Outrage, redux.

4LAKids: Sunday 30•Jan•2011 In This Issue: • L.A. SCHOOL OFFICER FAKED SHOOTING, LAPD SAYS • STRUGGLING BELMONT HIGH TO BE RESTRUCTURED + BLINDSIDED AT BELMONT • PRODUCER, STADIUM DEVELOPERS DONATE TO GROUP BACKING VILLARAIGOSA'S SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES: • U.S. SCHOOLS ARE STILL AHEAD—WAY AHEAD: US's alarm about international rankings of students overlooks some critical components of our education system • A CLOSER LOOK AT DENVER SCHOOL PRAISED BY OBAMA IN STATE OF THE NATION + HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404 • PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website • 4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved! • 4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. If last weeks 4LAKids asked the question "Where’s the outrage?" - there was outrageous conduct enough this past week to answer the question again and again. I: Saving the worst 'til last: FIRST WE HAVE THE SCHOOL POLICE SHOOTING/LOCKDOWN/HOAX/UNREALITY TV. UNRAVELING (see L.A. SCHOOL OFFICER FAKED SHOOTING: below ) My just turned twenty-year-old daughter and my one-year-shy of nonagenarian mother asked the same question on the same day: "Why would anyone do such a thing?" And so ask we all, betwixt+between. I'm afraid Andy Warhol's guaranteed fifteen minutes of fame has met reality TV and the endless news cycle and our attention spans that shorten with the velocity of Moore's Law. I'm going to put on my Writers Guild T-shirt and give you my easy answer: Just because it's unscripted doesn't mean it's real. THE LOS ANGELES SCHOOL POLICE are a vital part of the District's mission to keep children safe at-and-around schools - but the budgeteers+bean-counters have no respect for vitality and and little for safety: "Show me the safety part of API+AYP scores." The Supe(s) and the Board have egg on their faces and will not look favorably upon the school police the next time their budget is up for rightsizing. Bob Dylan tells us "A lot of people don't have much food on their table. But they got a lot of forks 'n knives. And they got to cut somethin'." Mayor Tony would love to absorb the school police into the LAPD, especially if he could bill LAUSD for the service. II. WELCOME TO THE POST-CORTINES ERA. At Superintendent Cortines' first State o' th' Schools Address two yaers back he chose Belmont High School as the setting: Rebuilt/refurbished and educationally re-energized; Belmont was a school of excellent potential and a poster child for his administration and program of reform. On Wednesday a questionable+questioned decision was reached - not by Cortines but by the Local District Superintendent - to take the school over and "restructure" it - firing and replacing the staff. (see STRUGGLING BELMONT HIGH TO BE RESTRUCTURED + BLINDSIDED AT BELMONT) Local District 4 Superintendent Dale Vigil has already been publicly accused of responding to politics-over-reality in his handling of High School #9/The High School for the Visual and Performing Arts in the name of politics [http://bit.ly/hALm23]...could this be more of the same? III. CURRENT EVENTS IN TUNISIA AND EGYPT DEMONSTRATE THE POWER AND COMPLICATION AND IMPERFECTION OF DEMOCRACY; it may be beautiful but it ain't petty! And it can be ugly. This is proven out by the Public School Choice elections/advisory votes/beauty contests this week. In most places the first parent/student/staff/community vote was on Monday and the second chance to vote was on Saturday. And apparently on Wednesday or Thursday the District changed (or "clarified") the qualifications for who can vote - in essence permitting proponents to bus-in voters from across town. (see: HUNDREDS VOTE ON TAYLOR YARDS HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIES:http://bit.ly/fzhW77 + NORTHEAST L.A. HIGH SCHOOL BRINGS EXCITEMENT http://bit.ly/fJjOHp + Chaos 0r Success?: ELIGIBILITY LOOPHOLE TIGHTENED http://bit.ly/gHFLQe + FIRST HAND REPORT - http://bit.ly/hjjr7n- and notice how my attitude changed as the winds of change blew every-which-way but fair!) IV: THE BEST SCHOOL BOARD (DEVELOPERS') MONEY CAN BUY (see: DEVELOPERS DONATE TO GROUP BACKING VILLARAIGOSA'S SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES: below ) Sometimes reading between the lines is so easy one wonders where the depth of deception is? Are we all that easily hoodwinked by the political shenanigans practiced by LA politicos and developers? a: Read the article above. b: Remember that the (Mayor's) Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is bankrolled and funded by developers Melanie & Richard Lundquist and their $50 million gift. | http://lat.ms/hWH2qP c. Remember developer Richard Muerelo? "Downtown/s largest landowner" - who bankrolled Mayor Tony's 2005 election campaign for mayor? - and the rather shady dealings when Muerelo bought the Taylor Yards High School property out from under LAUSD and made a huge profit when LAUSD had to sue to take the property by eminent domain? - How he illegally dumped toxic waste on the property from another development he had going - and how he leveraged all this with borrowed CalPers (teacher's) pension money? I remember how Antonio Villaraigosa promised me personally on May 17, 2005 that he would intervene ...and then obviously didn't.(see http://bit.ly/fXWRnd) Google Richard Muerelo [http://bit.ly/gjRW7O] - it's like picking up a rock and finding out what's under it. Though maybe that analogy gives creepy-crawly things a bad name. IV (B) PATT MORISON IS DOING HER TWO HOUR RADIO SHOW TOMORROW AFTERNOON (KPCC 89.3 | Monday Jan 31 1-3 PM) on two subjects | http://bit.ly/ffxcgU: a: NEW DIRECTIONS IN EDUCATIONAL REFORM: No Child Left Behind vs. Every Child Counts. b: WHETHER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES ARE IMPORTANT JOB ENGINES? ...OR POLITICAL PATRONAGE PLUMS FOR DEVELOPERS AND LOCAL POLITICOS? Maybe someone should call in [Call-in number: 1-866-893-KPCC (1-866-893-5722)] and tie the two together: Could Mayor Tony's interest in School Reform and LAUSD really be a way to get his hands on the the school building and modernization program - a 'redevelopment" plum with $6 Billion plus still to be spent? Or perhaps, misspent?Ya think? He apparently has done this at the community college district. (In fairness - not to Tony but to you the reader - the forgoing complaint is a current subject of litigation.) ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf L.A. SCHOOL OFFICER FAKED SHOOTING, LAPD SAYS THE REPORT OF AN OFFICER SHOT BY AN ATTACKER FORCED A LOCKDOWN OF NINE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY CAMPUSES LAST WEEK. By Joel Rubin and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/dRjezd January 28, 2011 - A Los Angeles school police officer who said he was shot by an attacker last week, prompting a manhunt that shut down a large swath of Woodland Hills, has been arrested on suspicion of concocting the story, authorities said Thursday night. The startling revelation came at a hastily called news conference by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said detectives became suspicious about the officer's story as they investigated the case. A terse Beck said Los Angeles School Police Department Officer Jeff Stenroos had been booked on a felony charge of filing a false police report. He declined to elaborate further on the case, which the head of the Los Angeles Police Protective League called an "embarrassment to law enforcement." Police had said Stenroos was shot in the chest Jan. 19 after he confronted a man who was attempting to break into vehicles near the eastern boundary of the El Camino Real High School campus. Stenroos' bulletproof vest absorbed the impact of a single gunshot, which Los Angeles Police Department officials said could easily have killed the officer. The incident sparked a massive police response that inconvenienced thousands of people for the day as officers blocked roads, locked down schools and refused to let people in or out of a 7-square-mile area. Authorities arrested Stenroos after he allegedly admitted to fabricating the story, a senior LAPD official close to the investigation told The Times. The official said investigators were still piecing together how Stenroos had pulled off the hoax. But the source added that Stenroos' protective vest showed obvious signs of having been struck by the bullet. Stenroos suffered bruising to his chest, raising questions for detectives about whether the officer shot himself accidentally and then fabricated a story or concocted the whole scenario. The source declined to say whether additional arrests would be made in the case. "Obviously it's as shocking to us as it is to anyone else," Steven Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles School Police Department, said late Thursday. Zipperman, a former LAPD captain, said his department was cooperating fully with the investigation. Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Stenroos was a "disgrace." "The law enforcement community is disgusted," Weber said in a statement. "While Mr. Stenroos is a disgrace to the badge, his individual and dangerous actions should not reflect on the hard-working men and women in law enforcement." More than 300 officers swarmed the west San Fernando Valley in search of a gunman, locking down nine schools and setting up a dragnet as they looked for a suspect described as a white man in his 40s, wearing a bomber or black-hooded jacket and blue jeans. Although many in the community expressed frustration and anger at the inconvenience caused by the size and length of the operation, LAPD officials defended the decision as necessary to protect the public from a suspect who was believed to have shot an armed officer. They noted that the incident was especially serious because it involved an attack against a fellow law enforcement officer. Stenroos said he was knocked back and hit his head. Coast Guard Auxiliary member Michael Brodey found Stenroos and immediately summoned help using the officer's police radio while providing aid. Brodey did not report seeing a gunman. Authorities offered a $100,000 reward for information in the case and even distributed a composite of the suspected gunman. STRUGGLING BELMONT HIGH TO BE RESTRUCTURED + BLINDSIDED AT BELMONT MOST EMPLOYEES WILL HAVE TO REAPPLY FOR THEIR JOBS AND AGREE TO A CURRICULUM IN WHICH THE SCHOOL'S NEARLY 1,300 STUDENTS WILL BE TAUGHT IN ENGLISH, SPANISH AND MANDARIN. By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/dPW0Cg January 27, 2011 - Los Angeles school district officials announced Wednesday that Belmont High School will be restructured and most employees will have to reapply for their jobs and agree to a curriculum in which students will be taught in English, Spanish and Mandarin. The move marks the third time recently that officials have taken such measures using federal guidelines allowing districts to revamp struggling campuses. Belmont has improved almost 100 points on the Academic Performance Index over the last two years, which uses students' standardized test scores. Although its latest score of 639 is still poor, outgoing Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has publicly praised the campus several times. The two other campuses that were restructured, John C. Fremont and Jordan high schools, showed much less progress than Belmont before teachers, administrators and staff were made to reapply for their jobs. But Dale Vigil, the local superintendent who oversees Belmont near downtown, said he made the decision to overhaul the nearly 1,300-student school because a small percentage of students score at grade level or above in English and math on standardized tests and a low percentage graduate in four years. Last year, 9% of students tested at grade level or above in math and 25% reached the same levels in English. Both figures were below district averages. "If you go deep in the data, you can see there is room for improvement," Vigil said. Vigil blamed the school's curriculum for the academic problems — not the instructors. "I'm hoping 100% of the teachers come back," he said. Vigil said the school would switch to a system in which students will do more long-term projects and also will be able to take classes in English, Spanish and Mandarin. (Teachers will need to be certified to teach in those languages.) Belmont serves a student body that is almost 90% Latino. It also serves parts of Chinatown. Cortines pushed for Fremont and Jordan to be restructured, but played little role in deciding to change Belmont. "I have his support [but] it was my idea," Vigil said. Teachers union leaders said they were caught by surprise by the decision. Many teachers are "intrigued" by the concept but thought it would have been more effective if Vigil or other officials had discussed the plan with them or done something less drastic than restructuring, said Gregg Solkovits, a vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles. "We would have been happy to participate in the discussions," he said. Teachers and administrators who do not reapply or are not chosen to return are guaranteed a job elsewhere in the district. The non-classroom staff at Belmont will not have to reapply for their positions. __________________________________ BLINDSIDED AT BELMONT: LA Times: “…that's why the restructuring of Belmont High School is such a befuddling decision even for the inconsistent Los Angeles Unified School District” posted by smf to 4LAKids/quoting google news Saturday, January 29, 2011 9:23 AM - An LA Times editorial cited on Google News from ‎15 hours ago‎ (6PM Friday) critical of LAUSD http://lat.ms/idmHuS : has been pulled from the Times website and doesn't appear in the Times print or online edition. What’s with that? PRODUCER, STADIUM DEVELOPERS DONATE TO GROUP BACKING VILLARAIGOSA'S SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES: STEPHEN BING AND ANSCHUTZ CORP., WHOSE SISTER FIRM WANTS TO BUILD A FOOTBALL STADIUM IN DOWNTOWN L.A., JOIN FAMILIAR NAMES IN THE FUNDRAISING WARS OVER SCHOOL REFORM. By Maeve Reston and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/gNBBUM January 29, 2011 - Developers seeking city approval to build a football stadium downtown as well as Democratic financier and producer Stephen Bing were among the major contributors to a committee set up to support Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's favored candidates for the Los Angeles Board of Education, new filings show. Bing and the Anschutz Corp. joined familiar names in the fundraising wars over school reform, including philanthropist Eli Broad ($150,000), former Mayor Richard Riordan ($25,000) and Spanish-language media executive Jerry Perenchio ($250,000). All told, the informal Villaraigosa slate — he is actively raising money for three candidates but has yet to endorse them officially — has collected more than $1 million on behalf of Tamar Galatzan, Luis Sanchez and Richard Vladovic. Villaraigosa's drive to maintain control of the school board is expected to take center stage March 8, when four of seven board seats will be on the ballot. In a recent speech, Villaraigosa branded the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, an obstacle to reform. The mayor began raising money about a month ago, seeking donations from as far afield as New York and Chicago, an aide said. "He's supporting the Coalition for School Reform because it is supporting the candidates who are fighting the downtown bureaucracy," said Janelle Erickson, deputy chief of staff to Villaraigosa. She praised the mayor's favored candidates for "bringing new leadership to our failing schools." The union's long-rumored money play has yet to appear in forms filed with the city. The union reported $64,503 in contributions to its political action committee from Jan. 1 to Jan. 22. Rules, approved in 2007, for funding Los Angeles school board races have pushed money away from candidates and into independent committees. Under these rules, donors can give no more than $1,000 to candidates. Deep-pocketed contributors instead are giving to committees that are supposed to operate without any coordination or control by those running for office. Villaraigosa, as an