In This Issue:  | | • | A BIG FAT F: Failing the Budget + EDUCATION COALITION FACT SHEETS IN ENGLISH & SPANISH | | | • | MUCH MORE STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE: Four Decades after Latino Students Walked Out of Their Classrooms, L.A. Schools Still Need Substantial Reforms | | | • | SCHOOLS WANT MORE CHOICES: Educators say lawmakers should look at other ways to trim budget | | | • | TEACHERS SETTLE PAYROLL LAWSUIT | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources | | | • | EVENTS: Coming up next week... | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | FROM IN AN ARTICLE IN THE LA TIMES about a bit of name calling in the presidential campaign by a Pulitzer prize winning author-Harvard professor-Time Magazine correspondent and suddenly-former Obama campaign consultant (an praiseworthy multi-hyphenated curriculum vitae):
"Experts said she might have lost her way at the fuzzy intersection of her roles as author, journalist and campaign operative. 'If you are a book writer promoting yourself and your work, you are supposed to be provocative and interesting and tell the truth,' said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. 'Candidates are not there to speak the truth in all of its glory. They are there to win an election.'"
This is a self aggrandizing piece of expert balderdash ...the telling of truth is the exclusive domain of journalists? Extending that logic tells us that journalists are not there to be provocative and interesting and tell the truth; they are there to sell newspapers and ad space. And this is true to a point.
Candidates - whether for the school board or the presidency of the United States are aspirants to public service. Public service - despite evidence to the contrary - is a higher calling. The job of Public Servant from board of ed to oval office is precisely "to speak the truth in all of its glory" – to tell truth to power – and that power resides in we very folks who wander down to the polling place or mail in the ballot.
We judge how well we think they are at it.
When he first job of the candidate is to get elected democracy becomes "Project Runway" ...and don't get me started about the reality of 'Reality TV'!
MONSTERS AMONGST US: There was a book a few years back about a street gang overlord, MONSTER: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN LA STREET GANG MEMBER. The title thug's gang name was "Monster". The life and actions of the protagonist were monstrous - and yet the gang culture continues to be celebrated in popular culture, from "Gangsta Rap" to "La Vita Loca." It isn't the four letter words or even the misogyny in gangsta rap that are obscene, it is the trail of sad, broken and crushed lives - in and outside gangs - etched into our sidewalks in blood and glorified in popular culture where the obscenity lives and festers.
When gang members kill gang members it's admittedly hard to care; but in the past few weeks more innocent children have died in gang violence on our streets than gangster/terrorists. Last week a six year old died in Harbor Gateway for being Black in Brown territory. A star high school athlete died in his own Crenshaw 'hood for not knowing the right answer to "Where you from, cuz?" A thirteen year old in Echo Park, picking lemons. Dead.
Enough.
—smf
A BIG FAT F: Failing the Budget + EDUCATION COALITION FACT SHEETS IN ENGLISH & SPANISH
A 4LAKids Editorial
There was a flurry of heated press events, workgroups and task force meetings last week about the proposed budget cuts to education and children's health and welfare – in Sacramento, up and down the state and in our fair city. The message was like a good martini: strong, clear and somewhat mixed – No Cuts!
Teachers and educators and nurses and public health workers cry loud and forcefully: "Save my job / Save my program!" The budget crisis can be framed as a labor issue; a "here we go again" red v. blue / progressive v. conservative / 'us' against 'them' collective bargaining dispute.
That's a polarizing fight no one wins and all kids loose.
When the rhetoric heats up listen for two voices: The voice of Parents and the voice of Students.
At a media circus/photo-op at Lincoln High School Friday a frightened but eloquentl Latina Mom with a babe in arms followed the outraged politicos, besieged educators and verbose labor leaders to the microphone: "What about my children, what about their future?" And Atiana Duran - a student - addressed Governor Schwarzenegger: "What about me? What about my friends? What about our future?"
These so-called temporary cuts - however applied - will permanently damage the education of schoolchildren for a year or more of their lives (retroactive mid-year cuts already hammer this year; next year promises worse.
That's a year and more that may mean no art or music in our schools, larger class sizes; promises broken, needed reforms foregone. Some neighborhood schools will be closed. Field trips will not be untaken. Broken things will not be fixed. Students will be without textbooks. Kids who hurt themselves will visit nurse's offices with no nurses.
