In This Issue:  | | • | School Funding: PUBLIC GOOD. PUBLIC CUTS - State budget shortfalls will bring a raft of cuts to public schools | | | • | LAUSD TEACHER REHIRING FUNDS LANGUISH + LAUSD CHIEF GIVES PRINCIPALS WEEKEND HOMEWORK ON LAYOFFS | | | • | LAUSD MOVES FORWARD WITH PLAN FOR NEW CHARTER SCHOOL ON WALGROVE CAMPUS | | | • | Crescendo Charter Schools: LA SCHOOLS CHIEF DROPS CHARTER-REVOCATION PROCEEDING AGAINST SCHOOLS IN CHEATING SCANDAL | | | • | 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: | | | | FIRST + EVER FOREMOST: ¡CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!
Whether from High School or Middle School or Kindergarten or Preschool ...or if you are just matriculating into the next grade, the next challenge, the next adventure.: Good job!
The mantra is 100% Graduation – I hope we look at that as a goal for Every Student. Every Year. Every Day..
I HAVEN'T SEEN THIS REPORTED ANYWHERE ELSE – but on Wednesday June 22 at 11:42 AM the District dissolved all the Title One District Advisory Councils – elected parent panels that advised and consulted the local districts on ESEA Title One policy and implementation. Title One is is the largest federal government investment in K-12 Education; it is LAUSD's second largest funding source outside dwindling state ADA and categorical financing. Parental involvement and input is a absolute requirement of Title One – yet the advisory councils were disbanded by LAUSD's new Chief of School, Family and Parent/Community Services (that's her title on the website!) Maria Casillas - former CEO of Families in Schools – heavily funded by Broad, Gates, etc. Last week 4LAKids enumerated the various ways from the list of How You Can Tell if Your District is Infected with the Broad Virus [http://bit.ly/BroadNos]. I refer you to #'s 6, 7, 29 and 30 – and leave it at that for this week.
6. Power is centralized.. 7. Decision-making is top down. 29. A rash of Astroturf groups appear claiming to represent “the community” or “parents” and all advocate for the exact same corporate ed reforms that your superintendent supports — merit pay, standardized testing, charter schools, alternative credentialing for teachers. Of course, none of these are genuine grassroots community organizations. [see: How To Create A Faux Grassroots Ed Reform Organization In12 Easy Steps!Posted by Sue Peters on seattleducation2011| http://bit.ly/ejZdRT]
30. Existing groups suddenly become fervidly in favor of teacher bashing, merit pay or charter schools. Don’t be surprised to find that these groups may have received grant money from the corporate ed reform foundations like Gates or Broad.
OFF TOPIC: Much has been made by NeoCons and NeoLibs alike of Osama bin Laden's residence in Abbottabad, How could the Pakistanis not know when ObL lived less than a mile from their military academy? Yet most-wanted fugitive Boston mobster Whitey Bulger lived for seventeen years within walking distance of the Mall in Santa Monica!
SATURDAY MORNING I AWOKE AT AN UNGODLY HOUR and let my mind wander as I took-and-made end-of-school-year note.
What the hell (the hour was ungodly) is going on?
Some of my thinking was colored by the BBC droning in the background, A business programme discussed mercantile philosophy. An interviewer interviewed on the fall of the Soviet Union twenty years ago. (Time flies when you are the only superpower.) A health special discussed the worldwide shortage of midwives (50 million unattended births annually).
One of the businessmen discussed what he called the Myth of the Rational Mind, He believes (and I agree) that all decision making is ultimately based on gut instinct – and that this is especially true in service industries.
Education – despite all the purported reforms driven by business modeling, the scientific method and data – is a service industry. We serve our customers (students, parents and the community) – we do not manufacture scholars.
We need to train students (and ourselves as parents and educators) to be rational decision makers. But as human beings we must accept that ultimate decisions are based on anecdote and emotion; Education is anecdotal not empiric.
Wikipedia: The Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. The Oxford English Dictionary says that scientific method is: "a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses." http://bit.ly/lJj1l3
While education can (and should) be phenomenal, I doubt if it is a phenomena. And I really doubt if we agree what those 'specific principles of reasoning' are....other than the decidedly nonscientific 'we will know it when we see it'.
