In This Issue:  | | • | L.A. UNIFIED RESCINDS PERMIT CHANGE, FOR NOW. | | | • | ZIMMER WAS LONE NO VOTE ON $177 MILLION CONTRACT AWARDED TO INDICTED LAUSD CONTRACTOR LAST MONTH | | | • | Teacher Cadet: IN SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY (MN) SCHOOLS, IT’S A DOUBLE DOSE OF LEARNING | | | • | FAYE E. ALLEN: AN EARLIER PIONEER ON THE L.A. SCHOOL BOARD | | | • | 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: | | | | If you haven't already (where have you been?) go see the “HOT FOR TEACHERS” video. Click Here>> http://bit.ly/dlAPzP I realize Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox are beautiful young people, trendy and buff; chiseled and inked. But they are also LAUSD parents and PTA members – and they speak for every child and every parent and every educator in California with one voice when they urge viewers to "call, write and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy”.
Call, write and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy. http://SayNoToCuts.com
THERE HAVE BEEN QUESTIONS IN THE MEDIA, POSED BY REAL PUNDITS: Who will fail first: Greece or California? You can add another choices for dysfunction: The City of LA or LAUSD? All four share two common fatal combinations: Lack of political will+leadership in bad financial times.
It's hard to imagine a more dysfunctional political dynamic than LAUSD ...but one needs only look across the freeway from Beaudry to City Hall to see worse. Last week it all played out like film unspooling from the center of the roll. LAUSD caught its breath and regained its mind in reversing the permit recission decision – complete with board members repudiating their own previous actions: “We never approved this decision.”
They never approved the giveawayof the Mendez High School to the Mayor's Partnership either ...but fait is nonetheless acompli.
(This afternoon at my drycleaner I saw a flier on the bulletin board with the little tabs with the phone number to call mostly removed: Enroll your child in a Full Imersion Biligual School: Spanish / German / Italian. Interdistrict Permits Welcome ...for a school in Glendale.)
ACROSS THE 110 THE MAYOR DECLARED THE SKY FALLING and called for mass furloughs because the City Council and the DWP Board disagreed about a Rate Hike. The DWP (which actually has money) refused to share with the city. The City Council said the Mayor is A) Wrong and B: Exceeding his authority. The City Controller announced an audit of the DWP – (apparently she has auditors to spare from last weeks announced audit of LAUSD). The Mayor balked. The Council Fulminated. And the City's accountants found some more money somewhere. The sky isn't falling after all. Not this week anyway.
We need to remember that this sort of infighting between the Council and the Mayor and the Controller and the DWP is precisely what was supposed to have been eliminated when two (count 'em ) two Charter Commissions met and bloviated and recommended and joined together in compromise to create A-New-City-Charter-to-Eliminate-Sort-of-Thing-Once-and-For-All. Deja vu times two. Sometimes yesterday comes back to bite today in the butt; Mayor Sam must be laughing somewhere. And rightly so.
Stay tuned … and !Onward/adelante! - smf
L.A. UNIFIED RESCINDS PERMIT CHANGE, FOR NOW.
SUPT. CORTINES RESPONDS TO PARENTS' OUTCRY OVER CURTAILING THE POLICY ALLOWING STUDENTS TO ATTEND SCHOOLS IN OTHER DISTRICTS BY POSTPONING THE CHANGE FOR A YEAR WHILE HE STUDIES THE ISSUE.
By Carla Rivera | L.A. Times
posted: April 6, 2010 | 8:53 p.m.
April 7, 2009 -- Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said Tuesday that most students who attend schools outside of the district can continue to do so next year, a retreat from a recent, more restrictive policy that provoked an outcry from parents, other school districts and some members of his own Board of Education.
But whether students who live in the Los Angeles Unified School District will be allowed to continue to attend schools elsewhere after the 2010-11 school year remains unresolved. Cortines said he expects to return to the board in September with a new policy. He said he will assess, among other things, why families are rejecting L.A. Unified for what they consider better options.
