Sunday, April 26, 2015

Driven



4LAKids: Sunday 26•Apr•2015
In This Issue:
 •  AALA explains it all for you in 400 words or less: LAUSD AND UTLA REACH A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT …but what about “Me too”?
 •  SENATORS PREPARE AMENDMENTS FOR FLOOR DEBATE ON ECAA (ECAA is potentially the new+improved NCLB)
 •  'LUNCH LADY' LOBBY JOINS GOP TO FIGHT OBAMA'S SCHOOL LUNCH RULES + feedback + smf’s 2¢
 •  “VOTERIA”: AN ELECTION DAY LOTTERY DEMEANS THE VALUE OF VOTING – Pseudo Political Science, taken to an illogical extreme
 •  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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 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
[driv●uh n]

verb
1.
past participle of drive.
adjective
2.
being under compulsion, as to succeed or excel


It’s always interesting or amusing or something when different folks come up with different conclusions from similar data. I often fear that we are being data driven, like Thelma+Louise, off some cliff in pursuit of vastly differing cinematic endings.

Two headlines from last week:

MAJORITY OF CALIFORNIA'S LATINO VOTERS HIGHLY VALUE SCHOOL TESTING
Zahira Torres | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1DzKBLD
April 12, 2015 :: Latino voters consider California's standardized tests an important measure of student growth and school performance, according to a new poll that shows the state's largest minority group also feels strongly about teacher accountability and investing additional…

SURVEY FINDS MANY PARENTS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT NEW COMMON CORE TESTS
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/1FleXT5
April 23, 2015 :: According to the nonpartisan research group Public Policy Institute of California, 55 percent of public school parents surveyed say they have not heard at all about the new tests that public schools are giving students grade 3 to 8 and grade 11 starting this spring.

Essentially the same questions, infinitely different conclusions. It would be wonderful to conclude that those Latino voters were somehow better informed…perhaps the Translation Units and Communications Departments at the school districts are overachieving?

For the most part, the numbers from the two polls agree – but the interpreters of the data are looking for different patterns in the bottom of the teacup.

The first difference to note is that The Times cites+polls “Voters” – and KPCC/PPIC refers to “Parents”.

We need to remember that the customers of public education are parents – who tend to be demographically Brown – while the supporters of public education, fiscally and at the ballot box, tend to be a little Whiter. If I were to go all cynical and capitalist and register as a Republican I might say that those voter-taxpayers are the true “customers” – and that parents are only providers of raw materials – but I’m not going to. But hold that thought.

The folks who did the parent survey, the Public Policy Institute of California, headline their findings as: “MOST PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS UNFAMILIAR WITH NEW ONLINE TESTS: High Hopes But Little Knowledge About Common Core, New Funding Formula” – with two notable bullets:
• MOST EXPECT NEW FUNDING FORMULA TO BOOST ACHIEVEMENT
• STATE FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS IS UP, BUT MOST SAY IT’S NOT ENOUGH

I refer all 4LAKids readers to the entire survey [PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians & Education| http://bit.ly/1I6DJat] - but let’s dig a little deeper into the questions The Times and KPCC are spinning here:

From the actual survey:
►PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE SMARTER BALANCED ASSESSMENTS: In the latest chapter of a long history of standardized testing in California, students are taking their first Smarter Balanced tests, which are designed to assess their proficiency in math, reading, and writing. The Smarter Balanced assessments are a new set of tests designed to measure whether students are proficient in math, reading, and writing at their grade levels. Following the implementation of the Common Core standards, these new tests are being administered statewide for the first time this spring.

●How familiar are public school parents with the Smarter Balanced tests?

A majority of public school parents (55%) say they have heard nothing at all about the new tests. Only 8 percent have heard a lot about the Smarter Balanced assessments, while 36 percent have heard a little. Latino public school parents (54%) are much more likely than white public school parents (32%) to say they have heard about the Smarter Balanced tests.

Unlike the paper-based tests they are replacing, the Smarter Balanced tests are administered online. There has been some concern as to whether all schools have the computers, Internet bandwidth, and technology staff necessary to effectively administer these new computer-based tests.

●The question was: “California public school students will participate in the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing this spring. Thinking about the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing, how confident are you that your local public schools have the computers and technology resources they need to administer the test—are you very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confident?”

Seven in 10 public school parents are very (29%) or somewhat (42%) confident that their local public schools have the technology resources needed. Notably, public school parents with incomes over $40,000 are twice as likely as those with lower incomes to say they are not too or not at all confident (35% to 16%).

►STUDENT TESTING: Californians are divided about whether standardized tests in general are an accurate indicator of a student’s progress and abilities.

●The Question was: “How confident are you that standardized tests are an accurate indicator of a student's progress and abilities?”

Half are very (12%) or somewhat confident (39%) in these tests, while 46 percent are not too (26%) or not at all (20%) confident. Findings were similar in April 2013 (53%), but confidence today is lower than in April 2006, when 63 percent of Californians were at least somewhat confident. Among public school parents, 62 percent are very (19%) or somewhat (43%) confident in standardized tests. Latinos (64%) and Asians (59%) are more likely to express confidence than whites (42%) and blacks (38%). Fifty percent of Democrats, 46 percent of Republicans, and 43 percent of independents are at least somewhat confident about the accuracy of standardized tests.

So The Times story is that Latinos are well informed and convinced while KPCC and PPIC and others like EdSource [http://bit.ly/1PBPmIA] say that most people aren’t informed at all.

And confidence is slipping.


LAST OCT 31, Moody’s Investors Service - a bond rating agency - issued a report: GROWTH OF CHARTER SCHOOLS EXACERBATES LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT ENROLLMENT – that said in part:

“...On October 22, KIPP Schools, the nation's largest network of charter schools, announced plans to more than double its enrollment in Los Angeles by 2020. The continued expansion of independent charter schools is credit negative for the Los Angeles Unified School District (Aa2 stable), because it will exacerbate the district's current trend of declining enrollment. LAUSD, the state's largest school district, has experienced a 20% decline in enrollment over the last 10 years, more than 40% of which is due to attrition to independent charter schools.

• Declining enrollment means lost revenues for school districts under the State of California's (Aa3 stable) revenue allocation formula.
• For every 1% reduction in enrollment, the district's revenues also fall approximately 1%.
• KIPP intends to more than double enrollment within the jurisdiction of LAUSD, from 4,000 students to 9,000 students, by 2020.” | http://bit.ly/1KhRZfJ

The full Moody’s report is behind a pay firewall and I have yet to locate anyone at the District who will share with me as an Oversight Committee member – let alone 4LAKids readers.


