In This Issue:  | | • | QUESTION 1: If Libya is midway between Christchurch and Wisconsin, wouldn't you really rather be in L.A. with Charlie Sheen? | | | • | QUESTION 2: Why am I running as a write-in candidate for school board? | | | • | L.A. SCHOOL BOARD TO CLOSE SIX CHARTER SCHOOLS CAUGHT CHEATING + THE CHEATING CHARTER | | | • | OUR SCHOOLS’ SWEET TOOTH: The foods served to students contain far too much sugar. | | | • | PARENT AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: HAS ITS TIME FINALLY COME? | | | • | 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: | | | | QUESTION 1: If Libya is midway between Christchurch and Wisconsin, wouldn't you really rather be in L.A. with Charlie Sheen?
THE LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT STORIES unwinding in the L.A. Times this week point how bad the LAUSD school construction program could have been. And unfortunately points the direction the LAUSD effort may be bound if the current regime in city hall and at Beaudry continue in their current lack-of-direction. There's a tendency by the current board to 'divide-by-seven' rather than build and modernize schools where need is greatest. The scandal came close to home in Wednesday's Times with the current chief facilities executive at LAUSD figuring prominently in the LACCD story.XXXX
THE TIMES TRIPPED BRAVELY DOWN THE ANTI-DEMOCRACY ROAD-TO-TRIPOLI in an editorial XXXX/XXXX- advocating to be done with the advisory votes on Public School Choice - a decision that would keep the public out of the choosing.(see Churchill on Democracy in last week's 4LAKids)
CHARTER SCHOOLS FIGURED PROMINENTLY IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK. ● Crescendo cheated, got caught and expelled from public education inLA.. I'm not a supporter of zero-tolerance. But here, with adults cheating ( ...and in the long-term scheme of things: cheating kids) I'm for it. ● El Camino Real High School went charter with the Board of Ed's blessing and tacit acknowledgment that it could only serve Title I campuses. ● Prop 39 co-location offers are unpopular all over town.
AND ON TUESDAY THERE'S AN ELECTION FOR CITY COUNCIL, SCHOOL BOARD,COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES AND A BUNCH OF LOCAL REFERENDA. A wellinformed cotzenry being the outcome of quality public educationI suugest you do your due-diligence and and vote the right way;early and often! The turnout will be low so every vote will stand for the 90% or more of registered voters who can't bother. -Make them count!
I'm not going to share my thinking on the city council or the city measures (OK: Vote YES on L, the Library Measure).
The LACCD fiasco suggests that all the rascals need to be voted out - so 4LAKids is endorsing:
FOR LACCD TRUSTEES:
● Seat #1 Jozef "Joe" Thomas Essavi
● Seat #3 Write in Mark Isler
● Seat #5 Lydia A. Gutierrez
● Seat #7 Erick Aguirre.
AND FOR LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION::
● District 1 Marguerite LaMotte. Sometimes I wish she was stronger, but I always wish we had more like her.
● District 3 Louis Pugliese. Louis is a charter school guy, but he's an educator first. When Tamar was there and engaged, she was there - but I fear Mayor Tony recruited her for a part time job ...and that's not what it is.
● District 5 Write-in Scott Folsom. If you're read this far you know why ...or why not.
● District 7 Richard Vladovic. Richard is a mixed metaphor (my favorite figure of speech to misuse): a loose cannon with his heart on his sleeve. I may not agree with him all of the time, but I do 93.7% of the time. And I'm not right all the time either.
I look forward to being a positive influence on them all ...even the even-numbered ones!
¡Onward relentlessly/Adelante sin cesar! - smf
_____________________________
TIME IS RUNNING OUT. HAVE YOU CALLED YET?
Time is running out - tell your legislators now!
Click here[http://bit.ly/eI242g] to watch a video alert about protecting education funding in California.
Your state senator and assembly member will be voting in the next two weeks on whether to place a measure on the June special election ballot to protect education from deeper budget cuts.
Call them TODAY to urge them to LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE!
To find out how to contact your representatives, click here [http://1.usa.gov/fOxhYj] .
Click here [http://bit.ly/h4OhOL] for a sample phone script or letter.
QUESTION 2: Why am I running as a write-in candidate for school board?
by Scott Folsom
I attended LAUSD schools in the '50's and '60's - Elementary, Junior High and High School - and truly understand that if that was a 'Golden Age' we have set our expectations far too low!
