In This Issue:  | | • | Aca-Deca: WE ARE MARSHALL! | | | • | The view from the bay: PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE -- Voters overwhelmingly favor Gardena, San Pedro high school reforms | | | • | The view from the left:: LOS ANGELES VOTES ON SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING INITIATIVES | | | • | WITH FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY GONE, MANY SCHOOLS FACE FUNDING GAPS | | | • | 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: | | | | THE WORST-KEPT NON-SECRET BROKE FRIDAY: Supertendent Ramon Cortines' membership on the Board of Directors of and compensation by the Scholastic Corporation – which supplies a $16 million-a-year reading remediation program to the District …a textbook publisher.
The Times published a Part I/Page 1 story [L.A. UNIFIED SCHOOLS' CHIEF WORKS FOR DISTRICT SUPPLIER | http://bit.ly/9JZ4Fx], it got picked up by the AP and CBS and the LA Weekly (a free publication that subsides on ads for escort services and medical marijuana dispensaries can't be all bad ...it's not like they're a billboard company!). The blogosphere is up in arms, the townspeople are restless; the Red Queen demands heads!
The secret was no secret at all, of course.
4LAKids has written of it -- as has CutsHurtKids, another edublog focused on LAUSD. Cortines disclosed the potential conflict of interest when he came to the District – as I'm sure he did when he joined the mayor's staff. He has been a Scholastic board member for fifteen years. Forbes has posted the detail on their website [http://bit.ly/9Nbshd] – Cortines' other interests are described at the Business Week website: [http://bit.ly/9LkOTS] including affiliations with Edison Learning, Inc, The J. Paul Getty Trust Inc, Common Sense Media, Inc., K12, Inc .and Teachers Support Network, Inc. Five Million Kids [http://bit.ly/awWOZA] reports h e is a consultant to the Eli Broad Foundation LA, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, CA, James Irvine Foundation S.F., and The Institute for Learning University of Pittsburgh.
(In a published Administrator Magazine profile of Superintendent Cortines published by Scholastic [http://bit.ly/dtHn0t] they neglect to disclose that he's in their employ.)
According to Business Week Cortines joined the Scholastic Board in 1995, the year he left office as New York City Chancellor of Schools. That would mean he was on the Scholastic Board in his first tenure as LAUSD superintendent in 1999-2000 – and when he was Acting Assistant Secretary for the office for Educational Research and Improvement in the Clinton Administration from March 1997 to August 1997
It''s all very transparent and aboveboard, LAUSD and Cortines have made sure that people other than Cortines handle Scholastic's business.
EXCEPT, below the waterline, in a time when everyone's job (and budget) is on the line: whoever handles the Scholastic business is directly or indirectly/consciously or otherwise beholden to Cortines for their job – whether they are the Chief Education Officer, the Chief Operating Officer or a purchasing agent at the central warehouse. Or a teacher ordering a book for the classroom library..
For that matter, whoever handles ethics investigations is similarly beholden to Cortines.
Former school board member Jeff Horton points out that selection of LAUSD's reading program is too important a job for the superintendent – especially one as knowledgeable and experienced as Cortines – not to be involved in!
It isn't a conflict of interest until someone does something wrong according the Public Integrity Division of the District Attorney's office – which was aware of this state of affairs. But that something must be provably wrong in a court of law.
• How do you prove someone was intimidated or influenced by their boss's best interests?
• Or their boss' boss?
• How do you prove they weren't?
It's not illegal. It may not even be unethical. But it certainly isn't fair.
It's not fair to the textbook clerk or the Chief Education Officer or the Chief Operating Officer.. It's not fair to the taxpayers of LA or to LAUSD students. It's not fair to Scholastic (the wonderful folks who brought Harry Potter to America and PTA book fairs to our schools!) Or to Cortines himself.
But “fair”, dear reader, is an artificial value created by adults to impose utopian standards of good behavior (and equal distribution of M&Ms) upon children.
