Saturday, December 31, 2011

Two thousand twelve

Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 1•Jan•2012 Happy New Year
In This Issue:
LOOKING BACK AT 2011+ Not Yet LAUSD: Mini- ®eformish
Precedent in LAUSD v. California busing cut?: FEDERAL APPEALS COURT SAYS ARKANSAS CAN'T STOP MAGNET SCHOOL PROGRAM FUNDING WITHOUT HEARING + Opinion
TWO FOURTH-GRADERS FIND A WAY TO SHARE A SCHOOL’S FOOD
HEALTHY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS: A Safe Environment
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
What can YOU do?


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2011: As years go, that was one of them …best gone.

Personally darker than I'd prefer, generally bleak – not a good one for public education. Best done with, dimly remembered and set aside. Tomorrow is a better day – or at least another one.

The LA Times ("a miserable year of bickering and brinkmanship") in their finite and (since Dec. '08) bankrupt wisdom made a top ten list of goings-on in L.A, http://lat.ms/vSDoie LAUSD and education from preschool-to-higher appears nowhere on it.. No ascent of Deasy, no landmark labor/management agreement, no budget woes, no opening of new schools, no LACCD building scandal (which is their story!), no televised expulsion of chocolate milk or suspension of the new lunch menu – no mention of the successful high school graduates or even the dropouts, nothing of another Academic Decathlon victory. Not a word about the county problems in First5 or foster care. The Daily News made an unenumerated list that got some of those things (LOOKING BACK AT 2011/follows). The AP made a top ten national list: http://bit.ly/sfxDNJ The Penn State sex scandal is as close as they came to education. NCLB? Pizza the vegetable? Race to the Top? Nada.

Our job, gentle readers, is to get The Times and the politicians and each and every one of us – and our kids in the classroom – to focus on education and the welfare of children on everyone's calendar in 2012.

2012: The midnight hour crosses the dateline in Samoa+New Zealand and the New Year sweeps westward around the globe. It becomes official in Times Square as the ball drops …but it isn't truly real until the parade marches counter intuitively eastward down Colorado Boulevard.

Through a century old covenant between the burghers and clergy of Pasadena and a twentieth century covenant between the NCAA and the NFL guaranteeing the sanctity of Pro Football on Sunday – the Tournament of Roses and the real start of 2012 will be on Monday the 2nd this year.

New Years Day, whenever it is, is a metaphor for the year to come. For the 40th year in a row the LAUSD All District Band will march down Colorado Boulevard. The band is unfunded in next year's budget – this may be their last march.

For the first time in forever an LAUSD co-ed (there's an endangered word – hovering on the brink of extinction from political incorrectness) will be a Rose Princess. Sarah Zuno, a senior at Franklin High School, is serving on the 2012 Tournament of Roses Royal Court. In addition to her academic achievements, Sarah is Franklin's Glee Club co-president and plays on the varsity basketball and softball teams.

In the day before the parade and the game and the real beginning of 2012 we can make resolutions – promises we make to ourselves – or we can make a commitment to the children in our lives and in our schools – to make 2012 a better year.

We need to stop paying lip service to the idea of Arts and Music Education – it's not an idea or even an ideal – it's a requirement! Parent Involvement and Engagement and Science and Phys Ed and Health Ed and health+wellness themselves are not compliance issues to marginally met or waived – they are keys to student success. We need to stop missing Driver's Ed ("Where did all these idiots learn to drive?")…and start bringing it back. The nurse's office isn't a place to store files – it's an Office. For the Nurse. A health practitioner and an educator. Likewise - a school library without a librarian is a bookroom.

● We need a short term plan to get us though these times of not enough money.
● We need a mid range plan to get us from where we are to where we wanted to be.
● We need a long range plan to get all these kids to where we want them to be -- not with 100% graduation or a laptop-or-tablet in every book bag and wireless connections for all – not with a 4.0 GPA or API 950 -- but as young people prepared, engaged and connected to their futures. Education is the most forward thinking and hopeful thing we do as a civilization; it needs to be done incrementally and passionately and joyfully – with premeditation and flexibility.

Socrates taught Plato, Plato taught Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander. Alexander conquered the world and built a greatest library ever known.

These pages make a resolution every week: Let us here be newly resolved: ¡Onward/Adelante!

-smf



TESTING TESTING: The 4LAKids Holiday Break Quizzes



LOOKING BACK AT 2011+ Not Yet LAUSD: Mini- ®eformish
By Susan Abram Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/rTft2X

EDUCATION

12/31/11 :: Reform-minded educator John Deasy started his first full year as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, promising to improve the performance of students and teachers alike. And he delivered some of those with several "firsts" within LAUSD.

LAUSD and its teachers union forged a first-of-its-kind contract that grants charter school-like autonomy to individual campuses and demands greater accountability in exchange. The pact ends the district's controversial Public School Choice program which allowed outside groups to bid to operate dozens of new and failing schools.

Students got their first taste of a healthier lunch menu, one that tries to reduce their intake of fat, sodium and sugar and increase their appetite for fruits and veggies.

Thousands of teens marked their first day of high school at new learning academies that opened in Granada Hills and San Fernando. And Granada Hills Charter High School captured the national Academic Decathlon title in its first-ever appearance at the prestigious competition.

But LAUSD officials also struggled to overcome massive budget problems.

Thousands of teachers and librarians received pink slips in the spring, although most were eventually rehired after employees agreed to take unpaid furloughs.

In December, a multibillion-dollar shortfall in new revenue at the state level triggered budget cuts that wiped out LAUSD's transportation fund for the rest of the school year. The district has filed suit to block the cuts, arguing that its busing program is key to mandated desegregation and special-education program.

And the district is already projecting a $532 million deficit for 2012-13, and has recommended cutting adult and early-childhood education if addition revenue isn't found.

The year also didn't offer promise to California college students, whose tuition soared in the wake of deep budget cuts. At Cal State Northridge, students paid 23 percent more, while community college costs jumped from $26 to $36 a credit.

And that doesn't include the year-end decision to hike CSU tuition 9 percent and community college costs by another $10 a unit in 2012.

CSUN President Jolene Koester, credited with rejuvenating the campus during her 11-year tenure, announced her retirement by the end of the year. Provost Harold Hellenbrand is taking over in January as interim president.

Early in the year, CSUN's $125-million Valley Performing Arts Center opened with great fanfare.


4LAKids NEW FAVORITE ANONYMOUS TEACHER/BLOGGER NotYetLAUSD http://notyetlausd.blogspot.com/ puts some of the recent urgent+strange goings-on somewhat in perspective:

►On the cafeteria food silliness: TEENAGERS COMPLAIN!

12/18 :: notyetLAUSD will not back down from bold and innovative food. We are certain that next to learning the subject/verb agreement, learning to eat something other than carnival food is in the realm of possibility for LAUSD students. LA Times story about LAUSD's capitulation to whining teenagers can be found here.

►On the "landmark"/"breakthrough"/"milestone" labor agreement: 870 TINY WOUNDS

12/14 :: I'm trying to figure out this UTLA/LAUSD contract. UTLA doesn't lose any members for the next 3 years because of a hold on PSC (PSC was probably going to die anyway). Schools now get to get create mini-reformish experiments. Up to this point I am neutral, no real negotiating and as I mentioned, I think this was a mercy rule decision.

