In This Issue:
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MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE |
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How Good News Happened: $20 BILLION IN BUILDING HAS BOOSTED LAUSD ELEMENTARY STUDENT TEST SCORES, STUDY FINDS |
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STRUGGLING DISTRICTS, CHARTERS AWARDED EXEMPTION FROM STATE FUNDING DEFERRALS: LAUSD Not One of Them |
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Terms that would make Countywide blush: SCHOOLS PASS DEBT TO THE NEXT GENERATION |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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For a guy who lives and dies in the pages of daily
newsprint and constantly updated online newsfeeds I have been out of the
iLoop. Moving my humble (but way too many) belongings to a new abode
and waiting for AT&T to connect me back up to the web. My call is
important to them, please continue to hold. Or, to save time I can go
to att.com and….
Where is Joseph Heller, he who gave The Catchy Number of The Beast of Institutional Irony, when you need him?
On my not-very-smart phone I got the twitterpated hyperbolic warbling from @DrDeasyLAUSD [http://bit.ly/NRDSTu]
. The school district is actually paying a social media director to
direct: “Really appreciated tour of the amazing new facilities at South
Region HS #12, and loved the excitement of students and staff.”
I’m cranky, it’s hot, I hate moving. But please!
I am writing and editing this issue of 4LAKids from my local branch
library, after free public schools America’s gift to civilization.
Which raises another question: Will our libraries have the bandwidth to
support all the students who go to the library after school, each with
their new iPad?
THE SCHOOL BOARD IS TRYING SOMETHING NEW IN THEIR CONSTANT QUEST FOR
IN-ACCOUNTABILITY AND NON- TRANSPARENCY. Board rules require an issue to
be first discussed at one meeting, with final discussion and vote at a
second – this allows for informed public input. Next Tuesday they will
have the first meeting at 9AM and the second at noon …on the same day?
That’s all very convenient – if you are a board member. Or a
superintendent on a mission in a hurry.
Not so much if you are a member of the public. Like, maybe, a parent or a
student, or a teacher or an administrator at a school ….or a member of
the community, who just might be affected by – or have a question about
stuff the board of education might do. Of course, you could call your
boardmember – or email …between the meetings.
AND THERE IS STRANGENESS AFOOT. There are unsubstantiated and probably
insubstantial rumors abounding about misdeeds and skullduggery by
senior staff in Maintenance and Operations (M&O) in the
Facilities Division (see 4LAKids last week and "Wrongsizing"/follows) –
and on the agenda of the secret closed session of the first meeting
there is this:
Bd. of Ed. Closed Session Meeting - Order of Business, 9:00 a.m., 08-21-12 - v8-15-12
4. Personnel (Government Code Section 54957)
Public Employment
Deputy Director of Facilities, Maintenance and Operations
Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release
Employee Evaluation
Superintendent
…..which seems to indicate someone is in trouble…. though the official
story is that someone else is about to have their interim job made
permanent …under the heading of Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release?
And then on Friday the District’s General Council sends an email to the
Superintendent and the Board ordering that the item be removed from the
agenda!
“ ‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ Cried Alice (she was so much surprised,
that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
• (Some of) the teachers returned to Miramonte.
• The NY Times panned the August Start Calendar. (By the way, ask the
students and staff at Nobel Middle or Kennedy High Schools how well the
air conditioning held up for the convergence of Early Start and the heat
wave.)
• A report says all the new schools in LAUSD are benefiting elementary
school students: “Strong Returns form a $19.5 billion investment”.
• Some school districts and lots of charter schools – but not LAUSD –
won’t get their payments from the state deferred next year. Though this
does mean that the amount deferred to the rest will be more.
• The legislature pushed the Teacher Evaluation Bill forward – over @DrDeasyLAUSD (and the rest of ®eform Inc.)’s objections
• The state says charter schools must do Transitional Kindergarten – and
the Charter School Association is pretty much saying “You can’t make
us!”
• Poway Unified figured a way to get kids who benefit from new schools
to pay for them, saving current taxpayers the bother and expense.
• …and Mayor Tony is worried about his Partnership for L.A. Schools and
legacy as The Education Mayor. His legacy as The Pothole Mayor and The
10,000 Policeofficer Mayor and The Transportation Mayor and The Million
Trees Mayor is apparently secure.