¡Onward/Adelante!
- smf
___________________________________________________
WHILE WE WERE AMUSED AT HOW WELL THE DISTRICT GAVE AWAY THIS YEAR'S BATCH OF PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE SCHOOLS, THE DOOR OPENED AND CLOSED ON NEXT YEAR'S BATCH.
Aca-Deca: WE ARE MARSHALL!
L.A. UNIFIED & L.A. COUNTY ACADEMIC DECATHLON WINNERS ANNOUNCED
by Nicole Santa Cruz | LA Times/LA Now
February 11, 2010 | 9:06 pm -- Marshall High School beat out 64 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the annual Academic Decathlon, district officials announced Thursday night.
Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic was the highest scoring individual student, with 8,933 points.
The second-placed school was El Camino Real and the third was Granada Hills Charter High School.
The decathlon tests students’ knowledge in a variety of areas, such as history, speech and interviews. This year's focus was the French Revolution.
Members of Marshall High School’s winning Academic Decathlon team include: Un Sil “Cherry” Park, Brandon Schwartz, Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic, Andrew Dang, Alejandra Cardenas, Kittinan Ponkaew, Liliana Delaguila, Amber Esponda and Marcos Chinchilla. Their coach is Larry Welch.
Marshall High School first won a national championship in 1987.
Since then, the district has won 15 state and 10 national competitions.
West High School of Torrance won the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon for the second year in a row, county officials announced Thursday afternoon.
The top-scoring individual student was Jordan Smolinsky of West High, who scored 8,525 points.
The second-place school was Keppel High, followed by Torrance High in third place.
Members of West High School’s winning Academic Decathlon team include Aaron Cheng, Chris Miro, Patrick Xiao, Joey Hahm, Hussein Nasr, Jordan Smolinsky, Kevin Gupta, Jeffrey Ho and Joon Park.
Their coach is Ann Cortina.
The winners now head to Sacramento to compete in the state competition March 12 -15. The top-scoring school will go to the nationals to be held April 21-24 in Omaha.
__________________________________________________
MARSHALL HIGH WINS, EL CAMINO, GRANADA HILLS AND POLY SHOW THEIR SMARTS
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | Los Angeles Daily News
12 Feb 2009 -- Three San Fernando Valley schools are heading to the state finals of the Academic Decathlon after finishing among the top nine in Los Angeles Unified's contest, district officials announced Thursday night.
El Camino Real, Granada Hills Charter and Francis Polytechnic high schools were among the finalists out of 64 schools that competed in the two-day brain battle.
At a packed awards ceremony at Hollywood High School Thursday night, hundreds of students from all of the district's competing schools got a chance to celebrate their team scores as well as honors given to individual students.
"I feel fantastic," said Daniel de Haas, 17, a senior at El Camino in Woodland Hills who won an award for individual performance.
Granada Hills High School's team has its photo taken after being named the third-place squad during the LAUSD Academic Decathlon awards ceremony at Hollywood High School on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)
"It's a relief to see all the hours of studying pay off."
Marshall High School took top honors in the district-level decathlon, earning 48,656 points out of a possible 60,000 - the top score this year of any decathlon team in the country in regional contest results. Team members jumped up and down and even began crying when the results were announced.
El Camino, a five-time national champion, finished a close second with 48,395 points, followed by Granada Hills Charter at third. Poly of Sun Valley took the ninth and final spot.
"We're very proud of second place, but we're looking forward to state," said El Camino coach John Dalsass. "We still have a long road to go."
Teens were quizzed on 10 subjects, all tied to this year's theme of the French Revolution, and were also scored on interviews, speeches and essays.
This year's finalists will aim to maintain LAUSD's track record of excellence at the decathlon, a reputation that was first earned in 1987 when Marshall won a national title.
Since then, LAUSD teams have won 15 state contests and 10 national titles.
Last year LAUSD's dynasty was threatened when the decathlon program was almost canceled because of district budget cuts.
