| 4LAKids: Sunday 15•March•2015 | ||
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The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: Act I, Sc. 2 A PUBLIC PLACE: SOOTHSAYER. Caesar! ●●The above has nothing to do with the following, but one should never let an opportunity for the darkest foreshadowing in the history of drama pass unremarked-upon. CASSIUS. How many ages hence THE BOARD OF ED MET ON TUESDAY and decided upon a number of things. 1. Like Caesar they set a calendar – a compromise that nobody likes. 2. They agreed upon a Second Interim Budget – a fairly unimportant thing in itself, it really is only the first and last budget that matters. 3. They agreed to send out RIF notices to 2400+ employees. The press mostly reported there were “only” 609 employees noticed – the other 1800 or so RIFs were only ‘routine’ RIF notices …routinely sent to administrators. Routine: a. (noun) A set of customary or unchanging and often mechanically performed activities or procedures. b. (noun) A series of dance steps, a piece of scripted entertainment. C. (adj.) Having no special quality; ordinary Tuesday’s was lovely routine, totally supportive of the staff (especially those in Early Childhood and Adult Ed … plus Assistant Principals everywhere)– notifying them that their services may not be required next year. There goes the old employee morale – and the old credit rating! The published cost for processing and serving a RIF notice is $700. 2400 x $700 = $1,680.000. The average teacher salary including benefits is $70,139. $1.68 million = 24 teachers’ salary+benefits.
♫ “We have a little list …and they’ll none of ‘em be missed.” ♪
(The above action took the Bd of Ed 56 seconds; they voted 5-2 to send the notices – thank you gentle reader for taking at least that long to think about it!) 4. The Board settled with the Magnolia Charter Schools and the allegations of fiscal mismanagement/misuse of public funds at three schools behind closed doors. All is well and no further discussion needed. We will probably never know what happened. 5. They agreed on the need for third party oversight of Information Technology projects – but I suspect there are seven different interpretations of what “third party oversight” is. 6. They approved identification of the first eleven schools most needy/soonest of modernization. There was enough drama+time spent here for Shakespeare himself - with voices raised and allegations hurled and documents withheld - creating a brief popular sentiment to pull the plug on the whole wretched mess! (In fairness probably too much time+effort and too many rubrics+scoring algorithms had previously been applied in the selection+identification process. Nobody disputes the need for modernization at almost all of our schools. The superintendent wrote: “The 11 school sites were identified based on their actual, physical condition and needs, and without political influence” …but are these eleven (none of them elementary schools and four of them in a single board district) – really the most needy right now? That was the question! I AM NOT GOING TO GO INTO what came to light at Rosewood Elementary School [http://lat.ms/19iyBT] or Venice High [http://lat.ms/1FeNtOc] on Friday; due process will work its course. Quoting a Venice student who was not involved: “It's embarrassing," she said while standing under the shade of a tree, waiting for a ride home. "The whole world knows about this school and for this. It's really awful.” LAST WEEK I MISQUOTED Casey Stengel, giving him credit for words Leo Durocher said. Or, more correctly: Was misquoted as saying. TESTING TESTING TESTING: Do not pick up your pencils until told to do so! • The California State Board of Ed ruled that the test scores will not count for school accountability (the API) this year, parents and students will be given individual student scores – but because scores weren’t recorded last year there will be nothing to compare them to • We have new tests in California but the state will be keeping the same testing contractor. (Pearson was in the running but didn’t get the gig!) • Some schools in California and LAUSD began administering the new “Smarter Balanced” Common Core aligned/computer-based test last week. • The Common Core are not national standards and do not represent a national curriculum – and we don’t have national testing – but the two giant testing consortia (Smarter Balanced & PARCC) began testing nationwide last week. And outside California there seems to be a whole lot of resistance and a very robust+noisy “Opt-Out” movement. Stay tuned. • On Friday there appeared to be some shenanigans in New Jersey (I know!) over Pearson’s administration of the PARCC test there – including alleged invasion of student privacy and perhaps denial-of-service attacks on Pearson critics. See: “We’re from Pearson, we’re here to help!”: PEARSON MONITORING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SECURITY BREACHES DURING PARCC TESTING …and