In This Issue:  | | • | "The petition is materially non-qualifying and …insufficient": COMPTON SCHOOL BOARD REJECTS PARENT TRIGGER EFFORT | | | • | ONCE-MIGHTY UTLA LOSES POLITICAL MUSCLE | | | • | TAFT HIGH PARENTS OBJECT TO DISTRICT’S OFFER TO SHARE SPACE WITH CHARTER: A school board member suggests residents file suit to block the move | | | • | UNIONS AND QUALITY SCHOOLING | | | • | 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: | | | | Last week I went off on this - and this week I'm going there again ...but this time I am proposing a solution!
There is much talk in-and-outside the District on using school bond funds to infill for the Budget shortfall. The easy+legal answer is you can't. I had a discussion this week on this with folks from the County Office of Education - The law is clear: Using bond funds to pay payroll can't be done. No way, no how.
School board member Galatzan in her weekly e-newsletter writes:"As your Board Member, I cannot increase the State's funding for our schools; I cannot single-handedly impose cost-saving measures with our unions OR CHANGE THE LANGUAGE IN THE BOND MEASURES to free up money." http://bit.ly/hPitiH (emphasis added)
I responded: "Democracy being democracy, the single handed part is out of your hands. And it isn't the bond language that stops bond funds from being used to fill the General Fund shortfall - but the California Constitution and Government Standard Accounting Practices -. which creates a firewall between operating and capital funding."
"There is, however ," I wrote to her, "...a strategy that can work and is all quite legal"
I have given some thought to this dilemma over time; I am interested in shoring up the District's general fund finances. I've talked to people who know what they're talking about..
HERE IS WHAT THE BOARD OF ED COULD DO IF IT POSSESSED THE VISION AND POLITICAL WILL: It would require going back to the voters in a two step process.
STEP ONE: Measure Q would go back to the voters for reduction from $6 billion to another number - my suggestion would be half: SHALL THE AMOUNT OF THE BONDED INDEBTEDNESS CREATED BY MEASURE Q (2008) BE REDUCED TO $3 BILLION? - This would free up the ability of LAUSD to borrow additional money by reducing the cap caused by the drop in the property tax base and the $6 billion burden imposed by Measure Q. I believe it it would take a 55% vote to make this change.(The board merely promising not to spend the money would not be enough - the obligation and burden would continue to exist unless the reduction is presented-to and approved-by the voters.)
STEP TWO: There would appear on the same ballot an ad-valarem property tax to generate temporary emergency operations revenue to support the District's General Fund ...to be implemented only if Part 1 passes. This would require a two-thirds vote. - but could be presented-to and approved-by the voter/taxpayers as a re-purposing of property tax obligations/bonded indebtedness rather than an increase.
Part of this is cosmetic, showing good faith by the District to relieve the voter/taxpayer; part of it shows fiscal and political reality in a down economy. It is borrowing from Peter to pay Paul with the mutual concurrence of Peter and Paul.
The danger - if it is one - would be that Part One could pass and Part Two fail. Perhaps a clever attorney could write language that inextricably ties the implementation of the two parts together - I'm not sure.
THE CAVEAT IS POLITICAL. Raises beyond COLA in anyone's salary should be off the table. Adequate funding for M&O and Safety needs to be guaranteed. - not guaranteeing jobs but guaranteeing adequate maintenance and cleanliness of facilities and the safety of children. There needs to be a separate Independent Oversight Committee for the new operations funding. Support - if any - of charter schools needs to be clear and defined - if they wish to participate they need to be accountable. Benchmarks and accountability and a plan for everyone must be in place.
ON FRIDAY LAUSD AND THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS QUIETLY ANNOUNCED THE RESULTS OF THE PARENT/COMMUNITY ADVISORY VOTES ON WHO SHOULD OPERATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE SCHOOLS "UP FOR GRABS UNDER PSC 2.0 The results as published by the LWV - and the league's review of the process is here: http://bit.ly/he2t5a. In short the LWV finds voter turn-out disappointing, some flaws in the process - and a little too much electioneering at the polls ...plus a short list of site-specific complaints. The LWV is kind - if one goes back to the LWV report on PSC 1.0 by the [http://scr.bi/gpDX7h] one can compile a long list of recommendations by the league to improve the voting process and not implemented by the not-disinterested PSC folks at LAUSD.