In the end Education is an Art.
I look to Eric Hoffer for philosophic background on decision makers and their capability for dangerous decisions. . Hoffer warns of The True Believer as (Ir)rational decision maker – a danger whether from the right, left or center. Hoffer's archetype is probably G. Gordon Liddy – a minor character True Believer who left a dark mustachioed shadow as a philosophical sociopath on the Watergate era.
A Hoffer sidebar: “The Paleolithic hunters who painted the unsurpassed animal murals on the ceiling of the cave at Altamira had only rudimentary tools. Art is older than production for use, and play older than work. Man was shaped less by what he had to do than by what he did in playful moments. It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities.”
Joseph Campbell gives us another archetype decision maker. The Hero is a believer a leader rather than a follower – but ultimately is so driven by mission and goals that rationality is lost. Heroism is irrational.
[Here the BBC segued to a story of Sir Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem – a number theory problem that had plagued mathematicians since the 17th century.]
Wile solved the proof through years of dedicated labor – but the proof came in an 'aha moment' of insight – not scientific rationality. Hoffer says that invention is more likely from toymaker's imaginations than manufacturer’s necessity.
So where am I going? In education we are and must be more interested in the future – where the children we teach will live their lives – not in the past and present where all this data resides.
Perhaps we are fixed on the past – Last May's Test Scores, and the May before that, because LAUSD (and public education in general) is incapable making long range plans. With the state and federal education budgets unknown how can we?
The current LAUSD 2011-12 Budget [http://bit.ly/lVC8b8 + http://bit.ly/fiSFxs] and the Collective Bargaining Agreements [http://scr.bi/ktkVCc] based on it are pure speculation – rosy scenarios founded on wishful thinking and optimistic scenarios.
• IF the tax extensions get put on the ballot.
• IF the voters approve them.
• IF there is bridge funding in the interim.
Voting on and approving wishful thinking don't make it so!
The California State STAR tests - the way we observe, measure and evaluate students, teachers and schools – the generator of API Scores and the LA Times Misbegotten Teacher Assessments - the drummer to whom we march – setter-of property values in our community (Those banners on the fence that say “This is an API 800 or API 900 School “ are not there for the aesthetics) will all go away in two years. There will be no STAR test and no API as we know in in 2013..
State law requires that California school districts submit a three-year balanced budget by July 1 – next Friday. The current rosy draft of the LAUSD budget is hopeful for next year, but Year Two is dark. And Year Three is Dickensian. Charles, not Emily.
The Stare Controller (he who determines what 'balanced' means)on Saturday opined that he is hopeful that the legislature will come up with a budget Wednesday.
• What of the Ninth Graders entering high school on September 6th?
They should graduate in Year Four of this cycle - if they do as they should and we do also.
• And the entering Kindergarteners should graduate in Year Thirteen ...all things being things.
If we are not focused there – on those spots beyond the horizon – we will be wasting their opportunities and their lives.
¡Onward/Adelante! -smf
School Funding: PUBLIC GOOD. PUBLIC CUTS - State budget shortfalls will bring a raft of cuts to public schools
Editorial from the U.S. Edition of The Economist | http://econ.st/k3eL5c
Jun 16th 2011 | AUSTIN |IN 1783 Noah Webster, a schoolteacher, published the first edition of his American spelling book. It would become a standard text in classrooms around the country, selling 60m copies over the course of the next century. Webster’s view was that the new country deserved its own approach to English, more accessible than the version it had inherited. For Webster and his followers, literacy was a democratic goal as much as a pedagogical one.
That vision of public education is a compelling one, although America has often fallen short in its pursuit of the ideal. This makes it troubling that many cities and states, struggling to make up budget shortfalls, have put schools on the chopping block. In Texas, for example, legislators expect $4 billion in cuts for schools over the next two years, a 6% decrease from the state’s projected funding formulas for 2012. The state convened a special legislative session to hash out the details, after a Democratic state senator filibustered the legislation in the regular session.
