Saturday, August 30, 2008

Milestones, mileposts, landmarks and landfall; The New School Year


4LAKids: Sun, Aug 31, 2008 62 Days w/o a Budget!
In This Issue:
DISTRICT GEARS UP FOR SCHOOL — LAUSD: Brewer announces new efforts to principals, others at annual address.
PRINCIPALS SKEPTICAL OF REFORM:
WESTCHESTER SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MOVE ON
PAYROLL TROUBLE CUTS OFF HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR 1,300 L.A. UNIFIED EMPLOYEES
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:
FLUNK THE BUDGET, NOT OUR CHILDREN Website
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
ON THURSDAY SUPERINTENDENT BREWER DELIVERED THE SECOND BEST SPEECH OF THE DAY when he addressed the assembled administrators of the district. Much of what he said is covered below ("District Gears Up for School") but four things ring out:

1. On sexual abuse of students the District has a new policy: Zero Tolerance. Tolerators will be treated as the abusers themselves. If you know or suspect and you don't report, you're gone.
2. Superintendent Brewer better defined the shared roles of him and Senior Deputy Superintendent Cortines: "The David & Ray Show" he called it. Now that the show has it has a name we will watch it carefully - and soon the ratings will be coming in.
3. He acknowledged a Gender Gap that runs parallel to the Achievement Gap. Boys are not doing as well as girls in school, Black girls outperform Black boys, the same is true for Latinos, Whites and Asians. That more girls are going to college is good, that fewer boys are going is bad. Bad for boys and for girls and for society.
4. Finally he recognized and acknowledged schools and staff that are making real progress in closing the Achievement Gap; there were many and certainly all assembled appreciated the recognition. Those schools are to be commended, as is the effort to recognize them. Ultimately all successes - at schools that always have been successful as well as those that show improvement - must be recognized. Universal excellence is the goal.

THE BUDGET OR LACK THEREOF IN SACRAMENTO slowly rotates like a meteorological disturbance in the mid-Atlantic, the tempest grows in its perfection though the tropical taxonomy: Depression : Named Storm : Hurricane …and upward through the roman-numerated categories.

Today's milestone, 62 Days Without a Budget, ties the record — tomorrow brings us to Category VI - California's never been 63 days without a budget. There is danger amply described in articles linked-to below — but there is another, greater danger: the great pressure to reach resolution - to compromise and throw the babies out with the bathwater is building.

We saw that on Friday in Sacramento (and to those who wrote and called, Thank you!) - read Senator Perata's justification for his thankfully defeated proposal (Perata's Floor Speech). He lays out a good case for a bad compromise; to rush into anything to meet an arbitrary milestone or deadline at the expense of the future of children could be disastrous. The truly frightening aspect of Friday's vote was that the Democrat majority voted as a block the wrong way. No! was the correct vote.

The filibuster by the minority must be broken but the unintended consequences and the collateral damage of expedient compromise must be carefully considered. The Conference Committee Report is the best option out there — the taxpayers are willing to pay with their taxes for the education our children need; we are unwilling to pay with the very futures of those children for anything less.

IT DOESN'T HAVE MUCH TO DO WITH EDUCATION - other than being a huge civics lesson - but the California State Court of Appeals heard the challenge to Measure R "The City Government, Responsibility, Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act of 2006 " on Tuesday morning August 26.

The challenge is based on a seemingly esoteric point of law - whether a measure can go on the ballot that addresses two separate items - in this case:
1. Changing Term Limits and
2. Lobbyist/Ethics Reform.

We know that an initiative cannot do this on the state ballot - and indeed the legislature is forbidden to enact a law that does this. The latter has been in the state constitution since it was a rough draft, the first was added later. This restriction on state government "The Single Subject Rule" has grown by amendment and judicial interpretation over the years. The rationale is that the voters should not be faced with all or nothing decisions in the ballot box.

The appellants say the City Council cannot do what is denied to the legislature. The plaintiffs - in this case the City of LA - say "Show me where it says that."

The political reality is of course largely at odds from the legal case; city councilpeople saw an opportunity to extend their terms to a third term - forbidden in the city charter - and wrapped it in the flag of lobbying reform. Note how it doesn't mention term limits in the title of the measure. The voters approved the wrenched business by 59% - and the court is faced with deciding whether any or all of this is somewhat close enough to legal to 'pass mustard'. Whatever the decision, it's gonna take some condiments to get it down.