ON FRIDAY THE TIMES endorsed Tamar Galatzan and Ref Rodriguez for school board and got it wrong about George McKenna being on the ballot in the May 19th election | http://lat.ms/1HBSkdg. [Note to The Times: McKenna already won, he ran unopposed in the March primary and got 100% of the vote!]

The Times endorsement of Galatzan wasn’t quite as filled with misgivings as their misgiving-filled-one for her was back in the primary. [http://lat.ms/1zlsJgs] In the editorial board’s opinion her knee-jerk support for John Deasy and failure to ask hard questions grows more palatable with the passage of time …much like their own.

They endorsed another candidate against Bennett Kayser in the primary, he didn’t make the cut so they’ve pivoted to Rodriguez. They say it shouldn’t be a race for-or-against charter schools or the teachers union …but they are the LA Times and we all know how they feel about about charter schools and labor unions!

The Times also endorsed Richard Vladovic without a good thing to say for him… other than they think even less of his opponent.

I’m sure Times publisher Austin Buetner (…and the Billionaire Boys Club, former mayors Bloomberg+Tony, the ®eformers on Jaimie Lynton’s list* [http://bit.ly/1KeIhe9] and the California Charter School Association) would feel much more positive about the LAUSD Board of Ed if he could just install the Times Editorial Board in their place.

LA School Report – which likes to count money like ®eformers count test scores - reports: “Overall, the pro-Rodriguez groups have outspent the pro-Kayser groups by almost 9-to-1, with the charter group outspending the union by nearly 34-to-1” http://bit.ly/1GtugIb And that doesn’t count the Lotteria $! (see following)

Luckily, dollars spent don’t count on Election Day, votes cast count on Election Day. If you don’t think so just ask Boardmembers Luis Sanchez, Antonio Sanchez, Kate Anderson and Alex Johnson.

Consistency being the hobgoblin, 4LAKids continues to endorse SCOTT SCHMERELSON IN DISTRICT 3, BENNETT KAYSER IN DISTRICT 5 & RICHARD VLAODOVIC IN DISTRICT 7 – just like we did back in March.

The mail-in ballots have been mailed out, fill ‘em in and mail ‘em in. Early and often. Or go to the polls on May 19th. Tell a friend/bring a friend. Democracy is not a spectator sport.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf

_________
* - Jamie’s moving to NYC, they can’t print it in the Hollywood Reporter if it’s not true! http://bit.ly/1Jny1m8 OMG: Who’ll run the LASR?


AALA explains it all for you in 400 words or less: LAUSD AND UTLA REACH A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT …but what about “Me too”?
●●smf: The administrators’ weekly newsletter puts the proposed new contract between UTLA and LAUSD into pretty fair perspective with the least amount of drama.

from the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update | Week of April 27, 2015 | http://bit.ly/1FkqXV4

23 APRIL 2015 :: The Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles reached a tentative agreement in contract negotiations on Friday, April 17, 2015.

The agreement must be approved by both the LAUSD Board of Education and the UTLA membership.

●●smf: The Board approved the deal unanimously on Tuesday. UTLA rank+file vote between May 1 – 7. If ratified, the Board of Education will ratify at their meeting on May 12.

The parties agreed on a three-year, $607 million dollar contract that includes a multitiered evaluation system, summer school, reduced class sizes in 8th and 9th grade English/Language Arts and mathematics classes, increased counseling services and a multiyear salary structure.

The agreement was reached after seven months of sometimes contentious negotiations and a declaration of impasse, initiated by UTLA, which led to mediation and a successful agreement. Both sides expressed pleasure that an agreement had been reached.
A 10.36 percent salary increase covering several years is part of the agreement. Details may be found in the second bullet below.

According to the District’s press release, the following are the key components of the agreement:

• A 3-year agreement covering 2014-2017 with limited reopeners in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 which includes a salary reopener.
• A 4% on-schedule salary increase effective July 1, 2014; a 2% on-schedule salary increase effective January 1, 2015; a 2% on-schedule salary increase effective July 1, 2015, and a 2% on-schedule salary increase effective January 1, 2016.
• A 3-level final evaluation system, which will allow for additional flexibilities through the CORE Waiver.
• Additionally, a joint committee will be created with the certificated bargaining units to help with the development of the improvements to the teacher evaluation system.
• $13 million for class size reduction to English Language Arts and Math in grades 8-9.
• An additional $13 million will be provided to increase secondary school counseling services. •
• Continued protections for the District for budgetary uncertainties.
• A class size committee to explore options and strategies for further reducing class sizes.
• A more efficient grievance processing system that requires informal discussion prior to the filing of a grievance.
• Additional leave options to promote wellness among employees.
• Greater collaboration with UTLA in the assignment process.
• Substitutes will be provided additional rights to a meeting with representation.


►WHAT ABOUT ‘ME TOO’?


AALA members are aware of the “me too” clause in the contractual agreements between AALA ( and other bargaining units) and LAUSD that allows a union the opportunity to reopen salary negotiations should the Board approve a higher raise for another union. In light of the agreement with UTLA, Dr. Judith Perez, AALA President, sent the following communication to Vivian Ekchian, LAUSD Chief Labor Negotiator:

“Consistent with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the District and AALA dated June 27, 2014, I am requesting that the District schedule negotiations with AALA.

“On page 2 of the aforementioned MOU the following is noted “…should the Board of Education approve a higher general percentage increase on the base salary table for another group of employees, AALA will receive comparable treatment.”

“AALA is interested in quickly addressing and resolving the “me too” clause matter on behalf of our membership.”


Members should be advised that before any negotiations between AALA and the District can begin, the ratification of the District’s agreement with UTLA must take place. According to staff in the Office of Labor Relations, UTLA members will vote on the proposed agreement between May 1 – 7. Votes will be tallied and announced on May 8, 2015. If ratified, the Board of Education will consider it for adoption at their meeting on May 12, 2015, and since all Board Members have voiced support for the agreement, we assume it will pass. Once adopted, AALA can initiate the formal negotiation process with the District which should result in administrators being offered a salary agreement that is on par with their colleagues in UTLA.


LAUSD TEACHERS COULD COLLECT 14.3 PERCENT OF SALARY IN BACK PAY+ RAISES THIS SCHOOL YEAR AND NEXT | LA Daily News



SENATORS PREPARE AMENDMENTS FOR FLOOR DEBATE ON ECAA (ECAA is potentially the new+improved NCLB)

by JCM | The following is from CDE’s federal update e-mail from advocates Brustein & Manasevit on federal issues

24 APRIL 2015 :: With Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) saying he wants to put legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on the Senate floor before the Memorial Day recess, lawmakers are positioning themselves to offer amendments on a number of controversial issues.

