In This Issue:  | | • | OUTSIDE THE BOX | | | • | SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES OFFERS RESIGNATION, THEN CHANGES HIS MIND | | | • | LAUSD TARGETS BULLYING OF GAY STUDENTS + LAUSD FIGHTS ANTI-GAY BULLYING AT SCHOOLS | | | • | WHEN TWO RIGHTS DON'T CORRECT A WRONG | | | • | 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 very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings". - John F. Kennedy - ● "Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of. - Bill Moyers
Before reality was suspended it was obvious that this week's education news would be about two things:
1. The settlement of the ACLU lawsuit about "RIF"ing teachers based on seniority. and
2. The state budget.
THE SETTLEMENT WAS A NARROW DECISION - and despite the media hoopla and the UTLA overreaction - framed and distorted by the ongoing hype about "value-added assessments" and "merit pay" - and didn't really change anything outside LAUSD ...and certainly didn't really change The Shape of the World As We Know It. The court had ruled back on May 15 that state law hadn't been followed and that students' civil rights had been violated by 'last-hired/first-fired' lay-offs ...the settlement essentially is LAUSD promising to follow the law in the future. (What a concept!)
The curiosity (as in 'curiouser and curiouser') arises because the Board of Ed reached the settlement totally in secret/without public discussion.
California's open meeting law, The Brown Act, allows the Board of Ed to discuss pending legal action in closed session. The law permits - but does not mandate - such secret meetings. In this case, with the settlement preordained (and publicly endorsed by the superintendent, governor, board president and mayor - with even the UTLA prez saying that proper procedure hadn't been followed in the first place) nothing much was served by negotiating behind closed doors. Nothing except for the cause of secrecy itself. And, gentle readers: why be open, transparent and accountable when you don't have to be? Why go on the record when you don't have to? Teachers and Parents and Students and the Voters would have liked to have been in on the discussion. But we weren't. The doors were closed. Locked. There were armed guards between the Board and the public.
The teachers union claims they weren't invited to participate in the discussion. Public accounts and chat show interviews say otherwise. Someone's pants are on fire. | http://bit.ly/dfwjA9 / http://bit.ly/d9IROW
4LAKIds agrees with the board, the ACLU and all the rest - this was the right decision. But deciding it in the dark was the wrong way of going about it. Is this a hollow argument? Who cares as long as the right thing happened? Bell was apparently well run until we discovered otherwise ...we really didn't want to see that sausage made.
THE STATE BUDGET HAS ARRIVED IN MUCH THE SAME WAY, a train wreck-'round-the-bend, the signals red, the engineer twittering to his blog. In the governor's office with five guys in the room. Or maybe the tent. The Big Five aka the Gang of Five. Two democrats and three republicans - an interesting calculus when you realize the democrats are the majority party in California.
The Gang o' Five suspended Proposition 98 and agreed to sell long term capital assets to meet short term need. They 'increased' funding to education - but agreed to defer the increase to another time. They agreed to accept an improbable infusion of federal money the feds aren't offering and to spend imaginary increased revenue from the dreamed-of turnaround to pay very real debt. And (happy days are here again!) they gave tax breaks to the Fisher Family because - well - I guess the Fishers asked!
And once the ugly deal was done - and the Lege let in on it - the governor went back on his negotiated agreement with the lesser mortals of the Gang o' Five and cut programs for special education kids and families moving off of public assistance, etc. The reason why? he wants to set that money aside "to create a prudent reserve economic uncertainties." A rainy day fund. Fritz Coleman needs to call the governors office with a weather report. This IS the rainy day! And California is in denial - neither cleaning the rain gutters nor building an ark ...just pushing off the inevitable until the next term.
See today's LA Times: "Budget dodge delays the pain": http://lat.ms/9K2dBy
California's budget is a work of bad fiction. Good fiction is something that never happened but is true. Bad fiction isn't either/is neither. Maybe this situation is so negative it grammatically isn't neither. Maybe the Highway Patrol will discover the windfall of single drivers in the diamond lane at the 5 Freeway North on-ramp at Los Feliz. Maybe Wall Street bankers haven't learned the lesson they should've from recent events; maybe they’ll lend money to a state who pays its obligations with wishes, hopes and registered warrants. Maybe the Tooth Fairy will tide the Golden State over until Santa arrives ...the Easter Bunny can’t be far behind. Meg or Jerry'll save the day.