elected city officeholder, cannot control such committees. Some of the largesse may relate to issues before the city. The Anschutz Corp. donated $100,000 to the Coalition for School Reform. Its sister company AEG has a plan before the city for a privately financed $1-billion stadium next to Staples Center. "Our education system is a mess and Phil [Anschutz] wants to help" said Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of AEG. Leiweke said the mayor spoke directly with Anschutz, the corporation's chairman. Four other entities that contributed a total of $100,000 to the Coalition for School Reform — AP Properties Ltd., APDS1 Properties LLC, 78 Development LLC and the Constellation Land Ltd. Partnership — listed the same Chicago-based address as JMB Realty Corp., a major landlord and developer in Century City. City records list JMB Realty as being affiliated with AP Properties. Several years ago, Villaraigosa's appointees on the Planning Commission approved JMB's proposal for two 47-story condominium buildings in Century City. The project has not yet been built. JMB officials could not be reached for comment. All of the donors to the Coalition for School Reform support the efforts of Villaraigosa to keep the board majority that took office four years ago. The board has fired a superintendent and hired two new ones since, while approving a raft of sometimes controversial reforms. One-term incumbents Galatzan, in District 3, and Vladovic, in District 7, have raised $36,346 and $63,101 on their own, respectively. And Sanchez, who is running for the District 5 seat that Yolie Flores is vacating, has raised $85,483. Service Employees International Union Local 99 recently formed two committees to support challenger Eric Lee and incumbent Vladovic. Lee is running against two-term incumbent Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte in District 1. Her best hope lies with the teachers union, and it wants to keep her. LaMotte has reported raising $11,600 to Lee's $9,993. A separate committee has formed to support Lee; its report was not available Friday. The teachers union has also endorsed Vladovic challenger Jesus Escandon, who has raised $1,662. And the union has endorsed John Fernandez, who reported that he hasn't raised any money, over Sanchez. The union hasn't endorsed in District 3, where Galatzan faces Louis Pugliese, who has raised $5,250. U.S. SCHOOLS ARE STILL AHEAD—WAY AHEAD: US's alarm about international rankings of students overlooks some critical components of our education system By Vivek Wadhwa | Bloomberg BusinessWeek | http://bit.ly/fGyHK9 January 12, 2011 - America has an inferiority complex about its education system. You hear the sirens every year, when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Program for International Student Assessment (OECD-PISA) releases its annual test results. Finland, South Korea, and Singapore usually come out on top; we start blaming our K-12 teachers for not teaching enough mathematics and science; we begin worrying about the millions of engineers and scientists China and India graduate. This year the big surprise was that Shanghai garnered first place in the PISA rankings. Then The Wall Street Journal ran a story on the home page of its website titled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior." The Journal article claimed that Chinese (and Korean, Indian, etc.) parents raise "stereotypically successful kids"—math whizzes and music prodigies. They do this by not allowing their children to attend sleepovers; have a playdate; be in a school play; complain about not being in a school play; watch TV or play computer games; choose their own extracurricular activities; get any grade less than an A; not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama. The article went on to recount as typical a series of acts that would be considered child abuse in the U.S. (and aren't the norm in India and China). The Journal article was simply bizarre, yet it is true that education in China and India is very challenging and fiercely competitive. Children are brought up to believe that education is everything, that it will make the difference between success and starvation. So from their early years they work long and hard. Most of their childhood is spent memorizing books on advanced subjects. American Stereotypes Meanwhile, the perception is that American children live a relatively easy life and coast their way through school. They don't do any more homework than they have to; they spend an extraordinary amount of time playing games, socializing on the Internet, text-messaging each other; they work part time to pay for their schooling and social habits. And they party. A lot. These stereotypes worry many Americans. They believe the American education system puts the country at a great disadvantage. But this is far from true. The independence and social skills American children develop give them a huge advantage when they join the workforce. They learn to experiment, challenge norms, and take risks. They can think for themselves, and they can innovate. This is why America remains the world leader in innovation; why Chinese and Indians invest their life savings to send their children to expensive U.S. schools when they can. India and China are changing, and as the next generations of students become like American ones, they too are beginning to innovate. So far, their education systems have held them back. My research team at Duke looked in depth at the engineering education of China and India. We documented that these countries now graduate four to seven times as many engineers as does the U.S.The quality of these engineers, however, is so poor that most are not fit to work as engineers; their system of rote learning handicaps those who do get jobs, so it takes two to three years for them to achieve the same productivity as fresh American graduates.As a result, significant proportions of China's engineering graduates end up working on factory floors and Indian industry has to spend large sums of money retraining its employees. After four or five years in the workforce, Indians do become innovative and produce, overall, at the same quality as Americans, but they lose a valuable two to three years in their retraining. Rankings Reconsidered And then there is the matter of the PISA rankings that supposedly show the U.S. trailing the rest of the world. Hal Salzman, a professor at Rutgers' John J. Heidrich Center for Workforce Development, debunked myths about these in a May 2008 article in Nature magazine. Salzman noted that international tests use different sampling criteria from country to country, so we're not always comparing apples to apples. As well, the tests compare select populations of small countries such as Singapore and Finland, which each have about 5 million people, with the U.S., which has 310 million. These countries achieve the top rankings on the PISA list. Compare these countries to similar-sized U.S. states, however, and you find that some of those states, including Massachusetts (population 6.5 million), produce the top students. Additionally, we're comparing America's diverse population—which includes disadvantaged minorities and unskilled immigrants with little education—with the homogeneous populations of countries like Finland, Japan, and New Zealand. Much is made of the PISA test scores and rankings, but the international differences are actually quite small. Most of the U.S. ranking lags are not even statistically significant. The U.S. falls in the second rank on some measures and into the first on others. It produces more highest-performing students in science and reading than any other country does; in mathematics, it is second only to Japan. Moreover, one has to ask what the test results actually mean in the real world. Do high PISA rankings make students more likely to invent the next iPad? Google (GOOG)? I don't think so. Let's keep improving our education system and focus, in particular, on disadvantaged groups. Education is the future of our nation. But let's get over our inferiority complex. America is second to