Read Ron Kaye's comments referenced below - he sat in the courtroom with me and takes it far more personally and angrily than I do. My interest - to be transparent as can be - is that if Measure R is bad law then so is Measure L ("Term Limits, Campaign Finance Rules, Compensation Review - Los Angeles Unified School District Charter Amendment") - which imposed term limits on the LAUSD Board while simultaneously reforming their ethics and getting them a pay raise

When and if you read Kaye, consider this: Attorney Kaufman - who championed Prop R at the Court of Appeals - defended Councilman Huizar, the first councilperson to run afoul of its provisions, in an action earlier this month.

¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf




Ron Kaye: MEASURE R AND THE LAW: If you don't like City Hall corruption, you better do something about it



DISTRICT GEARS UP FOR SCHOOL — LAUSD: Brewer announces new efforts to principals, others at annual address.
by George B. Sanchez, Staff Writer | Daily News/Daily Breeze


08/29/2008 — Welcoming administrators back to school Thursday, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer III outlined new measures to track student performance and urged educators to work harder to improve test scores.

Also, following a school year in which there were several reported cases of sexual abuse by teachers, Brewer said the district has developed a new system to report abuse.

About 1,800 principals, assistant principals and administrators attended Brewer's annual address, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

While Brewer said individual schools had shown improvement, he noted there is still a deep achievement gap between white students and Latinos and African-Americans.

"Let me tell you what this is about," he said. "We have to hold ourselves accountable.

"This is the future of America," he said. "If we don't solve this, we will be a second-rate nation by 2020."

Strutting across the stage and speaking without the aid of a script, Brewer borrowed a quote from a preacher, telling his audience: "If you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat."

Educators, he said, need to leave behind the status quo, move beyond complacency and work to improve student achievement with the support of the community.

Debra Burris, an assistant principal at Woodland Hills Academy, said it was important that Brewer expressed faith in individual campus leaders.

"The important message is the belief in us that we can raise student achievement and that he has empowered us at our schools," Burris said.

LAUSD board member Julie Korenstein said, "He made people comfortable and he recognized them, which is the first time I've seen a superintendent do that."

In January the district will make available to parents and staff what Brewer called comprehensive school report cards tracking student achievement and post-graduation activity.

Also to be rolled out this year at 30 schools in the district is a Web-based program he termed "mydata," which will provide instant access to achievement rates for school sites, subgroups and individual students.

The program will be developed with principals and teachers, he said.

Brewer opened the address on that note, saying educators cannot break the trust of students and the community by allowing child abuse to go unnoticed.

Protecting an abuser, he warned, makes you an accessory in the eyes of the law and, he added, the issue will come out in the courts.

He urged educators to report suspected cases of abuse to authorities.

Brewer said a new system to report suspected abuse has been developed that involves principals, local superintendents and ultimately himself.

"Child abuse is going to be front and center in terms of your training and your development," he said.

Dee Apodaca, a field nurse coordinator, said she was glad to hear the connection between student safety and education.

"All of this supports the bottom line, which is student achievement," she said.

• The 2008 Superintendent’s Annual Address will be rebroadcast on KLCS on the following dates and times:

August 31, 7 a.m. & 4 p.m.
September 1, 10 a.m.
September 2, 10 a.m.


PRINCIPALS SKEPTICAL OF REFORM:
By George B. Sánchez, Staff Writer | Daily News

August 25 -- As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school partnership takes over 10 of Los Angeles' lowest-performing schools, his ambitious reform plan is being met on the campuses with both skepticism and hope.

Seven of the 10 schools' principals decided they didn't want to be part of the mayor's experiment and asked for transfers to other campuses just months before classes started.

The others remained, and the mayor has now brought in his own administrators to implement his vision. But while some of those who left said they were just looking for a different challenge or planning to retire soon anyway, others said they didn't have faith in the mayor's vision or methods.

They also felt left out in planning the fate of their own campuses.

"I'm totally for getting behind grass-roots reform, but what's the reform and how is it going to work?" said Verna Stroud, former principal of Markham Middle School. "It felt like, to me, it wasn't a partnership, it was a takeover."

The seven newly hired principals, some of them fresh to Los Angeles Unified, will be part of an untested plan - based on a framework created by the partnership, but ultimately one that is to be fine-tuned by the staff at each school.