Speaking at a packed board meeting, Cortines said he had consulted with parents, other local superintendents and district lawyers, and concluded that the district had been neither clear nor consistent in handing out permits.
Applause erupted when Cortines announced that most students will continue receiving permits for next year. "I'm not knowingly going to harm the education of boys and girls and young people or distress the adults in their lives," he said.
Cortines said permits probably will also be granted to students applying for the first time to attend specialized programs not available in the district or facing other hardships. And he said a new appeals process will be created for students denied permits. The Los Angeles County Office of Education will be the final arbiter.
It was a far more conciliatory response than the schools chief's recent remarks arguing that L.A. Unified schools had vastly improved and accusing many parents of seeking schools with fewer poor and minority students.
Last year, L.A. Unified released more than 12,200 students to 99 other Southern California school districts, including 945 to Beverly Hills, 1,700 to Torrance, 1,400 to Culver City and 1,400 to Las Virgenes.
L.A. Unified could receive $51 million in state per-pupil funding if 80% of those students returned. That money could be used to help close a $640-million budget shortfall, officials said.
In February, Cortines moved to limit the permits to students whose parents work within the boundaries of another district and to those completing fifth, eighth or 12th grades next year.
The decision provoked a furor among parents, who argued that their local schools are lower-performing and have fewer specialized programs, and that changing districts would disrupt their children's education. They also complained that the announcement had come too late for them to find alternatives such as magnet or charter schools.
On Tuesday, board member Steve Zimmer applauded Cortines for addressing parents' concerns.
"I know the board will use this time carefully, to shore up areas where we need to make improvements and create programs where currently there are no programs," Zimmer said.
With board member Tamar Galatzan, Zimmer had proposed allowing high school students to remain in their schools of choice until graduation. He withdrew the resolution after the superintendent's announcement.
Many parents said they were encouraged by Cortines' decision but remain concerned about the future.
"We hope it's not just an attempt to postpone everything and next year everything will have changed again," said Simona Montanari, a Lakeview Terrace resident whose daughter attends a dual-language immersion program at Franklin Elementary in the Glendale Unified School District.
Other school districts faced significant losses if L.A. Unified refused to allow students to attend their schools, said Karlo Silbiger, a member of the Culver City Unified Board of Education.
"Twenty percent of our kids are on L.A. Unified permits, and we'd be forced to close schools," he said. "This gives us time to figure out how to deal with this issue."
ZIMMER WAS LONE NO VOTE ON $177 MILLION CONTRACT AWARDED TO INDICTED LAUSD CONTRACTOR LAST MONTH
BY GARY WALKER | THE ARGONAUT [Marina del Rey, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Mar Vista, Del Rey, Westchester, Venice and Santa Monica]
Thursday, April 8, 2010 -- Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education member Steve Zimmer, who represents schools in The Argonaut coverage area, was the only member of the board to vote against a contract for a construction consultant who now stands accused of steering district contracts to construction firms he co-owns.
Bassam Raslan, a regional director of new construction at the Los Angeles Unified School District, was indicted Thursday, April 1st on nine counts of conflict of interest by a grand jury. The Public Integrity Unit of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley’s office will prosecute the case.
Raslan, 52, is accused of illegally profiting from LAUSD contracts that he gave to employees of his own construction and management firm, TBI & Associates.
The grand jury indictment alleges that Raslan was aware of the conflict due to the fact that his business partner, Ivan Kesian, was fired from LAUSD in August 2003 for conflict of interest.
Zimmer was the lone board member to vote against awarding more contracts to Raslan in February, when the board voted in favor of awarding his company 40 additional contracts that totaled approximately $180 million.
Officials at the Teamsters Local 572 cheered the indictment but said they had repeatedly warned LAUSD about Raslan and what they say are the regional construction director’s alleged abuses.
“This indictment should come as no surprise to anyone, since the district received plenty of warnings,” Rick Middelton, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said in a statement.