none. Rather than in mastery of facts learned by rote and great numbers of accomplished martinets, its strength lies in the diversity and innovation that arise in an open, creative society. ● Dr. Wadhwa is a visiting scholar at University of California-Berkeley, senior research associate at Harvard Law School, and director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on twitter—@vwadhwa . A CLOSER LOOK AT DENVER SCHOOL PRAISED BY OBAMA IN STATE OF THE NATION + HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT A CLOSER LOOK AT DENVER SCHOOL PRAISED BY OBAMA IN STATE OF THE UNION by Larry Abramson | NPR All Things Considered | http://n.pr/hDxdkc Listen to the Story: [3 min 31 sec] January 26, 2011 - President Obama gave a shout-out in his State of the Union address to Bruce Randolph High School, a Denver public school in a tough neighborhood that last year graduated 97 percent of its seniors. Bruce Randolph was Denver's first "innovation" school. It was taken over by its principal and teachers a few years ago. But a more complete picture of the school is a little less glowing than the president let on. TRANSCRIPT MICHELE NORRIS, host: It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris. MELISSA BLOCK, host: And I'm Melissa Block. In his State of the Union Address last night, President Obama stressed the importance of education in keeping America competitive and he praised the turnaround effort at one Denver high school. President BARACK OBAMA: Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado, located on turf between two rival gangs. But last May, 97 percent of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first in their families to go to college. BLOCK: As NPR's Larry Abramson reports, the makeover of the Bruce Randolph school is still a work in progress. LARRY ABRAMSON: Just a few years ago, Bruce Randolph Middle School really was one of the worst schools in Colorado. But an ambitious turnaround effort has completely changed the atmosphere. Today, the school has a combined middle and high school focused on getting kids into college. The halls are lined with college banners and awards for academic achievement. The current principal, Cesar Cedillo, says it's been a tough fight. Mr. CESAR CEDILLO (Principal, Bruce Randolph High School): It was incredible difficult work. Students were very reluctant to learn. And so we battled with the students. And we stuck together as a staff and we won out. ABRAMSON: In the speech, the president recounted an incident where a student thanked the previous principal for showing that we are smart and we can make it. Eleventh grader Nomi Rodriguez(ph) says students have a unique and frank relationship with their teachers. Ms. NOMI RODRIGUEZ: The teachers know how to receive feedback from the students. And, you know, it's not feedback that actually puts down the teacher. It makes the teacher become better at their job. ABRAMSON: But the experience of this school highlights just how complicated and fragile these turnaround efforts can be. The transformation hinged on giving the staff of Bruce Randolph more autonomy from the central administration of the Denver city schools. So the president's remarks are a bit of a swipe at big city school systems. Van Schoales, executive director of the think tank Education Reform Now, points out that Bruce Randolph also got a break from the city's teacher's union contract. Mr. VAN SCHOALES (Executive Director, Education Reform Now): It's certainly a dig at hundred-page contracts that describe every detail in terms of when teachers are supposed to show up, when they're supposed to take their breaks. ABRAMSON: The Obama administration has frequently butted heads with teachers unions on these kinds of issues, and there will be more fights ahead. For all of its success, the Bruce Randolph school still bears the scars of its rough beginnings. The city still has the school on an academic watch list. While test scores are improving, they are still very low. Mike Cohen is head of the advocacy group Achieve, Inc. He says that if Bruce Randolph is graduating 97 percent of its college seniors, that's laudable. But he says we need to know another number. Mr. MIKE COHEN (President, Achieve, Inc.): Not just the percentage of 12th graders who graduate, but the percentage of 9th graders. Because a lot of students who drop out, drop out before they get to their senior year. ABRAMSON: Like many schools, Bruce Randolph can't say just how many freshmen made it all the way through to graduation, since many transferred to other schools. Many of the school's graduates have been accepted to college. Some, as the president pointed out, may be the first in their families to do so. But most have been accepted to open admission schools, like a community college. Those schools traditionally have very low graduation rates. So, many of these students will need a lot of special attention for years to come or their experience in college could be short-lived. Larry Abramson, NPR News. ___________________________ 1. ALL CHILDREN MUST “WIN THE FUTURE”: Themes in the News for the week of Jan. 24-28, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bi... http://bit.ly/eRsJqN 2. FIRST-HAND REPORT FROM THE HS#13/TAYLOR YARDS PSC ELECTION: by smf for 4LAKidsNews School buses from across the... http://bit.ly/hjjr7n 3. BLINDSIDED AT BELMONT: LA Times: “…that's why the restructuring of Belmont High School is such a befuddling deci... http://bit.ly/gPnCe1 4. L.A. UNIFIED GETS PRAISE FOR AUTHORIZING, OVERSEEING CHARTER SCHOOLS: by Howard Blume | LA Times/LA Now | http:/... http://bit.ly/fDneFu 5. NEW SUPERINTENDENT OR JUST AN ATTENDANT: Carson High School Trailblazer Staff Editorial (student newspaper from ... http://bit.ly/icXkPk 6. Chaos 0r Success?: ELIGIBILITY LOOPHOLE TIGHTENED FOR ROUND TWO OF PSC VOTING + ●●smf 2¢: by Gloria Angelina Cas... http://bit.ly/gHFLQe 7. NORTHEAST L.A. HIGH SCHOOL BRINGS EXCITEMENT, UNCERTAINTY: Last chance advisory vote for ‘Taylor Yard’ high scho... http://bit.ly/fJjOHp 8. OFFICER'S STORY OF BEING SHOT WAS INCONSISTENT FROM THE BEGINNING, CHIEF BECK SAYS: -- Richard Winton, Joel Rubi... http://bit.ly/eaEinY 9. L.A. CATHOLIC SCHOOLS TO ADD 20 DAYS TO ACADEMIC YEAR: The switch to a 200-day calendar will give campuses run b... http://bit.ly/hyHG7C 10. ‘PARENT TRIGGER’ SCHOOLS PROCESS CHALLENGED IN COMPTON + smf’s 2¢: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/hK... http://bit.ly/fodguy 11. L.A. SCHOOL OFFICER FAKED SHOOTING, LAPD SAYS - The report of an officer shot by an attacker forced a lockdown o... http://bit.ly/fGV0Qz 12. California Alliance for Arts Education: STATE ARTS ED POLICY ISSUES BRIEF: California Alliance legislative updat... http://bit.ly/ftihNS 13. EL CAMINO REAL HIGH, HALE MIDDLE SCHOOL BRIEFLY ON LOCKDOWN (again), MAN WITH GUN REPORTEDLY SEEN ON CAMPUS: And... http://bit.ly/g1hpVs 14. LAUSD OKs $531 MILLION CONSTRUCTION PLAN: By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/hAg48W ... http://bit.ly/g7NYXL 15. SUSPECT ADVISORY VOTE IS TARNISHING EFFORT TO REFORM LAUSD CAMPUSES: LA Daily News Editorial| http://bit.ly/gX19... http://bit.ly/dSh2Bg 16. PARENTS CROSS LINES TO GET KIDS INTO GOOD SCHOOLS …and go to jail!: NPR Talk of the Nation | January 26, 2011 | ... http://bit.ly/dOoIyz 17.UPDATE: The California 2011-12 Budget Process Begins + Notice of Budget Hearing in Los Angeles on Governor’s Rea... http://bit.ly/gIzR6C 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 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 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. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

Outrage