I was a political science major in college - and a student activist - but I have never considered myself a politician. I used my political science skill in business as a filmmaker- building crews to get jobs done well and cost effectively - on time and on budget -- doing my best to keep the drama in front of the camera.
I came back to LAUSD through the front door of Mt. Washington School fifteen years ago with my five-year-old's hand in my hand - and quickly realized the challenges ahead. Our neighborhood school was and is is one of the jewels in LAUSD's crown - but that is only through the continuous-and-continuing work of a devoted Faculty, engaged Parents and a dedicated Community. And a student body universally above average! Our 'not-quite-a-mountain' is the village that it takes to raise our children.
I worked hard for our school - and ultimately was successful - with us all - in getting the library and community center built as a sterling example of community joint use and a fitting memorial for Jack and Denny Smith. During my watch on the Bond Oversight Committee LAUSD built and opened over 100 new schools - and fixed up and modernized many, many more. Along the way I was instrumental in LAUSD implementing Full Day Kindergarten in all of our elementary schools,getting kids off to a good start. Also along the way I learned that the guiding lesson of my neighborhood school: devoted faculty, engaged parents and a dedicated community - and settling for nothing less than excellence - is a lesson that every school and every community can-and-must learn.
LAUSD is our school district.
It is not the mayor's school district or Eli Broad's or Bill Gates' or the Charter School Association's or UTLA's school district. It certainly isn't AEG's school district. I am running for the Los Angeles Unified Board to help return our school district to us - and to a focus on children and the mission of excellence. To take LAUSD back from special interests, outside operators and downtown developers.
The folks who I have just named like to call themselves 'Reformers'. But in reality they are the new Status Quo - with a six-year history of fighting among themselves over the excellence of their vision and the beauty of their policy - with little to show for it - and all at the expense of children and classroom teachers. Arts & Music Education, school nurses, librarians, plant managers and counselors - and thousands of RIFed teachers and staff - are collateral damage in their conflict and narrow vision.
There not only must be, there is another way - and with this being the twenty-year anniversary of the Rodney King episode - let us remember Rodney's question: "Why can't we all just get along?"
We need to improve our graduation rate, a positive value - and stop focusing on the drop-out rate, a negative one. We need to conclude that if a student takes five years to graduate they are still high school graduates. We need to focus like a laser on getting third graders to read at third grade level - and help more English Language Learners master that subject early. Real bilingual education should exist wall-to-wall in LAUSD - pre-K-to-12th-grade - because true bilingualism is the greatest identifier of later student success. Arts and Music and Science and History are just as important - and mission critical to education - as Math and Language Arts. And Student Safety and Health trump them all!
I am running as a write in candidate because I want to restore our school district to a mission of educational excellence and begin to take it back from the especially interested ...and I am not hearing that from the other candidates with their names on the ballot.
It is a difficult challenge to run as a write in candidate - I need your help.
I am hoping that you and your friends will write in my name: Scott Folsom on your write in ballot on the gray ballot envelope. On the first line where it says OFFICE you write in LAUSD BOARD OF ED SEAT # 5. On the second line CANDIDATE you write in my name, SCOTT FOLSOM.
We The People can win this election and take back our school district --if you vote for me and let all your friends know, regardless of their party, about me ...by word of mouth, e-mail or Facebook or Twitter. This is guerrilla grass roots politics at its most basic. Forward this message far+wide - tell everyone you know:"This guy is crazy ...but in a good way!"
There's a test next Tuesday and it isn't multiple choice. It's a written test and it counts for all of our grades - students, teachers, parents, staff and community members - in Northeast Los Angeles, the unincorporated parts of East L.A. and the Cities of the Southeast for the next four years. Together we can return our school district to a focus on educating children instead of the bottom line - whether it is the budget or test scores. Because we measure true success - and realize the return-on-investment-made far later-on down-the-line - when today’s young people cross the threshold tomorrow ...as voters and parents and taxpayers.
SCOTT FOLSOM FOR BOARD OF ED SEAT #5. Spelling and neatness counts!
We can move Onward ...or we can continue as we have been.