"I'm just so happy that we found the sponsors and we were able to get creative and keep this going," said school board member Yolie Flores.
"These students represent the best in L.A. Unified and speak to what happens when you invest in kids and give them what they need to shine and succeed."
LAUSD decathlon coordinator Cliff Ker said the team effort to keep the scholastic duel alive paid off.
"It was a rough year ... but we all worked together, from the superintendent to students, schools and coaches, ... and we ended up with a really great year," Ker said.
LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines congratulated the winners and all of the schools that competed, acknowledging the difficulty of the preparations.
"Having heard the questions on the French Revolution last week during the Super Quiz, I know that this competition wasn't easy," Cortines said. "I applaud you all for your energy, enthusiasm and commitment to learning."
This year, seasoned veterans will be joined by newcomers that have never advanced to the state finals, including Hamilton and Franklin high schools, coming in seventh and eighth places, respectively.
The trip to Sacramento on March 12-15 will also be a first for Poly.
On Thursday night, Poly's decathlon coach Brian Block, who also received a Coach of the Year award, couldn't control his emotions as he jumped up and down and chest-bumped with his students.
Block said he'd prepared for the worst - not making it to the state contest.
But the coach had never doubted that his "decathletes" would go all the way.
"I had already told my principal what we needed if we made it to state," Block said.
Block has run a tight schedule with his students, who have been practicing between 6 to 8 hours a day for the past 10 months. He warned them that after a brief celebration, they'll be back to work today - and they should expect an even tougher schedule.
"I am going to work them hard ... now that we made it, we are going to take it to next level," Block said.
Los Angeles County also announced the winner of the county-level contest, West High School of Torrance, which scored 43,999 points. LAUSD's contest is held separately from the county.
Other county qualifiers included Keppel High School of Alhambra, Torrance High, El Rancho High School of Pico Rivera, Beverly Hills, Redondo Union and San Marino.
The winner of the state competition will advance to the U.S. Academic Decathlon on April 21-24 in Omaha, Neb.
●● 4LAKids: Congratulations to Marshall and to all the LAUSD & LA County Decathletes - whether you are going a Sacramento or not. On to Omaha!
The view from the bay: PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE -- Voters overwhelmingly favor Gardena, San Pedro high school reforms
THE SPIN, THE SPIN:: "The votes are in, and the verdict is clear: Parents want teachers to drive change at their schools, not outside organizations."
--UTLA President A.J. Duffy
(The expert panels) “… didn't feel like the plan was substantial. They didn't feel like it would meet the needs of the students at the school."
-- Matt Hill, an official in Cortines' office overseeing Public School Choice.
--If Hill is overseeing PSC …shouldn’t he be impartial and not discussing embargoed information?
- smf
By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze
02/09/2010 07:39:33 PM PST -- Voters in the Gardena and San Pedro high school communities overwhelmingly favor education reform plans authored by teachers and administrators, according to the preliminary results of an election that took place last week.
Vote tallies were made public Tuesday afternoon by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is implementing Public School Choice, an unusual and closely watched initiative that lets groups inside and outside of schools bid for control of 12 troubled and 18 new campuses.
On Feb. 2 and Saturday - in a process that was criticized as a popularity contest with loose rules - parents, students, staff and other community members voted on the proposals for each school.
But at Gardena and San Pedro, no charter groups or other nonprofits had submitted takeover plans.
Instead, voters weighed whether to adopt plans - calling for new bell schedules and small learning communities, among other changes - crafted by two internal LAUSD teams.
Results of the election, which was run by the League of Women Voters, showed 93.3 percent of voters at San Pedro High favoring the plan there. In Gardena, 92.2 percent voted for the internal plan.
The preliminary totals included nonverified ballots.
The nonbinding votes are intended to help Superintendent Ramon Cortines and the Board of Education select individual plans for each campus.
Results at other schools, where ballots offered bids from charter organizations and nonprofits, showed a similar vote of confidence for internally produced plans.