4LAKids: Sunday 23•Jan•2011 In This Issue: • BIG SETBACK IN ROBLES-WONG LAWSUIT: Judge rejects constitutional claim for adequate funding • GOV. BROWN CALLS EDUCATION FUNDING A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE • TEACHERS NO LONGER SAFE IN SENIORITY + UTLA STATEMENT + smf 2¢ • PARENTS IRATE OVER LAUSD LOCKDOWNS: Police and school officials trade blame over the lack of services for students during search for suspect • 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: • Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404 • PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website • 4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved! • 4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. LAUSD has only one high school that doesn't qualify as a "Title One School" - only one school where the percentage of students on the Free-or-Reduced Lunch Program doesn't qualify it for additional funding to improve the achievement of at-risk children of low socioeconomic means. Ironically it's the Department of Agriculture that runs the school meals program and thereby makes the determination which inner city schools get extra aid ...not the Dept of Education. The bad news is that non-Title I schools get no federal subsidy for their programs. The good news is that they are not subject to the carrots-and-sticks/test-and-kill of No Child Left Behind. If non-Title-I schools' test scores go into the dumpster the feds don't complain, the state can't pull the parent trigger and the district can't invite in the outside operators. That one high school - that island of middle-class affluence in a sea of economic need - is El Camino Real in Woodland Hills. El Camino Real normally makes it onto the news because they are perennial national Academic Decathlon champs. And because test scores don't matter - they soar. Wednesday ECRHS made the news when a school police officer got shot adjacent to campus. The school was locked down, the community was barricaded, the adjacent middle school and six elementary schools were similarly locked down. 350 police officers responded along with all the police and city officials and school district brass and every piece of police equipment in the inventory. The news helicopters and the law enforcement helicopters filled the air and reporters filled the airwaves - interviewing every pedestrian in Woodland Hills. It was triumph of feel-good journalism. "The lucky policeman" was saved by his bulletproof vest and went home that evening. Later the same day an actual student was shot in Bell, adjacent to Bell High School. I realize all the cops and LAUSD bigwigs and news units were 37 miles away - but that story with an actual student shot and wounded was pretty much an non-event - newswise. The adventures in Woodland Hills and Bell followed the accidental shootings of two kids the day before at Gardena High School; on Friday there was a gun observed on campus and a lockdown at South Gate High School. The gun was confiscated and arrests were made at South Gate. The story rated X ho-hum words in The Times. IF WE DECONSTRUCT THE EVENTS ABOVE it's hard to miss the reaction from the media and the powers-that-be to events in Woodland Hills compared to the events in Gardena, Bell and South Gate. Admittedly Gardena, Bell and South Gate are not parts of the City of Los Angeles - but we also need to admit that we the population of Greater Los Angeles is accustomed to gun play in those communities ...and not used to it in Woodland Hills. El Camino HS's API is: 798 Gardena HS's API is: 586 Bell HS API is: 671 South Gate HS's API is: 649 We are in a Twilight Zone; there's a signpost up ahead. We are at the intersection of Acceptable and Exceptional. And if we accept it - accept that the gun violence around us is tolerable in one zip code and not in another we all lose ...no matter where we live. I am not questioning the official reactions - I am questioning the community outrage and lack thereof. Woodland Hills doesn't want to be a community where children are endangered going to-and-from ...or-at-school. But neither do Bell or South Gate or Gardena - or any other neighborhood in any city, anywhere from Tehran to Temecula. I'm going to ask you to revisit Steve Lopez' article about Monte Vista Elementary School, Surge in Highland Park violence terrifies students: "Gina Amodeo shouted "Pancake!" and her second-grade students knew exactly what to do. They immediately dropped to the floor and flattened out, minimizing the chance of getting shot." [http://lat.ms/fP1IdF] Consider the story of the grandfather whose past caught up with him on the front lawn of Aragon Elementary School at pickup time one afternoon: "A car full of youths approached him as he walked ... to pick up his daughter. Without a word, they shot him 17 times as he carried his 2-year-old granddaughter. Only a chain-link fence separated the shooting scene from kindergartners at play."[http://lat.ms/hNKASf] Yes, the grandfather apparently had-been and maybe-still-was was a gangster - but they pulled bullets out of the ceiling of a second grade classroom that day; a classroom occupied by kids when the shooting started. Those are old stories, old news. But we are long past the point of Enough-is-Enough. Unless we are willing to accept a body count after the API Scores. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf PS: I am going to suggest that the metal detectors used on occasional Tuesdays at LAUSD HQ to screen the audience at school board meetings might be put to use more effectively elsewhere. BIG SETBACK IN ROBLES-WONG LAWSUIT: Judge rejects constitutional claim for adequate funding By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/gStIjI 1/21/11 • An Alameda County Superior Court judge has rejected the main claims in two lawsuits charging that the state’s “insufficient, irrational and unstable” school funding system violated children’s fundamental right to an education. The ruling substantially restricts whether and how the case might go to trial. It is a setback to a coalition of powerful education groups – the California School Boards Association, the California Teachers Association, the state PTA, and the Association of California School Administrators – and attorneys for disadvantaged children. They had hoped the court would order the Legislature to adequately fund and reform how the state finances K-12 schools. Instead, Judge Steven Brick ruled that the two articles in the state Constitution requiring state-supported education don’t require setting funding at any particular level. He also wrote that there is no equal protection right in the state Constitution for students harmed by inadequate funding, “however devastating the effects of such underfunding have been on the quality of public school education.” It is the Legislature’s and the people’s prerogative to determine what’s adequate. Brick did leave open the possibility that attorneys in the two combined lawsuits – Robles-Wong v. California and Campaign for Quality Education v. California – could move forward with a narrower focus, and set a Feb. 14 deadline for filing an amended lawsuit. Its focus should be, he indicated, whether the state’s current funding provides an equal opportunity to meet success as defined by the state’s learning standards. This would not be an adequacy case, whether there is sufficient funding, but instead an equity case – whether current funding is fairly and sensibly distributed to all students, especially disadvantaged children in under-resourced schools, in ways that meet the state’s education goals. Bill Koski, a Stanford Law School professor who represented low-income students in Robles-Wong, said Friday that attorneys were disappointed “that the Court dismissed the children’s claim that the current irrational and insufficient school finance system has failed to deliver to our children that qualitative right to an education.” Attorneys were reviewing their options: whether to amend or to appeal. “We will continue to vigorously challenge the State’s finance system on the grounds that it fails to deliver an equitable and sufficient education to our children,” he said in a statement. Plaintiffs’ attorneys had argued that the basis for requiring sufficient funding can be found in Article IX of the Constitution, which required the Legislature to establish a “system of common schools” and to promote “intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural” knowledge. Another article, adopted later, said that the Legislature should first set aside money for public schools