The message will be heard by students who already ask themselves: "Why should I go to school?"
Challenges are opportunities in disguise, but opportunities lost are gone forever.
This is the opportunity to rethink school finance in California; this is the opportunity to revisit the Ed Code. This is an opportunity to recommit this state to the mission of being best and first in the nation in education. This is an opportunity to think big – or an opportunity to do the same-old/same-old and complain about the outcome.
Think big and work hard — or cut-cut-cut and remain ignorant; you choose. Or let the governor choose.
¡Onward/Hasta adelante! -smf
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EDUCATION COALITION FACT SHEET
GOVERNOR'S 2008-09 BUDGET PROPOSAL
• While it is clear there are extraordinary challenges in balancing the state's budget, the Education Coalition strongly opposes the governor's 2008-09 budget proposal and his plans to eviscerate Proposition 98. Our students and schools did not create this budget problem, and their progress shouldn't be undermined because of it.
• The governor's budget reductions would be disastrous to public schools and they are fundamentally inconsistent with the state's goal of improving student achievement. A $4.4 billion cut to Prop. 98 would mean laying off tens of thousands of teachers and would also result in increases in class size throughout the state, not to mention a further erosion of the support system for students provided by classified and paraprofessional staff.
• Voters passed Prop. 98 almost 20 years ago to ensure our students and schools receive minimum funding. They strongly reaffirmed their support for the minimum funding law in 2005. Proposals to suspend Prop. 98 conflict with the will of the voters and jeopardize the minimum education funding levels Prop. 98 provides for students and schools.
• According to a report released this week from Education Week, California spends $1,900 less per student than the national average. Other recent studies have shown that California seriously underfunds its public schools, with New York spending 75 percent more than California. The "Getting Down to Facts" studies show that billions more would be necessary to ensure the opportunity for all students to meet the state's rigorous academic standards. In addition, California has some of the most overcrowded classrooms and the greatest shortages of librarians, counselors and other critical support staff in the nation.
• Experts including the Fordham Foundation (one of the nation's leading proponents of rigorous academic standards), the Public Policy Institute of California, EdSource and researchers at Stanford University all confirm that California's K-12 academic and performance standards are among the most challenging in the nation. With hard work, modest investments in teacher training and the adoption of standards-aligned textbooks, our students and schools have been making progress. Reading scores are up 25 percent and math scores have increased 17 percent in the last four years. This progress cannot continue with these proposed cuts to our public schools.
• A state budget proposal that looks at cuts alone is not a real solution, because it doesn't address California's underlying problem of inadequate and unstable revenue sources. We can not talk about spending cuts without also talking about increasing revenues.
• The most pressing challenge is to enact a balanced budget that continues the momentum of educational improvement that has been built since the late 1990s. This budget does not do that, and anything less is unacceptable.
The Fact Sheet in Spanish - pass it on!
EDUCACIÓN COALICIÓN HOJA INFORMATIVA
GOBERNADOR DEL PRESUPUESTO 2008-09 PROPUESTA
• A pesar de que enfrentamos retos excepcionales para poder balancear el presupuesto estatal, la Coalición Educativa se opone determinantemente al plan presupuestario del goberandor para el 2008-09, asà como a sus planes de debilitar las protecciones de la Proposición 98. Nuestros estudiantes y escuelas no son los responsables de que el estado este pasando por problemas presupuestarios, y su éxito escolar no debe sufrir las consecuencias.
• Las reducciones en el presupuesto del gobernador no sólo serÃan devastadoras para las escuelas públicas, sino que también contradicen la meta fundamental del estado de mejorar el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes. Si el financiamiento de la Proposición 98 es reducido en $4,400 millones de dólares como se propone, decenas de miles de maestros podrÃan perder sus empleos, y el número de estudiantes por aula podrÃa aumentar a niveles alarmantes a través del estado. No sólo eso, sino que también se perderÃa el sistema de apoyo escolar para los estudiantes que reciben de personal clasificado y professional.
• Los votantes de California aprobaron la Proposición 98 hace casi 20 años para que nuestros estudiantes y escuelas recibieran un financiamiento seguro y estable cada año. Asimismo, reafirmaron su apoyo para un financiamiento garantizado en el 2005. Propuestas que han intentado suspender los lineamientos de la Proposición 98 van en contra de la voluntad de los votantes, y también ponen en riesgo el financiamiento escolar básico que la Proposición 98 garantiza a los estudiantes y escuelas.
