based on the school's academic merits and overall quality of education it provides students.

Voting ends Thursday (4/29) at 9 p.m. A winner will be announced May 4. You can cast your vote here.

Voting has begun in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. Environmental Charter High School In Lawndale was one of six schools across the country selected for the chance to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies and students were required to make a three-minute video about their school. Voting ends Wednesday Thursday at 8:59 p.m. You can take a look at the videos and cast your vote here.

The environmentally-focused high school in Lawndale will be featured on Growing Greener Schools, a PBS documentary looking at how public schools are embracing the "green" movement. According to a press release sent out by the school, the program will spotlight the school for integrating the environment into its core curriculum to inspire its largely low-income and limited English proficient students to become actively engaged in civic issues.

The White House announced earlier this month that the school was among six finalists to have President Obama speak at commencement this year.

Here's the release:

Los Angeles-based Environmental Charter High School (ECHS), which is on the short list to have President  Obama speak at its commencement this year, is in an upcoming documentary  program on PBS. The program, Growing Greener Schools, singles out ECHS
as one of the nation's most innovative schools for integrating the  environment into its core curriculum to inspire its largely low-income  and limited English proficient students to become actively engaged in  civic issues.

Last week President Obama congratulated ECHS for demonstrating effective  approaches to teaching, learning, and preparing students to graduate  ready for college and a career. ECHS is one of six finalists selected by  the White House and Department of Education from over a thousand  applications to compete for a presidential commencement address from Obama.

ECHS is the only environmental school among the six Race To The Top Commencement  Challenge finalists. Last year, the California Board of Education cited ECHS as a  successful model for reducing achievement-gaps in California's K-12  public education system, and has helped fund distribution of  ECHS-developed instructional modules to other schools across the state.  ECHS' Green Ambassadors program, which empowers youth to become agents
of change in their communities by working on critical environmental  issues, is being implemented at ten other schools.

"Our 'green curriculum' hits close to home in poor communities that are  disproportionately affected by problems like poorer air quality due to  their proximity to industrial sites," says Alison Suffet-Diaz, Founder &  Executive Director of Environmental Charter Schools. "When inner-city  youth realize they can make a difference it inspires them to achieve  academically and go on to college."

Upcoming broadcasts include:

• PBS World, Sunday, April 25, at 7pm ET
• KOCE, Los Angeles/Huntington Beach, Sunday, April 25 at 10pm
• KVCR, Los Angeles/San Bernardino Friday, April 30 at 7pm
See local listings for other broadcasts

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, hoping to secure $324 million in funding for public K-12 schools, announced today that California has submitted an application for the last 10 percent of funding from the federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

The money would come from grants made possible by the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. California has already received $2.5 billion in grants for public education from the stimulus bill.

Also, I've been told O'Connell will be flying down from Sacramento Wednesday to visit the Da Vinci schools in Wiseburn. The two charters were featured by the Breeze in an article last summer.

Here's the press release (on the funding accouncement):

SACRAMENTO -- State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced California has submitted its application for the last 10 percent of funding from the federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) that would be allocated to the state totaling $324 million for kindergarten through grade twelve public education.

"My gratitude goes to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Barack Obama for making these funds available that have helped our financially struggling schools get through these tough economic times," said O'Connell. "I will continue to work closely with Governor Schwarzenegger to secure these much-needed funds for California schools. With this federal support we can further our efforts to improve student achievement by ensuring that all students have access to effective teachers, enhancing our longitudinal data system, maintaining our high standards, and focusing on data-driven reforms to help struggling schools."

SFSF is part of the federal stimulus package called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Funding comes in two phases. In the first phase, California received a grant of $2.6 billion in the spring of 2009, and an additional $355 million in the fall of 2009, making up 90 percent of the total amount available for K-12 public education. Of these amounts, $2.5 billion has already been disbursed to the public school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education. The funds are designed to help schools avert cuts in services and personnel, repair schools, and advance early learning to help students and their families.

The California Department of Education worked closely with the Schwarzenegger administration to prepare the application for the second and final phase of these SFSF funds totaling $324 million for K-12 education. To secure the funding, California assured the federal government that the state is making progress in four areas of reform. These include achieving equity in teacher distribution, improving collection and use of data, improving standards and assessments, and supporting struggling schools. How the second phase of funding will be disbursed has not been finalized yet.