Several amendments submitted during Committee markup of the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) were ultimately withdrawn by their sponsors in favor of floor consideration, including an amendment from Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) which would create a Title I “portability” option. This option would allow States to set up systems in which funds are allocated to districts and then to schools – including charters and private schools – based on their population of Title I-eligible students. There is a similar provision in the House’s ESEA reauthorization bill (which is still awaiting a final vote), but Congressional Democrats and President Obama have spoken out against it.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered an amendment regarding data which she also withdrew with the intention of reintroducing during debate on the floor. Her amendment would require cross-tabulation of student assessment data across various reporting categories. While cross-tabulated data does provide more information for teachers, principals, and analysts, it represents a significantly increased burden for data reporting.

A version of the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination because of a student’s actual or perceived gender or sexual orientation, was offered as an amendment in Committee by Senator Al Franken (D-MN). Franken also quickly withdrew this amendment with the intention of reintroducing it on the floor. And both Franken and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) say they will bring up amendments on bullying – an issue that failed to gain traction during markup – in floor debate.

But not all the potential floor amendments come from Committee members. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced legislation on Tuesday which would roll back some of the current testing requirements under ESEA, making such tests a requirement only once in elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school. Tester has said that he plans to raise that legislation as an amendment during debate on the ECAA.

While some of these amendments will be offered during floor debate with the blessing of Alexander and Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA), others threaten to slow down consideration of the bill or even stall it entirely. As the Title I portability provision in the House bill was mentioned in President Obama’s veto threat, Scott’s portability amendment could prove to be a poison pill for the Senate bill – and Senators will have to consider these kinds of implications carefully if they wish to see the President sign a reauthorization bill into law.

• Resources: Lyndsey Layton, “Sen. Jon Tester Seeks to End Annual Standardized Testing,” The Washington Post, April 21, 2015 | http://wapo.st/1z235EA

_____

●…but SI&A Cabinet Report reports: “The difficulty is getting a bill that Congress will approve that the Administration will sign into law.”

21 April 2015 :: Despite signs of growing bipartisan support for legislation reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 52 percent of Washington’s education stakeholder community says it won’t happen while President Barack Obama is in office…”


INSIDE THE BELTWAY PESSIMISTIC ABOUT REAUTHORIZATION :: SI&A Cabinet Report



'LUNCH LADY' LOBBY JOINS GOP TO FIGHT OBAMA'S SCHOOL LUNCH RULES + feedback + smf’s 2¢
By Evan Halper | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1ddpDYZ

22 April 2015 :: In the farm-to-fork-crazed city of Portland, Ore., campus gardens supply public school cafeterias and food service workers seek out chicken free of antibiotics.

But the school system's nutritional director finds there's one advocate for healthy food whose demands she just can't meet — Michelle Obama.

"We have tried every noodle that is out there," said Gitta Grether-Sweeney, the Portland nutritional director who says she is exasperated by the federal school lunch rules the first lady champions. "Whole-wheat noodles just don't work in lasagna. We are having to go lawless to use regular pasta."

The locally sourced macaroni and cheese the schools had been serving turned to mush when it was made with whole-grain macaroni to meet the new rules, Grether-Sweeney said.

That once-popular meal is now off the menu. So too are wraps, which she says won't hold together with the brittle wheat tortillas she now must use. Many fewer meals are getting sold at school, she said.

Food service directors like Grether-Sweeney have been warmly embraced by Republicans who are trying to undermine federal school lunch rules that they see as the cornerstone of a nanny-state agenda from the first couple.

In response, the Obama administration has put together its own coalition of celebrity chefs, health organizations and military leaders to mitigate the damage caused by its falling-out with the "lunch lady" lobby — 55,000 school cafeteria workers who were once a major ally.

Back in 2010, when it passed, the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act was seen as a landmark nutritional achievement for the most health-conscious White House in recent memory.


Now, as the Republican-dominated Congress decides whether to renew the law, school lunch trays have become a partisan battle zone. The law expires on Sept. 30, although the status quo will remain in place if Congress deadlocks.

"We should not have what is served for lunch at schools decided by bureaucrats in Washington," said Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who wrote one of multiple bills that would ease the rules. "This has become a burden."

The law and the regulations it spawned require school lunches to include significantly more fruits and vegetables and an infusion of whole grains; they also mandate a big drop in calories. Schools were told to cut the salt and sugar in foods they sell, even in campus vending machines.

Supporters of the law say that unwholesome frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets and other junk food that once were lunchtime staples helped drive the nation's epidemics of childhood obesity and diabetes.

They question whether the intense pushback against the new standards truly reflects the concerns of lunch ladies or the views of big processed-food companies that bankroll the School Nutrition Assn., which represents cafeteria workers in Washington.

"We believe they are being highly nudged by the interests that represent the frozen-pizza industry and some of the other processed-food folks that provide significant funding," said Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the Department of Agriculture. "Regressive parts of the industry want to act like we are not in the middle of a crisis in this country."

And many schools are all for the new rules — particularly in California.

The former food service director at the Los Angeles Unified School District, where pizza is no longer on the menu, stood alongside the first lady last year as she kicked off her public campaign to defend the standards. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has urged Congress not to weaken them.

Few things government does have as much impact as the school lunch program on the diets of Americans. More than 43 million subsidized lunches and breakfasts are served daily. They account for half of the calories many kids consume in a day.
Bill removing California vaccine exemptions approved by key Senate panel

The program was created in 1946 by a Congress alarmed that vast numbers of young men were ineligible to serve in World War II because they were undernourished.

Underfeeding is no longer the problem. Now, nearly a quarter of recruiting-age Americans are too overweight to serve, according to Mission: Readiness, a group of 500 retired military officials who argue that school lunch trays laden with junk food are a major culprit. Its leaders are confounded by the backlash against the new standards.

"It is amazing to us that this has become a political issue," said retired Maj. Gen. D. Allen Youngman, former head of the Kentucky National Guard.

"There are a lot of ways you can characterize 500 admirals and generals," he added. "But a hotbed of liberal thought is not the first thing that comes to mind."

The new lunch rules are strict. Schools are being told to restock pantries with ingredients alien to many students' palates.

If children pass up the fruit, cafeteria workers in many cases can't sell them a meal until they take some, leading schools to complain they are paying for produce that ends up in the garbage.

There have been other growing pains. The number of meals sold took a steep drop with the introduction of the new rules, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In St. Charles Parish just outside New Orleans, where more than half the public school children qualify for free or reduced-priced school meals, the fluffy biscuit that long enticed them to eat a hot breakfast has been effectively outlawed. The children look at its whole grain replacement with bewilderment, said Teresa Brown, the school's director of childhood nutrition.