And so it goes.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/NySkNG
Updated: 8/19/2012 12:37:13 AM PDT :: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's
experiment in managing some of the city's toughest schools ends its
first five-year term next year — just as he leaves office under term
limits.
Villaraigosa fought a two-year political and court battle to finally win
authority over 22 schools with 16,500 students that became the
Partnership for Los Angeles Schools in 2008. As his tenure ends, the
mayor said he'll urge the Los Angeles Unified School District to issue a
new memorandum of understanding to allow the Partnership to continue
independently managing the schools into the future.
"We have become the laboratory for the school district," Villaraigosa
said. "We have become the area where best practices are put into effect
and where we can experiment with programs that the district can test."
Among the initiatives started at his schools are individual score cards
that report on test scores, attendance and graduation rates, teacher
performance standards and blended education programs using computers.
Even though he is leaving office next year, Villaraigosa said he hopes
to see the Partnership schools adopted by the next mayor and become part
of the city structure*, much like the LA's Best after-school program.
______________________________________
* –smf: The schools “becoming part of the city structure” is
unconstitutional under California law. This was established in LAUSD v.
California in the Superior Court and on appeal by the Court of Appeals
and the State Supreme Court in a case the mayor should remember:
Villaraigosa v. LAUSD.
CAL CONSTITUTION Art.9, §6,¶3: “No school or college or any other
part of the Public School System shall be, directly or indirectly,
transferred from the Public School System or placed under the
jurisdiction of any authority other than one included within the Public
School System.”
______________________________________
"What's important about this is we will never be the world-class city we
should be without a good educational system," Villaraigosa said. "Look
at our unemployment rate. Part of the reason it is so high is that we
don't have a higher number of high
school and college graduates."
Even after he leaves office, Villaraigosa said he will remain active
with the Partnership schools and with pushing the LAUSD to continue to
back reforms by remaining involved in school board elections.
But officials with United Teachers of Los Angeles, which fought the
mayor on the program, said they believe it is time to bring the
experiment to an end.
"The mayor will have to make the case to the district that the
partnership schools should continue," UTLA President Warren Fletcher
said.
"When test scores came out a couple of years ago, these schools were a
little behind. Mostly, they have performed largely the same as the rest
of the district.
"The challenges these schools faced a couple of years ago continue. They
still have students with challenging educational lives."
Fletcher said the union believes there has not been enough improvement in the schools to justify continuing the partnership.
"We don't see any great rush of teachers to go to these schools,"
Fletcher said. "And I am not sure they have realized their goals to the
extent it would justify continuing the experiment."
Also, Fletcher said he views the partnership as just another experiment in reform.
"I've been a teacher for 29 years and you see these things come and go,"
Fletcher said. "What I've found is a lot of reform looks good in a
press release, but doesn't really change much."
But Marshall Tuck, who has headed the program since its inception,
believes the schools — even with modest gains in test scores and
graduation rates — need to be continued as a nonprofit once Villaraigosa
leaves office.
"Our hope is that whoever the next mayor is that they will adopt the
partnership and keep it in the Mayor's Office, much like LA's Best was
started by Mayor Tom Bradley and remains in the Mayor's Office."
Tuck said there have been improvements in attendance and graduation rates — two of the key measurements to a school's success.
Also, the schools have done a great deal in working with parents, many
of whom are unfamiliar with public education or were turned off of it
when they were students.
"We have report cards on how well our schools are doing and that's
something the entire district has adopted as a way to tell parents how
their schools are performing," Tuck said.
"We have seen some solid results, although there is too much variability
— that we are working on. We do expect our MOU to be renewed. We are on
a good trajectory. We know we have more to do, but we are making
progress."
One of the biggest accomplishments has been the mayor's ability to raise
money, which has gone into improving the schools and classrooms,
creating parent centers and improving security.
"When we took over the schools, you would see students walking all
around the campus during class hours," Tuck said. "You don't see that
anymore. They are in their classes."
LAUSD school board president Monica Garcia, an ally of the mayor and a
supporter of the Partnership schools, said they have played an important
role in helping the entire district.
"They created the parent college and parent centers that we are
expanding through the district," Garcia said. "They are helping us go
faster. I'm interested in continuing the partnership so that L.A.
Unified can continue to increase our resources.
"They have also brought in new thinking on what we can do to reduce our dropout rate, to return kids to classrooms."