Connie Oser, the business representative of the Teamsters, which represents architects and construction managers, echoed Middelton’s claims that LAUSD has known about the alleged conflicts for at least two years.
“Members of our union have been complaining that they were more qualified to do the work but were not getting the promotions and the jobs,” she said. “We noticed that the district was giving contracts to a lot of outside contractors.”
LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines pledged that the district would be proactive if the ensuing investigation unearths any improprieties by Raslan.
“If we find any wrongdoing or discrepancies, we will take swift, appropriate action on the persons or companies involved,” the superintendent said in a statement.
The leadership of the school board appeared to be caught off guard when it learned of the indictment.
“I am deeply concerned and surprised to learn of this indictment,” LAUSD school board President Monica García said. “At this point, it is unclear to me the exact nature of the (conflicts of interest) violations.”
García said the school board would be examining if past legal representatives and employees at LAUSD had sufficiently reviewed the school district’s operational policies.
“The board will be asking our general counsel to brief us on this matter and we will be asking whether or not our operational procedures were adequately vetted by our then-chief facilities executive and then-general counsel, and reviewed by our inspector general,” the board president stated. “If necessary, the board will not hesitate to retain outside counsel to conduct an independent review of our policies, procedures and practices in the facilities division.”
Zimmer’s chief of staff, Sharon Delugauch, said the board member could not discuss the reasons why he did not join his colleagues in approving Raslan’s multi-million dollar contract.
“He has been advised not to discuss the case because it is now in litigation,” Delugauch explained.
Teamsters representatives scoffed at the notion that the board was unaware of the alleged ethics violations.
“They are not surprised,” Oser asserted. “I’ve addressed their board many times over the last two years, so this is not the first time that they have heard this.”
Oser says that before the February vote, she and other Teamsters officials asked Cortines why TBI & Associates was being considered despite the school board’s experience with Kesian. They claim that the LAUSD superintendent ignored their requests and recommended Raslan for the contract.
Lawrence Kalbers, a professor of accounting at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, said the guidelines for conflicts of interest are clear when a vendor or contractor is employed by a government agency.
“A contractor employed by the city is expected to look out for the interests of the city,” Kalbers, the chair of the center for accounting ethics, governance and the public interest, told The Argonaut. “If a city contractor is an owner of a firm that might do business with the city, the contractor should not be involved in the decision to hire the firm in which he or she is an owner, and should not review and approve the work of that firm if the firm is awarded a contract.
“Those would be obvious conflicts of interest because of the potential for the city contractor to benefit from his or her position,” Kalbers continued. “The contractor has a primary duty to the city, which has hired the contractor to act in its best interest.”
Craig Fraulino, a Playa del Rey architect, was taken aback that a contractor could engage in this alleged conduct for so long without detection.
“In this day and age, I would think that it’s very hard to get away with something like this,” Fraulino said. “If a contractor is working for a government agency and wants to take his business in another direction, you should resign first and then bid on the contract.”
Kalbers said Raslan’s purported conduct is increasingly frowned upon by the public.
“I think the public perceives such conflicts as unfair and an abuse of one’s position,” the professor said. “It is our hope that public servants will act on our behalf. When they don’t, the public trust is violated and taxpayer money is squandered.”
LAUSD has had previous trouble with contractors in the past and has been accused by United Teachers of Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy for its reliance on outside firms.
In 2007, several thousand teachers were underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all over a year due to a computer glitch that plagued the district and led to teacher protests and a statewide scandal. Deloitte Consulting was hired to install the system and then given another contract to fix its system errors.
Deloitte eventually paid back $8 million and agreed to forgive $7 to $10 million in unpaid invoices in a November 2008 settlement.
Oser says she is not surprised that it took an indictment to get the school district’s attention.
“There are dozens of stories like this,” she claimed. “I think that this is just a tiny speck of what is going on with these outside contractors.”
Oser thinks the propensity to hire outside firms is part of a broader agenda by LAUSD.
“I think it’s all part of a trend to privatize school districts,” the Teamsters official asserted. “Private contractors want to get their hands on public money.”