L.A. SCHOOL BOARD TO CLOSE SIX CHARTER SCHOOLS CAUGHT CHEATING + THE CHEATING CHARTER
L.A. SCHOOL BOARD TO CLOSE SIX CHARTER SCHOOLS CAUGHT CHEATING: Board members act to revoke the charter of the Crescendo organization despite an earlier recommendation to reauthorize its schools for another five years.
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times |http://lat.ms/
March 2, 2011 - The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to shut down six charter schools that were accused of widespread cheating on last year's standardized tests, citing the malfeasance and an insufficient response to it.
The board took the initiative to revoke the charter of the Crescendo organization despite an earlier recommendation by the district to reauthorize its schools for another five years. District staff had said they believed that the charter board had taken adequate steps to deal with the scandal.
But on Tuesday, a day after The Times detailed Crescendo's problems, incoming Supt. John Deasy recommended an investigation by the Inspector General of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Pending those results, a one-year renewal could be considered, Deasy said.
Crescendo founder/executive director John Allen allegedly ordered principals and teachers to prepare students for last year's exams with the actual test questions. Several teachers at the schools alerted the district about the cheating.
Allen, who initially denied wrongdoing when confronted, was demoted, according to district documents and interviews. Principals received 10-day suspensions.
A contingent from Crescendo declined to comment after the board vote.
"This charter school is thumbing their nose at the district and thumbing their nose at the rules," said board member Tamar Galatzan, who called on her colleagues to revoke the charter. Crescendo should not have "another year to do what they were supposed to do in the first place."
Before the vote, two Crescendo principals defended the organization's overall record and its approach to instruction. Two parents also praised Crescendo.
"Whatever was in the past or whatever is going on, we should give them a second chance," said Alfredo Guillen, who has two sons there.
But board member Richard Vladovic said the parents' trust had been betrayed with a hurtful message: "We don't have faith in our children. We have to cheat for them."
At Tuesday's meeting, only two Crescendo schools were up for the standard charter renewal process. The board's action applies to all six campuses, which are in South Los Angeles, Gardena and Hawthorne.
Crescendo schools will be allowed to remain open during the months-long shut-down process required by state law.
The board move was unusual — it has rarely revoked a charter for wrongdoing or academic performance.
The vote was 6 to 1, with Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte dissenting. She said she was concerned about the welfare of the school's students and cited the charters' apparent academic success.
But school board President Monica Garcia said the cheating made it hard to tell whether the schools were as successful as believed. The state invalidated the 2010 test results, which were nonetheless cited by district staff as evidence of the schools' academic success.
The Crescendo charter had a pair of unlikely defenders, the head of the teachers union and the California Charter Schools Assn., which has called for strict accountability for charter schools. Charters are publicly funded and independently run.
Union President A.J. Duffy wanted the schools to stay open in the interests of students and teachers, who recently voted to join United Teachers Los Angeles. He said teachers had courageously risked their jobs to report cheating. He also said anyone involved in cheating should be disciplined and perhaps even fired.
The charter association supported a short-term charter renewal to give the school time to prove itself. Crescendo joined the charter association as the cheating allegations were emerging.
Association director Jed Wallace said he lacked enough information to pass judgment. Nor would he say that cheating per se should be a cause for dismissal or a charter revocation.
In other related actions, the school board approved, without discussion, allowing El Camino Real High School to become a charter. The Woodland Hills campus has long been considered an academic powerhouse.
The board also voted unanimously to shut down Cornerstone Prep School in Florence, because of poor academic performance.
And, board members also agreed not to renew the charter of Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists, also in Florence, over management issues and a financial conflict of interest among its operators. LaMotte abstained, citing the school's high test scores.
The school's operators said they would appeal the non-renewal to the L.A. County Office of Education, which also can authorize charter schools.
THE CHEATING CHARTER: Crescendo gave students test answers. How low does a school have to go for L.A. Unified to close it?
LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/hp0Ezm
1 March 2011 - The Los Angeles Unified School District has rightly been raising the bar for its public schools. Now it needs to do the same for its charter schools.
For years, the district has been reluctant to close problematic charters, even when the California Charter Schools Assn., an organization that promotes the publicly funded but independently run schools, has recommended doing so. On Tuesday, the school board will be faced with a clear case: Crescendo Schools, whose six campuses in L.A. Unified engaged in rampant cheating on the yearly state standardized tests. The cheating was ordered by founder and then-Executive Director John Allen, promulgated by principals and carried out by teachers, except for a few brave ones who blew the whistle. Under a mandate from the top, teachers broke open the seals on the tests and used the questions to prep students.
