In This Issue:  | | • | LA PTA PRESIDENT APPEALS TO PARENTS: COMPLETE AND RETURN LAUSD PARENT SURVEY + SURVEY INFO FOR PARENTS, EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS & CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENTS | | | • | WELCOME TO SOUTH L.A.: Schools in gang-infested area fighting back | | | • | Empty Chairs: NOT SITTING STILL FOR CUTS | | | • | 2 from Santa Monica-Malibu Unified: SMMUSD TRIES TO KEEP LAUSD RESIDENTS IN DISTRICT + SCHOOL SUPER WANTS PERMIT EXEMPTION | | | • | 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: | | | | Plutarch and later Shakespeare write that on March 15, 44 BCE the Soothsayer warned Caesar to beware. And did he listen? Do elected officials ever listen?*
State law says that teachers and credentialed employees must be warned by March 15th if they may be laid off/not-rehired/RIFed/downsized/rightsized/made redundant or otherwise fired. It's a lovely concept – if the state had a budget or the Franchise Tax Board had collections or bargaining units had contracts or planning and demographics had a headcount ...or if any of us had a clue.
So, conventional wisdom* has it, school districts send pink slips - "you are subject to layoff" notices to everyone who – in the worst possible scenario – might be let go.
If one is to believe the Daily News, 22,000 pink slips went to educators in California on Monday, if one is to believe ABC-TV, 8846 were in LAUSD.
In Texas - which under NCLB was The Promised land peopled with His Chosen Education Policymakers – everyone is subject layoff every year – which may cause a certain amount of angst but certainly saves on postage. Here union rules and our own particular brand of lawgivers set a different standard. And it's always about meeting he standards.(Texas lawmakers are thankful to teachers for letting them out of the sixth grade; California lawmakers are thankful to public education unions for campaign contributions.)
But let's rewind the tape to the part about the worst possible scenario. Hard as it is to imagine, there are folks at Beaudry imagining worse than what's going on now. Which, gentle readers, is a good thing, because the sun will come up tomorrow and you can bet your bottom dollar it will shine its light on worse than today. We are entering the worst layoff of public sector employees since the Great Depression; LAUSD is the biggest employer in LA County. Getting a pink slip doesn't just ruin your self esteem, employee morale and loyalty and ghe months of March, April, May and June – it screws up your credit rating at a time when credit is harder to come by than emplyment.
This is NOT Good; it is nonetheless REAL. Of course, at another level it's all jockeying for favorable press in the battle between labor and management. One wonders why we didn't get a photo of of the superintendent dumping a boxful of the notices into a post box. If he could find a post box.
That said, the District's communications office and the media outlets can't even seem to reach any agreement on how many pink slips were sent out on Monday March 15th. 2300? 3000? 4700? 5200? 5400? 8846? I'd be interested in the cost of certified mail alone.
But unless the bargaining units bargain and deal with furloughs, salary reductions and some work rules changes the Worst Possible Scenario will go into production on September 8th. Stay tuned.
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THE MOVIE METAPHORS, LET'S TALK ABOUT LIVE THEATER.
On March 15 UTLA arranged 2826 empty chairs on in the street on Beaudry Ave in front of LAUSD HQ to symbolize the layoff's. (Someone may have figured it's easier to turn out empty seats than actual demonstrators!) It was a bit of street theater, performance art and traffic disruption (Hey... I was inconvenienced!) It wasn't civil disobedience; there was a street closure permit and barricades and traffic cops.
One wonders why LAUSD signed off on the permit –especially as it was primarily School Police doing the security. Remember, school police are supposed to protect students. I don't think there was a student within a block of Beaudry on Monday!
Did UTLA pay for the LAUSD security?
What would the labor organizers of yore say if they knew their modern brethren were paying for the bullyboys and management goons to monitor their work actions of today?
Reality and the Theater of the Absurd intersect at Third and Beaudry.