and universities. But Brick said that the state Supreme Court already had examined and dismissed that argument. The case was the famous 1976 equity case, Serrano v. Priest, in which the court declared that a funding system based on property taxes was inequitable and unconstitutional. “The seminal decision of the Supreme Court in Serrano considered and rejected the argument that section 5 of article IX included any particular financing requirement,” Brick wrote. Brick actually issued his ruling on Jan. 14, before the three-day holiday weekend. The plaintiffs’ lawyers did not announce the ruling, expecting that the Attorney General’s office would. After a week went by, they passed on the word. The Attorney General’s office still had nothing to say about the case as of Friday (which I find strange), and State Board of Education President Michael Kirst told me that neither he nor Gov. Brown was prepared yet to comment. GOV. BROWN CALLS EDUCATION FUNDING A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE By David Siders | Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/ifhUeD Friday, Jan. 21, 2011 - 12:00 am | Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday called education funding a civil rights issue, defending his plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies as necessary to reduce California's yawning budget deficit and to push more tax revenue to schools and public safety. "We take from redevelopment and we put $1 billion into schools – that's a good thing," Brown said at a Sacramento breakfast celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "We've got to make sure whatever we do, we give a chance to those who are coming along in the next generation. And that is a civil rights issue." Brown had made a similar, if less explicit, assertion in remarks to city officials the previous day, framing his proposal as a choice between education and redevelopment. Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said it is misleading to suggest the state can't have both. "To say that we can't have strong schools and continue to revitalize our communities and create jobs and build the local economy," he said, "is a false choice." In a procedural move Thursday, Brown reaffirmed the fiscal emergency Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared last month, rebooting a 45-day clock for legislative action on a budget deal Brown is seeking by March. As part of his budget plan, Brown proposes dissolving redevelopment agencies by July 1, diverting $1.3 billion to schools and other local governments next fiscal year, while also taking $1.7 billion to fund Medi-Cal and trial courts. "We know Latino and African American kids are way behind other kids," Brown said at a conference hosted by the League of California Cities on Wednesday. "We know the poor districts are not as good as the wealthier districts, so I don't want to take more money from schools. I'd like to put more money into schools." City officials contend redevelopment is necessary to rebuild blighted areas and to create jobs. Following Thursday's breakfast, hosted by the California Legislative Black Caucus at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Brown told reporters, "There's a lot of good things in redevelopment, but it's coming from a property tax that is primarily intended for schools and public safety." Brown said the political landscape has become more polarized than when he was last governor, from 1975 to 1983. He reminded the crowd, as he has many times since being elected, that the state budget deficit is inherited. "Boy, things went downhill after I left," Brown said. "We started building prisons and stopped building colleges." ●●smf: It is interesting to note that the charter-schools-and-mayoral-control-flavor-of-reformers - of whom Jerry Brown was once a member - were the first advocates of the Education-is-the-Civil-Rights-Issue-of-the-21st-Century mantra. Now we see a rightsizing of the (uh...) right, with ed funding being the civil right. As Americans we need to confirm and embrace that Free Quality Public Education is a Fundamental Right - one that has emerged as self evident since Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness began the list. TEACHERS NO LONGER SAFE IN SENIORITY + UTLA STATEMENT + smf 2¢ JUDGE OKS SETTLEMENT THAT LIMITS USE OF SENIORITY IN L.A. TEACHER LAYOFFS LAWYERS REPRESENTING STUDENTS' INTERESTS HAIL THE RULING; THE TEACHERS UNION SAYS IT PROBABLY WILL APPEAL. By Jason Felch and Jason Song, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/i51oKm January 21, 2011, 7:59 p.m. - In a case that pits the constitutional rights of students against the job protections of teachers, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge approved a groundbreaking settlement Friday that limits the effect of layoffs on the district's most vulnerable students. Up to 45 Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will be shielded from teacher layoffs altogether, Judge William F. Highberger ordered Friday, and layoffs in the district's other 750 schools must be spread more equitably. That could lead some experienced teachers to lose their jobs. The decision comes amid deep education cuts and a debate over teacher tenure rules, which are being challenged across the country. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently called for the end of tenure, as have leaders in Florida, Idaho, Wyoming and elsewhere. "This year, if we are forced to lay off teachers, we will be forced to lay off some of the most effective, and keep some of the least effective," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a speech this week. "It's not right. It's not fair. And it's not something we can allow to happen." Locally, L.A. Unified faces a nearly $400-million shortfall that could force thousands more teachers out of the classroom this year. Lawyers representing district students hailed the judge's ruling as a "landmark victory" that put the interests of children ahead of their instructors. "The court today handed these children an umbrella in a hurricane," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director for the Los Angeles office of the American Civil Liberties Union which, along with Public Counsel and several other public interest law firms, brought the suit on behalf of students. Representatives of United Teachers Los Angeles, which vigorously opposed the settlement in court, said the teachers union will probably appeal the order, which "eviscerates seniority" and will damage the morale of district teachers. "We do not agree with the remedy that the court is mandating," said Julie Washington, a union vice president. Washington and other union leaders have said the district needs to find a way to better train instructors and administrators and help students from impoverished backgrounds. The settlement is an attempt to address a problem all parties recognize: the devastating effect that layoffs have had on district campuses in recent years. Some schools have lost as much as 50% of their teaching staffs to cutbacks, unraveling some reform efforts and causing turmoil at already struggling campuses. A Times investigation last year found that seniority-based layoffs in the district had led to the dismissal of hundreds of highly effective teachers and fell hardest on schools in the city's poorest neighborhoods. Far fewer layoffs would be necessary if the decisions were based on performance rather than seniority, a Times analysis found. In February 2010, civil rights attorneys representing students at three district middle schools filed a class-action lawsuit arguing that that the layoffs, which under state law are based exclusively on seniority, had a disproportionate effect on poor and minority students. Highberger granted an injunction last March that blocked further layoffs at those schools and in December tentatively approved a settlement between the school district and the students' attorneys that allowed some schools to be exempted from future layoffs. During a three-day hearing, the teachers union urged the court to reverse its decision and order