Families in Schools, hired by the district and funded by grants from Gates/Broad/etc. to evaluate the process is harsher in their judgment here: http://bit.ly/iavuma - and advises getting rid of the advisory votes on PSC as a failed experiment because of the low turnout and reported irregularities. .
Families in Schools mission is purported to be to encourage increased parent involvement - yet they recommend terminating the only parent/community participation in the process - the one place where the parents, community and taxpayers participate in the "choice" of Public School Choice. The advisory votes are also the only "Public" part of the process; all other decision-making being made by various appointed panels, the superintendent and the Board of Ed.
When one reviews the vote outcomes over both PSC 1.0 and 2.0 it shows a general (though not universal) rejection by the voters of charter schools - especially corporate ones run by charter management organizations. That is NOT the desired outcome of the Gates/Broad/Villaraigosa sponsors of PSC and FIS.
Failure to get out the vote does not prove a failure of the democratic process, but a lack of effort in getting out the word. Democracy is neither convenient nor pretty. Or easy to manage. It's just better than anything else anyone else has come up with. Quoting Churchill quoting someone else: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
The Article: BILLIONS TO SPEND: WASTE THROWS WRENCH INTO LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGES’ MASSIVE PROJECT | http://bit.ly/eGCL1d - is part one of a six-part/ week-long series of reports on the LACCD building program in the LA Times.. The articles are too long to place in 4LAKids/4LAKidsNews in their entirety - but are critically important. As I amthe lead plaintiff in a pending lawsuit alleging wrongdoing in the LACCD building program and in the governance of the community college district 4LAKids is not going to opine any further. But it is strongly suggested 4LAKids readers read on and become familiar with this story.
Part 1: THE PRICE OF POOR PLANNING, WEAK OVERSIGHT - A pattern of chaotic management, costly blunders and hiring of relatives emerges from interviews and thousands of pages of internal e-mails.| http://bit.ly/eGCL1d
Part 2: A FAILING GRADE FOR A NEW SCIENCE COMPLEX - Crooked cabinet doors, faulty plumbing and a lack of temperature controls mar Valley College's health and science complex. Newly opened, it needed extensive repairs.| http://lat.ms/edlshp
Coming Thursday - Part 3: NEEDLESS LAYERS ADD MILLIONS TO STAFFING COSTS - Some contractors have been paid generously to serve as "body shops" for staffers supervised by others. The resulting markups have doubled, even tripled, taxpayers' costs.
Coming Friday - Part 4: NEW TRACK AND FIELD CAN'T GET TO THE FINISH LINE - City College, with a legacy of excellence in sports, spent millions to replace aging athletic venues. Yet students are still waiting for a new physical education center, track and field.
Coming Saturday - Part 5: A FAMILY FIRM GETS ITS SHARE - A Mission College vice president helped oversee the construction program. Among the subcontractors on her campus was a company she owned with her husband.
Coming Saturday - Part 6: A COSTLY LESSON IN THE LIMITS OF GREEN ENERGY - The college system would generate all its own electricity through solar panels and other green technology. It was an alluring vision, but gravely flawed.
The article CARSON HIGH ACA DECA TAKES HOME THE GOLD from the Carson High Trailblazer brings the excitement and sheer joy of the Academic Decathlon completion to the reader …that is good journalism! Carson didn’t win the city, state or national championship - but they competed and they excelled and they rock!
I do not doubt for a second that they well move up in the standings next year – that Carson can again be known for academics + athletics. Rock on!
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
"The petition is materially non-qualifying and …insufficient": COMPTON SCHOOL BOARD REJECTS PARENT TRIGGER EFFORT
A UNANIMOUS VOTE BY THE COMPTON SCHOOL BOARD REJECTS MCKINLEY ELEMENTARY PARENTS' PETITION SEEKING TO TURN THE STRUGGLING CAMPUS OVER TO A CHARTER OPERATOR.