My paranoia: I can only see teachers fighting with each other at schools. In the end its not the reforms the district is pushing or the saved jobs that standout. In the end its moving to a school culture where there is more hostility within the school among teachers. Now a small fraction of teachers get to work together to change the school towards a few predefined acceptable reforms. In reality only a small number of teachers will believe enough in these reforms and have the will to make it happen, most likely in the face of a variety of oppositions. Changing a school would require at least 50% approval on the changes. Some people will just want the status-quo either due to apathy or they are veterans and know how to get their way regardless of the ed-reform fashion. I'm not interested in these people. What about the teachers that want to make changes, but they don't fall in-line with pre-approved script of reforms negotiated by UTLA and LAUSD, these people will also fight. I've been part of a PSC school and I know that only a few teachers at a given school will have the will to write 300 page plans.

I don't think anyone really comes out ahead on this …but hey: it's reform!


Precedent in LAUSD v. California busing cut?: FEDERAL APPEALS COURT SAYS ARKANSAS CAN'T STOP MAGNET SCHOOL PROGRAM FUNDING WITHOUT HEARING + Opinion
by CHUCK BARTELS, JEANNIE NUSS Associated Press/from the Chicago Tribune | http://trib.in/uVXvnk

8:25 p.m. CST, December 28, 2011 - LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas cannot cut off millions of dollars in funding for desegregation programs in Little Rock-area school districts until the state asks a federal judge for permission to do so, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision comes after U.S. District Judge Brian Miller ordered an end to most of the payments, calling them counterproductive. He accused the districts of delaying desegregation to keep getting state money.

The appeals court ruled that Miller decided to end the payments without the state specifically asking him to do so. The court said the state must ask, in a separate court action, before a judge could make such a ruling.

A spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Wednesday that no decision has been made about whether the state would file such a request.

Arkansas is required by a 1989 settlement to fund magnet schools, transfers between districts and other programs to support desegregation and keep a racial balance in the North Little Rock, Pulaski County and Little Rock school districts. Those costs currently add up to about $38 million a year, according to the appeals court's ruling.

State lawmakers have long wanted to end the desegregation program funding, though the districts say they're still necessary.

Battles over school desegregation in Little Rock date back to 1957, when nine black teenagers needed the protection of federal troops to integrate Central High School. Little Rock sued the state and its two neighboring districts in 1982, and two years later a judge agreed that the districts hadn't done enough to help the city schools desegregate.

Miller issued his order to end the payments earlier this year, after hearings about whether two of the three school districts in question — North Little Rock and Pulaski County — should be declared unitary, or substantially desegregated.

"That came kind of out of the blue," Stephen Jones, the lead attorney for the North Little Rock district, said Wednesday about Miller's ruling.

Miller wrote that the payments should end in order to avoid "an absurd outcome in which the districts are rewarded with extra money from the state if they fail to comply with their desegregation plans and they face having their funds cut by the state if they act in good faith and comply."

But the appeals court said Miller did not make "specific findings of fact" to support his decision.

Miller, who referred to himself as "a middle aged black judge," instead wrote: "After reading the briefs, the transcripts from the various hearings, and the scores of exhibits filed herein, it is very easy to conclude that few if any of the participants in this case have any clue how to effectively educate underprivileged black children."

The appeals court also reversed Miller's decision to deny the North Little Rock district's request to be declared unitary. Miller had denied the request in part because he said the district offered only anecdotal examples of its efforts to recruit black teachers.

The 8th Circuit disagreed, noting that more than 16 percent of the district's educators are black, compared to 9 percent statewide.

Miller didn't return a phone message left at his chambers Wednesday. But he removed himself from the desegregation case earlier this year, saying he could no longer make unbiased decisions after the state took over his hometown's school district in eastern Arkansas.

Jones, the North Little Rock district's lawyer, said he was pleased with the appeals court's decision to deem the district unitary.

"In a sense, it's anticlimactic because I don't think it really changes how we're going to conduct our day-to-day business," he said.

Another federal judge had previously declared the Little Rock district unitary, but Miller refused to declare the Pulaski County district entirely unitary in his May order. The appeals court upheld that part of Miller's ruling, which found the Pulaski County School District lacking in nine areas in which it had to make changes to be considered desegregated.

Wednesday's opinion notes that Miller found the Pulaski County district "has given very little thought, and even less effort to complying with its desegregation plan. Complying with its plan obligations seems to have been an afterthought."

The appeals court "found no reason to disagree" with Miller's conclusion.

The Pulaski County Special School District's lead attorney, Sam Jones, declined to comment Wednesday.

The Little Rock district's lead lawyer, Chris Heller, praised the appeals court's ruling, adding that part of Miller's decision in May "concerned issues that had not been presented to the district court."

McDaniel said in a statement that Arkansas is moving toward ending the legal action surrounding the decades-old desegregation case and in turn, "taking the courts out of the classrooms" in the county.

___________________________

●● smf: If you only read one legal opinion this year, this should be the one …so far!

Whether or not the precedents here are precedential in California & LAUSD – the court’s writing on replacing bungalows (pp.19), construction cost escalation (pp.18-19), and particularly over-assignment of black males to special ed (pp.21-22.), and likewise in discipline referrals (pp.17), …and especially the statistical manipulation of data in assessing the Achievement Gap (pp.24-26), is enlightened+enlightening.


The Court's Opinion: Little Rock School District v. Lorene Joshua | U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:11-2130



TWO FOURTH-GRADERS FIND A WAY TO SHARE A SCHOOL’S FOOD
THANKS TO THE 9-YEAR-OLD GIRLS, UNWANTED AND LEFTOVER LUNCH ITEMS FROM A CUDAHY SCHOOL GO TO NEEDY FAMILIES.

By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/rVGuJ7

December 27, 2011 :: Every day, fourth-graders Lesly Heredia and Paulina Sanchez watched as their classmates tossed uneaten school lunches into trash bins before bolting to the playground.

The 9-year-olds found it hard to see all that food going to waste, so they came up with a plan: Why not give it to needy families in the area?

"We thought about all the kids who didn't have food," Paulina said. "They could get injured or get sick. It makes me feel proud that we came up with an idea."

The girls, who attend Jaime Escalante Elementary School in Cudahy, decided they needed to quantify how much food was going to the garbage. So they counted every trashed lunch.

They discovered that their classmates discarded more than 500 items a week. And they made a graph to display their work.

While on a visit to the school, Cudahy Mayor Josue Barrios was approached by Principal Beth Fuller, who told him about the girls' plan.

"This is not something I would ever have thought of," Barrios said. "When I was in fourth grade, I was more concerned with pulling girls' hair."

But these fourth-graders used their recess in a more productive fashion. They composed a letter to Dennis Barrett, Los Angeles Unified School District's food services director, and then they followed up.

"Once we sent the letter," Fuller said, "I think every day they came and asked me, 'Did we get a response yet, Ms. Fuller? Did we get it?'"

At the end of September, Barrett wrote back. He explained that the Board of Education had passed a resolution in April that laid out a food donation policy allowing nonprofit agencies to collect and distribute unopened lunch items. He added that the girls might set up a "common table" where students could leave school food they don't eat for others who wanted seconds or who wanted to try something new.

Currently, 71 schools in the district donate unopened food to 21 agencies across the county, Barrett said.

Los Angeles Unified introduced a new menu of more healthful offerings this year, but many students across the school system have rejected those options. The district announced that it would revamp the menu to better accommodate the students' tastes.