And, perhaps more importantly, she said, the Partnership has joined the city with the school district.
"What's important is we need every mayor from now on to consider
themselves an advocate for achievement and responsible for the civic
interest in a successful school district. It's important we have a mayor
who understands that to be a great city we need to transform the
schools."
How Good News Happened: $20 BILLION IN BUILDING HAS
BOOSTED LAUSD ELEMENTARY STUDENT TEST SCORES, STUDY FINDS
By Sammy Roth, Staff Writer. LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/PETRWF
8/14/2012 12:01:01 AM PDT :: A nearly $20-billion effort to reduce
overcrowding in city schools has paid off -- at least for elementary
school students, according to a new study.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has built dozens of new schools
since 2002, and researchers from the University of California, Berkeley,
found that the initiative has sparked huge increases in elementary
school students' test scores.
The initiative has been less successful, though, at the high school
level, with students' scores increasing little or not at all.
The study was released at midnight Monday as LAUSD students head back to
class after summer vacation. Researchers looked at the more than 20,000
students who moved into 73 new facilities built between 2002 and 2008,
finding that elementary school students improved their scores as much as
they would have if the school year was increased by 25 to 35 days.
"We rarely see such eye-popping benefits from any kind of school
reform," said Bruce Fuller, a Berkeley professor of education and public
policy who worked on the study.
While research has shown that reducing overcrowding improves
achievement, nowhere else has building new facilities boosted test
scores so much, Fuller said. He speculated that the huge gains for
elementary school students were a result of the fact that LAUSD -- the
nation's second-largest school district -- was so overcrowded to begin
with.
"It may be that the new-school effect stems from the
fact that we had young kids packed like sardines in the classrooms, and
overnight they moved to clean and tidy facilities staffed by younger,
better-trained teachers," Fuller said.
But meanwhile, high school students who moved to new schools saw a small
average increase in their language arts scores, and a small but
statistically insignificant decrease in their math scores. Fuller said
that the researchers were unable to explain the disparity between
elementary and high school students.
John Rogers, an education professor at UCLA who was not involved with
the study, said there were a few possible reasons the initiative has
benefited elementary school students more than high schoolers.
One possibility, he said, is that LAUSD's Small Learning Communities
program -- an effort to forge intimate educational experiences in large,
potentially impersonal high schools -- has already paid off, meaning
high school students have less to gain from moving to smaller schools.
But it's also possible, he added, that high schools are so large that
it's impossible for them to replicate the kind of community possible at
an elementary school.
"One thing we may be seeing is that high schools are already so large
that whether you have a 3,000- or 5,000-student high school, you're
already at a size that you don't have a sense of intimacy, and a feeling
that everybody knows each other," Rogers said.
While the new-schools initiative has reduced the overall size of LAUSD
schools, classroom size has stayed roughly the same since it began,
according to state data. By the time the new-schools initiative is
complete, LAUSD will have built about 130 new facilities over the course
of a decade.
The initiative has come with a hefty $19.5-billion price tag, making it
the second-largest public works project in U.S. history, after the
interstate highway system.
But the simple fact of building a new school might be more important
than how much money is spent to build that school, Fuller said. The
study noted that students improved their test scores by the same amount
regardless of how expensive the new facility they moved to, potentially
indicating a way for LAUSD and other school districts to save money as
they work to reduce overcrowding.
"This is kind of a bright red flag to the district that as they finish
the new schools, and as they move into renovating schools, they need to
think much more carefully about cost-effective ways of refurbishing
schools and improving the quality of facilities," Fuller said.
LAUSD did not respond to requests for comment on the study.
HOW GOOD NEWS HAPPENED
Themes in the News by UCLA IDEA | Week of Aug. 13-17, 2012 | http://bit.ly/PvOqWz
8-17-2012 :: This week, University of California, Berkeley
researchers reported that a $19.5 billion building project in Los
Angeles Unified yielded significant academic gains at elementary
schools, particularly for students who transferred from severely
overcrowded campuses.
New Schools, Overcrowding Relief, and Achievement Gains in Los Angeles -
Strong Returns from a $19.5 Billion Investment analyzed the effects of
Los Angeles' ambitious building plan—131 new schools—funded by
voter-approved local and state bonds. This building program provided new
facilities to thousands of students and reduced overcrowding in
existing schools. On average, elementary school students who moved to
new schools made gains that were equal to up to 35 instructional days.