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/h0LdOw
McKinley Elementary
Children play at McKinley Elementary in Compton, where parents petitioned to turn the school over to a charter operator. The school board has rejected the petition. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / December 7, 2010)
February 23, 2011 -- After two months of controversy, the Compton school board Tuesday rejected a petition by parents aiming to use a groundbreaking state law to turn over their struggling elementary school to a charter operator.
Board members with the Compton Unified School District voted unanimously, 7-0, to return the petition to parents at McKinley Elementary , saying it failed to include information required by state regulations. District officials also found that parents cited the wrong education code section and failed to provide evidence that they had selected their desired charter operator, Celerity Educational Group, after a "rigorous review process" as required by state emergency regulations.
"The petition is materially non-qualifying and is being returned as insufficient," the board found.
McKinley parents, whose school ranks in the bottom 10th among all California elementary schools, expressed outrage over the board action at the packed school board meeting.
"I'm very angry and disappointed because they threw away our petitions and destroyed our dreams for a better education for our children," said Marlene Romero, whose third-grade son attends McKinley.
But other parents and teacher union representatives spoke out against the petition, saying the school is making progress.
The closely watched case represented the first test of a new law giving parents the power to petition for major reforms of low-performing schools, including shutting them down, changing staff and programs, and turning the campus over to a charter operator. Charters are independently run, publicly financed schools.
Under the law, valid signatures representing parents of half the school's students are required to trigger the reforms. In Compton, the petition campaign was organized by Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles-based educational reform group and charter school ally. The group said it submitted parent signatures for 275 of 438 McKinley students, or 62%.
Ben Austin, executive director of the Parent Revolution, said the group would challenge the action in court and that the board "has decided to throw away the futures of McKinley's children."
But the petition campaign was plagued by charges and countercharges of deceit, harassment and lies and created bitter campus divisions. The district drew fire — and a class-action lawsuit — for requiring parents to verify their signatures in person with photo identification. More than 60 parent supporters refused to participate in the process and won a temporary restraining order barring the district from continuing those requirements. It is unclear how the board's decision to reject the petition will affect that legal action.
Compton officials reported Tuesday that they were unable to verify parent signatures representing 50% of the 442 students they said were officially enrolled at McKinley at the time the petition was submitted Dec. 7. The district said it could confirm only 250 of the 275 students named on the petition as actually enrolled at the time.
Among those students, district officials found potential problems with the parent signatures for more than 70. In 26 cases, the district had no school records to compare the signatures of the petitioner and the parent of record. In 29 cases, the signatures "appear to be inconsistent" with the school file, the district said. In addition, eight signatures belonged to someone other than the student's legal parent or guardian, and 10 parents indicated they would not participate in the district's verification process.
ONCE-MIGHTY UTLA LOSES POLITICAL MUSCLE
IN A SERIES OF MISSTEPS, THE TEACHERS UNION HAS LOST INFLUENCE IN L.A. UNIFIED ELECTIONS AND IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH BOARD MEMBERS BACKED BY MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA.
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/i0o6Fm
February 18, 2011, 9:47 p.m. [Published Feb 20 ]- Critics portray the Los Angeles teachers union as politically all-powerful, able to swing elections and exert control over the Board of Education in the nation's second-largest school system. But in recent years United Teachers Los Angeles hasn't lived up to that reputation.
It's been eight years since UTLA backing put a candidate on the Board of Education in a race in which another contender also had strong financial support. And this year, the union has quietly given up on reclaiming a majority of allies on the seven-member Board of Education in the March 8 election.
This concession is noteworthy: When union-backed candidates win, especially when they prevail because of union support, UTLA gains a sympathetic ear. And there are implied political consequences for board members who stop listening.
But insiders and civic leaders, both pro- and anti-UTLA, describe the union as an organization that has lost clout at the ballot box as well as in the day-to-day proceedings of the backrooms and the board room.
"When I read 'the powerful teachers union,' I think: What powerful teachers union?" said Becki Robinson, a UTLA vice president from 1996 to 2002 who remained active in the union until her retirement two years ago. "I don't believe that the current UTLA has any political influence in the district at all. It is completely 180 degrees from what it used to be."
Interviews with board members suggest that the empathy and intimidation factor have ebbed.