The cuts are also meeting resistance from pupils, teachers and, in some cases, the courts. In Los Angeles the teachers’ union voted in favour of salary cuts, an effort to save jobs. Republicans in Michigan have complained that they are getting emotional letters from kindergarteners. Last month a New Jersey judge issued a report declaring that 36% of the state’s schools are inadequately funded, given the obligations laid out in the state constitution—so Governor Chris Christie’s budget for the current fiscal year, which would cut $800m, should not have passed muster.
Despite these efforts, most states will see at least some cuts, adding up to billions of dollars around the country. These will come from thousands of minor economies, which will be readily apparent when schools reopen in the autumn—among those that do reopen, that is. Classes will be more crowded, school-bus rides longer. Baseball may be cut to keep football going. Latin will be even rarer—and forget about adding Mandarin this year.
Some schools are now charging fees for certain classes or activities, a startling trend that violates some basic ideas about what public schools are supposed to do. The idea of asking people to chip in for schools is not unprecedented, but it is usually a bit more subtle. Elementary-school teachers ask their pupils to buy school supplies; high-school students sell cupcakes and wash cars to raise money for the prom. Parents may supplement a child’s education with extra services—a tutor, a week at lacrosse camp, a second-hand car, a new silver trumpet rather than the borrowed cornet, glottal with generations of spit. Asking pupils to pay fees for core activities or classes seems much worse. These services may be for individual students, but public schools are a public good.
Projected cuts around the country will bring forward some deeper questions about school finance. As it is, Americans already pay for public schools by virtue of where they live; schools are partly funded by property taxes. The richer the parents, the better the schools, or at least better resourced. That is a fundamental inequity of the American system, not a new one.
A broader question is whether money is the best way to improve schools. A 2008 study from the Centre on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington found that spending on schools, adjusted for inflation, increased by 29% between 1990 and 2005, without a commensurate gain in pupil achievement. Better strategies may not be more expensive. The cuts may force states to think creatively. That would be some consolation.
LAUSD TEACHER REHIRING FUNDS LANGUISH + LAUSD CHIEF GIVES PRINCIPALS WEEKEND HOMEWORK ON LAYOFFS
LAUSD TEACHER REHIRING FUNDS LANGUISH
By Connie Llanos Staff Writer/Daily Breeze/Daily News | http://bit.ly/ik9H7U
6/25/2011 - Up to $57 million in funds controlled by Los Angeles Unified schools that were expected to save the jobs of hundreds of teachers, nurses and counselors have not been spent, according to district officials.
The district placed the funds under the authority of schools in an effort to promote local decision-making, but now Superintendent John Deasy faces a dilemma: He supports local control, but he wants schools to spend their money to help reduce the roughly 1,900 layoffs of teachers, nurses and counselors planned in the new fiscal year that begins Friday.
After negotiating furlough deals with district unions earlier this year to help reduce layoffs, officials had estimated that local schools would help out by choosing to use their own funds to buy back about 700 to 1,000 positions.
But as of Friday they had only bought 82 positions.
In a memo, Deasy gave principals and local district superintendents until Monday to explain why they have unused money in their school accounts.
"I believe in autonomy, but I also believe that if you have the means to provide support to students - and we've been hearing lots of concerns about students not getting what they need - you have a responsibility to do that," Deasy said.
Those local funds can be used for a range of purposes, including the purchase of instructional materials and supplies. Deasy said that while he is committed to schools having local control of their budget, he could be forced to step in and direct schools to bring back critical staff like counselors, social workers and nurses whose ranks have been decimated by budget cuts.
In fact, last week he made an executive decision to rescind the layoff notices of 142 counselors, social workers and nurses who were set to be laid off July 1.
The district faced a budget gap of $408 million for the 2011-12 school year before the furlough deals and other cost-saving measures. Officials hope they can resolve the buyback issue before the July 1 start of the fiscal year, in part because it is easier to rescind a layoff notice than it is to rehire personnel, and to avoid unemployment costs.
Judy Perez, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, offered several potential explanations why the funds have not been spent.
For one, she said, principals and other administrators were asked to go back and look at their campus budgets at the end of the school year, when many are overwhelmed with end-of-the-year responsibilities, which could have prevented some from purchasing more positions.