"The votes are in, and the verdict is clear: Parents want teachers to drive change at their schools, not outside organizations," said United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy in a statement. "Clearly this is a mandate for bottom-up, collaboratively developed school plans and against giving away schools to outside operators."
However, two district-appointed panels of education experts did not necessarily share voters' endorsements. Also released late Tuesday, the panelists' recommendations will be brought to the Board of Education for a final vote on Feb. 23, along with the ballot results.
The expert panels showed a lack of enthusiasm for internal plans at Gardena and San Pedro high schools.
Both panels said they have "reservations" about the schools' internal plans. They also recommended the option of "none."
"They didn't feel like the plan was substantial. They didn't feel like it would meet the needs of the students at the school," said Matt Hill, an official in Cortines' office who is overseeing Public School Choice.
The panelists' reservations suggest there are elements of the two plans that Cortines may wish to change, Hill said. He did not have details on the elements seen as problematic.
The superintendent has yet to make his own recommendations, but he plans to do so before the board vote.
Final results from the balloting will be made available Friday, when the district will release more information about review panel analyses.
The view from the left:: LOS ANGELES VOTES ON SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING INITIATIVES
-- Sometimes even the radical fringe gets it right – smf
By Dan Conway | World Socialist Website |http://bit.ly/dpYUFP
10 February 2010 -- Schools throughout Los Angeles held community elections last week to decide whether or not to restructure public schools in accordance with provisions of the city’s recently drafted Public School Choice initiative. The vote—which was non-binding and thus does not force the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to actually heed the expressed sentiments of parents, teachers, and students—took place on Tuesday and Saturday of last week. While the district initially promised that results would be announced on Saturday afternoon, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines has delayed their posting until February 12.
The Public School Choice initiative was drafted in response to recent legislation passed by state government that is intended to make California eligible for up to $700 million in awards under the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” education program. The passage of the legislature—which allows the state to close public schools and convert them to charter schools—links teacher and administrator work evaluations to student test performance, gives parents greater freedom to take their children out of supposedly poorly-performing public schools and transfer them to newly created charters, and permits parents to petition for the replacement and firing administrators and teachers—does not guarantee that California will actually receive any of the “Race to the Top” money, only that it will be in competition with various other near-bankrupt states for the funds.
Three days before signing the bill, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a budget for the state that included more than $2.4 billion in cuts to K-12 education. If passed, these will follow on the heels of upwards of $20 billion in cuts to the school system in 2009.
At the school polls in Los Angeles last week, voters were asked to indicate which private or semi-private charter school company should be awarded contracts for taking over certain public schools and to vote up or down the overall restructuring plan.
Prior to the community voting, few attempts were made to educate those casting ballots about the content of the district’s plans and how they relate to Sacramento’s restructuring of public education or the “Race to the Top” initiative. Press reports released after last Tuesday’s vote indicated extreme frustration with the process, with many voters explaining that did not know exactly what they were voting for and why.
In the two weeks leading up to the election, meetings were held throughout the district that promised to fully inform parents of the school restructuring plan’s contents. Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site visited two such meetings, one at Garfield High School in East LA and one at San Pedro High School near Long Beach. At each meeting, the audience was offered more rhetoric than details.
At San Pedro High School, the presenters, who consisted of members of the LAUSD board, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), and the school administration attempted to put a positive spin on the fact that one aspect of the restructuring plan will vastly increase class sizes by offering fewer courses and making individual class sessions longer. They promised that although classrooms would be more overcrowded than ever, the extended 100-minute instruction time would allow teachers to devote more individualized attention to students.
While both meetings had a question and answer session, audience members were not allowed to ask direct questions of the organizing committees, but rather had to submit their questions on index cards, which were then selectively read and answered. At the San Pedro High School meeting, the organizers chose to answer relatively inconsequential questions—like, for example, whether or not students would have to wear uniforms if the new plans go into effect and whether sports teams would also have shorter practice times after school—such that a substantial portion of attendees got up and left well before the meeting concluded.