Charter schools generally operate on five-year contracts under which they agree to be held accountable for whether they reach ambitious goals, in exchange for freedom from many regulations. At the end of the five years, their progress is assessed before they are given another five-year contract. The school board will consider the extension for two Crescendo schools Tuesday.
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Crescendo at first denied and then downplayed its illegal behavior. It never fired any of the people involved, though it did move Allen to another position. And now district staff proposes renewing the schools' contracts for five years because Crescendo reshuffled its governing board and instituted new ethics training for the staff. On Monday, after The Times reported on this situation, Deputy Supt. John Deasy proposed amending that to year-by-year renewal. Neither is acceptable. Exactly how low does a school have to go to be closed by L.A. Unified?
If the board reauthorizes Crescendo's contract, as well as renewing agreements with charter schools that have not appreciably improved test scores or other educational outcomes, not only is it reneging on the most elementary concept of accountability, but it is sending a terrible message to other charter schools about the standard to which they are held: There are no real consequences as long as you promise not to mess up anymore. Bad charters aren't good for students, or for the reputation of the many charters that do an outstanding job.
OUR SCHOOLS’ SWEET TOOTH: The foods served to students contain far too much sugar.
By Emily Ventura, LA Times Op-Ed | http://lat.ms/iidrde
March 2, 2011 - Soft drinks were banned in Los Angeles schools in 2004. But if you think that means kids are protected from too much sugar at school, think again. Children are regularly able to select a school breakfast that contains more added sugar than a can of soda. A popular breakfast offering of Frosted Flakes doused in chocolate milk with a side of coffee cake and a carton of orange juice contains 51 grams of added sugar (or 79 grams of total sugar counting those that occur naturally in the milk and the juice). A 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola contains 39 grams of sugar.
With about 650,000 student meals served a day, the Los Angeles Unified School District operates the largest school breakfast program in the nation and the second-largest school lunch program. And that isn't necessarily a good thing. A recent study by the University of Michigan of more than 1,000 sixth-graders found that those who ate school-provided lunches were 29% more likely to be obese than those who brought lunches from home.
The foods that schools serve need to be rethought. Take that 51 grams of added sugar in the breakfast described above: It exceeds the daily sugar limit recommended by the World Health Organization, which is 10% of total calories, or 50 grams a day for a 2,000-calorie diet.
Appropriate nutrition is of particular importance in L.A. Unified, where 72% of the students are Latino, an ethnic group at high risk for both obesity and Type 2 diabetes. At the USC Childhood Obesity Research Center, we have recently shown that a high-sugar diet is a major factor leading to overweight and Type 2 diabetes risk factors in Los Angeles-area Latino children.
Despite these health risks, neither federal nor district standards limit the overall sugar content of school meals. Even the newly proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture school food guidelines, which are open for public comment until April 13, don't include specific limits on sugar. Rather, they state that though added sugars should be limited, they may be included as long as the menus meet caloric guidelines.
L.A. Unified's wellness policy does include a section on added sugar. It states, for example, that cereals may not contain more than 7 grams of added sugar per ounce, but this cutoff is high enough that Frosted Flakes and Frosted Mini Wheats are allowed. Moreover, without an overall sugar cap for a meal, it's possible for children to select a loaded combination of sweet items.
Menus should be designed so that no matter what choice a student makes, the total sugar content is low. As it stands, the sweetened cereal, the chocolate milk and juice or fruit are available every day. In addition, about three days a week, the accompaniment to these staples is also something sweet, such as coffee cake or a waffle.
A few straightforward changes to the menus would lead to considerable reductions in sugar intake. Removing the chocolate milk from breakfast and lunch could mean a reduction of 4 teaspoons per day per child, which adds up to nearly a gallon of sugar per child over the course of the school year.
However, politics related to federal funding make such seemingly simple changes more difficult. If the district took away chocolate milk and kids decided not to drink the plain milk, it could lead to reduced funding from the USDA. For the district to receive federal reimbursement for meals, students may not decline more than one item at breakfast or more than two items at lunch. Though technically students may skip the milk altogether and the district would still be reimbursed, chocolate milk is one of the most popular items and helps to ensure student participation — and hence funding.