Following Raslam’s indictment, Cortines asked City Controller Wendy Greuel to audit LAUSD’s program.
Raslam did not enter a plea after his indictment. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, April 16 at the Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. His bail was set at $100,000.
Teacher Cadet: IN SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY (MN) SCHOOLS, IT’S A DOUBLE DOSE OF LEARNING
THE TEACHER CADET PROGRAM GIVES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE A CAREER IN EDUCATION AND ALLOWS THE DISTRICT TO FORM A POOL OF FUTURE TEACHER CANDIDATES.
By Megan Boldt | Twin Cities Pioneer Press
25 March 2010 -- Morgan Davis wants to be a math teacher someday.
So the 17-year-old senior at Woodbury High School decided Teacher Cadet, a course that lets students see what it's like to work in education, was the perfect fit for her.
"This class seemed like a good opportunity to see how this career works," she said.
That's exactly what South Washington County schools planned. The district started the program this year at Woodbury and East Ridge high schools with hopes of creating its own pool of highly qualified, diverse teacher candidates. Students with high grade-point averages can apply for one of just 15 spots at each school for the yearlong course.
Woodbury High teacher Regina Seabrook said high school is a critical time for teenagers to get exposure to different fields, to test the waters without making a commitment.
"It's a course for kids to explore teaching," Seabrook said. "Even if they don't become a teacher, they're going to get some wonderful skills they can use as a parent or if they get a summer job working with kids."
Seabrook said she starts the course with a self-awareness and reflection unit so students can get to know who they are and what attributes they can bring to the class. Next come three themes: the learner, the classroom and the profession.
Teens learn how children have different learning styles and needs. Some of the lessons include learning about special education, English-language learners and multicultural education.
For Jacqelyn Doyle, learning about the social and emotional development of children and how it affects learning really surprised her.
"I'm kind of enjoying that we're learning what the psychology is behind teaching," the 18-year-old senior said.
"You need to know your kids first before you teach them," Seabrook agreed.
"You have to know yourself first, as well," chimed in Sarah Larson. The 17-year-old senior said she always wanted to be a teacher because so many of her family members are in education.
Michelle Young, 16, said she likes creating lesson plans and other hands-on experiences. Students get exposure to classrooms from prekindergarten to high school.
Last week, the Teacher Cadet students from Woodbury and East Ridge got together for some firsthand learning in childhood development. As they played blocks and kitchen with preschoolers, the students observed how the children played and interacted with others.
Teacher Cadet is a program that got its start at four South Carolina high schools in 1985. It is now taught nationwide, although South Washington County's program could be the first in Minnesota.
Superintendent Mark Porter heard about the program a few years ago when he was the district's human resources director. At the time, about 2 percent of South Washington County's teachers were minorities, and he was trying to recruit more.
It wasn't working. Porter was at job fairs competing with school districts from across the country, many with much more diverse student populations.
"It was really frustrating," Porter said. "It was an effort that wasn't yielding the results we were looking for. We decided it might be more effective to grow our own candidates."
Teacher Cadet is open to all students, but its organizers hope to attract minority students.
Porter said he hopes that if the program captures the interest of just a few students, they will come back after they graduate from college and want to teach in their home district. South Washington County usually hires one or two of its own graduates each year.
For Doyle, the program is sparking an interest.
"I think this class really inspires us to be the kind of teachers who really make a difference," she said.
FAYE E. ALLEN: AN EARLIER PIONEER ON THE L.A. SCHOOL BOARD
by Deirdre Edgar | LA Times Readers' Representative Journal: A conversation on newsroom ethics and standards
April 7, 2010 | 7:12 am -- Articles in The Times often point out the historical significance of an event, especially when it is a first. Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win an Oscar for best director. Canada won the first North American gold medal in ice dancing. Even the first baby of the year often gets his or her photo in the paper.
But what happens when something widely reported to be a first actually isn’t?