"We are struggling to find a biscuit they are happy with," she said. "It is grainy. The texture is strange to them.... These kids don't eat these things at home. We don't have anything in our cafeteria anymore that is white. They haven't had time to adapt."

Nutrition advocates say they sympathize, but they point to studies suggesting that after the expected bumpy rollout, schools are figuring out how to make the new menus work.

Consumption of healthy food is on the rise, supporters of the program say. They point to temporary waivers that allow struggling schools to continue serving chewy, white noodles.

Some eager districts are engaging students in taste tests, surveys and promotional campaigns, using the nutrition mandates as a catalyst to elevate their dining experience.

A letter from 19 past presidents of the School Nutrition Assn. urged the administration not to bend to the demands of their own group. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Assn. and the American Heart Assn. have joined the USDA in campaigning against any weakening of the rules.

Suppliers like Domino's and Pizza Hut have reformulated the pizzas they sell to schools with whole grains and low-fat cheeses, and pasta companies are scrambling to figure out how to make whole-grain products palatable to children.

The federal government is providing grant money to bring in expert chefs to assist districts that need help overhauling their menus.

Other grants can be used to convert kitchens into facilities better equipped to prepare healthy meals. That might include replacing deep-fat fryers and microwaves with high-tech combination ovens that use a steaming function to make baked foods taste fried.

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican, visited a school in his home state last month that enthusiastically embraces the new guidelines, and he told student reporters there he was impressed by the meals being served.

But don't look to him to vote to renew the program.

"I just have a problem with the federal government," Roberts said in a lunchroom video interview. "I don't think our Founding Fathers sat around the table and said, 'I have a great idea. Let's mandate what people eat.'"
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Washington's failure at fixing school lunches | http://lat.ms/1ORJfxD
Published 25 April 2015

To the editor: If only politicians knew as much about nutrition as they did about fundraising. The food fight is too political and based more on expected campaign contributions from the giant food suppliers than on science. ("'Lunch lady' lobby joins GOP to fight Obama's school lunch rules," April 22)

The obesity epidemic starts and ends with processed foods, from juices to bread to pasta to chips to any packaged item. Whole wheat does not ordain any health advantage to a processed food. The fiber it offers is insoluble and not the healthful, soluble fiber from fresh fruits and vegetables that our gut utilizes in maintaining the healthy bacteria and regularity we all need.

Michelle Obama, who supports the use of whole-grain pasta, missed the boat on food science.

It is time for our leaders to declare victory in the federal lunch program and prepare to tighten the students' belts. Maybe there should be a lunch voucher program based on the body mass index of the student.

Jerome P. Helman, MD, Venice
..
To the editor: This article fails to mention that schools in California and nationwide are struggling with higher costs and a lack of funding to meet new school meal standards.

In Santa Clarita Valley, we are committed to serving nutritious school meals that students consume and enjoy. We even hired a trained chef to help improve menus, making our nutritious dishes more enticing. Nonetheless, our program is losing money under the new rules, primarily because of rising costs. Our produce budget alone is up 10%.

The federal government says schools will absorb $1.2 billion in new food and labor costs this year under the regulations. That's about 10 cents per lunch and 27 cents per breakfast in added costs. Congress provided only 6 additional cents for lunch and no additional funding for breakfast to cover the costs.

Congress needs to increase funding for school meals and give school nutrition professionals the flexibility to do our jobs.

Lynnelle Grumbles, Santa Clarita

The writer, a dietitian, is chief executive of the Santa Clarita Valley School Food Services Agency.
..
●● smf’s 2¢: In LAUSD we continue to pay the price for Supt. Deasy’s sociopathic urgency and his belief in the beauty of his weapons - whether iPads or MiSiS or Vergara or Academic Growth Over Time. We pay for his “I know best” belief in getting rid of chocolate milk and forcing Breakfast in the Classroom upon the District no matter what anyone else thinks. Even those of us (me) who think BiC is a good idea/badly done!


“VOTERIA”: AN ELECTION DAY LOTTERY DEMEANS THE VALUE OF VOTING – Pseudo Political Science, taken to an illogical extreme
• A nonprofit voter group has a plan to turn around traditionally abysmal turnout for a key election to the Los Angeles Board of Education …it's going to pay one lucky voter $25,000

• “Gonzalez said his group has concluded that handing out a $25,000 cash prize is legal in California but would violate federal law” …what part of ‘violates federal law’ is so hard to understand?

• Venture capitalist/Alliance Charter Schools board co-chair Antony Ressler, on the District 1 LAUSD School Board Election: “10000 votes for School board race... Crazy that we have a publicly elected school board... This is NOT what democracy is supposed to be. No one in LA cares TR” - e-mail to Jamie Alter Lynton on Jun 5, 2014, at 10:04 PM | WikiLeaks Sony Hack #126221 | http://bit.ly/1bExnCT
_____________________

●●smf’s 2¢: I am racking my brain and Googling like mad – and I haven’t found it yet: There was an absurdity by The Firesign Theater back in the sixties that followed the prompt: “Knowing that wrong thought creates electrical resistance, it seemed possible….”

The following is like that: Let’s muck about with the democratic process and make it better: What could possibly go wrong?

NONPROFIT HOPES $25,000 PRIZE LURES L.A. SCHOOLS' DISTRICT 5 VOTERS
By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1G3f5Tn

20 April 2015 :: Those who cast ballots in the race for District 5 in the May 19 election will be entered in a drawing.

The idea is the brainchild of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

"This is an experiment, a nontraditional out-of-the-box strategy" because "participation has gotten so bad," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the organization, which focuses on increasing voter turnout, especially within the Latino community.

The March primary for the school board drew marginal voter interest in a citywide election that also failed to attract much interest.

Three board races are going to a May runoff. Southwest Voter Registration is especially interested in District 5, because about 57% of registered voters there are Latino.

Challenger Ref Rodriguez finished first against incumbent Bennett Kayser, who is seeking a second term.

Voter turnout was just under 12% in the area, which includes Los Feliz and Silver Lake as well as an economically diverse range of Latino neighborhoods, including the cities of southeastern L.A. County.

The most notable dividing point between Kayser and Rodriguez is over independently managed charter schools, which are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses.

Kayser has tried to limit their growth; Rodriguez co-founded one of the largest charter organizations, People Uplifting Communities.

"If overall turnout is higher, it's hard to say what the effect would be," said Dan Chang, who directs a political action committee that has endorsed Rodriguez. "If there is higher turnout among Latinos, the conventional wisdom is that Ref Rodriguez will do better — a Latino candidate with a Latino surname."