Set against an LAUSD bureaucracy that has traditionally functioned under a strict chain of command, there is bound to be confusion.

There also likely will be discord.

The mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools told principals they could stay on if they wanted. But they also expected some would choose to leave.

"We were very direct. We were honest," said Marshall Tuck, chief executive officer for the partnership. "Frankly, our job was to make sure people know what this was about. We expected people to leave."

Despite plans to free them from LAUSD headquarters, the mayor's partnership schools are not completely autonomous.

New principals could not be recruited until July 1, when the partnership contract began, Tuck said. Ideally, new principals would have been hired in April and arrive on campus before the end of the school year.

New principals were announced last week, and new assistant principals will be announced this week. But some of the old principals question whether they were ever considered.

While parents and teachers were allowed to vote on whether their campuses should leave the district and join the partnership, principals and classified employees were not offered a say.

Seasoned educators were skeptical of the latest education reform effort.

"The thing about the partnership is it's an unknown. There's no track record," said Karina Salazar, who asked for a transfer after serving as principal of 99th Street Elementary School for the past four years.

"Even though it's called a partnership, how can you call it a partnership and exclude the administrators?"

Tuck said it's unfortunate principals didn't have a vote but said they would have likely solidified support for the change.

That would have been the case with Teresa Hurtado, who was principal at Stevenson Middle School.

"I didn't want to leave. I was open from the beginning to the transformation," she said.

In retrospect, she said, it seemed the partnership was interested in new leadership.

"Sure, I made the decision to leave, but what else am I going to do?" she said. "You have to have a good working relationship with your supervisor."

Stroud said no one told the principals to leave, but communication problems and a lack of collaborative opportunities led some principals to draw their own conclusions.

But the connection between the partnership and principals can drive education reform, one expert said.

"What is important in school reform is that leadership is in sync with one another from the superintendent to the principals to the teachers," said Harold Levine, dean of the school of education at University of California, Davis.

"As long as senior management and the principals are in sync, you have a much better chance for real change to benefit students. That's the bottom line."

A.J. Duffy, president of the district's teachers union, said principals should have been allowed to vote on the transformation. But their role within this vision of education reform, he said, should not be what it was.

"What we're trying to create is a completely new model and yes, the role of administrators is different because they no longer make the ultimate decision," Duffy said.

Duffy did not know if any teachers requested transfers out of the mayor's partnership schools. But if they had, their decision should be honored, to benefit students and staff alike, he said.

"We don't want teachers who are not going to buy into this, to be forced into anything," he said. "We want to make sure everyone is excited."

The actual plan for schools within the partnership was also unclear to some principals.

The partnership's vision, contained within a slim, 32-page document, Tuck said, is purposefully loose because it's meant to allow teachers and community members the opportunity to do what works, instead of being told what to do.

Stroud said that idea isn't fair.

"Everybody needs some type of leadership," she said. "I can't imagine any organization that would just give itself over to the employees and say, go do it."

The vision was just that, she said - a philosophy without a plan or instruction.

"The question was always how," she said.

But the vision appeals to some, despite only a few weeks to prepare for a new school within a new system.

Tim Sullivan, who was appointed by the partnership to take over Markham Middle School on Aug. 18, said he has followed education reform since the late 1990s and is excited by the partnership.

"This is my 18th year in education and will be one of the more exciting years in my career," he said.

Most of Sullivan's experience in education is as an administrator.

That's the key to the change in leadership, said Robert Cooper, an associate professor of education at UCLA.

"I think the concern ought to be, are people ready to take over leadership roles at those institutions," he said. "It's not just an issue of if they're new. It's about what experience they have."

The process that moved the schools out of the district and into the partnership was rushed and haphazard, said Mike O'Sullivan, president of the principals union.

There are concerns for the new principals and the support they will get, O'Sullivan said, and not necessarily who they are.

"We're cautiously optimistic things will be fine," he said. "Schools are strong institutions that are almost impossible to mess up."


THE PARTNERSHIP SPIN: 4LAKids' Previous coverage



WESTCHESTER SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MOVE ON
By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze

August 27, 2008 -- Six administrators at two Westchester public schools voluntarily left their posts in recent months, just as the campuses were preparing for the upcoming academic year and a newly realized independence from Los Angeles Unified.

The principals and assistant principals have quit at Westchester High School and Orville Wright Middle School - two of the five campuses that make up the Loyola Marymount University Family of Schools.