"There's definitely not a majority of the board that puts UTLA in the middle of every conversation or is concerned about needing to consult with them or get their blessing," said a board member who spoke on condition of anonymity, having no desire to offend even a diminished union. "Most of us roll our eyes when things come up with UTLA because they're less and less influential in the conversations we're having."
Some civic leaders have countered UTLA's influence by raising massive campaign funds for their own competing slates of candidates. But they could harness only modest grassroots, volunteer help compared to the potential army of ground support from thousands of teachers that UTLA commands. And yet UTLA's opponents have frequently prevailed in the wake of union gaffes and strategic errors.
Recently, union officials withdrew support for two candidates after learning about indiscretions in their past that the candidates failed to disclose and that incomplete background checks failed to uncover.
Both of them, Jesus Escandon and John Fernandez, still will appear on the ballot, although Escandon has abandoned his campaign. The union remains active in two contests, supporting incumbent Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and opting this month for retired teacher Bennett Kayser in the race for the one board seat not filled by an incumbent.
Union President A.J. Duffy delivered a less than resounding call to arms.
"We believe there are some reasonable moderates on the board that quite often hold views that we do, but who feel that there is a board majority that is very powerful," Duffy said. "If we could get some other moderates on the board we could influence the current group of moderates."
Barring an upset, the largest bloc on the school board will remain generally allied with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former UTLA organizer who has become a strong critic of the teachers union. He has backed three candidates — considered to be favorites — and helped raise more than $1.5 million for an independent committee working to elect them.
The Villaraigosa-backed board has passed key measures opposed by the teachers union. Early on, it delivered control of Locke High to a charter school organization. Overall, the board has approved dozens of nonunion, startup charters. And last year the school board began allowing outside groups to bid for control of new campuses and low-performing ones as well. The board also has approved a succession of ground-shifting policies affecting teachers' evaluations. And the district recently agreed to weaken long-held "last hired, first fired" safeguards to protect many younger teachers from being laid off due to budget cuts.
As in many school systems, the teachers union was, for years, the most influential political force in L.A. Unified. The union's clout has been based on financial strength and sheer, often impassioned numbers; teachers also appealed successfully to public sympathies.
In 2003, a union-financed campaign unseated board members Caprice Young and Genethia Hayes. They had been leaders among a board majority endorsed by former Mayor Richard Riordan, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and their allies.
The new board majority immediately clashed at times with then-Supt. Roy Romer.
"I love the people in the union, but I thought they had undue influence," Romer said. "They have influence through the money they contributed in the board races and the organization they had. During board meetings, I had board members in direct phone or e-mail connection with union members in the audience. I remember going to a labor negotiation and there were two board members sitting on the other side with the labor group. Symbolically, it was startling."
In 2005, a group of longtime insurgents, allied with Duffy, took charge of the union. They intended to mobilize the political force of the union as never before.
It hasn't happened.
One embarrassing incident occurred in the 2006 election to fill a vacated seat. The union had endorsed its own youthful staffer, Christopher Arellano, and launched a campaign that spent more than $100,000. The union later learned about two past theft convictions, missed court appearances and the claim of a master's degree that was, in fact, not yet completed.
The collapse of his campaign opened the door for Monica Garcia, who became — and remains — the first and tightest ally of Villaraigosa.
In 2007, the union reelected LaMotte, but lost three other seats to a Villaraigosa-backed campaign. In that cycle, the union backed one unsuccessful incumbent who was dying of cancer and couldn't mount an energetic campaign. And the leadership resisted efforts to oppose Villaraigosa-financed candidates in two races that political consultants judged winnable. In one of them, the UTLA leadership had helped to nudge a relatively popular incumbent, David Tokofsky, to the sidelines.
"They have this reputation of being like Godzilla, but at times, they're really like The Three Stooges," said Tokofsky, who has nonetheless continued to work with the union during a subsequent career as a consultant.
Union leaders and their supporters insist that UTLA has made crucial contributions to improving schools and retains valuable political clout.
Indeed, no one is ready to write off UTLA's influence. For one thing, key reform initiatives and budget cutting measures must, by law, be negotiated with the union.
"The union's power relationship with the board is not what it used to be," board member Yolie Flores said. "But you can't ignore the union or discount the legitimate power of teachers that it represents. And we're obviously conscious that we can't solve any of this by ourselves."
Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this report.
TAFT HIGH PARENTS OBJECT TO DISTRICT’S OFFER TO SHARE SPACE WITH CHARTER: A school board member suggests residents file suit to block the move
AT A TOWN HALL MEETING, PARENTS SAID THEY HAD NO DESIRE TO SHARE THE SCHOOL'S FACILITIES WITH IVY ACADEMIA. THE DISTRICT HAD OFFERED TO TURN OVER 24 CLASSROOMS TO THE CHARTER
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/eOS8Qy
February 22, 2011 - A District trustee has advised Woodland Hills residents that they may have to sue the school system if they want to block 600 charter school pupils from being sent to Taft High.
Board member Steven Zimmer's suggestion came as hundreds of parents and students crowded into Taft's multipurpose room last week to protest the district's offer to turn over 24 of the high school's classrooms to Ivy Academia.
Ivy Academia's operators would send pupils in grades 6 through 12 to the west San Fernando Valley high school under the tentative offer.
"Ivy believes with an almost religious fervor that they have a right to be on a LAUSD campus," Zimmer told the crowd. "You're going to need to get an injunction — a temporary restraining order — to stop it."
Charter schools are guaranteed access to school district classrooms and other facilities under provisions of Proposition 39, approved by voters in 2000.
Banners and flyers posted on the Taft campus before Thursday night's 2 1/2-hour town hall organized by parents proclaimed that the high school has "No Vacancy" and no desire to share its gym, athletic fields, cafeteria, library or classrooms with the charter school.
Zimmer counseled parents that they would need to argue in court that introduction of the Ivy pupils, "if allowed to go forth, will cause a level of harm" that only a restraining order could stop.
A parade of students and parents told Zimmer and a panel of other school district officials that Ivy pupils will cause plenty of pain if they are squeezed into the 2,549-student high school.
"There is no room here. Where are they going to go?" asked Camille Saucier, a 16-year-old Taft junior.
Tenth-grader Rebekka Boyes, 15, referred to the charter school pupils as "Ivy leaguers."
"If they wanted to come to Taft, they should have enrolled at Taft, not Ivy," she said.
A representative of the Valley area's Parent Teacher Student Assn. warned that uniform-clad Ivy pupils would be met with hostility from high school students, prompting Zimmer to pledge that "Taft will be a safe school" no matter what happens.
Ivy Academia is not the first charter school to bump up against Taft parents and administrators. In 2008, a performing arts charter ran into opposition when district officials considered locating it at Taft.
School officials indicated that classroom allocations will be finalized in April. Several other campuses with unused classrooms have also been identified as potential charter school sites.
According to the school district, Taft had 18 empty classrooms last fall and an additional 18 rooms used for computer labs, college-information centers and other non-teaching purposes. Last week, however, a Taft administrator said the school has only eight unused classrooms out of a total of about 130.
It will be up to Taft's administrators "to figure out" where Ivy pupils are housed if the high school is used by the charter school, Parker Hudnut, executive director of L.A. Unified's innovation and charter schools division, told parents.
"This is an implementation nightmare," Hudnut said.
Representatives of Ivy Academia did not speak at the meeting, which several parents suggested was a sign of the charter school's "smugness" and an indication that the move-in agreement "is a done deal."
Ivy's school sites in nearby Warner Center, Canoga Park, Chatsworth and West Hills were closed for a four-day Presidents Day holiday, and administrators could not be reached for comment.
The charter school, which officials say is "educating the next generation of entrepreneurs," is no stranger to controversy, however.
Last year the co-founders of the school — Russian immigrants Eugene Selivanov and his wife, Tatyana Berkovich — were charged with stealing more than $200,000 in public funds through embezzlement, money laundering and filing false tax returns. The pair have denied wrong-doing and are no longer affiliated with Ivy Academia.
Linda Del Cueto, L.A. Unified's Valley-area superintendent, promised parents and students that their protest message would be delivered to incoming district Supt. John Deasy.
"The passion here has certainly shown me your concern," she said.