Forget Fritz, Bob Dylan said you don't don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.
This wind blows. And it blows ill.
ON THURSDAY LAUSD HOSTED A NATIONAL CONFERENCE AT MONROE HIGH SCHOOL to promote and roll out a gay-students-rights/anti-bullying (and by extension) AIDS education/anti-suicide program that is a national model.| http://bit.ly/cU3tRc / http://bit.ly/d9IROW
ON FRIDAY the Governor vetoed state funding for AIDS education. Kids are dying but we're saving money for a rainy day.
ALSO ON FRIDAY SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES QUIT - and then un-quit - when the Board of Ed challenged his plan to eliminate plant managers at elementary schools. The plan is - in my opinion - a bad one that jeopardizes the safety and health of kids. Cortines issue is - I believe - not the challenge but the fact that he wasn't consulted; if that's true he is correctly upset - but the plan is still an ill conceived one. The board's quick-fix resolution proposes to retain the plant managers with some of those federal dollars the feds aren't offering. The reality is that plant managers are critical employees and need to be factored into the districts budget without relying on the federal bailout. If someone is trying to make the point that teachers are somehow more important than plant managers they've never been at a school where the toilets have backed up.
Cortines on-again/off-again resignation opens the question of whether and when the Board of Ed intends to begin an executive search for the next superintendent ....or do they intend to to anoint the designated heir apparent from the Gates Foundation?
ON FRIDAY EVENING IN PASADENA THERE WAS A RETIREMENT RECEPTION FOR LACOE SUPERINTENDENT DARLINE ROBLES. The event was a Who's Who of Los Angeles and California educataors and the educationally focused+obsessed. Dr. Robles is joining the USC faculty to run a masters program for aspiring principals - and 4LAKids wishes her and all those aspirants all the best. It's not like Dr. Robles will settle for anything less.
Dr. Robles never waited for Superman; Darline has never waited or wasted a moment. She has been there - in her heels and pantyhose and sunshine smile - making a difference for kids, pushing the envelope and breaking through the ceiling for women, Latinas and children. When told by a man that a woman would never be superintendent she told her interlocutor that she would be his boss. And then she did.
¡Onward/Adelante! -smf
OUTSIDE THE BOX
by smf for 4LAKids
● "When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.
"But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland." - FCC chairman Newton N. Minow to the convention of the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961
10 October 2010 - Television has been seen as the death of education in the United States; it has been a playground in Minows' vast wasteland. Past tense/Passive voice. That was then, this is 10.10.10.
NEWS STORY: On Friday L.A. Public Television station KCET announced that it is leaving the PBS network [http://bit.ly/bvke5p]. This will leave only one PBS affiliate in the Los Angeles market: KLCS/Channel 58. The license for KLCS (KLCS stands for [L]os Angeles [C]ity [S]chools) is owned by LAUSD, the station is operated by LAUSD.
KLCS has four state-of-the-art digital broadcast television channels that broadcasts a confusing mix of PBS reruns, the BBC News, some educational programming, professional development for educataors, homework help and the meetings of the LAUSD Board of Education - plus a weekly chat show with the superintendent. It also produces some original programming, interviews with authors and rare programs for students and parents.
(I love the board meetings on KLCS - in my living room I can outshout and win every argument and debate-point with the board president ...but I'm (im)probably not representative of the greater audience!)
KLCS is a spectacularly underutilized/under-leveraged school district asset. LAUSD, communications-challenged, is missing its greatest opportunity to reach parents and students in the home. Every family doesn't have e-mail or internet access - or a newspaper subscription. Mail is expensive and phones problematic - but all/almost-all have a TV.