A charter schools group that runs several campuses in South Los Angeles has created an advertisement promoting its students' achievements that will run during the USC-Penn State Rose Bowl game Thursday.

ICEF Public Schools' 30-second spot features students talking about their college plans.

"At ICEF Public Charter Schools in L.A., we all graduate," the students say. The ad states that only one in 10 South L.A. ninth-graders goes on to graduate college.

ICEF was chosen by Citi (i.e., Citigroup, the financial services company) to be featured as a "chairman's message" during the game, according a press release from the charter group. The commercial was created by ICEF students and teachers.

In October, ICEF announced it would create an "education corridor" with 22 new charter schools in a 45-square-mile region bound by the 110, 105, 405 and 10 freeways. The plan would expand the number of ICEF campus from 13 to 35 in five years.

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.

When things get busy here (as they do during holiday weeks), we kind of slack off on blog posts. You might have noticed. Sorry.

Anyway, here are a few links I've been meaning to post from recent days:

• Los Angeles Unified is considering cuts of up to $140 million this year, the Daily News' George Sanchez reports. Deputy Supe Cortines would halve the budgets of local districts, and cut Beaudry's budget by 30 percent. "It's just that bad," Cortines said
• The Los Angeles Times' Jason Song looks back on Friday's lockdown at Manual Arts High School in South L.A.
• The Associated Press reports that the federal goverment will withhold $1 million from California for failing to test eighth-graders in math. This is related to the whole eight-grade algebra conundrum.
• Another LA Times story: County juvie camps may become charter schools.
• From Friday, the Daily News' Sanchez reports on continuing payroll snafus within LAUSD.
• And ... UC students on Sunday protested proposed budget cuts, reports, yes, the LA Times.

David Zahniser has a story in this morning's Los Angeles Times about Los Angeles Unified's plans to develop worker housing on large campuses, including Gardena High School.

District officials say the plan would fill a need for employees who cannot afford to live near their jobs. Opponents of the $7 billion bond that goes before voters on Tuesday are crying foul.

But the development plan is drawing fire from opponents of Measure Q, the district's $7-billion construction and repair bond issue on Tuesday's ballot. Critics contend that the district should not seek to increase property taxes to pay for new facilities if it has enough real estate to start housing its employees.

The California Charter School Association, which has fought to get the district to provide space for charters per state law (and recently touted a charter's legal victory over the district - see PDF), is also not pleased.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who originally backed the plan along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has pulled her support.

Hahn now says that she was wrong about the housing plan, which was presented to her before the district placed the measure for $7 billion in bonds -- twice the original amount -- on the ballot. Hahn said she is perplexed by the school system's desire to build homes in Harbor Gateway when, as part of its construction program, it is destroying homes in nearby Wilmington, also part of her district.

"There are certainly a lot of hurt feelings because the district has taken people's homes," she said. "So for them to be in the business now of building housing is a cruel twist."

One of the projects would build housing units on the north end of Gardena High's large campus (it's the largest in the district -- 55 acres, I believe). This was on a board agenda back in June and again recently but -- gah! -- I haven't found the time to write about it.

Interesting stuff.

Also -- be sure to check out Daily News reporter George Sanchez's story about $700,000 in donations made to the Yes on Q campaign by construction firms that stand to benefit from district projects.

Dorsey High School has rejected a takeover effort from former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, reports Howard Blume in today's Los Angeles Times.

Riordan was seeking to take over the South L.A. campus in a similar fashion to the effort fronted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with his Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. The plan would have divided the largely African-American school into academies, like Green Dot's effort at Locke High School.

Meaningful local control sounds good to Noah Lippe-Klein, a veteran Dorsey history teacher and a union representative. He had joined faculty and parents last year in petitioning the district for more academic counseling, along with better college and career guidance; expanded, updated vocational offerings; and more Advanced Placement courses.

"We are definitely against any kind of takeover or any kind of outside organization imposing its ideas on Dorsey," he said. "And that's what this comes across as."

Riordan's group is called Pathways-to-Success. Incidentally, the Riordan Foundation was one of the primary backers of Carson's new charter, New Millennium Secondary School.

LAUSD's Senior Deputy Superintendent Raymond Cortines notified Riordan yesterday that Dorsey would reject the ex-mayor's bid, Blume writes.

An overhaul of the education system for children incarcerated in the Los Angeles County juvenile justice system was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today, according to a press release from Supervisor Don Knabe.