BUT ALL SEROUSNESS ASIDE: Not everyone who gets a pink slip will be laid off. Not every child will fail because we will have more kids in a classroom. But some will be laid off, some will fail, less will graduate. Maybe not less than are graduating now – but less than 100%. The truth is that public school performance in California and LAUSD has been improving despite the past few years of budget cuts, layoffs, underfunding and lack of leadership in Sacramento.. Imagine if we had paid enough...
All of this is tragic. We need more people to be working and paying taxes so we can educate our children ...but instead we are laying off school employees. And jerking around kids who are attending schools in other school districts because their parents believe they have better opportunities there. What do parents know? Way to win their heats and minds! Whatever happened to to the Champions of Choice of a month ago? And SB 680 (Romero) the "District of Choice" Bill - which would allow parents to send their children to whatever public school they choose?
But it's better to build a subway to Santa Monica and the sea than a cooperative relationship and a trust between school districts.
IN OTHER NEWS: The Feds began to talk about NCLB/ESEA Re-authorization, The Ted Mitchell chaired Teacher Effectiveness Task Force made unimplementable recommendations, W's Ed Secretary Spellings: 'No Child Left Behind' Is A 'Toxic Brand': http://bit.ly/9RJcgP . More questions began to accumulate about Charter Schools, The Deadline for the Parent, Employee Student Satisfaction Survey approaches and the spending and oversight of the community college construction bonds is looking suspect.
Spring sprung. Swallows returned. Somewhere a child look his first step, read her first book, memorized the seven-times tables, mastered calculus. El Camino HS won the State AcaDeca Championship and goes on to the National Competition; Marshall HS won the new AcaDeca Large School category and goes on to that national competition.
¡Onward/Adelante!
- smf
PS: You got your census questionnaire in the mail last week. Please: fill it out and send it in!
* Rome was a republic at the time, making Caesar a republican.
LA PTA PRESIDENT APPEALS TO PARENTS: COMPLETE AND RETURN LAUSD PARENT SURVEY + SURVEY INFO FOR PARENTS, EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS & CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENTS
by Tenth District PTA/PTSA President Ilene Ashcraft
19 March, 2009
Dear PTA Unit Presidents and Members,
I need your urgent attention. The 2009-2010 school report card survey has gone out. Please encourage your parents to complete the form and send it in before the Spring break.
Last year the district only received 25% of them back.
It is essential they get as many back as possible to present an accurate report card for each school - so the schools can try to set goals needed to improve for next years report card ratings.
IF YOU WANT YOUR SCHOOL TO IMPROVE - COMPLETE + RETURN THE SURVEY TODAY.
I suggest PTA's give away prizes to those that completed the survey - or something. We need these surveys returned. If you're not sure if you received one or not sure if you returned one - you can go to http://bit.ly/bxPXLK to complete the survey today online.
Thank you -
Ilene Ashcraft
President, Los Angeles
Tenth District PTSA
●●smf adds:
The 'survey' is actually four SCHOOL EXPERIENCE SURVEYS – for Parents, Employees, Students and Charter School Students - (apparently Charter school Employees, Charter School Parents and Community Volunteers are chopped liver!) all available at that same link: http://bit.ly/bxPXLK
….or you can go to each individual survey through the links below:
TAKE THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCE SURVEY ONLINE NOW!
Click the link below to take the survey as a student, parent, or school employee. If you received a letter with an authorization code, be sure to have that with you before you complete the survey. Thank you for participating!
I AM A PARENT or GUARDIAN (SOY PADRE o GUARDIÁN) http://bit.ly/cRwnod
I AM A SCHOOL EMPLOYEE (SOY EMPLEADO DE LA ESCUELA) http://bit.ly/aqWyOS
I AM A STUDENT (SOY ALUMNO) http://bit.ly/beVfS9
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR STUDENTS: In the student survey, several schools were inadvertently listed with the name of one of their magnet schools instead of the name of the primary campus. Please select the magnet school if your primary campus is not listed. OUR APOLOGIES FOR THE ERROR.