LAUSD has in KLCS four state-of-the-art digital broadcast television channels (the digital broadcast signal and image is superior to digital cable or satellite) - currently given to reruns of cooking and travel shows instead of being a dynamic tool for communication and education. The education of children, the education of parents, the education of teachers and educators. KLCS can be a tool for lifelong learning ...or a playground in Minow's wasteland.
With its four channels KLCS should offer for-credit educational programs and classes from pre-partum and preschool through K-12 to college credit courses; remedial to Advanced Placement.
KLCS should be broadcasting parent education programming and public information content for its its core constituency of students, parents and educataors.
The LA Times article that addresses the impending separation of KCET from the PBS network [http://lat.ms/9AtF0U] mentions a possible collaboration/consortium between KCET, KLCS and KCOE in the future - and this is in itself not bad thinking (though it doesn't seem to be getting any public discussion by the board of ed) . KLCS and LAUSD would be making a huge mistake in tying the station's future to the risky independence of KCET.
Nature and the airwaves abhor a vacuum; if KCET doesn't have the NewsHour and Nova and Masterpiece Theater and Sesame Street and the latest Kens Burns documentary KLCS should. 4 channels = 372 hours of programming a week. Some of that should be given over parents and students. Professional development that isn't reruns of HGT.
The Southwest Riverside News Network reports:
"In a statement to viewers posted on KOCE's web site, Mel Rogers said his Channel 50 will partner with Channel 24 in Riverside and the Los Angeles school district's Channel 58 to ensure that PBS shows now airing on KCET Channel 28 'will continue to be available, without interruption, throughout the L.A. television market.'
"The third public TV partner, KLCS, is owned and operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District, and its general manager told the trade journal Currents that the schools superintendent and LAUSD board are in favor of adding PBS programs to Channel 58. It currently programs educational and teaching shows during the day, with general-interest programming at night." | http://bit.ly/cXImDB
If there's going to be a consortium maybe it should be with LACE and the schools of education at US, UCLA, the local Cs Us and Ox and the Clairvoyant Colleges.
I know of what I speak. In another life I worked at KCET - and was also a client of the station, producing shows there.
IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a candidate for the board of education - these are my thoughts.
I believe these are discussions we - the big "we" - the "all-of-us" who are LAUSD - should be having. In public - that's why it's called public education. And public television. And to those of you who currently serve on the board - please don't wait for me!
My opponent is out raising money and endorsements from the politicians who got us into this mess. And from the billionaires and the charter operators who want to run public education with their private agendas.
I hope I'm out there raising some issues.
Happy birthday John; we still Imagine.
SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES OFFERS RESIGNATION, THEN CHANGES HIS MIND
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/dy3o4Y
Superintendent of Schools Ramon Cortines offered his resignation on Friday ... then withdrew it. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
10/08/2010 08:53:04 PM PDT - Upset over a policy disagreement with the school board, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines offered his resignation Friday, only to later be persuaded to stay on, according to several district officials.
Cortines, 78, had already planned to retire in spring, but sent an email around noon Friday to board members saying he would resign in December, according to several officials who saw the email.
"There was a letter, there was a misunderstanding, a lot of conversation and resolution but there is no resignation," said Monica Garcia, LAUSD board president.
"I'm completely confident...we are going to stay focused on the work. Kids are counting on us."
Cortines was frustrated with the school board over a resolution members planned to introduce next week to overrule a plan he had to eliminate school plant managers.
The plan would have reduced the number of plant managers – who oversee maintenance and facilities issues at schools – to deal with the severe budget cuts that have caused the shortening of the school year and increases in class sizes.
Rumors have already been circulating about Cortines leaving before his announced spring retirement date. The veteran educator has cut ties with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has tried in recent years to assert more control over the district.
Cortines did not respond to multiple requests for comment Friday.
Cortines was hired as Superintendent in December 2008, and has had to spend much of his tenure dealing with the district's massive budget shortfalls.
"Superintendents get mad, and he got upset but he's OK. ... He's fine ... he's staying," said board member Richard Vladovic, the primary author of the plant manager resolution.
LAUSD Deputy Superintendent John Deasy said he also asked Cortines to stay.