Both campaigns pushed hard to win the Latino vote in the bitter, high-cost primary and said they are doing so again.

Gonzalez's nonpartisan group hasn't endorsed either candidate. And his lottery strategy could increase turnout among all ethnicities.

He calls the idea "voteria," a play on the Spanish term "lotería," for lottery.

In its current form, the area's voting boundaries were carved out with the idea of increasing Latino representation in a school system that is more than 70% Latino.

That hasn't happened.

Kayser is white, and that seat has had white board members for 16 of the last 20 years.

The nonprofit has never before given out money but has tried other incentives. To increase turnout in the 2004 presidential race, it held drawings to give away a new car in each of four states: New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. To enter, a voter had to recruit four others.

Gonzalez said his group has concluded that handing out a $25,000 cash prize is legal in California but would violate federal law. The plan is to publicize the contest through traditional media and social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

Other recent projects have included phone banking to turn out Latinas in the 14th City Council District who voted rarely or inconsistently, and regional training sessions for Latinos considering a run for office.

The nonprofit has teamed with Earth Day Network and the NAACP to launch a nationwide effort to mobilize a million voters over the issue of climate change.

___________________

►Editorial: VOTE, AND WIN $25,000: IT'S A LOSING IDEA


By The Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/1E6sugA

21 April 2015 :: Frustrated by the appallingly low turnout in local elections, the nonprofit Southwest Voter Registration Education Project is planning a cash lottery — or voteria — to get voters to the polls for the Los Angeles Board of Education District 5 race. Anyone who legitimately casts a ballot in the May 19 contest between incumbent Bennett Kayser and challenger Ref Rodriguez will be automatically entered into the drawing. After the election is certified, the group will randomly select one person from the voting pool.

The winner gets $25,000. The losers are the people who still believe in the integrity of the democratic process.

This gimmick perverts the motivation to vote. It demeans the value of voting. And it's the most superficial pseudo-solution to a very real problem in Los Angeles, which is the pervasive civic malaise that prevents so many eligible voters from feeling truly engaged. In fact, the voteria only underscores the cynical view that people don't care about their local government anymore and the only way to get them to vote is to bribe them.

When the Los Angeles Ethics Commission floated a similar lottery proposal last year, The Times called it one of the worst ideas put forward in a long time. But even that was better than the voteria. Why? Because at least a city-sponsored contest would be clearly non-ideological and not aimed at influencing one particular election. The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project is a well-meaning organization with a long history of working to increase voter participation in the Latino community — but what if this cash prize ends up being advertised more heavily in the Latino community in District 5? What if it brings out more Latinos than, say, African Americans? Is it fair that one demographic has more of a financial incentive to vote? What if in the next school board election an African American group decides it should pay voters even more to turn out? Or a Republican group? Or the teachers union or a charter school group? This is a troubling precedent that could easily devolve into an arms race among interest groups trying to get out their votes to influence an election.

Yes, low turnout is bad. It allows the few to make decisions for the many, and that undermines the integrity of our representative democracy. Angelenos were so concerned about low turnout that they voted in March to move local elections to June and November of even-numbered years to coincide with gubernatorial and presidential elections. That is a meaningful reform that should boost turnout simply by capturing local voters who show up for higher-profile elections. Groups like the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project are right to look for innovative ways to engage voters. But dangling money in front of polling places is not the way to do it.

____________________


●● Someone else’s 2¢
– A 4LAKids reader with a JD degree (it takes all kinds!) writes : Don't quote me here, I'm just musing:

So they snaked past the CA ELECTION CODE because they aren't explicitly urging the voting for one candidate over another (although they are quoted as saying they want to encourage Latino voter participation and Dan Chang muses over the effect of a Spanish surname):

18521. A person shall not directly or through any other person receive, agree, or contract for, before, during or after an election, any money, gift, loan, or other valuable consideration, office, place, or employment for himself or any other person because he or any other person:
(a) Voted, agreed to vote, refrained from voting, or agreed to refrain from voting for any particular person or measure.
(b) Remained away from the polls.
(c) Refrained or agreed to refrain from voting.
(d) Induced any other person to:
(1) Remain away from the polls.
(2) Refrain from voting.
(3) Vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or measure. Any person violating this section is punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years.


And a lottery isn't illegal if you don't have to pay to participate, see CA PENAL CODE section 319

319. A lottery is any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property by chance, among persons who have paid or promised to pay any valuable consideration for the chance of obtaining such property or a portion of it, or for any share or any interest in such property, upon any agreement, understanding, or expectation that it is to be distributed or disposed of by lot or chance, whether called a lottery, raffle, or gift enterprise, or by whatever name the same may be known.


But what about the good, old-fashioned law against slot machines in California?

Isn't this scheme converting every voter machine in District 5 into a:

"mechanical device, upon the result of action of which money or other valuable thing is staked or hazarded..."

...and therefore subjecting every person who permits the placement of such a voter machine in place under her control to potential prosecutions for a violation of CA PENAL CODE section 330a? | http://bit.ly/1z1hSPF

A stretch, maybe, but enough for someone/some organization to seek an injunction?

______________
Everybody's bragging and drinking that wine
I can tell the Queen of Diamonds by the way she shine
Come to Daddy on an inside straight
I got no chance of losing this time
No, I got no chance of losing this time.
• Loser by the Grateful Dead | Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia


Additional Reading IDEA OF AN L.A. VOTERIA IS GAINING CURRENCY by Steve Lopez | LA Times :: Is powerball politics the best way to shake up the system?



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
WANT REFORM? PRINCIPALS MATTER TOO + Letters to the editor: The Importance of Good Principals | http://bit.ly/1QuJxxY

TECH WOES AT PEARSON HALT MINNESOTA STUDENT TESTING | http://bit.ly/1z15ak2

LAO SAYS CA STATE REVENUE SURGES IN APRIL, could exceed estimates by billions through June | The Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/1b24QWO

LAUSD TEACHERS COULD COLLECT 14.3 PERCENT OF SALARY IN BACK PAY+RAISES THIS SCHOOL YEAR AND NEXT | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/1HE3XSG

SENATORS PREPARE AMENDMENTS FOR FLOOR DEBATE ON ECAA (ECAA is potentially the new+improved NCLB) | http://bit.ly/1JmpnEp

AALA explains it all for you: LAUSD AND UTLA REACH A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT …but what about “Me too? | http://bit.ly/1HApmuz

VACCINE LEGISLATION PROPERLY PUTS PUBLIC HEALTH ABOVE PERSONAL BELIEFS: Immunization shouldn't be an issue | http://bit.ly/1zUYrDc

L.A. SCHOOL BOARD BACKS TENTATIVE TEACHERS PACT WITH 10% RAISE | http://lat.ms/1OcXqCq

Howard Blume @howardblume: PEARSON PRESENTS AT ED WRITERS GATHERING IN CHICAGO. AMAR KUMAR FIELDS ALL QS, BUT NO SPECIFIC RESPONSE TO IPADS ISSUES IN L.A.