I AM A CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENT (SOY ALUMNO EN UN ESCUELA CHARTER) http://bit.ly/aIhqmW
smf: This is the third year of the School Report Card process – and as you will see from the limited outreach and documented errors (failure to differentiate between magnets and regular schools - and the errors/issues reported below*) the customer and employee satisfaction information is meaningless if not contributed to. If we are going to be data driven we need good data (GIGO: Garbage In/Garbage Out + NINI: Nothing In/Nothing Out) and unfortunately waiting-for-next-year to include everyone, improve or fine tune outreach, communication or collection techniques is what this district does best.
Please take the survey. Thank you.
*2008-09 SCHOOL REPORT CARD: KNOWN ISSUES
February 25, 2010 - Since the release of the 2008-2009 School Report Card LAUSD identified three instances where the data reported were not correct (NOTE: these are issues for printed School Report Cards that were distributed n January 2010 only. School Report Cards available for download on this site have been updated).
● ELEMENTARY ONLY: The graph on the front cover of the elementary report card reads 47% when it should be 42%. The bar graph is correct; the number is a misprint. The data reported within the report card is correct.
● HIGH SCHOOL ONLY: The data is reversed for “English learners” and “Students with disabilities” in the graph on page 4 in the section titled “Student Groups”.
● SPANISH ONLY: The labels for “English learners” (aprendices de inglés) and “Students with disabilities” (educación especial) are reversed in the table on Page 5 in the section titled “Learn More”.
WELCOME TO SOUTH L.A.: Schools in gang-infested area fighting back
By BRETT CLARKSON, Toronto sun
March 20, 2010 5:39pm -- LOS ANGELES — It’s mid-morning in Watts and there is little traffic. The occasional helicopter buzzes overhead. Backyard roosters crow in the distance.
Sergio L. Franco, who has spent most of his career as an educator here, approaches the intersection of 103rd St. and Wilmington Ave.
He nods toward the vacant lot at the southeast corner, a fenced-off parcel of concrete overrun with weeds and broken glass.
There used to be a Church’s Chicken there, he explains, until rioters burned it to the ground after the Rodney King verdict in 1992.
“Nothing has changed,” Franco says. “In the ’90s our economy was a lot better than it is now, but the needs of this community weren’t addressed.”
Franco, the student integration services co-ordinator with the Los Angeles Unified School District, oversees the LAUSD’s Ten Schools Program.
Ten Schools is the longtime centrepiece of the L.A. school board’s effort to combat the brutally low grades that were plaguing the poverty-stricken inner city.
Begun in 1987 with a budget of $10 million, the initiative originally encompassed 10 of the worst-performing schools in the notorious South Central district of Los Angeles, where most of the students were, and continue to be, either African-American or Hispanic.
The program sets out a teaching method that is heavily instructional and language-intensive, with the focus on helping the students with weak language skills to become literate, and ultimately, critical thinkers, Franco says.
It also creates a rigorously structured school environment. Teachers in the program schools sign a pledge of commitment to the program and undergo 10 extra professional development days.
Franco urged educators in Toronto, who face the same challenges in trying to improve the comprehension levels of multicultural student populations, to look at the L.A. teaching methods.
“I think it would be prudent to share this with educators in Toronto — provide an oral language — intensive instructional program for low-performing (students) based on the Eastman model,” he says.
“The Eastman model was a bilingual model, and really what they did is take the children’s language and build on what they knew.”
In 2006, the Toronto District School Board rolled out a similar program to L.A.’s Ten Schools Program called the Model Schools for Inner Cities, which identifies seven schools with disadvantaged student populations.
Driving south on Compton Ave., Franco spots a group of young men hanging out near a store front. Some of them turn their heads to glare as the car approaches, prompting Franco to instruct his passenger to avoid eye contact as he turns onto 112th St.
He points out a depressing cluster of shoebox-like buildings on the left.
“These are Nickerson Gardens,” he says. “This is a Blood neighbourhood.”
The stunted white-and-black structures, which look like a military barracks, stretch deep into the heart of Watts.