California’s been doing it for years [http://bit.ly/1BFFatF] In California the monitoring is done by the Dept. of Education, not the self-declared “World’s Largest Education Company”. We teach youngsters to share in kindergarten; it’s a lesson that doesn’t always take. But if we tell them not to share, as in “Don’t discuss the test or the questions with your classmates – especially on social media,” they always will! UPDATE: Tommy Chang will be paid $257,000 annually to be superintendent in Boston. AND LEST I BE ACCUSED of being a technophobic Luddite, I am endorsing an interactive online learning tool– an “App” – as a potential solution to the “How Do We Get Parents and the Community Involved in the Great LCFF Kerfuffle?” (Maybe it’s a “Challenge”…but until we get some folks in there asking+insisting+pushing-the-edge-of-the-envelope the address of “Local” in “Local Control” will continue to be 333 S. Beaudry!) Please read about ED 100 following. Sign Up, Tune In, and Get Engaged! You may now pick up your pencils and open your test booklets. Or log into the secure state server. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf LAUSD DROPS EFFORTS TO CLOSE THREE EMBATTLED CHARTER CAMPUSES UNDER FIRE FOR FISCAL MISMANAGEMENT| 2 stories and smf’s 2¢ L.A. UNIFIED ENDS EFFORT TO CLOSE EMBATTLED CHARTER SCHOOLS By Teresa Watanabe | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1AhQfwP March 11, 2015 :: Los Angeles Unified has dropped efforts to shut down three campuses operated by an embattled charter school chain accused of financial irregularities in a district audit. Caprice Young, chief executive officer of the Magnolia Public Schools, hailed the Board of Education for renewing the charters of campuses in Palms, Northridge and Bell under a legal settlement approved this week. Charters are independent, publicly funded campuses; most are non-union. The statewide charter organization, which enrolls 4,000 students in 11 academies focused on science and math, had denied allegations of financial mismanagement and sued the district last year to overturn the decisions to close the campuses. A court injunction has kept them open. "This is just plain good news and will give the schools the stability they need," Young said Wednesday. "I am thankful to LAUSD for giving us the opportunity to let us do our job well." Under the settlement, Magnolia agreed to bring in a new auditor and an educational services provider and submit to fiscal oversight by a state financial management organization. An audit performed last year for the district’s Office of the Inspector General found that Magnolia was $1.66 million in the red, owed $2.8 million to the schools it oversees and met the federal definition of insolvency. The Palms academy also was insolvent, the audit found. In addition, the review found fiscal mismanagement, including a lack of debts disclosure, weak fiscal controls over the principals’ use of debit cards and questionable payments for immigration fees and services. Since then, Magnolia hired Young, a former L.A. Unified school board president, along with a new chief financial officer and controller. The organization also has added new controls over spending, staff training and other improvements. "It's actually very common for charter organizations to face operational challenges when they've just come through a heavy growth period," Young said. She added that Magnolia was now "fiscally stable and sound." District officials have acknowledged that the Magnolia schools are performing well academically, with test scores well above the state's target of 800 on the 1,000-point Academic Performance Index. Young added that the foundation has taken other steps to address concerns raised in the audit, including freezing the use of H1-B visas to bring in foreign teachers and administrators. Young said Magnolia schools currently employ 11 staff members on such visas but that she hoped to work with L.A. Unified to improve the process before continuing it. She also dismissed concerns that the schools may be improperly influenced by a U.S.-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Critics have asserted that the Magnolia schools are among more than 100 campuses with ties to Gulen and seek to cultivate pro-Turkey sentiments. "I think it's unfounded," she said of the criticism. "I wouldn't criticize anyone of any ethnicity or national origin for starting a great school." She noted that 85% of Magnolia students were Latino, many of them low-income. She said programs to share Turkish culture through language study and other programs would enrich students, just as other charter schools offer classes in Arabic, German, Spanish and French. She also said the schools follow California learning standards, which require lessons about the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Young said the campuses in Bell and Northridge have extensive waiting lists, and the Palms school is near capacity. _______________________ ►LAUSD VOTES TO SETTLE MAGNOLIA CHARTER SCHOOLS LEGAL FIGHT, LET ACADEMIES STAY OPEN By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News Posted: 03/11/15, 7:52 PM PDT :: The Los Angeles Unified School Board has voted to settle a legal feud with Magnolia charter schools, in a move that would let three area academies stay open following efforts to shut down the campuses for alleged financial problems, according to officials. Board members reached their decision in closed session and did not comment after the vote was reported in the public portion of Tuesday’s meeting. LAUSD will be keep the specifics of the agreement confidential until it’s finalized. As part of the settlement, Magnolia has changed its top staffers, contracted out administrative work and expanded its governing board so a majority will be new members, Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Caprice Young said. “It’s all big changes in how we run the organization,” Young said. Young was part of Magnolia’s leadership change. The former LAUSD board member and founder of the California Charter Schools Association was appointed to head the organization in January. The schools had been under pressure from LAUSD to change leadership, and the two sought to settle a legal action out of court. In June, LAUSD quietly moved to shut down academies 6 and 7 — in Palms and Northridge, respectively — alleging auditors had uncovered financial mismanagement and the campuses were financially insolvent. Magnolia officials have said the accusations amounted to sloppy accounting practices that were the result of efforts to save money by using inexpensive software and legal funding transfers between campuses. Magnolia went to court, obtaining a temporary injunction that stopped the district from closing the two schools until the case went to trial. The court order questioned the authority of administrators to close the campuses without a school board vote. LAUSD subsequently took aim at Academy 8 in Bell, declining to renew the campus’ charter. While the legal action would be ended by the settlement, the state continues to audit Magnolia, which operates eight campuses in LAUSD and three in other parts of the state. State auditors are expected to report their findings in April. ●●smf’s 2¢: The allegations against Magnolia are of Misuse of Public Funds. Plain and simple. No amount of “great schoolage” and kids on waiting lists forgive this. Ultimately this is a matter of law enforcement - and the LAUSD Board – as public trustees and empowered with enforcing the charter law and protecting the public purse – have blinked/waffled/whatever. I hate to be “zero intolerant” – but there are no waivers or mulligans for malfeasance. The Man Behind the Curtain has nothing to do with the case: This has nothing to do with Fethullah Gülen’s purported involvement with Magnolia; to bring that up is a bit of misdirection. Parental Choice does not give the right to parents to choose to send their kids to a bad school -- whether the school is bad because it does a crummy job of teaching students or managing the public’s funds. I consider Caprice Young a friend – but she has been brought in to save the day and impose order amidst fiscal chaos while framing+ spinning+ charming the story of the chaos as something less than egregious. The biblical metaphor of pouring oil upon the waters comes to mind – but ask the folks on the Gulf Coast – or in Alaska: Oily waters are not necessarily a desirable outcome! The Board in its role as charter authorizer and overseer moved to suspend the three charters. It may have dodged a public vote earlier – but it had authorized the superintendent to act in its behalf. That’s what superintendents and Boards of Ed do. Tuesday the Board of Ed went into closed session and changed their mind and/or had their minds changed. The process of granting, suspending and reviewing charters is supposed to occur in Mr. Justice Brandeis’ “Disinfecting Sunshine”. Instead it happened behind closed doors in the guise of settling a lawsuit. SHOULD LAUSD STUDENTS REALLY START THE SCHOOL YEAR IN AUGUST? by Annie Gilbertson | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1BBFo4Q March 11 2015 :: Summer will draw to an end for Los Angeles Unified students with the start of classes on Aug. 18, a week later than the current year. The school board agreed Tuesday to change the calendar, but some parents aren't happy with the new start date. They said students shouldn't be in classes when temperatures can surpass 100 degrees. District administrators admitted energy costs do swing up. Others think August should be reserved for vacations. "I want my child to experience summer the way I did – long days of playing outside, swimming, baseball, and family picnics, as well as quiet time to just sit and watch the ants and think," wrote Mary Nadler, a parent in Pacific Palisades, on a petition that called for school to begin Aug.24. Still others argue starting class earlier