The university in July formalized a partnership with LAUSD that gives the schools greater autonomy, flexibility and accountability, under the wing of the LMU's School of Education and the district's year-old innovation-focused iDesign division.

Stephen Rochelle, former principal at Wright, left his job to embrace the partnership as the district's director of learning and leadership for the Family of Schools.

He called the position a "bigger challenge" that would encompass K-12 education.

Westchester's former principal, Anita Barner, quit to become principal at Van Nuys Middle School.

The assistant principals at the two schools also left - for administrative positions at other campuses. An LMU official said those departures occurred because of better job opportunities.

It's not clear what motivated Barner's departure, which took LMU officials by surprise since she had been a part of reform efforts.

"In the month leading up to her leaving, she was involved," said LMU's Drew Furedi,
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executive director of the Family of Schools. "There's a fundamental shift in the way decisions are made. I'm not going to speculate if that was a direction she did not want to be under."

Barner, who had been at Westchester during a four-year period that saw overall declining test scores, could not be reached for comment.

The leadership changes come as the two campuses - along with Cowan, Kentwood and Westport Heights elementary schools - have assembled transition teams of teachers, staff, parents, students and community members to guide the year of change.

Those teams see the openings at Westchester and Wright as a chance to hire administrators who will fit in with the schools' new direction, Furedi said.

"The transition team is seeing this as an opportunity to re-envision what characteristics the school leader would have," Furedi said. "It's a great thing for all the schools. It makes some of the (reform) stuff real for people."

It's also the first time that the schools' communities will have any say in the hiring process - and they've already begun to exercise that control.

A committee of parents, teachers, students and staff at Wright has selected a new principal and is in the process of hiring its two assistant principals, Rochelle said.

Jim Stapleton, the former assistant principal of LAUSD's Paul Revere Charter Middle School in Brentwood, will become principal at Wright.

Westchester's committee named the retired former principal of Hollywood High School, Fonna Bishop, as the interim principal. Jennifer Tedford, who co-chaired Beverly Hills High School's English department, will be an assistant principal.

A permanent principal for Westchester should be named within a month, Rochelle said.

The committee-based hiring method is in marked contrast to how most traditional LAUSD schools get new administrators. They're usually assigned by district higher-ups at headquarters in downtown Los Angeles with no input from the school community.

"That's a sea change," Furedi said. "Just that has a significant effect: Here's the different way that things are happening."

But ultimately it's not about who is in charge that matters, Rochelle said.

"While leadership is important, it is by no means the end game of the change we're looking for. We're looking for outcomes," said Rochelle, who successfully pushed to have his office at the Westchester High School campus instead of at district headquarters.

The two other LAUSD campuses in Westchester - Loyola Village and Paseo del Rey elementary schools - may join the Family of Schools in the coming year, Furedi said.

______________________
●●smf 2¢ - The "innovative" model described for selecting principals and administrators is the old LEARN (Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Reform Now) model. LEARN never really ended, it just had its funding cut out from underneath it from the top until there was none - LEARN was always popular at the grassroots. LEARN stopped being anything but a memory of the way reform might've been early in the Romer superintendency - though it was probably doomed when Ramon Cortines was superintendent the first time in 2000 and first proposed the "Cortines Plan" …another innovation returned to LAUSD.

LMU's embrace of the LEARN process might come from the fact that LMU is the keeper of the LEARN archives. http://www.lmu.edu/Page4906.aspx.

It is thought-provoking that Robin Kramer, then president of LAAMP/LEARN Regional Alliance and now the mayor's chief of staff and point person on education did not embrace the LEARN model in selecting principals for the mayor's partnership schools -see PRINCIPALS SKEPTICAL (above) - opting for central office appointment - albeit a city hall central office.

Some LEARN schools (because the program never ended the schools remain LEARN schools) still use this method if the Local District Superintendent permits it.

However, with the recent decentralization many administrators who recently worked at the LAUSD central office at Beaudry are being reassigned to schoolsites. And whether we choose to call them "must-place" or "dancing lemons" — or just "good people without a job" — they are as-usually assigned to schools based on seniority rather than following the LEARN process.


PAYROLL TROUBLE CUTS OFF HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR 1,300 L.A. UNIFIED EMPLOYEES
•Mostly substitute teachers are affected by the latest glitch in the district's problem-plagued payroll system
•THE BENEFITS ARE EXPECTED TO BE RESTORED WITHOUT A LAPSE IN COVERAGE.