On a recent day, menu items at Jaime Escalante included chicken curry, vegetable lasagna and the coveted pizza calzone. About 81% of the school's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

But when the calzones were gone, older students stood on tiptoe and peeked at the common table, – a cart stacked high with small plastic food containers.

And although several students did pick up seconds, most of the calzone seekers struck out.

"The little kids are always first in line," Lesly said as she placed chicken curry and pear on the cart. "It's unfair."

In January, representatives from the Southeast Churches Service Center will begin picking up leftover items on the common table. The center expects to take more than 100 items per trip, including entrees, fruits and vegetables and unopened cartons of white milk.

To facilitate the donations, Barrios connected the girls with Andy Molina, executive director of the center.

Molina said his organization typically serves about 1,200 families, but during the holiday season, the number has spiked to 3,000. The school's donations will help to see the center through its busiest period.

Based on their research, Lesly and Paulina concluded that sweet potatoes are students' least favorite item.

"They're sort of orange and curly," Paulina said. "For me, they're too sweet."

Molina, who met with the girls and heard their complaints about the school lunches, said his center buys certain products at the families' request. As it turns out, there is one particular item families crave.

"People actually ask, 'Do you have any more sweet potatoes?' " Molina said. "When are you getting some?'

"So when I heard that, to me, it was great."


HEALTHY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS: A Safe Environment
by Sarat Pratachandran , School Planning and Management Magazine, December 2011 | http://bit.ly/u1w4yV

●●smf: In my work on the LAUSD Bond Oversight Committee I was frustrated by government's inability to address issues of school+children's health+safety in a timely manner, with the urgency that the subject deserves. The images of parents in China recovering their own children's bodies from the 2008 Sichuan earthquake haunt me. California took one month from the Long Beach Earthquake of '33 to enact the Field Act – which set new school construction standards. A third of century after Love Canal the feds have moved – not with law or standards but with guidelines.



THE EPA'S FIRST-EVER FEDERAL GUIDELINES FOR LOCATING SCHOOL FACILITIES encourage high-performance schools, stress the importance of locating schools near populations and infrastructure and promote schools as diverse centers of communities. They urge communities to consider children's ability to walk to school, access to public transportation and how to locate schools away from potential environmental hazards.

In 1978, Young homemaker Lois Gibbs was struggling to raise a family near Niagara Falls, but soon discovered that her home and those of her neighbors sat beside 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals. The 99th Street School and the Love Canal neighborhood incidents that led to the relocation of 900 families are synonymous with bad school siting decisions.

Thirty-three years later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released the first-ever federal guidelines for locating school facilities. The 143-page comprehensive School Siting Guidelines was launched on Oct. 1, 2011.

“We are very excited that the EPA has finally launched the school siting guidelines. It all began with the 99th Street School then, and it is fascinating to see that it has taken 32 years or more to write these guidelines. We are happy that we got it,” says Gibbs, now the executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), a Virginia-based grassroots environmental advocacy organization.

“This is a victory for the faceless people out there who have worked hard,” Gibbs says.

Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in December 2007 and asked the EPA to work in consultation with the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services to develop model guidelines for the siting of school facilities. The act asked that the guidelines take into account broad categories dealing with the “special vulnerabilities of children to hazardous substances or pollution exposures,” modes of transportation available to students and staff, efficient use of energy in transportation and the potential use of a school site as an emergency shelter.

EPA worked extensively with external stakeholders to develop the guidelines. They are voluntary in nature and highlight the importance of meaningful public involvement in the school siting process.

Addressing a webinar organized by the National Safe Routes to Schools on Oct. 11, 2011, Peter Grevatt, Ph.D., director, Office of Children’s Health Protection, explains: “These guidelines focus specifically on environmental factors concerned with school siting. There are many other considerations that local jurisdictions need to consider when making school siting decisions."

The contents, split into eight sections, give an overview of the process behind establishing the guidelines and include topics like meaningful public involvement, environmental siting criteria considerations, environmental review process, evaluating impacts of nearby sources of air pollution, recommendations for states and tribes, a quick guide to environmental issues and a “frequently asked questions” section.

The guidelines begin with highlighting the importance of community involvement in the school siting process. They address steps communities can take before beginning the school siting process and urge school districts to undertake an environmental review, develop a school siting committee and communicate with the public and other stakeholders about their plans for locating a school facility.

The guidelines encourage districts to allocate resources for school siting and advocate long-range facility planning. “Long-range planning is important because it provides an opportunity for a school district to consider more than just its immediate facility needs,” says Gary Marek, director of School Facilities, Texas Education Agency (TEA).

The guidelines encourage high-performance schools, stress the importance of locating schools near populations and infrastructure and promote schools as diverse centers of communities. They urge communities to consider children’s ability to walk to school, access to public transportation and how to locate schools away from potential environmental hazards. The frequently asked questions section at the end provides clear, succinct answers for communities regarding environmental factors affecting the school siting process.

MEANINGFUL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IS CRITICAL

EPA’s school siting guidelines encourage meaningful public involvement at all levels of the siting process. “The more involved the community is, the more supportive they tend to be,” says Tracy Healy, REFP, president, DeJONG-HEALY, a firm that provides planning services for school districts across the country.

Healy cited the example of the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District, a rural district where the firm “spent a few years with the community identifying potential facility options for their aging school facilities and focusing on community engagement.”

Another example of active community involvement is Ohio’s Oletangy School District where community members are part of committees that discuss what’s happening in the district and provide recommendations and updates to the board of education.

In certain instances, municipalities and school districts take decisions in isolation when locating school facilities. According to Renee Kuhlman, director of Special Projects, Center for State and Local Policy at National Trust for Historic Preservation, “School districts and municipalities can start by sharing data — both demographic data and land-use data (e.g., showing areas slated for redevelopment or new housing, etc.) — this is a new process happening in Billings, Mont., and it is yielding good results for both the district and local government.”

COMMUNITIES CAN SHOW METRICS

“The EPA guidelines lay a framework for evaluating environmental impacts associated with school siting. That’s a great step forward compared to what was available prior,” says Jeff Vincent, Ph.D., deputy cirector, Center for Cities & Schools at the University of California, Berkeley.

According to Vincent, the guidelines give states and school districts something that goes beyond a useful tool. Communities can “show processes and metrics needed when school districts are looking at siting a new school. This enables communities to hold their institutions accountable on school siting issues.”

He adds that “better guidance is needed on the other aspects of siting decisions, linked to community connections and school design, which can complement the School Siting Guidelines on environmental aspects.”

According to Matthew Trowbridge, MD, MPH, assistant professor, Associate Research Director at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, “The need for meaningful community involvement is important. EPA guidelines are voluntary and do provide a good framework for local and regional discussions that highlight the complexity of this issue. Not every community can be expected to do all the research.”

GUIDELINES ENCOURAGE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

The guidelines strongly encourage environmental assessment of the potential site and outlying areas. “In concept, it’s extremely practical because underlying the guidelines is that there is better analysis for the various costs associated with school site choices. Some of these are environmental and health, but they still can be monetized. Some economic benefits will come to school districts, others to families and communities and cities,” Vincent says.

Budgetary issues sometimes make it tough for school districts to do an environmental assessment “but makes it very important as they want it to be more protective of the environment,” Healy says. “The will is there but time constraints do not get much focus and more progressive school districts in Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania are already doing this.”

The guidelines also empower communities to seek environmental justice. Gibbs says CHEJ will take a “pre-emptive” strategy at the grassroots level so that communities are empowered with school siting guidelines even before they decide on locating schools.