in August helps balance the high school semesters, allowing students to finish coursework before their winter break. And, some suggest it gives teens a leg up on their Advanced Placement tests and high school exit exams scheduled in the spring. "I've heard very, very, very clearly from the high schools in the San Fernando Valley that they feel very passionate about keeping an early start," said board member Tamar Galatzan said during Tuesday's board meeting. Galatzan recommended the issue be revisited next year. "We have to figure this out once and for all," she said. LAUSD's first semester will end on Dec. 18. The second semester begins after the winter break on Jan. 11 and runs to June 10. ●●smf’s 2¢: All of the driving forces for the Early Start Calendar are in high school and revolve around SAT, AP and other test schedules. Less than 4/13th’s/30% of students are in high school at any one time. The August start hammers the District with AVAC costs from wear+tear and electricity costs. In addition to the added cost of air conditioning schools and it’s that it’s generally too-hot to play outside in August we should think about the load on the power grid. Win³: Stewards of the environment, guardians of student health and cheapskates with the electric bill! There is no benefit whatsoever to education in elementary and middle school for the early start calendar other than it allows the first semester to end and midterm testing to be accomplished before the winter break. At one level this is good because it allows the test-to-be-taught-to-and-given with minimal learning loss that results from three weeks of break and sugarplums, whatever they are. But what is it exactly that we are teaching-and-testing-for that it’s OK for kids to forget over the break? Here is my suggestion: • Go back to starting school on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Like the rest of the USofA. Like Tevya sang and the fiddler played: “Tradition!” • It’s nice that the union contracts protect Admission Day – but it usually happens about three days into the school year and this is the 21st century and state offices and the banks are open on Admission Day and so should our schools be! (Maybe with kids in school we could teach them who admitted what on Admission Day.) • A whole week off for Thanksgiving is three days too many. This weeklong holiday was created to make furlough days look like holidays and nobody was fooled. This is neither entitlement nor “Tradition!” • Two weeks for Winter Break is time enough. I suppose some mythical Westside kids take off this time for skiing in Aspen or Montreux …they will just have to go to school and read ‘Silas Marner’ and rough it at Snow Summit on that weekend!
Equity? Separate-but-Equal/Comparable-but-Unequal? NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND’S ‘COMPARABILITY’ LOOPHOLE By Caitlin Emma With help from Allie Grasgreen in Politico Morning Ed | http://politi.co/11CfC2f 3/13/15 10:00 AM EDT :: NCLB'S 'COMPARABILITY' LOOPHOLE: For a second time this week, the so-called comparability loophole in No Child Left Behind is in the crosshairs. Earlier this week, the Center for American Progress issued an analysis [follows] of the law's comparability requirement, which in essence says school districts must provide “comparable” educational services in high-poverty and low-poverty schools in exchange for federal Title I dollars. But the provision lacks teeth, and CAP — and now Education Secretary Arne Duncan and National Urban League President Marc Morial — say they want that changed in an update to the law. The Education Department says federal data show that in nearly two dozen states, districts serving the most low-income students spend less per student than wealthier districts. Pennsylvania’s low-income students are hit the hardest: The highest-poverty districts spend 33 percent less than the lowest poverty districts. Low-income students in Illinois, Missouri, Vermont and Virginia are also among the most affected, the data show. — The way to fix the loophole? Ditch the current method for measuring comparability, CAP says. A simple explanation of how it works now: As long as two schools have the same number of teachers, how much each teacher is paid — likely based on experience — they are considered to be providing a comparable education. But instead the calculation should be based on actual spending — such as actual teacher salaries, which could differ dramatically. And Education Department guidance on comparability should change, too: Right now, CAP says, districts can claim that they spend comparable amounts at Title I schools if they provide at least 90 percent of services offered in other schools. "Districts can interpret that percentage as a ceiling not a floor. The department’s guidance should not allow for this amount of leeway." — Neither House nor Senate proposals to update the law address the issue, CAP says. But the department notes that it's not impossible to change: Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Dakota spend more on low-income students than low-poverty districts within those states spend per student. The data on fiscal years 2011 and 2012 | http://1.usa.gov/1E9BTQr