For students who were relieved of extreme overcrowding situations, the
gains were 65 days. Students who remained in the previously overcrowded
schools also experienced modest gains (Daily News, EdSource Today,
Education Week).
"It may be that the new-school effect stems from the fact that we had
young kids packed like sardines in the classrooms, and overnight they
moved to clean and tidy facilities staffed by younger, better-trained
teachers," said Bruce Fuller, one of the authors (Daily News).
Indeed in the 1990s, schools across California, and particularly in Los
Angeles, had reached unprecedented levels of overcrowding, often with
conditions more often associated with slum housing. More than one-third
of California students had class in a portable or trailer. What were
once gyms, computer labs and libraries became classrooms. Schools
developed multi-track years to accommodate the influx. In Los Angeles,
25,000 students were bused to other schools. Some spent more than two
hours commuting (Just Schools).
These were some of the appalling conditions that led to Williams v.
California, the path-breaking class-action lawsuit that alleged the
state failed to provide millions of California students, primarily low
income students and students of color, the bare essentials of an
education, including safe and secure facilities. The suit also
challenged a version of year-round education (“Concept 6”) that provided
less instructional time to many of the same students. State officials
initially dismissed these claims as unrelated to school quality. They
denied that these conditions affected the ability of students to learn
and teachers to teach.
But a broad, statewide coalition of community groups, advocacy groups
and civil rights lawyers continued to draw attention to the problems of
overcrowded classrooms, substandard facilities, and an unequal
instructional time for students in Los Angeles. That effort led to the
2004 Williams settlement, which set aside $800 million for facility
repairs (Themes) and a deadline for ending “Concept 6” schedules that
could only be met through a massive school construction effort.
Responding to an advocacy campaign supported by many of the same groups
and with expert assistance from the Advancement Project, voters in Los
Angeles and statewide supported several ballot initiatives to fund new
school facilities. The nearly $20 billion Los Angeles effort examined by
PACE is the second-largest public works project in the nation.
The UC Berkeley study reports on the impact of new construction on
student test scores, but the new school buildings have had a broader
effect as well. By creating new and improved conditions for teaching and
learning, the new schools promote teacher morale and dramatically
decrease teacher turnover. Harder to capture in numbers is the sense of
pride students and parents feel in seeing state of the art public
institutions in their own communities. These positive civic lessons are a
powerful legacy of public investment and the broad-based civic activism
that led to it.
STRUGGLING DISTRICTS, CHARTERS AWARDED EXEMPTION FROM
STATE FUNDING DEFERRALS: LAUSD Not One of Them
OF 33 DISTRICTS, 21 ARE IN L.A. COUNTY, OF 203 CHARTERS, 103 ARE IN L.A. COUNTY
By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/PmGxVU
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 :: A total of 33 local educational agencies
and 203 charter schools have been given an exemption from this year’s
series of $3.5 billion in state payment deferrals, the California
Department of Education announced.
The payment delays, which have become a routine part of school budgeting
in recent years, were authorized in legislation signed by Gov. Jerry
Brown in May and necessary to help the state manage its cash flow needs
during the 2012-13 fiscal year.
The number of waivers comes as no surprise given the record number of
LEAs reporting adoption of budgets at some risk of failing to meet all
financial obligations this year as well as the next two.
While the state uses very different criteria in evaluating school
budgets and in deciding which districts need the deferral exemption, a
comparison of the two lists suggests deteriorating conditions in some
districts.
Earlier this spring, 176 districts reported adopting a “qualified”
budget, or one that might not cover all obligations this year and during
the next two years.
Another 12 reported adopting a “negative” budget –one in which they will
be unable to pay all their bills this year and over the next two years.
Already one of those districts, Inglewood Unified, has begun the
process for getting a state bailout loan.
But being listed as having a qualified or negative budget didn’t necessarily make LEAs eligible for the deferral exemption.
The exemptions were granted by the CDE based on an application process
that included a narrative or documentation showing that the school
district has exhausted all internal and external barrowing sources and
would otherwise meet the criteria for receiving a state emergency loan
in order to meet financial obligations.
Given that requirement, it is interesting to note that of the 33
deferral exemptions granted, 16 went to districts who reported a
qualified budget –one not necessarily in trouble this year.