“We plan to get this into areas even before schools plan to site areas and have stakeholders understand the guidelines,” Gibbs says.

RENOVATION AND UPGRADES ARE IMPORTANT

According to Kuhlman, “The new federal guidelines can be used to help states and tribes put in place policy and practices that encourage renovation of our existing infrastructure.” She says it will help encourage more public participation in the process.

“If the community and district receives good guidance from the state, they can fairly evaluate all of their choices — renovate versus replace. Often, it’s difficult for localities to know what all of the costs will be including land acquisition, renovation, new roads, sewers, etc. because those costs are often borne by different agencies, but ultimately by the taxpayers.”

However, location will be a primary factor in determining whether renovation and upgrades are needed. According to Gibbs, “These guidelines will help in renovation or build out efforts, but how far they will be needed will depend on the school location. For instance, if the school is close to a refinery in Houston, it might be difficult to go in for a full-fledged renovation, but a historic school in Quincy, Mass., could benefit from an upgrade.”

In recent years, the economic recession has prompted school districts to renovate and upgrade existing facilities. According to Kuhlman, “The slowdown has, however, put the emphasis back on ‘fix-it-first’ mentality, and we’re seeing some districts, like Buffalo, N.Y., invest in their existing schools — in Buffalo’s case, they’re renovating 40-plus schools to the tune of $1.2 billion dollars in a five-phase project. School districts have also used the American Recovery Act (ARRA) funds to modernize their facilities.”

California is encouraging renovation of existing facilities, while in New Hampshire the Department of Educational Facilities works with local school districts to not only choose renovation as their first option but also to explore “joint use” opportunities.

“School renovations with public funding attract private investment. On the other hand, schools built far away from the residents they serve tend to have unintended consequences,” Kuhlman says.

According to David C. Edwards, chairman, Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), “The decision to maintain or renovate an existing school versus constructing new is influenced by a number of factors which have to be weighed against each other. No two facilities, communities and specific sites or educational program requirements are the same. Of key importance in the decision process is to determine if the existing facility is capable of accommodating the desired educational program in a healthy and safe environment.”

Edwards adds, “The current condition of the facility and site is also a major factor to be considered in the decision, with respect to the amount of dollars invested in a renovation, where the desired end product may have compromises versus the amount of dollars invested to construct a new facility.”

JOINT USE IS ENCOURAGED

The guidelines encourage “joint use” facilities, which Vincent says “is a key concept for ensuring that schools are centers of their communities — that is, that they are seen as community assets and widely used and supported. They are publicly funded, local places that should see widespread use by all kinds of residents, young and old. But to do so, they need to be seen that way and funded in that way, especially with regard to building upkeep and modernization.”

According to Trowbridge, “The choice of where to put community resources is critical. Schools need to be designed to be flexible and must be useful to the entire community, and joint use is probably one good way to go.”

COMMUNITY-CENTERED SCHOOLS SUSTAIN HISTORIC COMMUNITIES

Kuhlman explains, “The greatest benefit of community-centered schools from the perspective of the National Trust for Historic Preservation is that they help sustain our older and historic communities. We believe there is no greater public institution more important to the vitality of a neighborhood than schools.”

Kuhlman believes the guidelines will help communities locate schools “to meet a multitude of community goals — including combating childhood obesity, improving air quality and revitalizing older neighborhoods.”

The location of a school has multiple influences on the community surrounding it. According to Trowbridge, “Where you place your school has an influence on transportation patterns and other issues that impact the whole community.” He says issues like childhood obesity need to be addressed through environmental policies.

Gibbs thinks that schools built based on these guidelines will enhance community pride. “This helps more communities, especially of low wealth and color, to have a decent place for kids.”

GREEN, HEALTHY SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE

The guidelines encourage building green, healthy schools and school districts in different parts of the country have already started this initiative. In Ohio, for instance, the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OHSFC) has started requiring all schools in districts approved for funding after September 2007 to be at least LEED Silver certified with a goal of meeting LEED Gold.

“Something like this has never existed before,” says Dr. Trowbridge, highlighting the importance of the newly released federal guidelines.

Download the Report

The U.S. EPA’s School Siting Guidelines can be downloaded at: http://www.epa.gov/schools/siting.


Sarat Pratapchandran is a writer specializing in education, environment and healthcare. His website is www.lettersnatcher.com.

See the following Interview Transcript with Renee Kuhlman, director of Special Projects, Center for State and Local Policy at the National Trust for Historic Preservation

QUESTIONS ASKED/ISSUES ADDRESSED:
● How do you develop meaningful community involvement?
● How has the recession impacted community-centered schools?
● What is the greatest benefit of community-centered schools?
● What states are encouraging preservation and renovation of schools? How are they doing this?
● Role of deferred maintenance of schools: What is the impact? What are the solutions?
● What is the link between school renovation and residential development?
● How will schools look in future?
● How useful will the EPA guidelines be?


INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT WITH RENEE KUHLMAN



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources

THE HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT DILEMMA AND SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS: Policy Brief + Full Report by Martha L. Thurlow and David R. Johnson/California Dropout Research Project/UCSB | http://bit.ly/auDNT3

Race to the Top: FEDERAL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT GRANTS THREATENED BY TEACHER SPATS: by Larry Abramson., NPR All Thin... http://http://bit.ly/srxxu0

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS LAW DISSOLVING REDEVELOPMENT AGENCIES: LA Daily News from Staff and Wire Repor... http://http://bit.ly/ukgQbm

MORE MATTERS, UNLESS IT’S IN AN LAUSD SCHOOL TRASH CAN: Opinion by Chuck Robinson, The Packer – a trade publicati... http://bit.ly/szo7gC

FYI: NEW LAW - Stricter booster seat requirements for kids under 8 years old begin Sunday: Victoria Colliver, S... http://bit.ly/sUDLPB

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL TEACHES PARENTS TO GET INVOLVED: Jill Tucker, S.F. Chronicle Staff Writer | http://bi... http://bit.ly/rOYvR2

MANDARIN IMMERSION PROGRAM FLOURISHES AT L.A. SCHOOL: Broadway Elementary in Venice launched the effort to boost... http://bit.ly/tb5ebw

Lessons from L.A.: BUILDING BUSINESSES WHILE BUILDING BETTER SCHOOLS: By Tom Lemmon | San Diego Daily Transcript... http://bit.ly/rU9qKx

Precedent in LAUSD v. California busing cut?: FEDERAL APPEALS COURT SAYS ARKANSAS CAN'T STOP MAGNET SCHOOL PROGR... http://bit.ly/v7lMsI

LAUSD'S BEYOND THE BELL ALL-DISTRICT MARCHING HONOR BAND CELEBRATED AT DODGER STADIUM: The All-City Band, A 40-Y... http://bit.ly/ryiE2G

Report: SCHOOL PRINCIPALS UNFAMILIAR WITH MANY PARTS OF THEIR JOBS: By J.D. Velasco, Staff Writer - San Gabriel... http://bit.ly/spMmCM

LONG BEACH SCHOOLS HAD TO MAKE DO WITH LESS: By Stephanie Minasian | Staff Writer Gazette Newspapers - The Gruni... http://bit.ly/sRNIjc

SCHOOLS ENCOURAGE HEALTHIER EATING WITH "’NUDGES’: Jorge Barrientos, Education Reporter, Bakersfield Californian... http://bit.ly/rP8IyK