Nevertheless, the vice president of LAUSD and author of the district’s plan, Yolie Flores, tried to claim that the voters were given a true voice in determining the future of the schools. “This has opened up a process for the first time in this district that has engaged hundreds of parents and we want to celebrate that,” she said.
Last week’s advisory vote, however, was a sham aimed at giving a democratic veneer to a deeply anti-democratic attack on public education. The fiscal crisis in California is being used, with the active participation of both political parties at the local, state, and federal level, to impose changes in public education that could not be pushed through under normal circumstances.
After the state’s school system has seen more than $20 billion in cuts to basic funding over the last three years—hundreds of millions of dollars worth of which have been taken away from Los Angeles, which is the largest district in California—the LAUSD and all those promoting the Public School Choice Initiative are claiming that measures that will semi-privatize the school system, further promote testing mania, erode job security for teachers, and create an anti-egalitarian system of elite charter institutions for the best students and overcrowded holding pens for the rest, should be implemented so as to have the possibility of winning some miserly portion of an already miserly federal grant.
Teachers, parents, students and members of the community should reject as a lie all claims that the Public School Choice Initiative in Los Angeles, or similar measures in other school districts in California, will improve conditions in the schools. Instead of accepting “advisory” votes on right-wing school restructuring efforts, communities should demand genuine democratic control over public education for parents and educators. Through the formation of neighborhood action committees independent of the school districts, the trade unions, and either political party, teachers, parents, and students should launch an uncompromising fight for a free, high-quality public education for all. Such a struggle must be rooted in a socialist political program that insists that working people and their children will not pay the price for the current economic crisis, while big business and the rich continue to preside over vast and expanding amounts of private wealth.
WITH FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY GONE, MANY SCHOOLS FACE FUNDING GAPS
By Sam Dillon | NY Times
Feb 8, 2010 -- Federal stimulus money has helped avoid drastic cuts at public schools in most parts of the nation, at least so far. But with the federal money running out, many of the nation’s schools are approaching what officials are calling a “funding cliff.”
Congress included about $100 billion for education in the stimulus law last year to cushion the recession’s impact on schools and to help fuel an economic recovery. New studies show that many states will spend all or nearly all that is left between now and the end of this school term.
With state and local tax revenues still in decline, the end of the federal money will leave big holes in education budgets from Massachusetts and Florida to California and Washington, experts said.
“States are going to face a huge problem because they’ll have to find some way to replace these billions, either with cuts to their K-12 systems or by finding alternative revenues,” said Bruce Baker, an education professor at Rutgers University.
The stimulus program was the largest one-time infusion of federal education dollars to states and districts in the nation’s history. As the program took shape last year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other officials repeatedly warned states and districts to avoid spending the money in ways that could lead to dislocations when the gush of federal money came to an end.
But from the start, those warnings seemed at odds with the stimulus law’s goal of jump-starting the economy, and the administration trumpeted last fall that school districts had used stimulus money to save, or create, some 250,000 education jobs.
Now the new studies point to the problems likely to beset thousands of school districts when the federal money runs out.
One study, which Dr. Baker wrote with David Sciarra and Danielle Farrie of the Education Law Center in Newark and which is to be presented on Monday at a conference at Teachers College of Columbia University, examines how 11 states have used their education stimulus money. The 11 states received amounts from the stabilization fund ranging from $234 million (Nebraska) to $2.5 billion (New York).
Nine of the 11 states had already allocated most of that money for this school year and last, the study found, leaving a third or less of their federal money available for the 2010-11 school year.
Another bigger study, also to be presented at the conference, found that some states facing pressing financial problems last year as the stimulus program emerged decided to use 100 percent of their education stimulus money almost immediately.
Of the 20 states in the study by Michael A. Rebell, a professor at Teachers College, and two colleagues, Jessica Wolff and Dan Yaverbaum, six of them — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey and Washington — had allotted all of their education stabilization money to schools for this school year and last, leaving zero to spend on the school term beginning this fall.