With 156 buildings and 1,000-plus units, it’s the largest housing project in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River. It’s also the birthplace of the Bloods street gang.
A few minutes later, Franco pulls up to 96th St. Elementary School, a pre-kindergarten to Grade 5 school in the heart of Watts.
Across the street from the school, a fire-ravaged SUV is parked on the curb, its front end completely torched.
Franco is the former principal of 96th Street, one of the original Ten Schools, where 68% of the kids don’t speak English as a first language. Many of them have family members in gangs. Most don’t have fathers in their lives.
In the school’s play area, where a third of the school’s 970 students are playing volleyball and other games on their rotating lunch break, current principal Luis R. Heckmuller says poverty and language barriers are used by some teachers as an excuse. He refuses to go there.
“At some point, educators need to start taking responsibility,” Heckmuller says.
“If we focus on all the things that are wrong with the community, etc., then we’re spending our energy on something we can’t control.”
Heckmuller, who supports Ten Schools, points to 96th Street’s Academic Performance Index (API) results over the past 10 years as a reason to continue the program.
The API is considered the benchmark of educational progress in California. Based on the state’s standardized testing, the API measuring stick was implemented after the state’s Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999.
A score around the 500 level means most of the students at the school are performing at a level considered below basic. A score closer to 700 and 800 means most of the kids are basic or proficient. Higher scores of 800 and 900 indicate a majority of the students at the school being either proficient or advanced. The state’s goal is to get all schools to 800.
Since 2000, 96th Street has jumped from a base score of 486 to 747 in 2009.
“That’s huge, it’s a huge improvement,” Heckmuller said. “Our goal is to try to get to 800 this year.”
The other elementary schools in the program have all seen similar jumps — from base scores in the 400 and 500 levels in 2000 to the 700 level, with the exception of Compton Elementary’s 668, in 2009.
Local parent Quinana Thibodeaux, 33, whose nine-year-old daughter Quinana Thibodeaux Jr. attends 96th Street, swears by the program.
“She was reading 20 words per minute in the first grade,” Thibodeaux says of her daughter. “They only want them to do 13.”
Heckmuller acknowledges that some in the North American education community oppose grading kids and schools based on standardized testing.
Toronto District School Board education director Chris Spence recently told the Sun he’s not in favour of ranking schools based on standardized test scores because “all schools are different and students that populate the schools are different.”
Heckmuller says the standardized testing that provides the API scores in California is not something educators should run from.
“Is it a form of standardized testing? Yes, but it’s a form of standardized testing based on the standards that we’re supposed to be teaching anyways,” he says.
Empty Chairs: NOT SITTING STILL FOR CUTS
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News
3/16/2009 -- Dramatizing the impact of looming layoffs, teachers placed nearly 3,000 empty chairs over an entire city block in front of L.A. Unified headquarters Monday, each seat representing a classroom instructor, nurse or counselor facing job cuts.
The elaborate scene was set up to mark the legal deadline for all teachers and school support staff to receive preliminary notification if there job is at risk for the following school year. Statewide some 22,000 pink slips were mailed out to educators by Monday, including nearly 2,300 teachers, and 600 nurses, counselors and librarians at Los Angeles Unified School District. “After 6 years of being dedicated to my job, 180 days a year, rain or shine, with paper and supplies or not, they are going to tell me I cannot teach... why?” asked Trinidad Hernandez, a fifth-grade teacher at Sunny Brae Avenue Elementary School, who received her pink slip notice late last week.
“They gave me a job and I have done magic with it... it’s just not right.” Like school districts in Oakland, Burbank, and Long Beach, Los Angeles Unified officials said the budget crisis has left them with no choice but to increase class sizes and eliminate workers to keep local schools financially solvent. Currently, LAUSD is facing a budget gap of some $640 million for the 2010-11 school year. With fewer teachers, class sizes are expected to rise.