"I asked him to remember the fact that the team expects him to work with us until he retires in the spring so we can have a measured transition," Deasy said.
"Everybody occasionally overreacts. The reality is we have far bigger issues in front of us than one resolution."
L.A. SCHOOLS CHIEF THREATENS TO QUIT, THEN RESCINDS THREAT OVER PROPOSAL HE THINKS IS TOO COSTLY
-- Jason Song and Howard Blume | L.A. Times/LA Now Blog | http://lat.ms/9s623F
LAUSD TARGETS BULLYING OF GAY STUDENTS + LAUSD FIGHTS ANTI-GAY BULLYING AT SCHOOLS
CAMPAIGN: District aims to make environment at schools safer
By Connie Llanos – LA Daily News Staff Writer | http://bit.ly/cU3tRc
Updated: 10/07/2010 08:16:35 PM - In the wake of a recent string of gay teen suicides across the country, Los Angeles Unified officials joined forces with gay rights advocates Thursday to announce a targeted effort to eliminate bullying of homosexual youth at local schools.
Working with the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, district officials said they plan to launch an information campaign this month that will include handing out some 1,500 "Safe School Kits" to local secondary schools to create safer environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
"LAUSD has been a leader in the country in creating curriculum that addresses LGBT issues, we were the first district to adopt a textbook that discussed issues of gender orientation and sexual identity and we have over 100 gay/straight student clubs," said LAUSD board member Tamar Galatzan, speaking to students and gay rights advocates at Monroe High School in North Hills.
"Something as simple as letting students identify adults that they can trust and talk to at school can make a huge difference."
According to district officials, just under 8 percent of LAUSD's 600,000 students identify as gay, and 90 percent of those report being harassed daily at school.
Tim Kordic, an LAUSD advisor on health education programs, said it seems from anecdotal evidence that the harassment suffered by LGBT students in the district is also often more violent than any other student group. It also leads to more hospitalizations, while suicide rates for these students are triple that of other students.
"We have great schools that have great programs for students and yet, we still have these extreme issues happening at our school every single day," he said.
Jose Navarrete, a senior at Monroe and president of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance club, said he has been lucky to have supportive friends at his school, but many he knows have not had the same experience.
"Sadly I've heard about students getting harassed, verbally assaulted and a lot of other students simply don't come to school to avoid everything," Navarrete said.
GLSEN executive director Eliza Byard said despite the increased visibility of gay life and issues in popular culture, much of the discussion can be politicized and polarizing.
Providing more education and outreach to schools is crucial to ensuring students' success, Byard added.
"It is crucial for all students to feel supported and safe in their school environments not only for their safety but also for their academic achievement," she said.
GLSEN is donating "safe school kits" to local schools, which include stickers that teachers, counselors and administrators can place in their offices or classrooms, which label that space as a "safe" zone.
District officials will also hand out resources to teachers and administrators that they can connect students to, and tip sheets on how best to counsel students.
LAUSD FIGHTS ANTI-GAY BULLYING AT SCHOOLS
By Melissa MacBride | http://bit.ly/d9IROW
Thursday, October 07, 2010 - NORTH HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Unified School District has partnered with the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to launch a new program designed to help gay and lesbian youth deal with bullying because of their sexual orientation.
As part of the new Safe Space program, school teachers and staff members will receive kits to help them create a safe environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) students. The kit provides reading information on how young people can deal with on-campus bullying, cyber bullying, coming out, and homophobia.
"The key to student achievement and to student well being is knowing that they have the support and care of adults in their school community and they have somewhere to turn when they are in trouble," said Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN.
According to GLSEN, nine out of 10 LGBT youth are harassed at school because of their sexual orientation and four out of 10 students report that they have been physically harassed at schools. The group is hoping that this program will help reduce those kinds of statistics.
Anti-gay harassment is to blame for the recent suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi and three other young people in three recent weeks. Many celebrities are now lending their voices in hopes of changing a homophobic climate in schools nationwide.
Country singer Chely Wright, who came out to the public in May, is helping promote the Safe Space program now in place in L.A. and schools in Maine and New York.