In an article Feb. 12, Jean Merl wrote about Rep. Diane Watson’s planned retirement from Congress, saying the 76-year-old Democratic congresswoman, who was initially elected to represent her Los Angeles district in 2001, could count many accomplishments in her long political career:
Watson's announcement brought the former teacher and school psychologist accolades from across the political firmament, in which she has been a trailblazing fixture since winning an uphill race for the Los Angeles Board of Education in 1975. She was the first black woman elected to the board, as the district was grappling with school integration.
However, an e-mail a couple of weeks later from Jefferson Crain, executive officer of the LAUSD Board of Education, launched a flurry of research that revealed that Watson was in fact not the first black woman elected to the school board. As it turns out, Fay E. Allen has that distinction, having won a school board race in 1939.
But before there was research, there were questions.
Crain had sent his e-mail to Howard Blume, who covers the LAUSD. It was forwarded to Assistant Managing Editor Henry Fuhrmann, who serves as the newsroom’s standards editor, and who began poking around. Merl was surprised to have the statement questioned because it was something The Times and other organizations have reported over the years, and it is included in the biographical information on Watson’s website. Richard Simon had used the same statistic in his story a day earlier, and The Times’ archives show it was cited previously in 1991 and 2001.
Could Crain be right?
Maybe Allen had been appointed back in 1939, not elected. Or, maybe it was a different school board then. Blume and Merl set out to check.
Crain, who was appointed in April 1995 and whose post is nonpartisan, responded to the school board question, saying, "Simply put, there has been just one Board of Education for a really long time."
As Crain explained, the city charter established the board of education as the governing body of the department of education. In 1854, the City Council appointed the mayor as superintendent of schools, and three council members became the board of education.
The board's oversight expanded in 1960 after an election approved a measure stating that "the Los Angeles City School District will become a unified school district for elementary and high school purposes effective as of July 1, 1961." The district's name then became Los Angeles Unified.
And articles in The Times’ archives confirm that Allen was indeed elected. A political column from May 8, 1939, commented on the election results in language that reflected the racial feelings of the period:
Town full of squawks because Mrs. Fay Allen, a Negro music teacher, was elected to the Board of Education. Said squawks should be silenced. No intelligent person should complain because he voted for Mrs. Allen, not knowing her race. … Mrs. Allen is intelligent, traveled and experienced.
A subsequent article on May 19, 1939, reports on a “legal tangle” involving Allen and whether she would still be allowed to hold her teaching position while serving on the Board of Education. While changing her courtesy title from Mrs. to Miss, it states:
Miss Allen was elected to the board May 2 and was invited to sit with the members beginning June 1 instead of July 1, in being offered the seat vacated by resignation of Margarete Clark.
So, Allen was in fact the first, and a correction appears in the For the Record section of The Times. But Watson’s election in 1975 still was noteworthy, coming at a time when the district was polarized over school desegregation.
The research piqued Merl’s interest in Fay Allen. If anyone knew Allen or knew about her, Merl would like to hear from you. “I am really fascinated by this woman who was obviously quite a pioneer and yet somehow missed out on getting recognition of her place in history.”