By Jason Song | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2008 -- The Los Angeles Unified School District's problem-plagued payroll system inadvertently cut off healthcare benefits to about 1,300 employees, mostly substitute teachers, who didn't work in July.

Substitutes who work the equivalent of 100 days during a school year are eligible for medical, dental and vision benefits the following year if they are still teaching, but the district sent a letter to some employees late last week informing them that their coverage had ended July 31.

District officials apologized for the error in a letter Aug. 28 and promised that medical benefits would be restored without a break in coverage, although some employees said Friday they still haven't been able to use their insurance cards to fill prescriptions or visit a doctor.

"They scared the hell out of 1,300 people," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

District officials said the problem occurred because L.A. Unified's payroll system was incorrectly programmed to cut off employees who are not on active status. Because many substitutes didn't work during July, the system sent them letters saying their medical coverage had been rescinded.

Some of the employees who received letters were not eligible for continued benefits and were appropriately dropped, L.A. Unified officials said, although they said they did not yet know how many fell into that group.

The officials said they are still working on glitches in the payroll system, which was launched in January 2007 and resulted in massive problems, including thousands of teachers being paid too much, too little or not at all.

Payment problems have since largely been resolved, district officials said.

"We'll continue to have some of these issues that crop up from time to time, and the only thing we can do is be prepared for knowing we'll occasionally encounter errors . . . and fix them quickly," said David Holmquist, the district's chief operating officer.

Duffy and other teachers union administrators said some members were forced to cancel medical procedures, including a skin cancer surgery. Many others had to forgo getting medical prescriptions.

Lauren Mora, who has been an L.A. Unified teacher for seven years, found out that her health coverage had lapsed when she tried to order birth control pills online Tuesday and was denied.

"I had a freakout. They're really important," she said.

Although summer months are generally slower for substitute teachers, there is less work this year because many campuses have stopped using year-round calendars and switched to a traditional schedule because of declining student enrollment.

Mora estimated that she worked about three days a week last summer, mainly at Broadous Elementary in Pacoima, but since the school switched to a traditional calendar in June, she said she hasn't taught at all.

"I'm just waiting for the first week of school and for the phone to ring," she said.

Holmquist said all employees should have their medical coverage restored by now, but Mora said she still hasn't been able to get her medication.

●●smf's 2¢: I can only add that if perhaps some real people - one or two of those 'bureaucrats' – or even a 'high-priced-BTS-consultant' that UTLA likes to malign – had taken a look at the letters the computer sent out…..?


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
►SPECIALISTS COSTING LAUSD
by George Sanchez, Staff Writer | Daily News
August 30, 2008 - Even while grappling with funding shortfalls, the Los Angeles Unified School District is employing more than 800 consultants - paid, on average, more than twice as much as regular employees - to oversee school construction.

►WHAT PRICE SECURITY?
by A.J. Duffy from United Teacher
Aug 15 -- If you’ve been to the Beaudry building lately, you may have noticed that LAUSD has installed a pricey, state-of-the-art security system for headquarters—a building that I don’t need to remind you houses people who work far away from students.
..and, surprise, smf agrees with A.J.!

►IN THE NEWS: QUICK READS ON ISSUES TEACHERS CARE ABOUT.
From United Teacher | 8/15

►SENATE COMPROMISE FAILS

►BUDGET VOTE FAILS
Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee

►URGENT ALERT -- SENATE VOTE THIS MORNING WILL MAKE DEEPER CUTS -- CALL LEGISLATORS IMMEDIATELY TO OPPOSE THE SENATE PROPOSAL
A message from 4LAKids the California State PTA and The Education Coalition.

►LAUSD SAT SCORES GO DOWN IN MATH AND WRITING
LA Daily News
August 27, 2008 - Los Angeles Unified School District students' college application scores continue to lag behind national and state averages, according to results released today.

►E-TEXTBOOKS MAY NOT BE CHEAPER THAN PRINTED ONES, REPORT SAYS
By Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A sharply critical report released Monday asserts that commercial publishers are going about the digital textbook revolution the wrong way. Researchers find that since students can re-sell printed books, the price is roughly the same, and that expiration dates on e-texts make them a less viable alternative for some students.