• Según un reporte dado a conocer esta semana por la publicación Education Week, California gasta $1,900 dólares menos por cada estudiante, a comparación del promedio nacional. Otros estudios recientes han demostrado que el financiamiento que California destina a las escuelas públicas es grandemente insuficiente, con estados como Nueva York gastando un 75% más que California. Los estudios de "Getting Down to Facts", o "Los Hechos Imprecindibles", demuestran que se necesitan miles de millones de dólares adicionales para asegurar que todo estudiante pueda cumplir con los rigurosos estándares académicos que requiere el estado. Asimismo, las aulas escolares en California son de las más sobrepobladas, y las escuelas tienen los Ãndices más bajos de bibliotecarios, consejeros, y otro personal de apoyo en la nación.
• Varios expertos, incluyendo la Fundación Fordham (uno de los principales partidarios en el paÃs a favor de los rigurosos estándares académicos), el Instituto de PolÃtica Pública de California (PPIC), EdSource, e investigadores de la Universidad de Stanford, han confirmado que los estándares académicos y de aprovechamiento en las escuelas públicas de California del kinder al doceavo grado son de los más exigentes en la nación. Nuestros estudiantes han podido mejorar su rendimiento escolar gracias a inversiones módicas que han sido destinadas al entrenamiento de maestros y la institución de libros de texto que están directamente alineados con los estándares académicos. De hecho, en los últimos cuatro años, las calificaciones en el área de Lectura han aumentado en un 25%, y un 17% en las Matemáticas. Ésta mejora no puede continuar si los recortes a nuestras escuelas públicas se llevan a cabo.
• Un plan de gasto estatal que sólo se enfoca en realizar recortes presupuestarios no es una solución viable, porque no resuelve el verdadero problema en California, el cual se centra en ingresos inestables e insuficientes. No se puede hablar de reducir el gasto sin tampoco hablar de buscar la manera de aumentar los ingresos.
• Nuestro reto más importante ahora es el asegurar la aprobación de un presupuesto balanceado, que continue apoyando los adelantos educativos en nuestros salones de clase, una inversión hecha a finales de los años 90, y que está comenzando a dar frutos. Este prespuesto está lejos de hacer esto, y el hacer lo contrario, es inaceptable.
MUCH MORE STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE: Four Decades after Latino Students Walked Out of Their Classrooms, L.A. Schools Still Need Substantial Reforms
Op-ed in the LA Times by Mónica GarcÃa
• Mónica GarcÃa is president of the LAUSD's Board of Education.
March 8, 2008 - The year was 1968, and students at public high schools in East L.A. were banned from speaking Spanish in the hallways -- at risk of a paddling from administrators who embraced corporal punishment. The students were overwhelmingly Mexican American; the administrators were, without exception, white. Those students struggled against a host of daily humiliations: locked bathrooms during lunchtime, severely overcrowded classrooms and teachers who told them college was not a realistic option.
That March, students from every East Los Angeles high school had had enough. In what became known as the East L.A. walkouts, or Chicano blowouts, students from Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wilson, Garfield and Belmont high schools walked out of their classes.
In the days that followed, more than 20,000 students at 15 schools walked out to protest educational inequity. Their demands were simple: Provide a fine education with equal resources so all students had a chance to attend a four-year university. The L.A. Unified School District's Board of Education was confronted with a community united in its demand for change.
The East L.A. student protest was one of the largest demonstrations of its kind. It sparked real changes, including the hiring of more Latino administrators, the right to speak Spanish on campus and a ban on corporal punishment. Greater awareness of the overcrowded and substandard facilities fostered successful efforts to build new schools on the Eastside.
But four decades later, as we honor and remember those courageous students, many of these same challenges remain.
According to a recent report by the community organization InnerCity Struggle, done in conjunction with UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, only 16 out of every 100 ninth-graders enrolled in a high school on the Eastside graduate eligible for college. Sixty-four out of 100 drop out. These grim statistics threaten to worsen as our educational system statewide faces the largest budget cuts we have seen in recent times. (California already ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending, according to a 2008 Education Week report.)
Despite our challenges, L.A. Unified must be a leader in urban school reform so that we can finally realize the goals of the '68 protests: giving all our youth the support and opportunities they need to learn and succeed.