Also, some of the schools have only a few thousand dollars in those local school accounts - although dozens of schools hold more than $100,000 and some up to $500,000.
The average cost of buying back a teacher is about $80,000, district officials said.
Further complicating the issue for many principals is their inability to select the employees they want, when given the option to buy back staff.
State law requires that educators be laid off - and hired back - based on seniority.
John McLaughlin, principal of Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood, said when he opened the new campus three years ago he carefully selected a top-notch staff of educators to serve the school's predominantly low-income and Latino students.
While he has limited funds to buy back some positions, he said it is frustrating to know that he will have to select this staff based on how long they have been with LAUSD - not on how well they fit into his campus.
Concerns about seniority have also prevented some principals from filling the vacancies they have at their schools.
The overhaul of at least seven low-performing LAUSD campuses this year, where at least half of the staff members were removed, has left hundreds of teachers displaced, many of whom have rights to jobs because of how long they've worked with the district.
But McLaughlin bristled at the idea of having to replace some of the dynamic teachers he's losing this year with educators who were removed from failing schools.
"I am losing my handpicked people and now they want me to drink from a pool of stagnant water," McLaughlin said.
"If someone is terrible in one place they are going to be terrible here. ... Why would I want to do that to my kids?" he asked.
United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy said it was wrong for principals to assume that all teachers who have been displaced from schools have been removed because of low performance.
He also chastised school leaders who have opted not to buy back positions when they have money available. When UTLA leaders asked their members to vote in favor of a furlough agreement, the union predicted almost all of the jobs would be saved through the furloughs and local buybacks.
Duffy, however, said he now expects at least 600 more positions to be restored by the start of the next school year.
LAUSD CHIEF GIVES PRINCIPALS WEEKEND HOMEWORK ON LAYOFFS
from City News Service (Beverly Hills Courier) | http://bit.ly/jKPYUJ
(CNS) Sunday June 26, 2011 – 9:50am - Principals and other Los Angeles school administrators have been given a Monday deadline to explain why they haven't used $57 million in local discretionary funds to stave off the pending layoff of 1,900 teachers, nurses and counselors, it was reported today.
Superintendent John Deasy gave the Los Angeles Unified School District bureaucracy until Monday to justify sitting on the money, which was allocated to individual campuses in a move to decentralize spending priorities, the Daily Breeze newspaper reported.
"I believe in autonomy, but I also believe that if you have the means to provide to students -- and we've been hearing lots of concerns about students not getting what they need -- you have a responsibility to do that," Deasy told the newspaper.
The president of the association that represents principals said many of its members have been overwhelmed with end-of-the-year responsibilities.
Other principals, said Judy Perez, do not have enough local discretionary funds to pay for an entire teacher's salary and benefits, estimated at around $80,000 each.
One principal told the Daily Breeze that he did not want to use his school's local funding to rehire teachers because he would be forced to take teachers based on the district-wide seniority list.
Six underperforming LAUSD schools have had their staffs dissolved this year, adding senior teachers from them to the pool of laid-off teachers.
John McLaughlin, principal of Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood, said he had carefully selected the teachers at his school, and did not want to hire teachers who had been laid off.
"I am losing my hand-picked people and now they want me to drink from a pool of stagnant water," McLaughlin told the Daily Breeze. "If someone is terrible in one place, they are going to be terrible here ... "Why would I want to do that to my kids?" he asked.
Teachers union president A.J. Duffy bristled at that, and told the newspaper it was wrong for principals to assume that laid-off teachers were in that position because of poor performance.
Deasy, who took office this spring, has the power to step in and force principals to rehire teachers, nurses and counselors.
He told the newspaper that the matter should be settled quickly, to avoid the cost of laying educators off, paying them unemployment insurance benefits, and then rehiring them this fall.
LAUSD MOVES FORWARD WITH PLAN FOR NEW CHARTER SCHOOL ON WALGROVE CAMPUS
The LAUSD Board authorizes staff on Tuesday to release an 'Intent to Lease' for two acres of space at Walgrove Ave. Elementary where a new charter school would be built.