►FOCUS ON CHARACTER BOOSTS ACADEMIC SUCCESS AT CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: St. Genevieve's innovative program has turned the school around -- improving academic performance, increasing college enrollment and attracting more students from all over L.A. County.
By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2008 -- With classes in Mandarin, overseas trips to China and France, bus transportation for commuters and individualized fitness instruction that includes salsa and tai chi, new students at St. Genevieve High School quickly come to realize that things are a bit different at this Panorama City campus.

►Philadelphia: NEW CITY SCHOOLS CHIEF OUTLINES HER TO-DO LIST
By Kristen A. Graham - Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Fri, Aug. 22, 2008 -- Building small high schools was a costly exercise in inequality. Teacher pay should be revamped, with financial rewards for special skills, not just longevity.

►DEMOCRATS AIR DUELING IDEAS ON EDUCATION
By David J. Hoff | Education Week
Democrats are almost certain to leave their convention in Denver united behind Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois as their nominee for president.
But it less likely that they’ll settle an intraparty disagreement over the most pressing question in K-12 education policy: How much can the public expect of schools?
The stark differences emerged the week after Sen. Obama secured enough delegates to claim the nomination in June. On back-to-back days, two groups released public statements outlining approaches for improving K-12 achievement.
• • One argued that policymakers need to invest in health care and other social programs before schools can deliver large increases in student achievement,
• while the other said that increased accountability, the expansion of charter schools, and other education policies would result in better student outcomes.

►BACK TO SCHOOL: AILING ECONOMY STRAINS STUDENTS, PARENTS
By Kimberly S. Wetzel - Contra Costa Times/San Jose Mercury News
August 25 -- Children across the country will return to school this year to face a money-hungry bully: the unstable economy.
Soaring food prices will extract more lunch money from students, while higher pump prices mean children will either pay more to ride a gas-guzzling bus or won't get a seat at all. Field trips are being reduced or scrapped altogether to save fuel.
It doesn't stop there.
California budget cuts mean students will compete for the attention of fewer teachers. Some electives will be nixed, and booster clubs and education foundations, which raise money for such things as classroom projects, are collecting less as businesses cut back and parents fret over job security.

____________________________________________________
A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 61 - TWO FROM THE SAC BEE — IT MAY ALL COME DOWN TO A WHOLE LOT OF BORROWING – AGAIN + DEMOCRATS' SHIFT COULD CRACK BUDGET IMPASSE

►SENATE COMPROMISE FAILS

►BOWEN: DEADLINE HAS PASSED FOR FALL BALLOT

Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee | Published 4:29 PM Friday, August 29, 2008 by Shane Goldmacher

Secretary of State Debra Bowen declared Friday that it is now too late to add any more measures to the November ballot, saying "any more changes would seriously jeopardize the integrity of the election." ... (more)

►BUDGET VOTE FAILS
Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee | Published 1:29 PM Friday, August 29, 2008 by Shane Goldmacher
Though the tally isn't final yet, the state Senate budget vote failed along party lines, with 24 votes in favor and 15 against.
The lone abstention was moderate Democratic Sen. Lou Correa of Orange County.


►PERATA'S FLOOR SPEECH
Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee | Published 12:48 PM Friday, August 29, 2008 by Amy Chance
Here's what Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata had to say about the budget he put up on the Senate floor this morning.


►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 60@11:49AM - GOVERNOR PRAISES NEW DEMOCRATIC BUDGET
CAPITOL ALERT/SAC BEE: Posted by Dan Walters on August 29, 2008 11:49 AM
August 29, 2008 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today praised a new Democratic version of the state budget as "very courageous" and urged Republican senators to vote for it.

►URGENT ALERT -- SENATE VOTE THIS MORNING WILL MAKE DEEPER CUTS -- CALL LEGISLATORS IMMEDIATELY TO OPPOSE THE SENATE PROPOSAL
A message from 4LAKids the California State PTA and The Education Coalition.
The Senate has announced a budget vote for 10 am Friday -- at stake are deep cuts to vital services for all Californians, both now and into the future.
The Assembly may vote shortly thereafter.

►Day 60: CALIFORNIA SENATE DEMOCRATS TO INTRODUCE BUDGET PLAN: The proposal includes a sales tax increase and controls on future state spending.
It is unclear whether the proposal has the support of any Republicans.
By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008 -- SACRAMENTO -- -- Democrats in the state Senate said they would attempt to break the budget impasse today by offering their own spending plan for a vote.
It would be the first floor vote on the budget in that house since the fiscal year began 60 days ago.