"I am a happy, well-adjusted Christian woman with good family values but I am a lesbian. And this was important to me to make certain that young people who feel alone that they feel less alone," said Wright.
Students at James Monroe High School, where the program was launched Thursday, say in recent years gay and lesbian students and others who are perceived as being different are finding a greater acceptance amongst their peers.
"As students we all are there for each other in support. When we see something happening like that we always stand up for each other. And I think year by year as I have been here as a student, I've seen our support for each other just increase throughout the years," said student Yesenia Gutierrez.
"We now realize that there's no differences with one another and that we're all the same just of different thinking and points of view," said student Nirav Prajapati.
WHEN TWO RIGHTS DON'T CORRECT A WRONG
Themes in the News for the week of Oct. 4 - 8, 2010 By UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/adc1Tq
10-08-2010 -- For at least a century, Los Angeles has assigned inexperienced teachers to schools in the poorest neighborhoods. In 1928, a school district official said that an inexperienced teacher should be placed first in “the foreign, semi-foreign, or less convenient schools. After a few more years of satisfactory service, she may be placed in the more popular districts."* Los Angeles now is trying to correct this policy-driven disparity. But it will have to try harder.
Within the past two weeks, a negotiated settlement and a court ruling on separate education lawsuits have addressed school policies that exacerbate racial disparities. Each, taken in isolation, has the appearance of a civil rights victory; however, when taken together, they show that correcting complex and engrained school inequalities depends on much more than a couple of agreements or rulings.
First, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the state had been illegally designating interns as “highly qualified” teachers. Interns are teachers who lack full teaching credentials, but still have full responsibility for their students. The decision was a victory for civil-rights advocates because over 62 percent of interns taught in the poorest half of California schools.
Then, the Los Angeles Unified School District board reached a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. This settlement protects new teachers in some low-income and poor-performing schools from mass layoffs (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, KPCC, Educated Guess). Advocates also hailed this decision because teacher layoffs over the last two years have been concentrated in schools serving Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods. These schools had entered the recent period of budget retrenchment with the highest proportion of new teachers. Seniority rules dictated that the district lay off these teachers first. The high turnover in some schools caused by budget cuts meant students saw a revolving door of substitutes, leaving many further behind in their education.
At first glance, the combined decisions seem contradictory. One decision tries to keep low-income schools from being overloaded with new and inexperienced teachers. And another tries to retain newer teachers in order to create and maintain greater faculty stability.
The decisions are not contradictory, but incomplete. What’s missing is a coherent system of school policies that assigns an equitable mix of skilled, experienced teachers alongside more recent hires—generally younger teachers—who stay long enough to develop their professional craft and knowledge of local communities. “Any principal wants a mix of new and experienced teachers, you don’t want any schools skewed,” said IDEA Director John Rogers, adding that a set of measures to retain teachers would have allowed for these diverse campuses (Washington Post).
Overzealous news reports have said that the Los Angeles settlement could be applied throughout the country (Los Angeles Times, Educated Guess). However, the actual terms of the proposed settlement are unknown and must be approved. Also, LAUSD has unique teacher assignment rules; it is difficult for the district to transfer tenured teachers to other campuses without cause.
Fortunately, there are ways to achieve equitable teacher assignments without resorting to forced transfers of an aging teacher workforce. We know that teachers at all levels of experience are attracted to schools that have strong, inclusive leadership; allow time for planning, collaboration and skills development; provide adequate supplies and materials; and offer a professional salary.
By themselves, new rules governing teacher assignments will not correct a decades-long inability to properly staff schools in low-income neighborhoods. In the short run, enforcing new rules and procedures might be a way to manipulate a more balanced distribution of experienced teachers. But in the long run, maintaining diverse and highly competent faculties requires schools with attractive opportunities for effective learning and teaching.
*Gonzalez, Gilbert G. Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation. Santa Barbara, CA. Companion Press, 1990.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
THE POTENTIAL CURSE OF MONEY DEFERRED: Districts will feel pressure to spend what may soon vanish
By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/dl13Z9
Even in suspending Proposition 98, after hemming and hawing all night long, for only the second time, the Legislature approved Prop 98 spending of $1.2 billion more than Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed in May. And then lawmakers tacked on $3 billion on top of that.