By Samantha Page | Venice Patch| http://bit.ly/jvDSIx
22 June - With little deliberation, the Los Angeles Unified School District board on Tuesday authorized its staff to issue a notice of intent, calling for proposals from charter schools to build a new school on two acres of the Walgrove Avenue Elementary School campus.
"All we're doing is approving the intent to lease the land," said LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer, who represents the district.
Zimmer was reiterating statements he made at a contentious meeting at Walgrove last week. This is the first step toward putting a charter school on Walgrove's campus. LAUSD staff said they intend to issue the notice sometime this summer. If and when a proposal is selected, the board will have another opportunity to vote, which will come with another round of public comment.
"We do not need another school," one Walgrove neighbor told the board on Tuesday. She suggested that a better use of the space would be to "create a safe zone for loading and unloading passengers."
Congestion along Walgrove Avenue was the primary complaint of most of the few speakers who could attend the 1 p.m. meeting downtown. Four other neighbors registered complaints of people blocking them in their driveways, speeding away after dropping off passengers, and even parking in private driveways.
Some said the space rightfully belonged to Walgrove and should not be given away.
Sandi Wise, who lives nearby, noted when the Lincoln Place apartments are fully occupied, the area will be supporting more traffic, and the magnet school starting at Mark Twain Middle School nearby is expected to add 300 students to the area.
Currently, Ocean Charter School has 14 classrooms and about 150 students at Walgrove, through the program instated by Proposition 39.
"In this particular area, there has been incredible pressure on classroom space due to Prop. 39," Zimmer said. "There are not enough spaces to accommodate requests.
Twelve of OSC's classrooms are in out-buildings, which have to be removed at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. In addition, the Green Dot charter school organization is looking for space in Venice. The LAUSD briefly considered colocating Green Dot's new middle school at Westminster Avenue Elementary.
Sarah Reimers, co-president of the Friends of Walgrove booster club, said it was a "very innovative solution" to the space problem in the area.
"A great deal of stress and energy" has been spent on the colocation of OCS at Walgrove, Reimers said. "Parents at Walgrove are not concerned with losing two acres."
Do you think a new school should be built at Walgrove? Tell us in the comments.
smf's 2cents: There are questions that need to be answered before charter schools build on District-owned land.
Who will pay for construction? …and from what money?
Who will hold title to the building? – buildings last a lifetime, charters last five years.
Will it be built to DSA/Field Act standards?
Prop 39 is not an entitlement to space because a charter wants it – it only makes space available if it exists and is available
Keep an eye on the Environmental Impact Reports. This is no place to scrimp on the school building codes and standards
Follow the money. ● Connect the dots. ●. Sunshine the process.
Crescendo Charter Schools: LA SCHOOLS CHIEF DROPS CHARTER-REVOCATION PROCEEDING AGAINST SCHOOLS IN CHEATING SCANDAL
BY CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press | http://bit.ly/mBosVj
Posted: June 21, 2011 - 5:12 pm - LOS ANGELES — Six Los Angeles charter schools have been allowed to remain open because of reforms following a state test cheating scandal involving teachers and principals.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy told the Board of Education on Tuesday that he halted charter-revocation proceedings against Crescendo Schools because they have implemented sufficient safeguards to prevent future cheating violations.
Parents erupted into cheers as he announced his decision.
Crescendo Schools operates elementary schools in low-income areas and is noted for an innovative music-math program.