►BREAKING NEWS: CALIFORNIA SENATE TO VOTE ON COMPROMISE BUDGET TOMORROW (THURSDAY AUG 29) MORNING AT 10 A.M
Details of Proposed Compromise Emerging
By Frank D. Russo - California Progress report
Thursday Aug 28 7PM - Word has just been received that Democratic President pro Tem Don Perata has scheduled a vote on a compromise proposal to end the budget stalemate that has California on the verge of setting a record for the longest delay beyond the fiscal year for passing a budget. The vote is scheduled to take place tomorrow morning, August 29, at 10 a.m.

►EVERYTHING - OR MORE THAN- YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BUDGET IMPASSE: ON THE ROCKY ROAD TO THE 2008-09 BUDGET
by Dan Walters from the Sacramento Bee - published Wednesday, August 20, 2008 ...and still true today
Dan Walters walks us through some key mileposts on the road to this year's state budget stalemate, and offers some key statistics to help you get to the bottom of the debate.

►Day 59½ - LAIRD ANSWERS THE QUESTION: 'WHY CAN'T WE GET A STATE BUDGET?'
By John Laird | Chair Assembly Budget | Committee
FROM THE CALIFORNIA progress report
Aug 28 /1PM - The state budget is now nearly two months late. Republican legislative leaders refuse to offer a budget for consideration, let alone level with California about the need to increase revenue in order to prevent very deep, draconian cuts.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 59 - CALIFORNIA BUDGET BATTLE GOING NOWHERE FAST
By Dan Walters - Sacramento Bee Columnist
August 28 - So where is the state of California's struggle with a long-overdue, deficit-ridden state budget headed? Nowhere fast.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 58 - SCHWARZENEGGER COULD BE NO SHOW AT GOP CONVENTION
By JULIET WILLIAMS – Associated Press
August 27 - SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When the Republican convention opens Monday night, its prime-time lineup could be missing one of its biggest draws: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 56 ...AND COUNTING - FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS STATE TO EXPLAIN DELAY IN IMPLEMENTING ORDER TO RESTORE MEDI-CAL RATES
California Budget Crisis - Day 56: Federal Judge Orders State to Explain Delay in Implementing Order to Restore Medi-Cal Rates - full article in California Progress Report

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 56½ - CALIF. SPEAKER CHANGES MIND, RESCHEDULES SESSIONS
The Associated Press | san Jose Mercury News
08/25/2008 12:15:42 PM PDT -- SACRAMENTO—Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has abandoned her plan not to hold sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a move that would have freed fellow Democrats to attend the party's national convention in Denver.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 56 - WHY ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER SAID YES TO TAXES
The LA Now Blog in the LA Times -- from Veronique de Turenne
10:55 AM, August 25, 2008 -- Tick-tock, tick-tock -- 56 days and counting without a state budget. Our own George Skelton sits down with California's governor to talk money, politics and (in the nicest way) says "I told you so" about raising taxes.

►CONFRONTED BY REALITIES, SCHWARZENEGGER TURNS TO TAX HIKE: WITH THE STATE BUDGET 56 DAYS OVERDUE, THE GOVERNOR EXPLAINS HIS SHIFT ON TAXES.
George Skelton, LA Times | Capitol Journal
August 25, 2008 -- SACRAMENTO -- It can't be done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was insisting, staring at me over a table in his office. You can't have a responsible, honest state budget without a tax increase. Not this year.




Link to the news that didn't fit from August 31st



EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Wednesday Sep 3, 2008
SOUTH REGION ELEMENTARY SCHOOL #4:
Pre-Construction Community Meeting
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location:
Bryson Elementary School - Auditorium
4470 Missouri Ave.
South Gate, CA 90280

Thursday Sep 4, 2008
SOUTH REGION HIGH SCHOOL #15:
CEQA Draft Environmental Impact Report Meeting and Presentation of Design Development Drawings
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Barton Hill Elementary School - Auditorium
423 N Pacific Ave,
San Pedro, CA 90731

Thursday Sep 4, 2008
VALLEY REGION ELEMENTARY SCHOOL #13:
Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA) Hearing
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location:
Burke High School
14630 Lanark St
Panorama City, CA 91402

*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• 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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



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.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Community Concerns Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools.
• In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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