Another 13 exemptions went to districts not listed as having either a qualified or negative budget.
The remaining four exemptions went to districts on the negative list.
Meanwhile, apportionment deferrals also went to more than 200 charter
schools. While the number is once again not surprising, it also reflects
the fiscal challenge charters are facing.
“Charter schools, on the whole, get a lot less funding than do
comparable districts and have less in reserve,” said Eric Premack,
director of the Charter School Development Center – an advocacy and
support group. “This is especially so for schools that pay for their own
facilities as well as newer elementary schools that do not share in K-3
class-size reduction funding.”
Premack also noted that charters have a harder time borrowing money
anyway – largely because they pose a higher risk to the lenders – and
when they can find a loan, they pay higher rates.
The apportionment deferral began with the delay of $1.2 billion owed to
K-12 schools in July. The state is scheduled to repay $700 million in
September and $500 million more in January 2013.
In August and October 2012, $600 million and $800 million, respectively,
will be deferred to January 2013, and in March 2013, $900 million will
be deferred to April 2013.
Terms that would make Countywide blush: SCHOOLS PASS DEBT TO THE NEXT GENERATION
POWAY UNIFIED BORROWED $105 MILLION IN 2011, BUT WON’T PAY ANYTHING UNTIL 2033.
By FLOYD NORRIS, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/S6toAM
August 16, 2012 :: The deleveraging of America is well under way, as
individuals and companies recover from the excess borrowing that helped
to produce the boom and left many people vulnerable when the bust
arrived. Household debt is down nearly $900 billion over the last four
years, partly from repayments and partly from defaults.
During the crazy times, homeowners could get mortgages that allowed them
to pay less than the full amount of interest being charged, with the
rest added to the principal. Commercial property owners generally paid
the full amount of interest, but did not have to repay any principal
until the loan matured in five or 10 years. For both homes and
commercial properties, lenders were willing to rely on extremely
optimistic appraisals.
For property buyers, those days are gone,
But for some borrowers, it is still possible to borrow now and pay nothing for decades.
There is a furor in California because the Poway Unified School
District, in San Diego County, borrowed money last year on terms that
even Countrywide would have laughed at during the boom. It will not pay a
dime of interest or principal for more than two decades. Only then will
it begin to service the bonds.
It is paying a high price. Although it has a good credit rating — Aa2 at
Moody’s and AA– at Standard & Poor’s — it will eventually pay
tax-exempt interest of up to 6.8 percent for the borrowings. When it
issued more conventional bonds last year, it paid rates that were much
lower, ranging up to just 4.1 percent.
For borrowing $105 million in 2011, taxpayers — or perhaps it would be
more accurate to say the children and grandchildren of today’s taxpayers
— will pay $877 million in interest between 2033 and 2051.
In San Diego, the bond issue first gained attention on The Voice of San
Diego, a Web-based publication, which published an article this month
headlined “Where Borrowing $105 Million Will Cost $1 Billion: Poway
Schools.” As the Voice noted, others, including Joel Thurtell, a
Michigan blogger, had written outraged articles about the bond issue.
But it was the Voice article that attracted national attention,
including a report on CNBC.
It turns out the Poway bond issue is not unique. This kind of borrowing
has been going on for years, particularly in California, where the tax
revolt that began with Proposition 13 in 1978 has made it harder and
harder to finance education or other local government services. Assorted
propositions approved by voters have made it very difficult to raise
taxes at all.
According to a Thomson Reuters database, school districts issued nearly
$4 billion in such bonds last year, and have sold almost $3 billion more
this year. Back in 2006, when the credit boom was in full bloom, $9
billion worth of so-called capital appreciation bonds were sold.
The Poway issue is unusual in delaying interest payments for so long,
but there have been others. Its neighbor, the San Diego Unified School
District, borrowed $150 million in May, promising to begin payments in
2032.
School districts’ logic for borrowing for construction projects always
was that those who benefit should pay for a construction project. In the
case of the Poway bond, however, it is at least possible that it will
be the children of today’s students who end up paying the bill. By then,
many of these school buildings may be obsolete, or at least in need of
another refurbishing.