GOV. JERRY BROWN SAYS HE WILL INCREASE EDUCATION FUNDING – if…: The governor's 2012-13 spending plan, to be rele... http://bit.ly/sNCvxR

A Civics Triumph: TWO FOURTH-GRADERS FIND A WAY TO SHARE A SCHOOL’S FOOD: Thanks to the 9-year-old girls, unwant... http://bit.ly/sclNJ5

Civics Education? Not so good: JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR’S ONLINE CIVICS INITIATIVE: Retired U.S. Supreme Cour... http://bit.ly/tWTAGD

The “F-Word” – Editorial: A FAILED EXPERIMENT WITH HEALTHY SCHOOL MEALS = FARCE²: Las Vegas Review-Journal Edito... http://bit.ly/rZGVTa

Two Teachers: A WOMAN WHO TEACHES MEN TO WELD PROVIDES OTHER LIFE LESSONS TOO + HE DRESSES UP HISTORY AND THE ST... http://bit.ly/vZPhVb
26 Dec

SAN DIEGO DISTRICT ATTORNEY PROBES SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS + D.A.’S OFFICE RAIDS SOUTH BAY POLITICOS: San ... http://bit.ly/rWPg1z



EVENTS: Coming up next week...


*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
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!.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.


Saturday, December 24, 2011

A smoking gun for Christmas

Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 25•Dec•2011 Christmas Day
In This Issue:
MAGNET SCHOOLS ARE AN IMPORTANT OPTION FOR LAUSD
EDUCATION REFORM PARALYSIS — AND HOW TO FIX IT
THE VALUE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD + ADULT EDUCATION: WHAT CAN THE DISTRICT AFFORD?
Losing it: TEXAS SCHOOLS GRAPPLE WITH BUDGET CUTS + HAWAII LOSES RACE2TOP DOLLARS + SUBURBS BRACE FOR K.C. STUDENTS AS DISTRICT LOSES ACCREDITATION
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
ONE OF THE FEATURES of the Red Ryder Air Rifle – the all-I-want-for-Christmas gift prominently featured in the 1983 film A CHRISTMAS STORY ("You'll shoot your eye out") was its 'smoking action': "Smoke comes out like a real gun!"


GARY ORFIELD, Co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA writes in the Huffington Post | http://huff.to/rqEvLc:

"Magnet schools have received far too little attention as the attention is turned to charter schools, whose performance has been disappointing in Los Angeles, the state of California and across the country, and which tend to be very intensely segregated on average.

"Now we learn that the Los Angeles school district, quietly and with almost no public discussion, has been radically reducing its investment in magnet schools.

● For the 2008-09 school year, LAUSD allocated $84,691,974 in desegregation monies to magnet schools.
● In 2010-11, this allocation was down 80% to a devastating $17,104,962
● and the state now threatens the coup de grace, which is to eliminate entirely magnet bus transportation, and with it the possibility for students who can't provide their own transportation to attend these schools at all.

"Cutting bus transportation will substantially eliminate the diversity in the magnet schools and the magnets will become more segregated over time."


[FULL DISCLOSURE: In the education of our daughter our family participated in the Magnet Program - playing the 'Magnet Game' (aka 'Gaming the Options Program') and accumulated-and-used magnet points – and were accepted into a magnet middle school and magnet high school – opting instead (it is an "options program") to attend schools in the LAUSD Schools for Advanced Study (SAS) program. In that time I became an authority and frequent writer and public speaker on the Magnet/Options program. I once helped edit the Options Brochure.]

THE LAUSD MAGNET PROGRAM is one of the great successes of the District – perhaps the greatest - benefiting the most kids across the greatest socioeconomic range and serving up hefty heaping servings of success. It should be replicated – and instead it is being dismantled.

There are other established pathways to educational success for LAUSD students; other mechanisms of Choice: SAS, The Individualized Honors Program, GATE, Permits with Transportation and open enrollment. All predate NCLB and Charter Schools – all have proven success over time.

The current District Leadership is packing it up and returning the Magnet Program to the store to exchange it for This-Week's-Flavor-O'-®eform: Charter Schools, Public School Choice, Pilot, Partnership Schools and I-Design schools – programs that have a lot of political clout and – to quote Dr. Oldfield: " whose performance has been disappointing in Los Angeles, the state of California and across the country."

The professor is not some whacky parent-blogger with a wild hair up his wazoo – he's a real Ph.D. who writes learned theses and relies on evidence-based-results, measurable outcomes and scalable programs …and buries the lead in his articles. His conclusion isn't hypothetical or anecdotal: it's data-driven – it's the scientifically arrived-at truth.

Superintendent Deasy's discussion on the future of magnet schools [http://on.fb.me/so571Y ] is frightening – complementary of a program that he says the District can't afford absent a parcel tax – a proposal he hasn't brought forward.

(If the district needs $600 million and there are a million parcels in LAUSD the voters would need to vote a $600 per parcel tax. The last parcel tax the voters didn't approve [and LAUSD didn't campaign for] in June 2010 was for $100. per parcel. You figure.)

Maybe the District can't afford that kind of thinking.

The mantra from the education community and the spin doctors and the unions and the frustrated folk with something/anything/nothing-more to say is "Enough is enough."
(Googling "Enough is Enough"+California+Education produces 4,700.000 hits!)

Enough already …we have come Far-Too-Far.

It's the holiday season – it's actually Christmas …so I should be kind, right?
The question becomes: How much more kindness can the children of Los Angeles take?

Thank You for everything you do for kids, every day. And God bless us, every one.

¡EverOnward/SiempreAdelante! - smf


MAGNET SCHOOLS ARE AN IMPORTANT OPTION FOR LAUSD
BY Gary Orfield | Co-Director, Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA in the Huffington Post | http://huff.to/rqEvLc

12/20/11 02:29 PM ET :: The Los Angeles Unified School District, second biggest in the United States with some 700,000 students, located in the center of the most segregated area in the country for Latino students, is a place where students of color are very often denied any opportunity to do any meaningful preparation for college and are often attending dropout factory high schools. In this system, where mandatory desegregation was abandoned in 1981, there's one small place where's there some racial and economic diversity and special programs offered for students who choose to participate in them.

More than 170 magnet school programs exist in the Los Angeles Unified School District. They have been funded with billions of dollars of state money for desegregation assistance. The strong magnets are one of the last vestiges of middle class education that exist in the City of Los Angeles and one of the few places where students from really disadvantaged backgrounds can come to classes with students from more advantaged backgrounds, in schools where the teachers want to participate in those schools and where there's a special curriculum offered to draw them there. Not all of these schools are great schools. Some of them are phony magnets, and some of them are wonderful schools. But they are a really important option for the City of Los Angeles. When a student can transfer from a dropout factory school to one where many students go to college, a bus is a great educational investment.

Magnet schools have received far too little attention as the attention is turned to charter schools, whose performance has been disappointing in Los Angeles, the state of California and across the country, and which tend to be very intensely segregated on average. Now we learn that the Los Angeles school district, quietly and with almost no public discussion, has been radically reducing its investment in magnet schools. For the 2008-09 school year, LAUSD allocated $84,691,974 in desegregation monies to magnet schools. In 2010-11, this allocation was down 80% to a devastating $17,104,962 and the state now threatens the coup de grace, which is to eliminate entirely magnet bus transportation, and with it the possibility for students who can't provide their own transportation to attend these schools at all. Cutting bus transportation will substantially eliminate the diversity in the magnet schools and the magnets will become more segregated over time.