The changes will affect the county's three juvenile halls (in Boyle Heights, Sylmar and Downey) and 19 youth camps. None are in the South Bay or Harbor Area.

The reforms will include the creation of charter schools within the probation system. Wow. It will be interesting to see how that works.

The release includes the following findings from the 2007 report:
The release continues:

The reforms will also customize educational opportunities based on the individual needs of the student, including a vocational education path, a college-bound path, and a GED completion path, among others. Additionally, the reforms will now tie education in the camps and halls with education in school districts across the County so that students leaving the juvenile justice system will have better continuity and consistency when they return to regular schools.

The reforms were proposed by Knabe last year after a study from the Children's Council of Los Angeles County revealed that incarcerated children were educationally underserved. Knabe billed it as a crime-reduction effort.

One of his lines in the release: "By improving access to educational opportunities in the juvenile justice system today these kids are less likely to commit future crimes tomorrow and end up in and out of our justice system throughout their life."

A UCLA study reports nearly three in four teenagers say they were bullied online within a year but only 10 percent of them reported it to parents or other adults.

Reachers said the most prevalent forms of bullying online include name-calling, password thefts, threats, sending embarrassing pictures, sharing private information without permission and spreading nasty rumors.

According to UCLA:

Of those who were bullied online, 85 percent also have been bullied at school, the psychologists found. The probability of getting bullied online was substantially higher for those who have been the victims of school bullying.

The study used a survey of 1,454 between the ages of 12 and 17, who were recruited through a popular teen website. Nearly half the teens said they didn't tell anyone about the online bullying because they believed they "need to learn to deal with it" and 31 percent didn't for fear that doing so would restrict their Internet access.

They're baaack. Well, not exactly. Lawmakers might consider a plan to call everyone back to Sacramento to discuss the state's need for a short term $7 billion loan, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Because of the credit crunch and less state revenues Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could declare a special session where legislators may look at different ways to make up the budget hole, including cuts to schools.

Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association, said lawmakers "might as well stay home" if they are planning to make up the latest shortfall with cuts alone. His group and other school organizations believe the state should use tax increases to balance the budget.

"If they come back into a special session because revenue projections are in decline for the current year budget, it probably could only mean bad news for schools unless they're inclined to have a conversation about new revenues," Plotkin said.

Maybe, according to the Sacramento Bee.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned this week that Congress needs to put the nation's finances in order so the state can pay its bills in November for critical needs like teacher salaries.

Lockyer said the fiscal crisis may drain California's reserves by the end of October because the state can't sell bonds and short-term securities for cash flow needs.

"The credit market is frozen because financial institutions are afraid to commit capital amid enormous uncertainty," the treasurer said in a written statement.

"More urgently, because the state budget was so late, we have only four short weeks to complete what otherwise would be a routine revenue anticipation note sale to meet the state's cash-flow needs," Lockyer said.

Exhausting California's cash reserves would have dire consequences, he said.

"Payments for teachers' salaries, nursing homes, law enforcement and every other state-funded service would stop or be significantly delayed," Lockyer said.

"And California's 5,000 cities, counties, school districts and special districts would face the same fate."

Education Week reports rising federal academic standards is a growing concern among the nation's educators and state policy makers but not in the presidential campaign.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have rarely touched the subject of No Child Left Behind.

According to Ed Week:

In their education proposals, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have outlined specific plans to address provisions of the almost 7-year-old federal education law. Both would refocus the teacher-quality section to bolster the recruitment of new teachers and to experiment with new forms of teacher pay. Sen. McCain promises to make school choice and tutoring available to students in struggling schools sooner than the current law allows.

But neither candidate has said what he would do to address significant questions about the NCLB law's future, such as whether to keep its goal of universal student proficiency in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year, how to increase the rigor of states' academic standards, and how to improve the interventions in schools failing to meet achievement goals.

A lot of people out there have called me about the glut of negative news about education and said they want to read something nice for a change. That's a good idea. So I am considering writing a story each week that takes me and a photographer into the K-12 classroom, where the actual business of learning happens.

I want the community of parents, teachers, principals, district types and students to email me at vu.nguyen@dailybreeze.com and tell me why I should visit your school and write about it. I'll probably focus on one subject so if there is an amazing math teacher or an interesting science instructor out there, let me know what they're doing right.

P.S. Make sure the principal of your school or district official gives us the okay.