ED 100: CALIFORNIA'S EDUCATION SYSTEM 100% DEMYSTIFIED. In English and Español. by smf for 4LAKids March 13, 2015 :: Ed 100 (http://Ed100.org) is a website created by friends of mine. Partners+colleagues; fellow troublemakers. Theirs is a great achievement; this is a shameless endorsement. The tagline “California’s Education System, 100% Demystified” tells you they have set out to accomplish the impossible ….but they have done it wonderfully well! Last week I wrote in an obit for the late John Mockler that there were one, maybe two people who understood California Ed Finance and that Mockler was the the one of ‘maybe two’. (That “one, maybe two” thought was not an original one – it was accepted truth in the Capitol and wherever California School Finance was discussed.) I have sat with John Mocker and others (including my candidate for “maybe two”) a in bar drinking glasses of the red stuff discussing the vagaries+mysteries …and we were all occasionally mystified – and none of us were certain-to-a-certainty …and now John is gone. In truth, Ed 100 is an online learning tool; it doesn’t have all the answers – it doesn't even have all the questions. It claims to be a primer – but it isn’t that either – any more than Principia Mathematica is a primer on Newtonian Physics. It’s more like a syllabus or course of study; over 100 short classes on what you choose to learn+know. Ed 100 also claims to be a crash course – but it’s the most in-depth crash course you ever took. Ed 100 is certainly neither “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You” nor Bob Segar’s “Working on mysteries without any clues”. Ed 100 is a roadmap …but it comes with the GPS tools and the guide to navigation to help you, whether you are a parent, teacher, student, administrator, school site council member – or (gosh forbid) a school board member – to navigate the highways, back roads, alleys and points-of-interest of California's Education System. There’s even an OnStar Button. If you are a member of your school or school district's Local Control Accountability Plan Parent Advisory Committee Ed 100 needs to be in that flight case you never see pilots without! Ed 100 has an optimistic purpose: to help you learn how education really works, so you can make a difference – whether you are a parent, a student, a teacher, or an interested citizen. Change happens. People who are prepared and informed can take moments of change and give them meaning. Ed100 can help you learn what you need to know. Your school needs parent leaders who understand the issues - especially in California, where things are changing fast. Ed 100 is a crash course (in English and Spanish) for parent leaders to learn what they need to serve. It's free. Please like and share! The Ed 100 intro to the Local Control Accountability Plan: HERE’S A CHECKLIST TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND AND INFLUENCE YOUR DISTRICT’S PLAN Ed100 is designed to help you understand California’s complex education system so you can help make it work well for students. A new element was added to the system in 2014: the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). It is meant to make the system more accountable to parents and other community members. Like the song says, each district now must have an LCAP. But there’s a problem. On its own, the LCAP template is thick with legalese and edu-jargon. So…Ed100 to the rescue! Together with the California State PTA, we have created a checklist that cuts through the jargon and gives you the information you need. THE LCAP PARENT CHECKLIST TEMPLATE You can use the LCAP Parent Checklist template (in English or Spanish) to frame conversations among people who care about your school. This checklist can help you contribute thoughtfully to your district’s discussions surrounding the LCAP process. It links to lessons in Ed100, in English or in Spanish, that can help inform your discussions ►also see: LAUSD school-by-school budgets | scpr.org | http://bit.ly/1CiLg3A
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources STUDENTS ALERTED DISTRICT OFFICIALS TO VENICE HIGH SCHOOL SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1bawp0M PEARSON MONITORING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SECURITY BREACHES DURING PARCC TESTING…and California’s been doing it for years | http://bit.ly/1BFFatF Ravitch:REPORTER’S WEBSITE BROUGHT DOWN. Reports say Pearson is Spying on Social Media of Students Taking PARCC Tests http://bit.ly/1EjEjhP JUST ANOTHER FRIDAY THE 13th IN LAUSD: 1 teacher charged + 9 students arrested Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sl73gg Randomly Tweeted> Today is Friday the 13th. Tomorrow is Pi Day (π = 3.1415) . Sunday is the Ides of March. Just sayin' ED 