Contact Jean Merl: Jean.Merl@LATimes.com
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
Themes in the News: THREE PERSPECTIVES ON CALIFORNIA’S EDUCATION FUNDING CRISIS: By UCLA IDEA Staff 04-09-2010 -... http://bit.ly/8YJ4Yk
IN OTHER NEWS….: from the weekly AASA Newsletter: AASA report: Layoffs, cutbacks in store as stimulus funds fa... http://bit.ly/9o0zYw
DESPITE A LIFE OF HARDSHIP, HE’S HEADED FOR WEST POINT: Throughout a turbulent upbringing and the dangers of South... http://bit.ly/ayBF8R
RESTRUCTURING ‘RESTRUCTURING’: Markham Middle School highlights the federal, state and local problems inhibiting p... http://bit.ly/cMHRL3
NEW AASA SURVEY FINDS SCHOOLS FACING GROWING BUDGET CUTS AND THE END OF STIMULUS FUNDING: from the the American As... http://bit.ly/bQ1kay
HOT FOR TEACHERS VIDEO: The viral video about school overcrowding and the budget mess produced by actual parents f... http://bit.ly/dlAPzP
Dan Walters: CALIFORNIA’S SCHOOL-FUNDING WOES HIT HOME: by Dan Walters | Sac Bee Columnist Wednesday, Apr. 07, 20... http://bit.ly/aER5p3
Special Ed :: A CALL TO ACTION FROM A CONCERNED PARENT: “Our country has always encouraged and made it possible fo... http://bit.ly/cqSjcY
MAKING THEIR CASE: Photographer: Michael E. Garland | Santa Monica Daily Press 7 April, 2010 -- Students who a... http://bit.ly/cmyeHH
L.A. UNIFIED RESCINDS PERMIT CHANGE, FOR NOW. Supt. Cortines responds to parents' outcry over curtailing the polic... http://bit.ly/aLBoqz
A CALL TO ACTION: Senator Gillibrand Urges Senate Appropriations Committee To Restore Funding for Safe & Drug Free... http://bit.ly/aOJ4Vv
INTERDISTRICT PERMIT BROUHAHA :: The Crisis is Over, Everyone can return to their homes!: LA Unified leaves permit... http://bit.ly/dcTYE3
MAYWOOD ACTIVISTS’ FIGHT AGAINST NEW SCHOOL COSTS L.A. UNIFIED $20 MILLION: Because residents don't want a campus ... http://bit.ly/c0MquX
Teacher Cadet: IN SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY SCHOOLS, IT’S A DOUBLE DOSE OF LEARNING: The Teacher Cadet program gives... http://bit.ly/99QJfr
A STUDENT’S CHALLENGES PARALLEL HIS SCHOOL’S: With faculty in charge, Jefferson High is struggling to turn itself ... http://bit.ly/9YtyDx
Letter to the Editor: SAVING JOBS WITH A SHORTER YEAR: Re “When less means more,” Editorial, March 31 | LA Times ... http://bit.ly/9JMmjK
PARENTS REBEL OVER LAUSD’s TRANSFER CURB: By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze April 5, 2010 -- Faced wit... http://bit.ly/a41clZ
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change.
SAVE THE DATES:
DENIM DAY IN LA & USA 2010
Peace Over Violence is proud to present the 11th Annual Denim Day in LA & USA 2010, a campaign to raise awareness and educate the public about rape and sexual assault. This year it is Wednesday April 21, 2010. http://www.denimdayinla.org
PARENT SUMMIT & INFO TECH April 24th, 2010
LAUSD, the nation’s second largest school district, serves more than 650,000 K-12 students, reaches over a million parents in 710 square miles and serves 27 cities. Each year LAUSD hosts the annual Parent Summit which is attended by nearly 5,000 parents and is the largest in the nation. This daylong event on April 24th, Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015, will serve to engage and inform parents and the community regarding current educational initiatives and programs, family and school partnerships and District resources. Parents can select from more than 40 different workshops which will include teaching parents in-home literacy and strategies to support homework, explanations of state and federal legislation, information to assist parents of children with special needs and access to community resources.
RAM/LA: We Can Bring Help and Hope to Thousands!
April 27th - May 3rd at the Los Angeles Sports Arena
This spring, Remote Area Medical (RAM) will conduct its 601st free clinic and its second in Los Angeles. It will be the largest event of its kind ever. RAM/LA will bring medical, dental and vision care to thousands of individuals and families who desperately need it, absolutely free. No proof of insurance, no income test, no requirement of any kind, except to attend.
RAM/LA is, above all, a community effort. In this time of urgent healthcare challenge, it is Los Angeles coming together to help its own. Medical and non-medical personnel are volunteering their time; supplies and equipment are being donated; local agencies and organizations are generously providing their resources.
http://www.ramfreeclinic.org
________________________________________
• 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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