This is really the last straw in terms of consolidating inequality in Los Angeles and directly undermines the whole premise of having a desegregation assistance fund. What we need to do now is to block this change, make sure that magnet schools continue, and that they are reviewed, so that the ones that are failures are eliminated, and ones that are good are supported and expanded. We need to make sure that students from all parts of the city have the right to participate in this important alternative, which is one of the only real paths to college, particularly for disadvantaged students, that's left in the City of Los Angeles. This is a very important civil rights issue and Superintendent Deasy is correct in suing the state government over this issue.

For more information, please see: www.civilrightsproject.com

• Gary Orfield is a Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at UCLA, where he joined the faculty in 2003. Professor Orfield’s scholarship focuses on the study of civil rights, education policy, urban policy, and minority opportunity. As a former Harvard University scholar, Orfield was co-founder and director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project and is now co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA.

• Orfield's central interest has been the development and implementation of social policy, with a focus on the impact of policy on equal opportunity for success in American society. His works includes six co-edited books since 2004 and numerous articles and reports.


EDUCATION REFORM PARALYSIS — AND HOW TO FIX IT

By Mark Phillips | Op-Ed in the Washington Post/Answer Sheet | http://wapo.st/w57Il2

12/21/2011 - 5:00 AM ET :: The world of educational reform is stuck.

Don’t you get bored repeatedly reading about variations on the same topics? Standardized testing, useful or harmful? Charter schools, the answer or the new problem? Teachers maligned, teachers defended, teachers resistant to change. No Child Left Behind, revise or eliminate?

How many ways can we turn these topics?

I recently revisited the classic book Crisis in the Classroom , by Charles Silberman, circa 1970, and thought: “That could have been written this year!” There’s little he reports or advocates that isn’t relevant today. And the classic by Willard Waller, The Sociology of Teaching , written in 1932, describes classrooms that are much the same as most of ours.

Fritz Perls, the psychiatrist who developed Gestalt therapy, once wrote that boredom is blocked action. Maybe that’s part of it. Is it my own feeling of collective impotence in producing real change that has me finding all of this boring?

Edwin Abbott’s classic book Flatland tells the story of a square that falls into a world of three dimensions. Returning to his two-dimensional world, he tries to explain his incredible experience. But how do you explain a cube to someone who can only conceptualize two dimensions? Ultimately he’s branded a heretic and jailed.

I think we are in many ways like the square. There’s certainly nothing wrong with creating new and improved squares, triangles, and octagons. Project based learning, for example, is certainly a better one. But for the most part we’re having difficulty conceptualizing anything beyond that.

Most teachers and administrators, dealing with the daily challenges of teaching, don’t have the luxury of thinking beyond the present paradigm. They’re too busy dealing with meeting student needs, designing engaging lessons, and responding to external pressures, from assessment to the latest mandated “innovation.”

But for those of us who have the luxury of time to think and lead, reformers and policy makers alike, I think the relative paralysis should be a matter of concern.

Perhaps we need a trickster to wake us up and boot us into another dimension. To many Native American peoples the trickster is the raven, the rabbit, the coyote. The trickster is the teacher who surprises people and wakes them out of their routines. It is also the trickster who sometimes provokes us into leaving the safety of our present worldview.

I have neither the vision nor the arrogance to presume to know what that third dimension of educational reform is. But we’ve had ideas from educators with some vision that extends beyond our same old room, ideas that for the most part, like those of the square in Flatland, have been ignored or rejected. And there are teachers who could help take us there, if we would provide them with the luxury of time to develop their ideas.

As one example, years ago Louise Berman, in New Priorities in the Curriculum , challenged the idea that we must organize our curriculum in the present way. She focused on processes rather than our traditional way of organizing subjects. Her organizers (perceiving, communicating, loving, knowing, decision making, patterning, creating, and valuing) are debatable, but at least she stepped out of our present dimension and challenged our preconception of subject organizers.

Take this a step further. Why should there still be an English department? The constellation of processes and skills includes reading, writing, the art of presentation, communicating through the computer, expressing oneself through varied media, and visual literacy. English itself is just a small part of this. And what if a new Department of Communication used the classroom only as a command center for a learning process that involved local media, worldwide web communication, and the creation of integrated imagery and words shared with the community?

The concept of schools without walls is not a new one, and yet in this age of instantaneous electronic communication, as we freely Skype and network in multiple ways with people all over the world, how can we possibly think of education as taking place in a building in blocks of 49 or 53 minutes?

Why is outdoor/wilderness education reserved for a few schools, most often those with so-called at-risk kids? If we look closely enough we can see that most of our adolescents are at risk in various ways and a deeper connection for them to our natural world is probably there in that third dimension of education.

While I don’t know exactly what a new paradigm should look like, the little I see suggests that it might include classrooms as command centers to coordinate schooling without walls, with present subject organizers vastly changed, the line between teaching, facilitating, and counseling blurred, the functions integrated, and a seamless connection between the school, the community and the land itself. This is not boring!

And there would be a teaching consultant in every school, a seasoned tribal elder, to continually guide younger teachers. Certainly too, each school would have a full-time psychologist/counselor, not just a part-time person or one who focused almost exclusively on college admissions.

But of course, even these ideas of mine are no more than those of a curious square occasionally peeking into another dimension of educational reform.

I also think it would be refreshing if educational reform wasn’t such a ponderously serious business. Maybe we need a Brigade of Educational Tricksters, to keep waking us up, making sure we aren’t taking ourselves and our varied positions too seriously, helping us to see beyond our present paradigm, and making sure we are able to laugh at the absurdity in the educational world we inhabit.

● Mark Phillips is professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University and author of a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal.


THE VALUE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD + ADULT EDUCATION: WHAT CAN THE DISTRICT AFFORD?
…or 4LAKids asks: : CAN THE PEOPLE+VOTERS+TAXPAYERS+STUDENTS OF L.A. AFFORD LAUSD'S CURRENT LEADERSHIP AND DIRECTION?

From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update | Week of December 19, 2011 | http://bit.ly/u3XRFf

THE DISTRICT’S 2012-2013 FISCAL STABILIZATION PLAN INCLUDES THE POSSIBLE ELIMINATION OF GENERAL FUND SUPPORT FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION NEXT YEAR. Considering the longitudinal research on the value of early education programs and their economic benefits, AALA believes that the District cannot afford to do this. We are planning to publish a series of articles in Update on the value of early childhood education, both educationally and economically, to children, their families and the entire community. We invite AALA members, active and alumni, to share your knowledge and views on this topic. E-mail your thinking to the AALA office at aalaoffice@aala.us.

AALA has been informed that LAUSD LEADERSHIP IS SEEKING BOARD APPROVAL TO CLOSE THE DISTRICT’S DIVISION OF ADULT AND CAREER EDUCATION (DACE) PROGRAMS NEXT YEAR and redirect tens of millions of dollars in funding to offset General Fund shortfalls.
• CAN THE DISTRICT AFFORD to prevent high school students from participating in adult education classes to earn credit for graduation?
• CAN THE DISTRICT AFFORD to eliminate educational opportunities for thousands of parents and community members who depend upon adult education to learn English and earn American citizenship?
• CAN THE DISTRICT AFFORD to cut high-quality apprenticeship programs that lead to decent jobs?