Our communities are energized for reform. Over the years, voters have supported four bond measures to fund construction of more than 100 schools, enabling the district to end forced busing and bring our schools back to traditional calendars. A 2005 policy called "A-G for All," when fully implemented, will ensure that all students have access to the college-prep classes required for admission to the UC and Cal State systems.
This year, the board has increased the district's focus on meeting the needs of English learners, who make up the majority of our students. We're also trying new strategies to accelerate academic achievement, build ties to the community, increase flexibility of resources and strengthen autonomy and accountability at the school level.
Sal Castro, the Lincoln High teacher who led the walkouts, said, "We knew something different had to happen." His words resonate today. We all have much work to do to reach 100% graduation for all LAUSD students. But this is a moment when we can take substantial steps forward. SÃ se puede! Yes, we can!
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►smf's 2¢: Board President Garcia has been a powerful advocate for improving opportunities for all LAUSD students; she championed the A-G FOR ALL INITIATIVE as former Board President Huizar's chief of staff and worked tirelessly against entrenched resistance to get it approved. However unfortunate compromises in the board resolution and some legalistic interpretation of the language - driven by opponents, naysayers and pennypinchers have moved the actual rollout of the graduation requirement to later date than originally promised. It may take some renewed activism from Ms. Garcia to get the A-G piece back on track - especially if it is to be "for all".
Some readers of the above may be a bit shocked at the mention of corporal punishment and locking bathrooms. Corporal punishment persisted at LAUSD schools long after the walkouts. School Boardmembers elected in the backlash of the civil rights movement Garcia celebrates launched careers that took them to Congress based on 'bringing back the paddle' [see below] – and until Roy Romer's superintendency student restrooms were routinely padlocked to save money.
SCHOOLS WANT MORE CHOICES: Educators say lawmakers should look at other ways to trim budget
by Jo Ann Kirby | Stockton Record Staff Writer
March 7, 2008 - STOCKTON - County educators demanded Thursday that California lawmakers reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call for 10 percent across-the-board cuts and look at alternatives.
"The governor's budget does not prioritize education," San Joaquin County Office of Education Superintendent Frederick Wentworth said in a news conference before about 350 school officials, teachers, board members, parents and other educators.
"Our children are making progress. It is not time to take a giant step backward," he said, standing beneath a large sign illustrated with giant scissors and the words "Public Schools: An investment we can't afford to cut."
Wentworth said school districts won't know for certain how much money will actually end up being cut until the state budget is finalized, which could be anytime from June to September. But the governor's proposal of statewide cuts of $4.8 billion to education would slash school funding in San Joaquin County by nearly $100 million.
"In the meantime, I have to require the districts to do their budgets by June 30," Wentworth said of fiscal year 2008-09.
Compounding the uncertainty, districts are required by law to issue teacher pink slips for the next school year no later than March 15. Classified workers must be notified by May 15.
Cuts to education will send a misleading message to schoolchildren, Lodi Unified school board President Ken Davis said. He urged educators, parents and taxpayers to let their voices be heard.
"We need to send a message that we will not stand by idly and let them balance this budget on the backs of children," he said.
Wentworth proposed three changes Schwarzenegger should initiate to help balance the state budget:
» Restore the vehicle license fee.
» Eliminate tax loopholes that allow for "$50 billion a year" in lost revenue. A similar plan was floated by state Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill last month.
» End the practice of allowing bonds to be passed without supporting revenue sources.
"Vehicle license fees alone could generate $6 billion a year," Wentworth said. "Let's put it back on the books."
Manteca Unified Superintendent Catherine Nichols-Washer said the governor's budget would hurt districts, schools, classrooms and children.
"Making it even worse is the fact that we must make the cuts without knowing exactly how much we need to cut," she said. "Districts will still have to pay the bills, which means taking out a loan."
Money spent on loan interest is money not going to classrooms, she said. "Instead of holding districts to unrealistic timelines, adjust dates in order to give time for thoughtful planning based on real numbers," Nichols-Washer said.
And even if a state spending plan is approved that avoids the kinds of cuts education officials are anticipating, the damage still will have been done as schools scramble later to restore what was eliminated.
Ellen Old, a sixth-grade teacher with Stockton Unified's El Dorado School, said she worries new teachers who get pink slips in March will look for work in other professions or find teaching jobs out of state.
The news conference, held at the San Joaquin County's Office of Education, is one of a series of events throughout the state being coordinated by The Education Coalition to sound an alarm over the governor's proposal.