When discussing the potential decline in participation that might be associated with removing chocolate milk, food service executives often cite a recent study sponsored by the Milk Processor Education Program, which found that when flavored milk is not available, elementary school milk consumption drops by 35%. These results were disseminated to food service directors across the country via the School Nutrition Assn., which is associated with the National Dairy Council.
Despite industry pressure, district food service division administrators are willing to consider offering only plain milk and reducing added sugars in general in the menus. However, they are not confident that district parents will understand or support such efforts, which makes the district hesitant to take the risk.
Now is a crucial time for parents and other community members to voice their opinions and to support the district in reducing the sugar content of meals. The food services division is in the process of revising its menus and developing a new nutrition wellness policy. Though the school board does not review the specific menus, it does vote on the policies that govern them.
The board expects to receive a draft of the new wellness policy in the next month and to vote on it in July. Meanwhile, the food services staff has nearly finalized new menus, which will be tested in the coming months and implemented in the fall.
We recommend that the district embrace the recommendation of WHO and adopt a new policy to regulate the overall added sugar content of student meals to no more than 10% of total calories. Adopting this policy would be a step toward preventing chronic disease in Los Angeles' youth.
-Emily Ventura is a research fellow at USC's Childhood Obesity Research Center and social action chairwoman of Slow Food Los Angeles. Michael Goran is a professor of preventive medicine and pediatrics at USC and director of the Childhood Obesity Research Center.
PARENT AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: HAS ITS TIME FINALLY COME?
Commentary By David S. Seeley | EdWeek | http://bit.ly/dE6UI5
March 2, 2011 - Recent decades have been frustrating ones for education reformers who have long urged greater family and community engagement in public education. Research increasingly shows its importance, and educators give it ever wider lip service. Yet, too often it remains only lip service, and public schools fail to make the changes needed for really effective collaboration between home, school, and community.
Even when school systems finally do put family and community engagement on the agenda, they tend to see it as an “extra” rather than an essential system change. Too often, the result is that school authorities—and even community leaders—conclude: “The parents we need to reach aren’t interested,” or “People only want to complain and criticize, not help.” So efforts to shift to a collaborative approach remain a low priority at best.
But the situation is changing. Not only is there more research supporting the importance of family and community involvement for student success, but several highly visible pilot projects in major cities, such as the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York and the Children’s Aid Society’s community-based programs, demonstrate that serious family engagement and the mobilization of out-of-school resources are possible, even in difficult urban situations.
The question is how to implement this student-family-community model, given that these days schools are so distracted by a narrowly conceived “hard-nosed accountability” that is driving them into increased top-down bureaucratic control instead of collaboration, and almost insane low-skills test prep instead of high-quality learning.
Educators are right to complain about this misconceived type of accountability, and they have a point that low achievement is affected by out-of-school factors such as poverty, poor parenting, and health problems.
However, the positive side to this new pressure for achievement is that more policymakers now realize that many of our failing students simply are not getting the supports they need for success, and that something has to be done.
"This could be the most important mobilization for America in the 21st century: communities all over America, working intensively together to ensure the success of all their children."
This puts us at the cusp of a crucial change in our basic attitude toward education that will make all the difference in our success: a shift from the current common assumption that education is a responsibility delegated to schools alone (the way firefighting, policing, and defense have been delegated to specialized agencies) to the concept that education must be accepted as a shared responsibility of home, school, and community.
Many—not all—parents and teachers already instinctively know this. But our institutional relationships for more than a century have moved in the opposite direction, toward bureaucratic schooling that de-emphasizes responsible roles for students, parents, and communities. Changing basic attitudes and assumptions is difficult, since they are often unconscious and invisible. But this particular change is one I believe our society is ready to make. Actually, it is common sense in many ways—an idea that only needs to be brought into the open to be widely accepted. And shifting to this mind-set will reduce the unfairness of holding schools solely responsible for children’s successful education, which should make it easier for almost any teacher or fair-minded parent to accept.
Although common sense can be impeded by deeply entrenched relationships and mental habits, I believe we are finally at the edge of realizing that, without a much more powerful and successful approach to education, our society will fail its future, and that ultimately education will advance only if we accept it as a shared responsibility and stop expecting schools alone to “deliver” it for us.