For example, kindergarten through third-grade classes will grow to 29 students and middle school classes will grow to 44 students. Cuts also call for the virtual elimination of school nurses and librarians, deep cuts to arts education programs and counselors could be left overseeing up to 1,000 students each. “It is a very somber occasion when nearly 22,000 educators are notified that they may be terminated,” said State Superintendent Jack O’Connell. “It hurts schools and it hurts communities.”
Along with the effects that layoffs will have next year, the notices ring in a season of anxiety for school workers who must wait and see if their jobs will be preserved next year. Traditionally, notices are sent out to all school workers that could be laid off — even though many times a majority or all pink slips are rescinded as district officials tinker with budgets to avoid cutting staff. Last year, more than 26,000 pink slips were sent out statewide to teachers and 16,000 were laid off. This year though it is expected that more teachers and school workers will be laid off, since district officials say they have no more areas left to cut. Vivian Ekchian, LAUSD’s chief human resource officer, said last year only one out of four teachers who received pink slips were actually released.
But she noted that last year, the district had federal stimulus money. This year they do not. At this point, Ekchian said the only way school positions will be saved is if employee unions agree to take paycuts and furloughs to help cut costs. “It is not too late to save these jobs,” Ekchian said. “Together we can make a decision that allows us to save positions... it requires shared sacrifice but it maintains stability at school sites, reduces class sizes and preserves our workforce.”
Currently LAUSD officials are asking all employees to consider taking 12 furlough days — in the form of cutting back the school year a week this year and next - and a 10 percent paycut to avoid losing jobs. Labor leaders though argue that district officials still have to prove that all possible cuts outside of the schools have been made before they can ask school workers to take paycuts, including the elimination of all outside contract professionals and unnecessary programs and administrators. “The most important thing is keeping the classroom and school site whole,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
Duffy stressed that district officials should also not only focus on what employees are willing to sacrifice but on pushing state officials to increase funding for education. “There needs to be a steady stream of funding for education from Sacramento not this crazy up and down every year,” Duffy added.
Over the last two years, lawmakers have slashed some $18 billion from California’s K-12 schools and community colleges, leaving the state last in the nation in per-pupil spending and last in teacher- and administrator-to-student ratios.
This year, despite claims from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that schools would not see new cuts, the state budget keeps school funding at the heavily slashed rates of last year. Without stimulus money, school officials say they will feel the hit harder. However H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the State Department of Finance, said that at a time when the state is facing a nearly $20 billion budget deficit, and when deep cuts are being proposed elsewhere in social services, schools have received the best deal the governor could draft.
“There are others who say they want us to provide more money and the governor would like to do that, and as soon as legislators send other reductions we can take, on top of what has been proposed to increase education we will take a look at it,” Palmer said. In the meantime though, teachers like Hernandez must continue teaching their students and preparing them for high stakes state tests in the spring, while they wonder if they’ll have a job to come back to next fall. Hernandez said as far as she is concerned, her students will not notice the difference in their teacher’s classroom energy.
“I have told them at the start of every year that in Room 36 their dreams can come true... I still have that job to do,” Hernandez said, wiping tears. “That doesn’t mean that when the bell rings and I go home I don’t cry... but they don’t have to know that.”
2 from Santa Monica-Malibu Unified: SMMUSD TRIES TO KEEP LAUSD RESIDENTS IN DISTRICT + SCHOOL SUPER WANTS PERMIT EXEMPTION
► SMMUSD TRIES TO KEEP LAUSD RESIDENTS IN DISTRICT
By Jonathan Friedman | Lookout [online presence of former Santa Monica Outlook staff]
March 19, 2010 --In response to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) plan to cancel most of its interdistrict permits, Superintendent Tim Cuneo is preparing a proposal to exempt students from LAUSD residences currently enrolled at Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) schools.
Cuneo’s proposal would also apply to siblings of current SMMUSD students from LAUSD residences. He said at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting that he had spoken with LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who has agreed to consider the proposal.
More than 1,200 students living within the LAUSD boundaries are attending SMMUSD schools, with the largest number going to Santa Monica High School and Edison Language Academy. Some of those students would be exempt from the LAUSD plan because it excludes those with parents working within other district boundaries and those entering fifth, eighth and 12th grades, the finals years of each school level.