The group is made up of the California Federation of Teachers, California School Boards Association, California State PTA, Association of School Administrators and other education organizations.
Coalition members were unified in their opposition to the governor's plan to suspend Proposition 98, which guarantees a minimum level of funding for schools.
Wentworth said area education officials will head to Sacramento next week to press their case.
In the end, PTA leader and mother of four kids in Lincoln Unified schools Heidi Orihuela said, it's important that lawmakers stand up for education. "Let's not be chicken," she said, holding a rubber chicken for effect.
TEACHERS SETTLE PAYROLL LAWSUIT
from The Daily Breeze
March 6, 2008 - LOS ANGELES - The union representing Los Angeles Unified teachers settled a lawsuit with the district over its trouble-plagued payroll system, a spokeswoman for United Teachers Los Angeles announced Wednesday.
For months, the Los Angeles Unified School District's payroll problems angered thousands of district employees - who were either shortchanged on their checks or received more money than they should have - and had trouble getting the mistakes rectified.
The agreement provides for 8 percent interest for about 6,700 UTLA members who were underpaid, according to Marla Eby, director of communications for UTLA.
UTLA also will be reimbursed for expenses incurred while helping members resolve their payroll disputes, according to Eby.
The LAUSD board approved the agreement Tuesday, according to Eby.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
from JUST SCHOOLS CALIFORNIA- education news coverage of statewide interest compiled by UCLA/IDEA • Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
EDUCATORS COALITION FORMED TO FIGHT PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS
•Adolfo Guzman Lopez/KPCC
Schools administrators, labor unions and parent groups from the Southland announced Tuesday they've banded together to fight Governor Schwarzenegger's nearly $5 billion proposed cut to California's education budget.
STATE SANCTIONS ON BAD SCHOOLS WON'T DO ENOUGH
•Editorial/San Jose Mercury News
California became the first state last week to invoke sanctions against 97 school districts that have failed to show progress under the federal "No Child Left Behind" law. But for all the hoopla over "severe" and "moderate" sanctions, the state's actions won't cause much to change. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell ducked a chance to knock heads in a handful of chronically mismanaged district offices. The State Board of Education, which must approve their weak plan, should consider stronger measures.The much-maligned "No Child Left Behind" law measures student improvement districtwide as well as in individual schools.
STATES EYE LOOSER REIN ON DISTRICTS: MORE OPERATING LEEWAY SEEN AS SPURRING LOCAL IMPROVEMENT.
•by Linda Jacobson/Ed Week
The push to give school districts greater operating flexibility—a grassroots rallying cry eclipsed in recent years by the charter school movement—is seeing a resurgence, as states seek to spur innovation that will help raise student achievement. In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue is proposing “performance contracts†that would free administrators in 15 districts from some regulatory strictures as early as next fall, if they agreed to meet achievement targets in the next three years. California is granting significant operating leeway to two large districts, Fresno Unified and Long Beach Unified, in exchange for their agreeing to work toward student-achievement goals in three areas. And Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons envisions “empowerment schools†statewide—if the state can find the money.
VIEW OF A GLASS HALF-FULL
•Blog by John Fensterwald/San Jose Mercury News
It’s a wonder that California students have done as well has they have, all things considered. That’s the conclusion of “Meeting the Challenge: Performance Trends in California Schools,†the lastest brief from PACE, the Policy Analysis for California Education, a joint project run out of U.C.-Berkeley and Stanford. The paper cited slow, steady academic progress by a number of measures over the past decade at a time that the proportions of poor, minority, English-learning students have grown in the state.
A KEY REPUBLICAN SEES ODDS DIPPING FOR NCLB RENEWAL
House members aren’t making progress on their pledge to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act this year, according to a leading Republican lawmaker. “We’re in a climate where it doesn’t look very favorable to get the reauthorization done,†Rep. Howard P. “Buck†McKeon, R-Calif., told a meeting of the Education Industry Association last week. Rep. McKeon, who is the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, said he hasn’t met with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the committee’s chairman, to discuss the NCLB law since October.