100: California's Education System 100% Demystified. In English and Español. | http://bit.ly/1DgJ6Tt Equity? Separate-but-Equal/Comparable-but-Unequal? NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND’S ‘COMPARABILITY’ LOOPHOLE | http://bit.ly/19gX0si CA on Wed decided that the test scores won’t count. CN, WI+DE are close behind & Arne takes a wrong turn in in Chi. http://bit.ly/1Eb97i9 TESTING TUG O’ WAR: Here we have Smarter Balanced; There they have PARCC. Both sound like brands of margarine to me! http://bit.ly/1Eb97i9 California Teacher Layoffs Up Slightly This Year | http://bit.ly/1FYHBXR Arne Duncan/Diane Ravitch: HOW TO FIX [NOT TO FIX] NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND | http://bit.ly/1NT7yh0 PUBLIC SCHOOLS SEE "WINDFALL" AFTER $1-MILLION LOTTO PRIZE GOES UNCLAIMED! Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sl6rg6 LAUSD DROPS EFFORTS TO CLOSE 3 EMBATTLED CHARTER CAMPUSES UNDER FIRE FOR FISCAL MISMANAGEMENT| 2 stories and smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1BzPodL TESTING³ v.2.0: CA State Board of Ed Drops Test Scores to Rank Schools (+Teachers), Keeps Testing Co (not Pearson) | http://bit.ly/1F3nmJW TESTING, TESTING, TESTING: CA vs. Feds, A Rocky Trial Run (not that ‘Rocky’), A Primer for Parents | http://bit.ly/1b4NIAc ...hundreds? …609? …mas de 600? …more than 2400? LAUSD IS SENDING OUT PINK SLIPS …but who’s counting? | http://bit.ly/1EAv1kj ECONOMIST THOMAS PIKETTY SLAMS JEB BUSH & OTHER REPUBLICANS ON EDUCATION+INEQUALITY: "...there’s a lot of hypocrisy” http://bit.ly/1Ec2f6J Time for a new education policy: RETURNING ESEA TO ITS ROOTS | http://bit.ly/1wXLtsD ALL KIDS ARE NOT THE SAME: What the Common Core Standards Fail to Do | http://bit.ly/1C508SZ CORTINES PREDICTS STATE WILL DELAY COUNTING STATEWIDE TEST SCORES | http://bit.ly/1MsW6aj “The board spent 56 seconds discussing the layoff warnings at Tuesday's meeting and voted 5-2 to approve the notices” http://bit.ly/18buo2D LAUSD BOARD APPROVES LAYOFF WARNINGS WITH FINAL NOTICES TO COME LATER (…if at all) | http://bit.ly/18buo2D IN 6 HR 3/10 LAUSD BdOfEd MTG:2500 Pink Slips OKed/Anger over Facilities issues/Kvelling over Budget/Early Start Calendar begrudgingly OKed Randomly Tweeted> LAUSD Supt Cortines says the District will pay benefits for any school hiring a full-time library aide at board meeting today "If you are looking for a way to say you have no money, you just forecast all these bad things. At the end of the year, the money is going to be there." - Frmr Baldwin Park Supe Mark Skvarna | http://bit.ly/1wpUJVJ LAUSD Superintendent is predicting the school district will face a $160 million deficit in the next school year | http://bit.ly/1wpUJVJ DESPITE DEFICIT FEARS, LAUSD BUDGET TO END YEAR IN BLACK; NEXT YEAR’S OUTLOOK IS CLOUDY | http://bit.ly/1wpUJVJ Elementary School Dumps Homework and Tells Kids to Play Instead via @alfiekohn http://bit.ly/1KqM4sw “Enforced silence in “school culture that resembles a prison's” for “young Afr-Amer students taught to obey”: http://ow.ly/IQz6n THE DIRTY DOZEN : HOW CHARTER SCHOOLS INFLUENCE STUDENT ENROLLMENT | http://bit.ly/1EN8CP9 “Laying off employees will permit the district to meet student needs..." Read: http://tl.gd/n_1sl4u4p LA School Report: "LAUSD IS PROPOSING LAYOFFS OF HUNDREDS OF TEACHERS TO CUT DEFICIT" | http://bit.ly/1CX6HbQ LA UNIFIED UNVEILS A NEW+IMPROVED (so far) MiSiS SYSTEM ...OK: a new MiSiS website! | http://bit.ly/1Ew4ZPa PLAN TO REOPEN CLOSED VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AS CONTINUATION CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL IS OPPOSED BY NEIGHBORS +smf’s 2¢| http://bit.ly/1aY8fq2 FORMER LAUSD BOARD PRESIDENT WARREN FURUTANI TO RUN FOR 35th SENATE DISTRICT SEAT | http://bit.ly/1Mm3jXM Rethinking Business Models in Education: TOP 10 BUSINESS TRENDS IMPACTING EDUCATION IN 2015 | http://bit.ly/1FB22tx INVESTING IN TEACHER PAY COULD SPUR BIG GAINS FOR CALIFORNIA STUDENTS + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1GkneUR EVENTS: Coming up next week... • COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - March 17, 2015 POSTPONED+RESCHEDULED TO MARCH 24, 2015 • CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE – Tuesday, March 17, 2015 3:30 pm – ¡Éirinn go Brách! *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 George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@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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Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was
Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is
Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented
PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for
over 12 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 "WHO" Gold Award and the
ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors
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. 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. |