The two new studies based their findings on data supplied by the states last year to the federal Department of Education on their applications for stimulus money, as well as on other financial reports that have allowed the scholars to document states’ actual expenditures on public schools. Professor Rebell’s study also involved phone interviews with state and local school officials in the 20 states, he said.
The new studies align with results of a broader, 50-state survey on the stimulus program carried out by the National Conference of State Legislatures. The conference’s survey, based solely on an examination of the states’ stimulus applications, found that 20 states said when applying that they intended to spend 100 percent of their stabilization funds in the 2008-9 and 2009-10 school years.
The 20 states were Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
But Dan Thatcher, who conducted the conference’s survey, said that Idaho, and perhaps others among the 20, had reconsidered those plans, deciding to reserve some stimulus money for the coming school year.
On average, according to the conference’s survey, states allotted 38 percent of their stabilization money to the 2008-9 year and 48 percent to the current school year, leaving only 14 percent for the school term that begins this fall.
About $65 billion of the $100 billion in education stimulus money went to states in three pots: $39.5 billion as part of a stabilization fund intended to bolster the finances of state public education systems, $13 billion for the federal program for poor students known as Title I, and $12.2 billion for students with disabilities. Congress directed the rest of the $100 billion to smaller initiatives, including $4.3 billion to a school improvement grant program the Obama administration calls Race to the Top.
Professor Rebell’s study examined in some detail how school districts have used the stimulus money they received under the federal programs intended for poor and disabled students. Many districts have chosen to spend much of the money they received for students with disabilities on things like lift buses, handicap-accessible vans and renovated bathrooms.
“This was a godsend, and the investment will last for years,” Professor Rebell said. “In most cases, districts didn’t put people on the payroll that they would now have to lay off.”
But many school systems have not been so prudent in their use of Title I money.
“The need to spend these funds quickly has led districts to add large numbers of temporary staff positions,” Professor Rebell’s study says. “In most states that we studied, some school districts appear to have spent a considerable amount of their Title I funds to save jobs formerly paid for through state and local funding that were threatened as a result of cuts in that funding.”
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
UCLA/IDEA: Themes in the News for the week of February 8-12, 2010
Studies Point to Segregative Effects of Charter Schools | http://bit.ly/dcfqx1
By UCLA/IDEA
Students’ race, family income, special needs, and home language are factors that underlie many of the debates for and against charter schools. However, these factors are often addressed in the general language of commitments to equity, hopes to provide opportunity for all students, efforts to close “achievement gaps,” and so forth. Now that three new studies shine a light on the segregative effects of charters, school reformers will have to ask with whether this trend is acceptable, reversible, educationally sound, or compatible with an equitable and just schooling system. (more...)