We believe that such an ill-conceived plan should be scrapped to avert a political and educational debacle. The District needs to recognize that DACE programs, in fact, do not encroach on the General Fund. While providing critically needed basic education and career training for the community at large, Adult and Career Education pays its own way through both direct and indirect assessments levied by the District against their severely limited resources. Additionally, the District sweeps every dollar left in Adult and Career Education accounts at the end of each year.

DACE administrators carefully manage their programs including the successful AEWC dropout recovery program and labor union-supported apprenticeship programs and have a long history of successes on a shoestring, including:
• More than 10% of last year’s high school dropouts were enrolled in Adult and Career Education courses on norm day 2011, thus reducing the District’s 2010-2011 dropout rate by 10%. The previous year’s reduction was also 10%, and nearly 9% the year before that. Clearly, LAUSD’s dropout rate would increase dramatically if DACE programs were not available to these students.
• Approximately 1,500 former dropouts were graduated from DACE programs in 2010-2011. These graduates were reported in ISIS, further reducing the District’s dropout rate.

• In 2010-2011, 88,200 high school students took Adult and Career Education courses to make up credits and keep up with their cohorts. Reducing accessibility for these students would simply transfer educational costs to the General Fund at a higher per-capita cost.

• In 2010-2011, 51,844 high school students took courses at occupational centers and in ROP. Reducing accessibility to these programs would cause students to be transferred back to their home schools and would increase costs to the General Fund, again at a higher per-capita cost.

• In 2010-2011, 58,147 parents took DACE courses. AALA fully understands LAUSD’s budget problems. We strongly believe, however, that the District cannot afford to shut down the District’s Adult and Career Education programs. Doing so would have the unintended consequence of increasing General Fund costs, increasing dropout rates and eliminating valuable educational services to tens of thousands of needy parents and community members District-wide.


●● smf''s 2¢: I need to make it clear that "LAUSD LEADERSHIP IS SEEKING BOARD APPROVAL" means :"THE SUPERINTENDENT IS RECOMMENDING." There is no other "District Leadership" in this instance, no "spokesmen" or "district officials" so oft quoted in the media.



Losing it: TEXAS SCHOOLS GRAPPLE WITH BUDGET CUTS + HAWAII LOSES RACE2TOP DOLLARS + SUBURBS BRACE FOR K.C. STUDENTS AS DISTRICT LOSES ACCREDITATION

► Heard on NPR: TEXAS SCHOOLS GRAPPLE WITH BIG BUDGET CUTS
by Claudio Sanchez NPR Morning Edition | This story was produced for broadcast by Marisa Penaloza. | http://n.pr/s4NP2F

December 22, 2011 :: School funding in Texas is in turmoil. State lawmakers slashed more than $4 billion from education this school year — one of the largest cuts in state history — and more than 12,000 teachers and support staff have been laid off.

Academic programs and transportation have been cut to the bone. Promising reforms are on hold or on the chopping block. Next year, the cuts could go even deeper.

Schools in Pasadena, just outside Houston, have seen tight budgets before, but never like this. There was $21 million in cuts this fall alone and 340 positions eliminated, Candace Ahlfinger, an associate superintendent of schools in Pasadena, says. Of those cuts, about 180 were teaching positions and 160 were support staff, she says.

Special education teachers who worked with dyslexic kids: gone. Teachers' aides: gone. Dozens of bus drivers, crossing guards and security personnel: gone.

With the district's $350 million budget shrinking and more cuts on the horizon, Ahlfinger says: "Everything has been on the chopping block. There's not been a sacred cow. There's nothing that we have said 'No, we cannot touch that.'"

The state granted Pasadena schools a waiver so that the district could legally raise class size above the maximum 22 mandated in grades K-4. About 7,000 schools have been granted such waivers statewide, a three-fold increase from last year.

A CHARGE FOR THE EXTRAS

Still, every morning teachers in Pasadena grit their teeth and pretend everything is fine. School officials here considered asking parents to pay for some services, but 80 percent of families in the district live at or below the federal poverty level.

For the first time since World War II, the state hasn't funded what it promised to fund.

- Bret Champion, superintendent of Leander Independent School District

In many school districts across Texas, though, parents are footing the bill for things like bus transportation, field trips, athletics and uniforms.

"Something's got to give, right?" says Jackie Lain with the Texas Association of School Boards. "They're charging for any of the extras that they don't absolutely have to provide, so that they can keep teachers employed in the classrooms."

Lain says the 6 percent cut in school funding this year was bad enough. Next year, it will be 8 to 9 percent.

Even wealthy school districts are feeling the pinch. Leander is a bedroom community just outside Austin that's growing like crazy, but it doesn't have enough money to open two brand new schools that it built to relieve overcrowding.

With less money from the state, Leander had to cut $20 million from its budget and lay off 213 employees, 50 of them classroom teachers.

Leander was supposed to open what's known as Middle School No. 8 this year. It's an enormous building and there's a lot of construction going on at the site, but that was slowed this summer because the district cannot afford to open it.

Leander schools Superintendent Bret Champion says Texas raised school funding consistently every year for the past half century, until now. "For the first time since World War II, the state hasn't funded what it had promised to fund," he says.

WHAT CAN BE CUT?

At a football game between Leander High and Vista Ridge High School, the funding crisis is the last thing on parents' minds. The stadium fills quickly; it's supposed to be a good game.

Leander has already eliminated golf and tennis. What if football is next?

"I'd spend a thousand bucks out of pocket myself to make sure it'd stay," says Ross Briton, whose son plays football. "I'd work two jobs if it took that to do it. End of story."

Briton says it's not just a sport here: It's part of the culture and a big part of the community's identity. The district should pare down the curriculum before it cuts football, he says.

"I would cut most liberal arts out of the high school. I'd keep math, science, reading. I'd add the vocational education back, because I think there's too much fluff," Briton says.

Several parents in the parking lot nod in agreement as they walk away; others stay behind to say they disagree. Cutting instructional programs, they say, is more damaging than cutting sports.

Kate Patterson works for a local nonprofit that ran a program for struggling readers in the Austin area, including Leander. Sadly, it's been cut, she says, and lawmakers don't seem to care.

"Honestly, I'm not looking to the government anymore," Patterson says. It's as if Texas has thrown in the towel when it comes to education, she says, but some lawmakers blame voters.

"Legislators respond to what they hear," says Scott Hochberg, a Democrat and state representative from Houston.

Hochberg says parents and community organizations that are aghast at the cuts' impact haven't put nearly enough pressure on legislators

"I think they need to put their votes where their mouths are," he says.

A HOLD ON THE RAINY DAY FUND

Texas, meanwhile, is sitting on at least $5 billion in its rainy day fund. It's mostly gas and oil revenues. Hochberg says lawmakers refuse to draw from the fund to blunt the education cuts because the governor told them not to.

"The governor drew a very, very sharp line in the sand [saying] that the rainy day fund, which was specifically designed for periods of economic slowdown, would not be touched," he says.

NPR repeatedly called Gov. Rick Perry and numerous Republican legislators asking them to comment for this story; they refused.

The president of the anti-tax lobbying group Empower Texans, however, did not. For too long, Michael Sullivan says, the state has thrown tons of money at education.

"We've assumed that, well, more money equals better education. Let's just spend more money," he says. "How much more money do we need to spend? ... More, more, more, more. We have doubled real per pupil spending in the past 10 years."

And yet, Sullivan says, Texas has nothing to show for it. Schools are still graduating students unprepared for college or work; that's why school districts have no credibility when they complain about funding, he says.