Cuneo on Wednesday hosted a session for parents of students affected by the new LAUSD policy. More than 250 people attended the event. Further information on the policy and the rights of those affected by it, including how to file an appeal, are provided on the District’s Web site at www.smmusd.org. To access the information, click “Permit Appeal” at the top left side of the site. Informational letters have also been mailed to interdistrict parents.
Those denied interdistrict permits from the LAUSD can appeal the decision within the LAUSD. If that appeal is denied, an appeal can be filed with the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE). With more than 12,000 students affected by the LAUSD policy countywide, LACOE could have its hands full.
“They’re attempting to try to gear up and figure out how to even manage all that,” Cuneo said.
Board member Jose Escarce said parents wanting to keep their children in the SMMUSD would have a good case based on the issue of “continuity of education.”
The LAUSD policy is an attempt to bring more money into that District, which is facing a $640 million budget shortfall. School District income from Sacramento is based on daily attendance, and LAUSD officials say their new policy would mean an extra $51 million. But it would also mean a high seven-figure dollar loss for the SMMUSD.
Since State funding for School Districts is based on attendance from the previous school year, the policy would not affect the SMMUSD financially until the 2011-12 school year.
The LAUSD policy was initially approved with little fanfare at a Board of Education meeting last month. It was formalized on Wednesday. The news did not reach other Districts until earlier this month. Various Districts are now scrambling to address the issue on a tight timeline.
Shari Davis, president of the Santa Monica-Malibu PTA Council, said the council voted unanimously to oppose the LAUSD policy because of the impact it would have on the children.
“We believe such directives will have a detrimental impact on the welfare of those children, on parental involvement in our school communities and on the educational experience and success of these students academically, and in other important pursuits that constitute a well-rounded education,” Davis said.
Several board members said they were troubled by the policy. Board member Oscar de la Torre said he would like the Board to make a formal resolution in opposition to it at a future meeting.
“This is one community, one school community,” de la Torre said. “And we want to make sure we do everything we can to protect those students and those families to continue their education in our schools.”
► SCHOOL SUPER WANTS PERMIT EXEMPTION
By Nick Taborek – Santa Monica Daily Press
March 19, 2010 -- SMMUSD HDQTRS — The Los Angeles Unified School District wants to boost enrollment — and increase the amount of money it gets from the state — by cutting back on the number of permits it grants to students who live within the district's boundaries but attend classes in other public school systems.
Under a plan LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines outlined in February, about 10,000 of the more-than 12,000 students who receive permits to leave the district would have to return to the LAUSD.
With more than 1,200 students who go to school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District but live in LAUSD territory, the plan has caused concern among SMMUSD officials and district parents who say the new permit policy would disrupt students' education and cost SMMUSD money.
Now, SMMUSD Superintendent Tim Cuneo is pushing back against the idea, announcing that he'll send a proposal to Cortines next week asking him to exempt all current SMMUSD permit students and their siblings from the policy change.
Cuneo said he understands LAUSD's need to increase revenue, but said the new LAUSD permit policy shouldn't affect students who have already established ties at their schools.
"I think that that's fair," he said. "It's fair to the families, it provides for continuity of education and it doesn't separate families."
LAUSD has said its permit policy change would generate $51 million for the district, which is facing a $640 million budget deficit.
SMMUSD School Board member Oscar de la Torre said Cuneo's proposal to grandfather in current permit students would benefit SMMUSD at least in the short term.
"It's what makes the most sense if you care about kids," he said. "From a financial point of view, we can't afford to lose those students. On top of that those students can't afford to have their education disrupted."
Under LAUSD's plan, permit students who go to SMMUSD schools would be eligible to continue attending if one of their parents works within the school's attendance boundary. Students entering fifth, eighth and 12th grade next year also would be eligible for permits to leave LAUSD, so that they can finish out the final year at their current schools.
Cuneo said about half of the district's LAUSD permit students would likely fall into one of those two categories.