Top Stories and Commentary for Friday, February 12, 2010 | http://bit.ly/dcfqx1
Top Stories and Commentary for Thursday, February 11, 2010 http://bit.ly/dayQGF
Top Stories and Commentary for Wednesday, February 10, 2010 http://bit.ly/bmDTSm
Top Stories and Commentary for Tuesday, February 9, 2010 http://bit.ly/dDuLBL
Themes in the News for the week of January 4-8, 2010 http://bit.ly/d9GxJs
6 FEWER DAYS OF SCHOOL IN LAUSD? - 2/12/2010 | Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines on Friday proposed shortening the current school year by six days to help the district save $90 million during its financial crisis. http://bit.ly/bK0Vm2
Register+Save the Date: March 2 :: STANDING UP FOR ARTS ED WEBINAR: California Alliance for Arts Education. Sta... http://bit.ly/98BT7e
PARENTS, STUDENTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATES PROTEST THE MASS CLOSINGS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: by Leonie Haimson... http://bit.ly/b1GCkd
Today: GARFIELD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL: http://bit.ly/aD9Pue
Video :: DEMOCRACY NOW INTERVIEW WITH GARY ORFIELD “Charter Schools: Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure”:... http://bit.ly/chPhNA
AP TESTS: results show California students doing better, but fewer are taking the tests [Updated]: 6th Annua... http://bit.ly/aMsKhn
L.A. UNIFIED SCHOOLS’ CHIEF WORKS FOR DISTRICT SUPPLIER - Supt. Ramon C. Cortines sits on the board of Scholastic ... http://bit.ly/bEuYj4
Aca-Deca: WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART FOR STUDENTS. Poly High, other schools to find out if they advance in compet... http://bit.ly/aefJzQ
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: SUPERINTENDENT’S PANEL RECOMMENDATIONS AND PANELIST LIST: NOTE: Applicants are unranked and ... http://bit.ly/bBQ5Hg
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: Voters overwhelmingly favor Gardena, San Pedro high school reforms: The spin/the spin: "The... http://bit.ly/aET5Xt
The crisis of public education in California: LOS ANGELES VOTES ON SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING INITIATIVES: By Dan Conway... http://bit.ly/dfLTNA
SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES COVER LETTER: “In the spirit of continued transparency…”: From: Superintendent Ramon Corti... http://bit.ly/9Yrrzl 9
LAUSD’s DANCE OF THE LEMONS: Why firing the desk-sleepers, burnouts, hotheads and other failed teachers is all but... http://bit.ly/deBRMx 9
No budget/No clue: STATE BUDGET BATTLE GEARING UP: Op-Ed by Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard [Eureka/North Coas... http://bit.ly/cX6EyY
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE VOTE AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Teachers claim victory in school-reform elections but results may h... http://bit.ly/a92MpO
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: INITIAL REVIEW TEAM RECOMENDATIONS + LIST OF TEAM MEMBERS: NOTE: APPLICANTS DO NOT APPEAR IN... http://bit.ly/axUwQX
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: VOTE TALLY: LAUSD Public School Choice Resolution : Preliminary Advisory Vote Tabulations http://bit.ly/cmPfvk
FOR UC’s COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE, NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE: By Larry Gordon | LA Times With California's public ... http://bit.ly/aHpKdE
CHARTER SCHOOL NAMED FOR NIKKEI EDUCATOR: William and Carol Ouchi High School named for management and education r... http://bit.ly/bOyzXp
Transparency takes a furlough: RESULTS IN L.A. SCHOOL REFORM ELECTIONS COULD BE WITHELD UNTIL FRIDAY + smf’s 2¢: b... http://bit.ly/aZYYQf
GARFIELD, MARSHALL, GRANADA HILLS TIE IN ACADEMIC DECATHLON SUPER QUIZ: by Howard Blume | LA Times/L.A. NOW Febr... http://bit.ly/9s7qwV
.BIG MAN ON CAMPUS - Superintendent Cortines on Patt Morrison: “I will look at the votes, but that is not how I wil... http://bit.ly/c3tR1x
L.A. TEACHERS, PARENTS VOTE EARLY – AND OFTEN: By John Fensterwald in The Educated Guess February 5th, 2010 -- On... http://bit.ly/aQSiv1
CAL STATE TO USE $51M TO RESTORE CUT CLASSES: from Associated Press/Ed Week 5 February 2010 -- LONG BEACH, Calif.... http://bit.ly/aZK0uW
NO WONDER TEENS ARE SO DROWSY – THEY NEED MORE ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz: By Marissa Cevallos | San Jose Mercury News 02/... http://bit.ly/9wDjsl
SOME SAN PEDRO AND OTHER HARBOR AREA LAUSD KIDS LIKELY TO RECEIVE OPTION TO STAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN SIXTH GRA... http://bit.ly/9PtUnR
YESTERDAY I WAS REMOVED FROM CLASS IN HANDCUFFS: by Leonard Isenberg in PerDaily.com | his bio is here. 5... http://bit.ly/dkJmOT
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*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: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...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.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.
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