UNIONS AND QUALITY SCHOOLING
Themes in the News for the week of Feb. 22-25, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/9k0ADx
25 Feb 2011 - We are witnessing a broad-based assault on public employees’ right to engage in collective bargaining (Chicago Tribune, Education Week, New York Times, NPR). This matters for public education in California and we’ll explain that connection below.
Union members are mobilizing across the country for their own futures, for their right to participate in workplace and professional decisions, and in solidarity with Wisconsin’s workers (CNN, Boston Globe, Education Week, Education Week, Washington Post). Many states are considering legislation to restrict union rights. Anti-union forces in several other states are waiting for the moment they can assert themselves. In California, Assemblyman Allan Mansoor (R-Costa Mesa) introduced a bill to ban collective bargaining for pensions (Los Angeles Times).
There’s nothing new about pitched battles between corporations and political conservatives on the one hand, and unions on the other. But it is extraordinary in America when one side proclaims that it will settle for nothing less than the annihilation of the other.
Unions’ strength lies in the historical record that workers are better off when they organize. Employees who negotiate as individuals tend to have less job security, poorer working conditions, lower salaries, and uncertain retirements. But the same features that make unions strong also make them targets for resentment and scapegoating.
In the midst of financial crises, well-financed anti-union campaigns have created a popular image of public sector employees as lazy, underperforming, and overpaid. The media love long-running features on “bad examples” of public sector employees. Consider the sensational stories about obscenely large salaries, pensions, or disability benefits paid to a few public employees. Sometimes these lush payments result from a union contract, but more often the recipients are high-level bureaucrats with opaque individual contracts.
Unrelenting publicity, often politically motivated, helps transfer that anger to entire categories of Americans. As a result, “union members” are smeared with accusations of sensational benefits and unwarranted political power. In fact, most public sector employees and retirees worry about their livelihoods, retirement, supporting their families, and they are astonished that their fellow Americans think otherwise.
Importantly (and annoyingly to anti-union forces,) unions offer protections for activist members who speak out against waste, favoritism, recrimination, parent disenfranchisement, administrative incompetence, and so forth. Of course, some people just don’t like unions of any sort, public or private. It doesn’t matter how “perfectly” run the union is or how exemplary its members. Public employees can’t convince them, and that’s why we are watching these pitched union/anti-union battles.
What then would the end of public sector unions mean for public education in California? With no effective counterweight to the interests of the few who are committed to lowering corporate tax rates, we would expect:
* Substantially less investment in public schools and larger classrooms with less attention for students (teachers unions have been the only well-funded source of advocacy for more investment in education and reasonable class sizes);
* More vulnerable students and parents who lack teacher advocates that can speak up on their behalf without fear of retaliation;
* Experienced and effective teachers leaving the profession (and prospective teachers going elsewhere) as the pressure on wages and benefits drives both down and as teachers lose the ability to use their professional discretion to shape student learning.
Such a future is untenable. And yet so is a status quo that ensures that California’s highest-need schools are most likely to experience severe shortages of highly qualified teachers. Teachers unions are not the primary cause of this problem, but they need to play a leadership role in its solution. More generally, public support for teachers unions will sag so long as these unions can accurately be portrayed as looking out only for the interests of their members.