a deeper examination of the causes of high turnover at troubled schools. Richard Ingersoll, an education expert for the union, argued that the settlement would "divert attention from the real problem, which is that these schools are a leaky bucket." Tom Torlakson, the state's newly elected superintendent of public instruction, submitted a brief echoing the teachers' union position on Friday, saying that districts already have the ability to dismiss instructors based on factors other than seniority. State law allows for some exceptions for teachers with special skills or credentials. Torlakson asserted that teachers union officials were not part of settlement negotiations, a statement that district officials and other attorneys dispute. A spokeswoman for Torlakson, who was heavily supported by teachers unions during his campaign, said he was unavailable for comment but that the brief was based on the "merits of the case." The 45 protected schools have not yet been identified, and union lawyers objected to the discretion given to the district to name 20 of them. John Deasy, incoming Los Angeles schools superintendent, said district officials would begin determining this weekend which schools would be exempted and how that would affect expected layoffs. The district must send preliminary layoff notices by March 15 and the board must approve them before then. ●●smf's 2¢: I haven’t seen the settlement or the court’s opinion, any comments from me are based on the news reportage. * The Two Jasons are hardly impartial observers, they are the principal drivers of the ‘value added’ argument. * If “a case that pits the constitutional rights of students against the job protections of teachers” were to be settled by a negotiated settlement between the parties I would expect the judge to be handed his head in the court of appeal. Constitutional issues are not bargained. * I am shocked – shocked – that Mayor Bloomberg – a fully vested member of The Billionaire Boys Club Reform School – is in agreement with the Two Jasons! * LAUSD, in spite of the injunction – has been merrily RIFing and reassigning staff (not necessarily teachers) based on seniority at Liechty Middle School (ground zero in this appeal). The protection accorded students must be about more than only teachers. * What’s good for 45 schools must be good for all schools - we don’t have a population or a school or a community more deserving of equity than another. * NYC High School Teacher Marc Epstein wrote: "Tenure for public school teachers is not a lifetime sinecure. In most respects it is no different from civil service protections for police, fire, and sanitation workers. You have to have due process in order to fire an employee." http://huff.to/fCGw0K In the same article he also wrote: "When there is evidence of bad public policy, you can safely assume that it took two parties working collaboratively to create the swamp." UTLA TO APPEAL HARMFUL ACLU SETTLEMENT from UTLA.NET UTLA strongly opposes Judge Highberger's decision to approve the settlement which will have a series of unintended negative consequences that will hurt our students. - Student learning will be harmed by widespread staff instability . - Experienced teachers will be laid off solely because they happen to teach at a school with a large number of veteran teachers. - The settlement does nothing to solve the systemic problems at hard-to-staff schools or address the inequities suffered by our most at-risk students. - Read Full UTLA Response...http://bit.ly/auDNT3 PARENTS IRATE OVER LAUSD LOCKDOWNS: Police and school officials trade blame over the lack of services for students during search for suspect By Howard Blume and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/fkNUZi January 21, 2011 - Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district's police chief acknowledged, as officials coped with complaints from parents frustrated once more with the district's handling of an emergency situation. Students from nine San Fernando Valley schools were in lockdown for as long as five hours as officers combed campuses and neighborhoods for a suspect who shot and wounded a school police officer Wednesday just outside El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills. Although lockdowns are the most common school crisis in the nation's second-largest school district, the Los Angeles Unified School District has repeatedly faced problems providing basic provisions and services for students. "We unfortunately did not have the communication network we would have liked to," said Los Angeles School Police Chief Steve Zipperman. "There were restrooms down the hallways from classrooms and some schools did have the ability to deliver food. We have to determine how we get the word to schools that it's safe to do that." Los Angeles police and school district officials each said responsibility for student conditions during lockdowns rest largely with the other agency. Police said individual schools develop their own plans for managing emergencies. Officers focus on finding suspects and basic student safety. At El Camino, they spent hours searching hallways, storage rooms, lockers and athletic fields. "That is not the time to attempt to deliver food to 3,500 students — during the search for an armed assailant," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. Educators said they follow the orders of law enforcement during such emergency situations. For example, they requested clearance to bring lunch to students but were denied. The lockdown and subsequent confusion came as an early test for L.A. Unified's new schools police chief, Zipperman, who began his tenure this month, and for incoming schools Supt. John Deasy. Both men pledged to review policies and procedures as they sought to mollify frustrated and angry parents. Wednesday's crisis came a day after two students were shot accidentally by a 17-year-old classmate at Gardena High School. Parents there complained that the school district has failed to keep the campus safe, and Deasy found that the school failed to use metal detectors in accordance with district policy. The suspect, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, was charged Thursday with two felonies: possessing a firearm in a school zone and discharging a firearm in a school zone. He was on probation for a misdemeanor battery charge, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Joanne Baeza. Prosecutors have filed a motion to have the minor tried as an adult. The wounded girl remained in critical condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with a skull fracture and brain trauma. A spokeswoman for the hospital said she has been able to respond to basic commands. The male victim was released from the hospital late Wednesday. Parents in Woodland Hills complained about confusing and conflicting processes for dismissing students once the emergency passed, although officials defended their performance in this regard. There weren't problems at every campus. Students at Hale Middle School were fed and allowed bathroom breaks after Wednesday's lockdown because authorities set up the command post there and were able to quickly search his smaller campus, Principal Neal Siegel said Thursday. "Yes, parents are upset that their children at El Camino perhaps weren't allowed to use the bathroom," Siegel said, "but safety of the students is our top priority." Restrictions were relaxed at six schools within a couple of hours, but not at El Camino, Woodlake Elementary or Leonis Continuation School, which were closer to the crime scene. Some parents complained about student hardships. "No food was given. My son and daughter said classmates were peeing into trash cans," said Odette Fulliam, whose children attend Hale and El Camino. In fact, a 5-gallon pail is part of a "lockdown kit" that is supposed to be accessible to every classroom. The pail with a removable lid is "solely for the purpose of this kind of situation," said district spokesman Robert Alaniz. Other elements of the lockdown kit include toilet paper and a portable toilet seat. There's also a