LAUSD BD OF ED CALLS SPECIAL CLOSED MTG TO APPROVE CONTRACT OFFERED TO TEACHERS TODAY @ 3PM; CoW moved to 1pm+Agenda http://bit.ly/1HrgxmG

READ THE DAILY BREEZE’S PULITZER PRIZE WINNING CENTINELA VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT INVESTIGATION | http://bit.ly/1aOVpKc

DAILY BREEZE REVELS IN 1st EVER PULITZER PRIZE FOR CENTINELA VALLEY SUPERINTENDENT SCANDAL REPORTING | http://lat.ms/1Fc5Ns1

L.A. UNIFIED TARGETS THE WRONG PLACE TO START: PRESCHOOL | http://lat.ms/1yMd5S8

VOTERIA LEGAL IN CALIF BUT WOULD VIOLATE FEDERAL LAW ...what part of ‘violates federal law’ is hard to understand? | http://bit.ly/1bpytT0

3 stories+1 cartoon+2¢: “VOTERIA” - Pseudo Political Science, taken to an illogical extreme | http://bit.ly/1bpytT0


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• The CA STATE PTA CONVENTION is this week in Sacramento | http://bit.ly/1bsGzcW
• The CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, & ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE meets Tues. April April 28, 2015 at 3:30PM
• Wed. April 29 is DENIM DAY | http://denimdayinfo.org/
• The BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE meets on Thurs. April 30 at 10AM

*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
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!


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




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.
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Sunday, April 19, 2015

Fallout



4LAKids: Sunday 19•April•2015
Breaking News: 4LAKids shouts ¡Congratulations! as:
GRANADA HILLS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL WINS NATIONAL ACADEMIC DECATHLON | http://lat.ms/1yIjyO7

In This Issue:
 •  BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT OF MEETING
 •  DISTRICT EXPELS PEARSON FROM ‘iPADS FOR ALL’ CONTRACT: “APPLE AND PEARSON PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART SOLUTION, THEY HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT”
 •  SEC LAUNCHES INFORMAL INQUIRY INTO LAUSD'S USE OF BONDS FOR IPADS
 •  AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT!
 •  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?


Featured Links:
 •  Give the gift of a 4LAKids Subscription to a friend or colleague!
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
 •  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.
I had dinner the other night with a person of elevated higher educational stature, a retired university president who shall remain nameless lest he be connected with this scurrilous K-12 blog. At a point in the evening the conversation inevitably came around to LAUSD’s acquisition of iPads and the bond-fundability thereof – and he advanced his theory as to what is-and-what-is-not fundable with public school construction+modernization bonds.

“It’s quite simple,” he said, not just professorially but presidentially. “If the Gods were to pick up a school and shake it, everything that falls out – employees, text books, copier paper, art supplies, policy memos, laptop computers, playground balls, etc. should not be paid for with school bonds.”

It’s a good theory, depending upon just how hard the Gods shake.

A little shake gets out the dubious superintendents, their sycophants and questionable deals; shake hard enough and the fixtures come off the walls. Then we get into the question of whether it’s maintenance or repair+modernization.


THE LEAD IN A KPPC STORY LAST THURSDAY: “Fallout from Los Angeles Unified’s high-profile technology troubles is being felt in a neighboring school district.”

Fallout...? I think we have a theme!

The lead in a similar story in Wednesday’s LA School Report: “One of the last top tier LA Unified executives who was instrumental in launching the disastrous iPad and MISIS programs, is one step away from getting a new job.” Disastrous? I remind 4LAKids readers that LASR was generally editorially supportive of the previous LAUSD regime and its initiatives. I have it on dubious yet proven authority that John Deasy was a great friend of LASR publisher Jamie Lynton.

Those stories go on to describe the role of Broad Resident and LAUSD Chief Strategy Officer and now Burbank Superintendent-elect Matt Hill in iPads and MiSiS @ LAUSD.

In Hollywood the conventional wisdom is that you are only as good as your last job.

Matt Hill’s last job was the first-(and-hopefully-only) Chief Strategy Officer for LAUSD. Did anyone on the Burbank Board of Ed ask him what that strategy was? …and how well it worked? Burbank’s outgoing superintendent has her doctorate in education, 40 years of experience starting as a classroom teacher and ten years at BUSD. Matt Hill has an MBA and experience as an executive at Black and Decker – plus that Broad Residency Class of 2005-2007 in Oakland *

The outgoing Burbank superintendent’s salary was $205,000 a year; Hill’s starting salary is $241,000.** Much of the time Hill’s salary at LAUSD was supplemented by the Broad Foundation.; hopefully Eli is helping Burbank out too, And even more hopefully, not.

And did I mention that two of the Burbank Board of Ed members are lame ducks – replaced just last week in an election in which they were not even candidates? One of them theatrically resigned at the board meeting just before Hill was elevated – not out of fairness to his successor board member-elect – but because he was upset that teachers were upset! Not for the reason they were upset, but because they had the audacity to be upset!

And the Quote o’ th’ Week goes to Burbank Board Member Larry Applebaum – who, while denying that Hill’s elevation was a done deal and continuing the open meeting farce of a fair election after listening patiently-to-and-duly-considering-public-comment-– assured the public and his fellow board members – after a hint-hint/nudge-nudge prompt – that Hill’s employment contract was not done overnight but negotiated over time. [http://bit.ly/1cDGHXT at 2:33]


AND SEEING THAT HOLLYWOOD AND LASR WERE REFERRED TO obliquely in the last bit, here is a new parlor game to play with your digital device in whatever passes for spare time you have in your so-called life. This game was taught to me, not by a ne’er-do-well (I have no truck with those), but by an occasionally-do-well of my acquaintance - known to have caused trouble more than once for those in need of some.

Go to the WikiLeaks website that has all the hacked Sony Pictures Studios emails brought to us courtesy of Julian Assange and Kim Jong-un. I know, "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail”- but who are we and Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson kidding? There is nothing salacious there that TMZ hasn’t already found …and we are not reading other gentleperson’s mail – these are Hollywood show-biz-peep with their egos and avarice second only to teenage girls – this according to Sony CEO Michael Linton on April 2, 2014. http://bit.ly/1O3hTJI

Wait, you say! Where is the LAUSD K-12 centric focus that we’ve come to expect from 4LAKids in all this eavesdropping?