There is a different way forward, what some term “the new unionism.” This approach, charted, in part, by a new generation of teacher union leadership, recognizes that the future of unions depends on their alliance with the parents and students they serve. It calls for teacher unions to speak with and on behalf of communities as well as members. And it focuses teacher union attention on strategies for making schools better and more equitable. Of course, this “new unionism” echoes an earlier vision. In 1904, Chicago teacher Margaret Haley argued that the primary reason for teachers to organize was to "secure conditions under which [high quality learning] may become possible."1
1 Haley, Margaret (1904). “Why Teachers Should Organize.” Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the Forty-third Annual Meeting of the National Educational Association, St. Louis, Missouri, June 27-July1.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
Billions to Spend: WASTE THROWS WRENCH INTO LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGES’ MASSIVE PROJECT - Poor planning, fri... http://bit.ly/eGCL1d
ANOTHER CAMPAIGN FLYER GUFFUFFLE: Why worry about the spelling if the name doesn’t matter.: Thanks to the Street... http://bit.ly/fcUutL
Special Interest Campaign Mailers in Board District 5: 2 (or more) REASONS TO WRITE IN SCOTT FOLSOM FOR SCHOOL ... http://bit.ly/i8qpRk
CARSON HIGH ACA DECA TAKES HOME THE GOLD: By Deontha Wortham | Carson High School Trailblazer – from My High Jou... http://bit.ly/gD1Ixx
Online only!: LAUSD OPENS THE APPLICATION PERIOD FOR INTER-DISTRICT PERMITS + LAUSD Press Release: Written by Inf... http://bit.ly/emPgVR
Boardmemeber Galatzan: YOU’RE FRUSTRATED? ME, TOO + smf’s response: from the Galatzan Gazette, the weekly e-news... http://bit.ly/fnexjq
LAUSD TO RECOMMEND CLOSING OF CHARTER SCHOOL: by Howard Blume - LA TIMES/LA NOW | http://lat.ms/hoRQhw ... http://bit.ly/gwjLKk
TODAY@ 5PM: Community Briefing on Advisory Recommendation Vote Results for Public School Choice 2.0: from LAUSD ... http://bit.ly/ijYCtH
MANY HIGH, LOW ACHIEVING CHARTERS: Charter School Association releases two-year research By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/h6bi8E
Call2Action: YOU CAN HELP SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION FUNDING: The “LET US VOTE!” Campaign: email from educate our sta... http://bit.ly/hn5Mq5
Call2Action from Preschool California: PRESERVE + PROTECT FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, HEAD ST... http://bit.ly/hiXlRW
EDITORIAL CARTOON: The La Cañada shakedown +smf’s 2¢: by Ted Rall/LA Times | http://bit.ly/eT1Tqq smf: At a c... http://bit.ly/g49bZc
NEW ED TRUST-WEST REPORT SHOWS THE DAMAGING IMPACT OF TEACAHER LAYOFF POLICIES ON CALIFORNIA’S HIGHEST NEEDS SCH... http://bit.ly/gxTTfb
RACE TO THE BOTTOM?: Kathy Wylie writes on the Edutopia Facebook page Only 5 states do not have collective barg... http://bit.ly/eHhd5r
LAUSD School Board office 5 candidate debate tonight at 6pm. Franklin High School 820 N. Avenue 54 Highland Park Los Angeles, CA -smf
"The petition is materially non-qualifying and …insufficient": COMPTON SCHOOL BOARD REJECTS PARENT TRIGGER EFFOR... http://bit.ly/f8Hqv4
GIFTED PROGRAMS GO ON BLOCK AS SCHOOLS MUST DO WITH LESS: By JENNIFER GOLLAN | The Bay Citizen / A version of th... http://bit.ly/fNgJKW
CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP WITHOUT WIDENING A RACIAL ONE: By MICHAEL WINERIP - On Education column in the New Y... http://bit.ly/eyYwep
Become an especially interested Grass Roots Campaigner + Community Organizer: MAKE COPIES AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE –... http://bit.ly/fTR5UK
SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES DEBATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL: Candidates square off as campaign for Di... http://bit.ly/g4eaRp
Be there!: SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE DEBATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT 6PM @ FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL: Philip Iglauer of the North... http://bit.ly/dLztJL
LAUSD SCHOOLS TAKING CHARTER ROUTE: El Camino Real High School the latest to attempt shift.: By Connie Llanos, S... http://bit.ly/gPeur7
TAFT HIGH PARENTS OBJECT TO DISTRICT’S OFFER TO SHARE SPACE WITH CHARTER: A school board member suggests residen... http://bit.ly/e42Cgp
MORE L.A. SCHOOLS CONVERT TO CHARTERS AS FUNDS DIP: By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press from The Miami Herald | ... http://bit.ly/i9chY6
SUPER SUPPORT FOR EDUCATION …or after the football, commercials and the Black Eyed Peas let’s solve the problems... http://bit.ly/g4ESuS
ONCE-MIGHTY UTLA LOSES POLITICAL MUSCLE: In a series of missteps, the teachers union has lost influence in L.A. ... http://bit.ly/eYucxT
SUNDAY FUNNIES:: classic peanuts for 2/20/2011 from comics .com | http://bit.ly/fFoMFL http://bit.ly/eAk5qX
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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