In May 2010, the then-executive director showed an advance copy of state tests to principals, ordering them to direct teachers to quiz students based on actual questions on the tests. Two teachers reported the cheating to the district and the state invalidated the exam results.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
Educated Guess: FEW STATE RULES FOR TRANSITION K + MESS WITH PROP 98, DO NOT PASS GO: FEW STATE RULES FOR TRANSI... http://bit.ly/mHhcKW
Walgrove (cont.): LAUSD PLANS TO OFFER OPEN SPACE AT WALGROVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN MAR VISTA TO CHARTER ORGANIZA... http://bit.ly/l8aOr0
Here+There/Now+Then: MANY FROM ‘A’-RATED NYC SCHOOLS NEED HELP AT CCNY: By ANNA M. PHILLIPS and ROBERT GEBELOFF ... http://bit.ly/kUaBIG
SCHOOL TURNAROUNDS GET NEW EMPHASIS WITHIN U.S. ED DEPT - Safe and Drug Free Schools? Not so much.: By Michele ... http://bit.ly/l9xOvM
LAUSD MOVES FORWARD WITH PLAN FOR NEW CHARTER SCHOOL ON WALGROVE CAMPUS: The LAUSD Board authorizes staff on Tue... http://bit.ly/jTqWnp
SCHOOL IS IN SESSION FOR VILLARAIGOSA’S CRITICS …including smf: Opinion by By Bill Boyarsky in the Jewish Journa... http://bit.ly/kD17sT
Homework: THE USEFUL AND THE USELESS + NEW RECRUIT IN THE HOMEWORK REVOLT – THE PRINCIPAL: THE USEFUL AND THE US... http://bit.ly/itz3j7
School Funding: PUBLIC GOOD. PUBLIC CUTS - State budget shortfalls will bring a raft of cuts to public schools: ... http://bit.ly/luwlvl
Crescendo Charter Schools: LA SCHOOLS CHIEF DROPS CHARTER-REVOCATION PROCEEDING AGAINST SCHOOLS IN CHEATING SCAN... http://bit.ly/jubciE
Crescendo Charter Schools: LAUSD MOVES TO CLOSE 6 CHARTER SCHOOLS AFTER CHEATING SCANDAL: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | ... http://bit.ly/lXDj2P
FIGHT ENSUES OVER FACEBOOK MONEY FOR NEW JERSEY SCHOOLS + The Broad Connection: by Nancy Solomon NPR Morning Edi... http://bit.ly/mcOfbV
Principals+Administrators: WHAT SCHOOL LEADERS CAN DO TO INCREASE ARTS EDUCATION – effective no+low cost strateg... http://bit.ly/lA7JGc
fyi/off topic: BILLIONARE ELI BROAD WANTS MORE OF YOUR CASH TO BUILD SHRINE TO HIMSELF: By Dennis Romero/LA Week... http://bit.ly/mgVUyT
WHY LOS ANGELES SCHOOLKIDS GET LOUSY MEALS: by Gendy Alimurung/ photos by GREGORY BOJORQUEZ | LA Weekly | http:/... http://bit.ly/kDBy7w
HELP FOR YOUNG IMMIGRANTS: By some estimates, nearly a million young people in this country are living in a kind... http://bit.ly/lEB58O
Letters to the Editor/RE: MAYOR TONY ON IMPROVING EDUCATION: to the la times Re "The teaching fix," Opinion, ... http://bit.ly/iSQR6o
AMID BUDGET CUTS, COLLEGES REDUCE OR ELIMINATE SUMMER SCHOOL: Students face long commutes, higher fees and delay... http://bit.ly/iITOie
WHOOPING COUGH EPIDEMIC SPURS DRIVE FOR INOCULATIONS: Law requires ALL students entering the seventh grade and b... http://bit.ly/l7Zfro
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
June 26, 2011 - TONIGHT ON KPCC 89.9 FM
"RECIPES FOR SUCCESS: TALES FROM GREAT TEACHERS"
Today’s economy – and our nation’s future – depends on the next generation of minds. Creativity and critical thinking skills will be essential tools for that generation, but are our schools equipped to prepare them? And how best to measure success – with standardized tests, or with the sight of enlivened classrooms, filled with engaged, productive students? Town Hall Los Angeles recently brought together some of the brightest minds in education and business for a two-day summit on the future of education. Tonight’s program presents a compelling conversation between Dr. Bill Smoot, author of Conversations with Great Teachers, and MacArthur Fellow Amir Abo-Shaeer, whose radical approach to teaching physics has high school students designing and building robots. And we’ll hear from the late Jaime Escalante, whose belief in his students was key to his recipe for success.
Town Hall Speakers:
Dr. Bill Smoot, Author, ‘Conversations with Great Teachers’
Amir Abo-Shaeer, Director and Teacher, Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy and, MacArthur Foundation Fellow
Town Hall Vault Speaker:
Jaime Escalante, Educator (1990)
*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 Brown: 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. THEY DO!.
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