THE DEBATE ON EDUCATION
•by Jeffrey R. Henig/Boston Globe
IN THIS presidential primary season, the issue of education has been like Sherlock Holmes's dog that didn't bark. Education is so far off the radar screen that, in an Associated Press-Yahoo poll, it didn't even make the 18-item list when voters were asked, "How important is each of the following issues to you personally?" The real reason education has been ignored is that other issues have taken precedence. I blame the American media and public for their short attention span and for their inability to focus on more than a few issues at a time. The headlines are focused on Iraq, terrorism, the economy, and healthcare.
DEFIENDEN FONDOS PARA EDUCACIÓN -El LAUSD perderÃa casi mil dólares por cada estudiante
-EDUCATION FUNDS ARE DEFENDED - LAUSD would lose almost $1000 dollars per student
•by Iván MejÃa/La Opinión
De aprobarse los recortes propuestos por el goberndor Arnold Schwarzenegger para balancear el presupesto fiscal del estado, cada uno de los estudiantes del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ãngeles recibirá cerca de mil dólares menos por año para su educación. Schwarzenegger presentó una propuesta de recortes para balancear el déficit presupuestario estatal de 16,000 millones de dólares para el año fiscal 2008-2009, reduciendo 4,800 millones de dólares al presupuesto para educación.
- If the cuts proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to balance the state's budget are approved, each student in LAUSD will receive approximately $1,000 less each year for their education. Schwarzenegger presented a budget cut proposal for fiscal year 2008-09 of $16,000 million dollars, reducing the education budget by $4,800 million.
URGING A PUBLIC SCHOOL EXODUS
•Column by Cal Thomas/Sacramento Bee
As one group attempts to use California public schools as laboratories to assist children in "coming out" with their nontraditional sexual orientation, another is urging parents to come out from these schools and educate their children with their values at home or in private schools. Last Sunday, a group called "Exodus Mandate" (www.exodusmandate.org) began placing literature in scores of Southern California church lobbies, urging parents to take charge of their children's education and oppose attempts by activists and politicians to shape the worldview of young people, a worldview that runs counter to what many taxpaying parents believe and teach in their homes and places of worship.
RIVERSIDE UNIFIED WON'T SLASH 154 JOBS AFTER ALL
•By Imran Vittachin/Riverside Press-Enterprise
As many as 154 kindergarten, first- and second-grade full-time equivalent teaching positions across Riverside Unified School District won't be eliminated after all. To cheers inside a jam-packed board room, the school board voted Monday to restore the positions. The board reversed its Feb. 22 decision to cut them by eliminating the district's kindergarten through second-grade class-size reduction program for 2008-09, which would have saved Riverside Unified about $9.6 million. The reversal came after Deputy Superintendent Mike Fine said he discovered an error in his calculations and recommended the trustees vote to restore the class-size program.
SCHOOLS SEEK BETTER NOTIFICATION ON MEAT RECALLS
•by Lesley Clark/Sacramento Bee
Local school districts got incomplete – and at times tardy – information about last month's massive recall of suspect beef, several school administrators told Congress on Tuesday. Testifying before a House of Representatives committee that's looking at ways to improve the safety and nutrition of school meals, Doris Rivas, the director of nutrition for the Dallas schools, said she first was under the impression that the district "did not have any of the product in question," only to learn weeks later that it did.
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Monday Mar 10, 2008
Loreto Elementary School Classroom Addition: Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
Ceremony starts at 1:00 p.m.
Loreto Elementary School
3408 Arroyo Seco Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90065
Monday Mar 10, 2008
South Region High School #9: Schematic Design Community Meeting
6:00 p.m.
Tweedy Elementary School
Multi-purpose Room
9724 Pinehurst Ave,
South Gate, CA 90280
Wednesday Mar 12, 2008
South Region Middle School #6: Pre-Construction Community Meeting
6:00 p.m.
Normandie Elementary School
4505 S. Raymond Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90037
Wednesday Mar 12, 2008
Valley Region Bellingham ES Addition: CEQA Scoping and Schematic Design Meeting
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Bellingham Primary Center
6728 Bellingham Ave.
North Hollywood, CA 91606
Thursday Mar 13, 2008
Central Region Elementary School #21: Pre-Design Meeting
6:00 p.m.
Harmony Elementary School
899 E. 42nd Pl.
Los Angeles, CA 90011
Thursday Mar 13, 2008
South Region High School #15: CEQA Scoping Meeting
6:00 p.m.
Dana Middle School - Auditorium
1501 S. Cabrillo Ave.
San Pedro, CA 90731
________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-893-6800
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• Register.
• Vote.
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