flashlight, polyethylene bags, blankets, a pocket radio, bandages, tissues, disposable vinyl gloves, assorted batteries and duct tape. Every new teacher is supposed to receive training in using the kit, which includes a recommendation that teachers supply a sheet that can be draped to provide privacy, said Bob Spears, the district's director of emergency services. Other districts expressed surprise at how L.A. Unified handles emergencies. A Chicago school district official said she had never heard about students urinating in buckets. Most lockdowns last less than an hour, said spokesperson Monique Bond, or only affect parts of a campus. "In the event a student needs to use the facilities, they're generally escorted by an adult," she said. Parents in Woodland Hills also were unhappy about the size of the 7-square-mile security perimeter established by Los Angeles police and its duration. Police were unapologetic. "I know the parents are upset, but it would be nothing compared to what they would feel if their children were needlessly exposed to an armed gunman. Those kids' safety is No. 1," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. "This guy had shown total disregard for public safety and the community by shooting an armed police officer who was doing his job." The size of the dragnet zone was due to several factors, Albanese said. Police initially had a limited description of the suspect, who was armed and running through the neighborhood. The LAPD also received several 911 calls reporting possible prowlers in the area. Police charted the calls and set the perimeter accordingly, Albanese said. The suspect eluded a massive manhunt involving more than 300 officers. "At the end of the day, every single [student] was safely home with their families," Albanese said. "What other objective is more important than that?" About 20% of El Camino's students were absent Thursday, district officials said. Normally, the absence rate is about 6%. At Gardena High, attendance also was down, with about 365 students absent Wednesday and 216 on Thursday, compared to about 140 daily absences normally. Some parents have complained about the district's emergency notification system. They said the first alert went out for El Camino families after 1:30 p.m., more than two hours following initial news reports. Other parents praised the district's efforts. "The school was fabulous. They communicated with us all day long," said Stuart Meadows, the father of a Hale sixth-grader. "The parents were really horrendous," he added. "They behaved much worse than the kids. They were screaming, pushing. Maybe the school could be more efficient, but who plans for this kind of thing?" HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources SAFE COMMUNITIES. SAFE SCHOOLS. SAFE STUDENTS.: Themes in the News for the week of Jan. 18-21, 2011 By UCLA IDEA... http://bit.ly/dThymH TEACHERS NO LONGER SAFE IN SENIORITY + UTLA Statement + smf 2¢ + more : Judge OKs settlement that limits use of ... http://bit.ly/gth3e9 SOUTH GATE HIGH IS ON A ‘PRECAUTIONARY’ LOCKDOWN [UPDATED]: Catherine Saillant - LA tIMES la nOW BLOG|http://lat... http://bit.ly/eAYBW3 PARENTS IRATE OVER LAUSD LOCKDOWNS: Police and school officials trade blame over the lack of services for studen... http://bit.ly/eUss4B Friday, January 21, 2011 9:28:39 AM via twitterfeed # L.A. CLASSROOM ‘LOCKDOWN KIT’: includes bathroom bucket, batteries …no drinking water or food.: -- Howard Blume ... http://bit.ly/gaIZh3 LAUSD Violence Highlights BHUSD Security Concerns -The Beverly Hills BdofEd will discuss security issues at its Mon. mtg.http://t.co/qbUAkHh SAVE MY P.E. PROGRAM WEBINAR: National Association for Sport and Physical Education If your PE program is in da... http://bit.ly/h9X2zp JAMIE OLIVER LANDS A VISIT AT AN LAUSD HIGH SCHOOL: Mary MacVean in the LA Times Daily Dish blog | http://lat.ms... http://bit.ly/hpQtlj GARDENA HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING SUSPECT TO APPEAR IN COURT FRIDAY: Beverly Hills Courier from City News Service | h... http://bit.ly/ijCjvQ IN THE WAKE OF SHOOTINGS, MAYOR DEMANDS LOOK AT CAMPUS PROCEDURES: By Connie Llanos, Daily News Staff Writer | h... http://bit.ly/gzBroV CHAOTIC SCENES AS STUDENTS ARE RELEASED AFTER ALL-DAY LOCKDOWN: One middle school had parents standing in line f... http://bit.ly/haAC8K GARDENA HIGH SHOOTING SUSPECT STOLE GUN FROM HIS STEPFATHER, SOURCE SAYS + OFFICIALS' REASSURANCES FAIL TO CALM ... http://bit.ly/hSbS47 SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: In Nebraska, a proposal to arm teachers + How did gun in 'accidental' Gardena High School shoo... http://bit.ly/hf3mcV 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: TWO PICTURES WORTH TWO THOUSAND MORE QUESTIONS http://bit.ly/e4AMBS Thursday, Statement from Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines: ALL SCHOOLS WILL BE OPEN ON THURSDAY: LAUSD News Statement: For... http://bit.ly/h5kxnV SIX LEARNING COMMUNITIES VYING FOR SPOTS IN NEW NORTHEAST L.A. HIGH SCHOOL - School will house students from Eag... http://bit.ly/iaUHnh ____________________________________ THE 4LAKids TWEETS RE THE EL CAMINO HS LOCKDOWN: ●UPDATE: woodlake es, hale ms and el camino hs release info released. woodlake kids will be released to parents on emergency card only -smf ●Gardena High students arrested after school shooting incident | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times http://lat.ms/i7SVpT ●Bell High School student shot near campus | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times http://lat.ms/ekDJps ●UPDATE: parent at el camino reports that students asked not to call or text parents ...or the media. -smf Wednesday, January 19, 2011 3:53:53 PM via txt ●UPDATE: hale ms &woodlake to be released in next 10 to 15 minutes. camino real & leonis continuation hs will remain on lockdown -smf ●UPDATE; students @ el camino hs & hale ms told to NOT call or text the media. -smf ●UPDATE: no suspect in custody, shooting NOT on school grounds. -smf ●lausd school policeman stenerud shot multi x stopping suspect in car break-in adj to school parking lot. officer is stable and expected ... ●UPDATE: 6 west valley elementary schools + el camino hs + hale ms on lockdown -smf ●UPDATE: person in custody may not be shooting suspect. -smf ●UPDATE: Hale MS also on lockdown. -smf ●UPDATE: officer in fair condition all students safe. lockdown continues. adult suspect in custody. shooting was off campus. -smf ●school police officer shot @ el camino hs. shot in bulletproof vest. transported to hospital. suspect(s) unknown -smf ____________________________________ L.A/ UNIFIED TO REVIEW SEARCH POLICY IN WAKE OF GARDENA HIGH SHOOTING: District officials consider whether the s... http://bit.ly/gCu2p9 GARDENA HIGH SHOOTING: Deasy to review safety in wake of Gardena High shooting + Two Gardena High students wound... http://bit.ly/h7J9Q9 Via @nprnews: Police Say 3 Shot At Los Angeles-Area High School | http://t.co/64V94aY 3 shot at Gardena High School; gunman still at large | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times http://lat.ms/eWr62T A glooming peace this morning with it brings: SANTA MONICA HIGH STUDENT LEAPS TO HIS DEATH: The 14-year-old boy ... http://bit.ly/hzYms1 LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT ANNOUNCES COMMITTEE TO CLOSE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: KPCC Wire Services | http://bit.ly/hVefx0 ... http://bit.ly/fevnrG Video: KINGS DREAM, VERY WELL REMEMBERED: from the PBS NewsHour | http://to.pbs.org/h5S9Xo 17 Jan 2011 - Martin... http://bit.ly/gikAKH CELEBRITY CHEF JAMIE OLIVER. OF ‘FOOD REVOLUTION’ FAME, SPEAKS TO CALIFORNIA SCHOOL NUTRITIONISTS: L.A. Unified ... http://bit.ly/hC8pYX L.A. SCHOOL BOARD RACE DONATIONS: A CALM BEFORE EXPECTED STORM: -- Howard Blume, LA Times LA Now | http://lat.ms... http://bit.ly/gvNLt1 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 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 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. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. 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