Joyce Epstein’s Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University has been working on this issue for many years. The center has demonstrated not only that this approach can greatly increase student success, but also that the time, training, and community development needed to implement the approach are less costly than most other reforms and have a far greater multiplier effect in increasing student success. What’s most needed now is the leadership in schools and communities to help people make this shift and implement these new collaborative relationships.
Education Week recently ran a back-page Commentary with the headline: “Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask.” It told a heartwarming story of successful volunteer recruitment at one of Indianapolis’ lowest-performing schools; the outcome was impressive results for poor and minority students. ("Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask," December 8, 2010.)
Even so, most school systems are not asking for the help that they and their students need and that may be available. Too often, school leaders have not yet recognized the enormous potential of beginning to work together in what is essentially a new kind of partnership.
This could be the most important mobilization for America in the 21st century: communities all over America, working intensively together to ensure the success of all their children to the levels of learning and citizenship needed for today’s world, but unattainable by the schools alone.
Without such a mobilization, America’s educational reform efforts will never succeed at the levels this country needs. And, if we fail, a very large shadow will continue to hang over our nation’s future.
- David S. Seeley, a City University of New York professor emeritus, was assistant U.S. commissioner of education for equal educational opportunities under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He is the author of Education Through Partnership (Ballinger, 1981), which spells out the need for redesigning public education as a shared responsibility of home, school, and community.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
WHY WON’T LAUSD’s LUIS SANCHEZ DISCUSS ECHO PARQUES CRES #14?: by Robert D. Skeels in solidaridad | http://bit.ly/fflXuE
Billions to Spend-Part 6/The final installment but not the last word on the LACCD construction fiasco: GRAND DRE... http://bit.ly/hzLB0F
MONEY MAY NOT MATTER TO BILL GATES…BUT FACTS SHOULD: Themes in the News for the week of Feb. 28-March 1, 2011 by U... http://bit.ly/f5BHtL
Fensterwald/Educated Guess: BROWN’S PLAN TO ABOLISH CRAs GAINS SUPPORT + SHORTAGE OF VOCATIONAL DEGREES: Brown’s... http://bit.ly/h3Lj7D
An open letter to Bill Gates:HIGHER CLASS SIZES WILL DRIVE TEACHERS OUT: By Anthony Cody | Ed Week Teacher/Livin... http://bit.ly/g5gy8w
CONGRESS CHOPS FUNDING FOR HIGH-PROFILE EDUCATIOPROGRAMS: Even Start, Striving Readers, Teach For America slash... http://bit.ly/dUhiSH
“NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING” FOR LAUSD BOARD SEAT #5: by smf for 4LAKidsNews 5 March 2011- They held a candidate's ... http://bit.ly/hV0zUR
LA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION SCANDAL, PART 5: A family conflict of interest on a college campus: by... http://bit.ly/h2gq1j
last lausd candidate debate of the season. tonite @ 7pm @ mt washington school. -smf
Another shoe drops in LA Times’ LACCD construction exposé ...and a connection to LAUSD is alleged: MARKUPS BY 'B... http://bit.ly/gaqxxI
Additional Coverage + smf 2¢: CRESCENDO CHARTERS SHUTDOWN: from Google News Parents React To Charter School Ch... http://bit.ly/eCTlRN
L.A. SCHOOL BOARD TO CLOSE SIX CHARTER SCHOOLS CAUGHT CHEATING: Board members act to revoke the charter of the C... http://bit.ly/hmiqoU
OUR SCHOOLS’ SWEET TOOTH: The foods served to students contain far too much sugar.: By Emily Ventura, LA Times O... http://bit.ly/hzbwZh
CANDIDATES FOR L.A. COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT BOARD URGE GREATER SCRUTINY OF SYSTEM: Candidates running on a re... http://bit.ly/fF13Lf
CHARTER PLAN FOR EL CAMINO REAL HIGH SCHOOL GETS APPROVAL: High school expects move to bring an extra $415,000 i... http://bit.ly/gkv4FU
Billions to spend/The LACCD construction fiasco part 2: A NEW COMPLEX RIDDLED WITH ILLS THAT ARE TOO COSTLY TO C... http://bit.ly/eYISfX
LAUSD SHORT OF INSPECTORS: Lack of supervision at construction sites means 'safety and quality are being comprom... http://bit.ly/hBIlhI
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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