That’s the good news. The bad news is how they did it, with $1.9 billion of the $3 billion ($1.7 billion for K-12, $200 million for community colleges) deferred until the next fiscal year. In the end, that may leave school districts worse off than before.
NYT: CHARTER EDUCATION EXPANDING IN CHICAGO: October 06, 2010 - The LEARN Charter School Network and the Noble Cha... http://bit.ly/bqOuzF
MAYOR LAUNCHES FIGHT ON TRUANCY (smf: Mayor Tony gets one right!): SCHOOLS: Program based on successes in San Fran... http://bit.ly/dmC41e
# SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES OFFERS RESIGNATION, THEN CHANGES HIS MIND: By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News ... http://bit.ly/cIR0Vy
PROTESTERS MARCH THROUGH DOWNTOWN L.A. ON NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: Laura Walsh, Braden Holly | Staff Reporters | Ne... http://bit.ly/dqEjEA
LOSING MILLIONS IN FUNDING, LAUSD LAUNCES ATTACK ON TRUANCY: Diana L. Chapman | MY TURN | CityWatch Vol 8 Issue 80... http://bit.ly/aDj4NB
LAUSD TARGETS BULLYING OF GAY STUDENTS + LAUSD FIGHTS ANTI-GAY BULLYING AT SCHOOLS: CAMPAIGN: District aims to mak... http://bit.ly/cnP3UU
LA MAYOR DISMISES TEACHERS UNION CHALLENGE TO SENIORITY CHANGE: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/atvbp1 ... http://bit.ly/b7EjjR
SCHOOL SPIRIT: “WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'." - Davis Guggenheim takes on the public-education system in a new documen... http://bit.ly/cIXD4B
Jill Stewart - A.J. DUFFY's WHOPPER: UTLA Says It Wasn't Invited To ACLU Talks Leading To Stunning Blow To Teacher... http://bit.ly/azsK4f
LA MAYOR SAYS REFORMS TO LAUSD WILL MOVE AHEAD: By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press Writer in the San Francisco... http://bit.ly/bHLRdR
TEACHERS UNION MAY FIGHT LAUSD SETTLEMENT + UTLA MAY SUE TO BLOCK LAYOFF CHANGE + L.A. SCHOOLS SEEK LAYOFF SYSTEM ... http://bit.ly/aMW6zU
UTLA Position Statement - ACLU OFFERS WRONG SOLUTIONS: “If necessary, UTLA will formally oppose the proposed settl... http://bit.ly/caFkN8
L.A. BOARD MOVES TO END TEACHER LAYOFFS AT STRUGGLING SCHOOLS: Corey G. Johnson - California WatchBlog | http://b... http://bit.ly/bRFuw3
PROP 98 TO BE SUSPENDED: “Details of the proposed budget plan are just now surfacing….: by smf - from a PTA e-mail... http://bit.ly/dnXd1H
Boring speeches/happy kids! Join smf today @ 10AM @ new school ribboncut: New Valley ES#9 6900 Calhoun Av @ Vanowen 8:00 AM Oct 6th
# Settlement: L.A. UNIFED TEACHERS WILL NO LONGER BE LAID OFF STRICTLY BASED ON SENIORITY + additional coverage: BY ... http://bit.ly/az7bjQ
No friend to education: GOVERNOR VETOES BILL REQUIRING SCHOOLS TO USE LEAST HAZARDOUS PESTICIDES: By Theresa Ha... http://bit.ly/dhnfUb CALIFORNIA STATE BUDGET DEAL HAS HOLES: Accord to be voted on Friday relies on $5 billion in federal money, $10 bi... http://bit.ly/cNSrsN
GOVERNOR SIGNS BILLS EASING TRANSFERS FROM JUNIOR COLLEGES TO CSU & UC: By Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer - LA Dail... http://bit.ly/d17zJP
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! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • 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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