THE IMPACT ON LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

Sandy Kress, an attorney in Austin with close ties to both political parties, doesn't go that far, but he too faults school districts for looking at this as a crisis rather than an opportunity to show they can be more efficient with the money they get.

The result is that children will be left behind, gaps will grow again and we may be in a place where we are retreating instead of advancing for the first time in 50 years.

"The system is getting defensive about having to make the changes it has to make," Kress says. "It's resisting change and accountability just as people who are paying the taxes are getting tired of paying the taxes. I am definitely worried."

Kress says efficiency and accountability are crucial, but he worries even more that Texas will revert to the bad old days when school districts used tight budgets as an excuse for neglecting low-income and minority students.

"The result is that children will be left behind, gaps will grow again and we may be in a place where we are retreating instead of advancing for the first time in 50 years," Kress says. "And this is disastrous."

Already, the $4.3 billion in school funding cuts seems to have made the disparity between poor and wealthy school districts worse. A poor district now gets $800 less per student from the state than a wealthy district.

More than 300 school districts are now suing. They're hoping the courts will declare the cuts and the school funding formula in Texas unconstitutional.



►Heard on NPR: HAWAII COULD LOSE FEDERAL EDUCATION DOLLARS: THE STATE OF HAWAII IS IN DANGER OF LOSING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN RACE TO THE TOP FUNDS DUE TO ITS "UNSATISFACTORY" PERFORMANCE.

NPR Morning Edition | http://n.pr/rxYEGQ

Broadcast December 22, 2011 [Transcript 1 min 0 sec]

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Hawaii's public schools received a windfall last year when the state won a $75 million federal grant. The state was one of 12 winners in a high-profile competition called Race to the Top, the signature education initiative of the Obama administration.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Now, Hawaii could lose that money. The Department of Education is calling Hawaii's performance under the grant unsatisfactory. In a letter to Hawaii's governor, it said the state is now on high-risk status.

WERTHEIMER: This is a first for a winner of the Race to the Top program. In its proposal, Hawaii submitted a detailed plan to improve low-performing schools.

MONTAGNE: It also promised to launch a new teacher evaluation system tied to performance. Feds say the state is behind in implementing many aspects of the plan.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.



► Heard on NPR: SUBURBS BRACE FOR KANSAS CITY STUDENTS AS SCHOOL DISTRICT LOSES ACCREDITATION JAN 1
by Sylvia Maria Gross from KCUR | NPR All Things Considered | http://n.pr/rpzcI8

Broadcast December 22, 2011 :: Kansas City, Mo., schools are losing their accreditation on Jan. 1. Missouri law allows students from unaccredited districts to enroll for free in nearby school systems, so the suburban districts outside Kansas City are bracing for an influx of students.

●● 4LAKids followers will remember that KC Superintendent John Covington (Broad Superintendents Academy Class of ’08) skipped town in August to run the Michigan Reform School District http://bit.ly/tkkjQo / http://bit.ly/t0PLPL


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
CALIFORNIA EDUCATORS LOOK TO BETTER ENGLISH LEARNING: By Christina Hoag. Associated Press/Boston Globe | http:/...http://bit.ly/sVgCua

The view from Somewhere Else: L.A. SCHOOLS PLAN A WORRISOME APPROACH + URBAN SCHOOLS, BIG HURDLES: “The Los Ange...http://bit.ly/sKCjvE

CHARTER SCHOOLS GROUP URGES CLOSURE OF TEN CALIFORNIA CAMPUSES: Four in Sacramento area + CCSA Press Release: By...http://bit.ly/tiKgXK

2011 in Review: THE BEST AND WORST IN EDUCATION 2011: by Richard Kahlenberg/The Centuray Foundataion Blo...http://bit.ly/vTLS6T

2011 in Review: KEY OBAMA K-12 PROGRAMS WON OUT IN BUDGET DEAL: By Alyson Klein | EdWeek |http://bit.ly/vx5luo ...http://bit.ly/uy6hqZ

The view from the Chamber of Commerce: GOOD NEWS FOR LA STUDENTS: Gary Toebben President & CEO | Los Angeles Are...http://bit.ly/toFOTf

JUDGE DENIES LA UNIFIED REQUEST TO BLOCK STATE FUNDING CUTS: By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC |http://bit.ly/s5e...http://bit.ly/rUQVfN

Heard on NPR: SUBURBS BRACE FOR KANSAS CITY STUDENTS AS SCHOOL DISTRICT LOSES ACCREDITATION JAN 1: by Sylvia Mar...http://bit.ly/tJvTLz

Heard on NPR: TEXAS SCHOOLS GRAPPLE WITH BIG BUDGET CUTS: by Claudio Sanchez, NPR Morning Edition | | This story...http://bit.ly/sJ3Z02

MAGNET SCHOOLS ARE AN IMPORTANT OPTION FOR LAUSD: BY Gary Orfield | Co-Director, Civil Rights Project/Proyecto D...http://bit.ly/tIERyR

OFFICIALS IGNORED WARNINGS OF SHODDY CONSTRUCTION AT HELEN BERNSTEIN HIGH: An investigation by California Watch ...http://bit.ly/uHG8ZB

40th Year May be the Last: FAIRFAX HIGH JOINS LAUSD ALL-DISTRICT MARCHING BAND AT 2012 TOURNAMENT OF ROSES: This...http://bit.ly/sPyNmQ

A FIRST FOR LINKING FOSTER YOUTH + ACADEMICS: New study offers most detailed insights to date: By Kathryn Baron ...http://bit.ly/vOfsyL

AS CLASS SIZE GROWS, MORE CHATIC CLASSROOMS: Richard Lee - News Report | New America Media/World Journal | http...http://bit.ly/tOD3Xg

PLACENTIA SCHOOL DISTRICT ALLOWS NON-CITIZENS TO ADDRESS BOARD + smf’s 2¢: LA Times/LA Now | lat.ms/t8OR2...http://bit.ly/utAcnP

Rush Limbaugh: “MICHELLE OBAMA'S SCHOOL LUNCH MENU FORCES KIDS TO FIND BACK-ALLEY MEALS”: “Would you like some v...http://bit.ly/uKbuMN

ARE BAD SCHOOLS IMMORTAL?: Fordham study shows the scarcity of turnarounds and shutdowns in both charter and dis...http://bit.ly/uj4KBD

ACTIVISTS CELEBRATE CLOSING OF POLLUTING PLANT NEAR LA SCHOOL: 8yr lawsuit demonstrates disconnect between schools+city lat.ms/sgwwz9

L.A. UNIFIED’S FOOD FOR NAUGHT: The school district's recent rollout of healthier meals brought both distaste an...http://bit.ly/tpWt0q

THE VALUE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD + ADULT EDUCATION: WHAT CAN THE DISTRICT AFFORD?: …or perhaps (4LAKids re-poses the...http://bit.ly/vUx2Sh

LAUSD BOARD OKS AGREEMENT GIVING ALL SCHOOLS FREEDOM OF CHARTERS – BUT WITH ACCOUNTABILITY: L.A. Daily News | h...http://bit.ly/vIqmYI

The Billiona®e Boys Club: NY REGENTS AGREE TO GIVE STUDENT DATA TO LIMITED CORPORATION RUN BY GATES AND OPERATED...http://bit.ly/st1R0V

L.A. SCHOOLS FIGHT $117 MILLION SPENDING CUT IN COURT ACTION: By MATT REYNOLDS | Courthouse News Service | http:...http://bit.ly/rxT0cm


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
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!.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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