If someone will play “It’s a Small World” on the kazoo in the background let me tell you: That email from Michael Lynton cited above was to Pearson CEO Dame Marjorie Scardino – the “Marjorie” of the John+Marjorie LAUSD/Apple/Pearson emails:


• Michael Lynton writes to Marjorie: “John Deasy is terrific. A great friend of Jamie's. Please please let me know the next time you are in LA.” http://bit.ly/1Dlpxno
• Marjorie to Michael: “Anyway, I will make it a point to come to LA soon. I was there last month and went to LA for the day to see John Deasy (who seemed in pretty good shape) and some schools using our digital materials. It was wonderful. “

On the WikiLeaks/Sony site [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/] enter L.A. School Report in the Search box. You will turn up a lot of personal stuff and husband wife chit chat about the train from Madrid-to-Barcelona between Michael Lynton and his wife Jamie – who happens to be the publisher of LA School Report. But you will also meet some familiar characters, like Dame Marjorie. Or Equity Fund magnate Antony Ressler, on the Board of Directors of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Finance Chair and member of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Board Co-chair of the Alliance College Ready Public Schools and board member of Campbell Hall Episcopal School in Studio City who writes on June 5, 2014 about the District 1 LAUSD School Board Race: “Crazy that we have a publicly elected school board... This is NOT what democracy is supposed to be. No one in LA cares TR” http://bit.ly/1CZAjk8

• On sept 14, 2014 Jamie Alter Lynton wrote: This is a really good list of ed reform leaders in LA :) http://bit.ly/1b8VFnQ
• On Oct 15, 2014, at 9:49 PM, Lynton, Michael wrote to Tony Ressler: “jamie just broke the story of John Deasy's resignation and she is on the Channel 4 11pm news, interviewed in our house! A good excuse for not coming tonight. He gave it to her exclusively.” http://bit.ly/1Hk8EiV

He gave it all of us, inclusively.


Now search for LAUSD. Local politicos, etc.


This just in: IN L.A. IT LOOKS LIKE THE DISTRICT AND UTLA HAVE REACHED AN AGREEMENT:

18 Apr 2015 | Los Angeles (AP) | http://cbsloc.al/1H2WQmz - The Los Angeles Unified School District has reached a tentative contract deal with its teachers. The three-year tentative deal was reached late Friday and includes a 10 percent raise over two years. The Los Angeles Times [Tentative Settlement Reached Between Teachers & L.A. Unified - http://lat.ms/1DoW3oF] reports that teachers at LAUSD have not had a raise in eight years.

Both sides have been involved in tense negotiations for more than a year and this deal will forestall talk of a strike. The pact must be ratified by both the union membership and the Board of Education.
Teachers had asked for an immediate 8 ½ percent raise.
The district wanted a 4 percent raise this year and a 2 percent raise next year in the form of four additional work days for training.

IN DC
THE REAUTHORIZATION/TRANSFORMATION/RECONSTITUTION of NCLB/ESEA proceeded ploddingly+bipartisanly apace …but at least apace!


IN SACRAMENTO
there was weaseling on measles vaccination [http://lat.ms/1Q5AHqb] even as the Dept. of Public Health declared the recent outbreak over: http://bit.ly/1cIWaWS. We can all return to our homes and our tired old reliance that somebody else’s children will get their shot. And other politicos tempted by $pecial intere$ts began nibbling way at the student privacy protections guaranteed in last year’s SB 1177 The Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) - a law that hasn’t even taken effect yet! | http://bit.ly/1Q3yzPJ


THIS WAS NOT A WEEK WITHOUT iPAD NEWS. Friday afternoon I went to a political fun-raiser event, and immediately inside the door was a three-year-old being entertained on an iPad …I figured he was taunting me!

Tuesday LAUSD sent an email to Apple terminating Pearson from the LAUSD/Apple/Pearson Contract and demanding a refund for failing to provide the promised product. | http://bit.ly/1zvEoLk Apparently the problems with the Pearson System of Courses have resulted in less than five percent of the students within Instructional Technology Initiative schools having consistent access to the content.

And LAUSD revealed that the Security and Exchange Commission had launched an inquiry into the District’s purchase of iPads+content using bonds – which are investment securities under the SEC purview. Here I am going to add little. Had I been informed of the inquiry as I believe the District had a fiduciary responsibility to me as a member of the Bond Oversight Committee to do, and had they asked me to remain silent because of the ongoing investigation I would’ve - discretely biting my tongue and holding my peace. But because I wasn’t told a thing beyond “Don’t worry!” - and know nothing beyond what’s in the paper I am quietly seething – if only because the SEC is asking parallel questions I and others have asked and never had completely answered.

And because I come from a show-biz background I have just so delightedly torn asunder above, I share with you the Lessons Learned/Teachable Moments: Never trust anyone that says “Trust me”. When someone says don’t worry, start worrying.

If your mother says she loves you, check it out.



FINALLY: WE ARE A NATION AND A WORLD OF IMMIGRANTS. We came to where we are from somewhere else, whether on the Mayflower or a galleon or a steamship; whether in the dark hold of a slaver or in steerage or first class – whether our ancestors came seeking fortune, a second chance, a better life, fleeing repression, pogroms or debt or genocide. Whether we came across the land bridge from Asia or across a river in Texas or the Sonoran desert or in the trunk of a car or a bright silvery airplane – bound by hope or chains or fear or shame we are here: Part of a diaspora. We teach this ancient history to our children in rituals about Pilgrims, The Good Earth and the Grapes of Wrath – and we live it and it is with us every day. We are all strangers in a strange land, plagued by dark memories of Pharaoh and the inquisition and Cossacks and Hitler and Stalin – of the ship captain who brought Africans in chains and wrote Amazing Grace for us all to sing in our churches. We brought the smallpox with us along with our prejudices; we perpetrated genocide in this land. We are the victims and the guilty. When we accept these things we do not change them but they unite us. We become reconciled.

One hundred years ago a terrible thing happened in the Ottoman Empire – a political subdivision that exists no more. There was a forced relocation of Armenians from their homeland, what we have come to call ethic cleansing. Many many died in what was the first genocide of the twentieth century. To deny this is to deny history and ourselves – there are only six degrees of separation between every one+everyone of us who inhabit this planet and the six currently circling it in space.

Today a terrible thing is happening in North Africa as another diaspora of immigrants drowns in the Mediterranean. They are fleeing problems of our making: famine, climate change, un-civil war, regime change; they are pilgrims, refuges, immigrants and children – huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

To frame the question in iambic pentameter: How many lives will it take till we see that too many people have died?