On Wednesday, 250 to 300 parents attended a meeting at John Adams Middle School to discuss LAUSD's new permit policy and the process for appealing permit decisions, Cuneo said. SMMUSD has posted information for permit families on its Web site, www.smmusd.org.
District parents also have begun a letter writing campaign to urge LAUSD board members to implement the new permit policy gradually, Cuneo said.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
L.A. PTA PRESIDENT APPEALS TO PARENTS TO COMPLETE AND RETURN LAUSD PARENT SURVEY + SURVEY INFO FOR PARENTS, EMPLOY... http://bit.ly/cBeMzO
Themes in the News: LINKING TEACHER EVALUATIONS TO STUDENT TEST SCORES: By UCLA IDEA Staff | http://bit.ly/9LpLHl ... http://bit.ly/cW7BmK
SMMUSD TRIES TO KEEP LAUSD RESIDENTS IN DISTRICT: By Jonathan Friedman | Lookout [online presence of former Santa... http://bit.ly/bYWJoU
Educated Guess: STUDY: SCHOOLS STILL BAD AFTER 20 YEARS + SOMEONE IS MISINFORMING FEDS: Schools still bad after 20... http://bit.ly/bhKSzg
TEACHERS’ UNIONS SLAM OBAMA K-12 BUDGET PROPOSALS: By Stephen Sawchuk | Edweek| | Vol. 29, Issue 27 March 17, 201... http://bit.ly/a41AZr
STUDENT LOAN REFORM BILL STRIPPED OF EARLY ED, SCHOOL FACILITIES AND COMMUNITY COLLEGE SUPPORT: By Alyson Klein| E... http://bit.ly/byt515
THE PUSH BACK ON CHARTER SCHOOLS: By THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES Piotr Redlinski for The New York Time... http://bit.ly/98Cits
FROM THE NY TIMES: School Suspensions Lead to Legal Challenge + Bill Proposes Increased Aid to the Needy for Colle... http://bit.ly/bu4qpA
ADULT SCHOOL STUDENTS PROTEST POTENTIAL LOSS OF PICO-UNION CAMPUS: Howard Blume – LA TimeS LA Now blog March 19, 2... http://bit.ly/avBVbL
Democracy: warts+all …or let’s replace your volunteers with paid professionsals| A Very Expensive Failed Project C... http://bit.ly/d09ixK 3:27 PM
SCHOOL SUPER WANTS PERMIT EXEMPTION: By Nick Taborek – Santa Monica Daily Press IMPACTING THE CLASSROOM: San... http://bit.ly/cK13HN
PANEL RECOMMENDS L.A. UNIFIED TEACHER OVERHAULS + L.A. Unified panel recommends changes in teacher evaluations: Ad... http://bit.ly/aEppfA
Beware the Ides’/Pink slip day: NOT SITTING STILL FOR CUTS: By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News ... http://bit.ly/9QqnhE
IN-STATE RATES FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS: By Public Radio International’s The World |PRI/BBC/WGBH⋅ |⋅ Transcrip... http://bit.ly/d5dtMO
REFORM DIVIDES A VALLEY CAMPUS: Some at San Fernando Middle School leery of pilot effort.: By Connie Llanos, Staff... http://bit.ly/dbanTh
LA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT TO ELIMINATAE ALL CERTIFIED LIBRARAIANS: By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal 3/1... http://bit.ly/dn2XtI
BOARD PRESIDENT ADMITS THAT COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOND FUNDS MISUSED: Van de Kamps Coalition Press Release LACCD Boar... http://bit.ly/da7sz9
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Wednesday Mar 24, 2010
9th STREET SCHOOL Span K-8 Redevelopment: CEQA Scoping and Design Development Update
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location:
9th Street Elementary School
820 Towne Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Thursday Mar 25, 2010
SOUTH REGION HIGH SCHOOL #7 & RAUL R. PEREZ MEMORIAL PARK GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: South Region High School #7
6361 Cottage St.
Huntington Park, CA 90255
*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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