In a statement, the Poway district pointed out that the bond issue was
the fifth part of a plan to modernize the 24 oldest schools in the
district, adding that while that bond “has a total repayment ratio of
9.3 times the principal amount,” the overall borrowing program has a
repayment ratio of just 4.2. That means that for every dollar borrowed,
$3.20 in interest will be paid.
To put that into perspective, a 30-year mortgage at the same 6.8 percent
interest rate would require $1.35 in lifetime interest payments for
each dollar borrowed, or a repayment ratio of 2.35.
“The most important value received from the building program that is
difficult to quantify is the educational value of providing today’s
students with quality learning facilities,” said John Collins, the
superintendent of the district, which has 34,000 students. “It is also
difficult to calculate the dollar value of savings realized by avoiding
the inflated construction costs of postponing the completion of the
building program for a decade or more.”
Your guess may be as good as his as to just how inflated those costs
will be. But it is hard to believe that the district would not have been
better off borrowing on terms that called for repaying the loan more
quickly. The interest rate would have been lower, and the power of
compound interest would not have caused the total payments to rise into
the stratosphere.
But the option of getting reasonable financing may not have been
available to the Poway district, or to many of the other districts that
have resorted to these capital appreciation bonds. Poway officials had
promised not to raise taxes, and this way they won’t have to. At least
not until 2033. They set the payments to begin after earlier bonds are
paid off.
Nationally, it appears that fewer and fewer school districts have been
able, or willing, to find ways to finance new buildings — or even to pay
teachers, as property tax revenue plunged with the deflating of the
housing bubble and pinched states reduced assistance. State and local
governments are spending less and employing fewer people now than they
were before the recession. Adjusted for inflation, state and local
investment in buildings and other assets is at the lowest level since
1998. Over the last 30 months, the economy has gained about half a
million jobs in manufacturing, and lost nearly as many in state and
local government.
Should districts issue such bonds? It is not an easy question to answer.
Much of this expensive borrowing is a result of local officials
searching for a way to meet their responsibilities at a time when
opposition to taxes has become a mantra. This generation will not pay
for what it needs, so some of its leaders have decided to saddle future
generations with the bills.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES
HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE: By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, LA Dail... http://bit.ly/SbxKYT
TEACHER EVALUATION BILL MOVES ON TO STATE SENATE: By John Fensterwald, Ed Source Today | http://bit.ly/OK8F6v A... http://bit.ly/PF9pd1
CHARTERS AND STATE AT ODDS OVER TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN: By Kathryn Baron, Ed Source Today | http://bit.ly/M ... http://bit.ly/NRji2b
4 from KPCC: NO HO HS STUDENT WINS GOLD IN CHINA ALL-GIRL MATH CONTEST, INGLEWOOD USD TRIES TO DODGE BANKRUPTCY,... http://bit.ly/Qcb6ZZ
PARENTS ATTEMPT TO NAVIGATE NEW SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARIES: By Vanessa Romo | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/PF17BP ... http://bit.ly/S6c4vx
How Good News Happened: $20 BILLION IN BUILDING HAS BOOSTED LAUSD ELEMENTARY STUDENT TEST SCORES, STUDY FINDS: B... http://bit.ly/PEYvnB
SCHOOL IN AUGUST GETS LOW GRADES: A Move by Some Districts to Reopen Before Labor Day Is Angering Parents, Stude... http://bit.ly/OJURci
A GOOD TEACHER IS HARD TO KEEP: Too often, teachers who are consistently successful with students are not given ... http://bit.ly/Qc0474
UNION WINS CHALLENGE TO TEACHER LAYOFF DEAL: By ANNIE YOUDERIAN . Courthouse News Service | http://... http://bit.ly/NNi75s
LAUSD, TEACHERS UNION SPAR OVER VOLUNTARY EVALUATION SYSTEM: The district hopes to train all administrators and ... http://bit.ly/NDmuA2
Day 2: WHERE IS KENNEDY HIGH'S MANNY ALVARADO? [Updated]: by Eric Sondheimer | Varsity Times Insider: L.A. Times... http://bit.ly/NDmuA1
National News: L.A. UNIFIED MOVES TEACHERS BACK TO MIRAMONTE SCHOOL: By CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press from the... http://bit.ly/NDas9N
WRONGSIZING: Respecting Workers, Keeping Kids Safe: By smf for 4LAKids News 11 August 2012 :: LAUSD has craftsp... http://bit.ly/NDauP1
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
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!.
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