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf

________________
* The Broad Residency is defined by the Broad Foundation as “a leadership development program that places qualified participants into high-level managerial positions in school districts, charter management organizations and federal/state departments of education”.
** Of course, gender-pay-gap-fans: Matt is of the male persuasion. Using the usual formula F=.78 M he should be making $262.5K




BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT OF MEETING
by Kelly Corrigan | The Burbank Leader – an LA Times publication | http://bit.ly/1CWZrGV

April 17, 2015 | 8:29 a.m. :: During a heated meeting packed with teachers who opposed the Burbank school board’s proposed choice for the district’s next superintendent, the board made the hire in a 4-0 vote Thursday, but not before longtime board member and retired teacher Dave Kemp submitted his immediate resignation and walked out of City Council chambers, saying he was ashamed of the teachers’ behavior.

Matt Hill, who replaces current Supt. Jan Britz, will begin his new post on July 1.

Many teachers, along with parents, who filled council chambers Thursday night, spoke against Hill’s hiring, in part, because he does not have any teaching experience or credentials. They also pointed to his role in a $130 million implementation of a student management system that failed at Los Angeles Unified, where he had two years remaining on his contract as LAUSD's chief strategy officer.

“I can hardly tell you how disappointed I am in the board tonight for putting us and the community in this position,” said Lori Adams, president of the Burbank Teachers’ Assn. during the public comment portion of the meeting.

She encouraged board members to continue their search for an “experienced” superintendent to guide the 15,000-student district, winning applause from fellow teachers.

A few days earlier, the teachers’ union asked the L.A. County district attorney's office to look into possible violations of the state's open meeting law, the Brown Act, regarding the potential hiring of Hill as the new superintendent.

District officials reported that Hill had been selected as a finalist for the position on March 15, but nothing was reported out of closed session from that day's meeting. Public officials are allowed to discuss certain matters behind closed doors — including personnel matters — but votes are required to be reported in the open afterward.

Under the Brown Act, actions taken in violation of the law are voided.

In response to the union’s allegations, school board member Larry Applebaum said the district has been “overly transparent,” and when two former superintendents, Greg Bowman and Stan Carrizosa, were hired, their contracts were not made public until the meeting where they were offered a job.

During the meeting on Thursday night, Burbank High teacher Diana Abasta said Hill’s contract, which includes a $241,000 base salary, was an “insult.”

“I have never been so disheartened,” she told the board. “And you make me feel that it’s not good enough to be a teacher because you can bring someone in without any experience.”

Many also had issue with Hill’s salary, which totals about $36,000 more than what is paid to Britz, who took the district’s helm in 2012 and whose salary was raised to $205,000 last year from $190,000.

“This is one of those times I feel you guys are making a serious mistake,” high school teacher Jerry Mullady said.

Also in the audience was a Burbank police officer in uniform, which is not typical during Burbank school board meetings.

A few people pleaded with the board to hold off on voting until two newly elected board members — Steve Ferguson and Armond Aghakhanian, who are expected to take their oath of office in early May — have time to weigh in on the hiring process.

The current board, however, began deliberating over the next superintendent in November after Britz announced in October she would retire at the end of this school year, after 40 years in education and about a decade at Burbank Unified.

“Common Core’s all about evidence and argument,” said Burroughs High teacher, Jill Sullivan. “Make your case. What has Mr. Hill done that is so special to you?”

However, before they offered their insight, Kemp, a board member for 12 years and a teacher in the district for many more years, stepped down from the dais and walked up to the podium as the teachers had, speaking during the public comment session not as a board member, he said, but as a citizen.

Because Kemp did not seek re-election this year, the night was his final meeting as a board member, along with board member Ted Bunch, who also did not seek reelection.

“I am absolutely appalled and ashamed by [this] mob mentality,” Kemp said during his seven-minute address to the teachers.

“This is unsuitable. And I am so unhappy that so many of my former colleagues decided how I’m going to vote on this situation,” he said, adding that he’s been “raked over the coals” over Hill’s potential hire.

Even so, as he did during Tuesday’s three-hour public forum with Hill, Kemp spoke in support of Hill, 38, describing him as “a terrific young man.”

“I’m so ashamed of the people I always thought were such good friends and former colleagues that meant so much to me, that at this time, I can no longer be a part of this. I’m tendering my resignation to Dr. Britz,” he said.

He then picked up his belongings, handed Britz a yellow slip of paper and walked out of the chambers.

Shortly after, school board President Roberta Reynolds called for a brief break, and within 10 minutes, the meeting resumed — without Kemp — for additional public comments.

Then Ted Bunch, who has also served on the board for a dozen years, said he empathized with Kemp’s reaction.

“He feels betrayed by you,” he said. “I can understand why Dave said, ‘The hell with it and walked out.’ You have no confidence in us. You listen to what the union says and you eat it up like it’s steak.”

Fellow board members went on to offer their insight into choosing Hill as a finalist after a national search that brought the board a total of 18 candidates, which they whittled down to five to interview.

“If you think that I have not spent dozens and dozens and dozens of hours going through binders this thick of people’s qualifications, doing due diligence and doing vetting… I didn’t just leave it to a search firm to do it,” board member Applebaum said. “I want somebody who’s going to lead the entire district to greatness. I believe Mr. Hill could.”

Fellow school board member Charlene Tabet said she was looking for a leader “who wasn’t just what we’ve always had,” adding that Hill “made me feel I needed to be a better board member if he was going to be our superintendent.”

Tabet said she thinks Hill could facilitate employees’ growth as well.

Out of the candidate pool, Reynolds said Hill stood out “with something different” than the others. “And honestly, I don’t think I’ve slept for four weeks because the decision is that important,” she said.

Board members noted that Hill would have a three-year contract and no cellphone or auto stipend, but they did not elaborate on their reasoning for setting Hill’s salary at $241,000.

After casting their vote approving his hire, the school board invited Hill to take the podium, at which point -- before he began speaking -- Adams and dozens of others, many of them teachers, abruptly left the chambers, leaving about 25 people who stayed.

“Tonight, even though it’s so difficult to have this experience, it means something that I knew when I started researching Burbank,” Hill said. "Every single person in this room tonight, and probably at home, has a deep conviction and passion for students. And this work is so challenging that we get emotional. It’s personal, and it should be because it’s every single one of our responsibilities to help those children.”

Hill recalled that when he first met Kemp, he said Kemp told him he wouldn't vote for him because teachers and others stated in early feedback that they wanted the next district chief to have been a teacher and a superintendent.

“But you know what he did? What we should do for every single human being? He said, ‘There’s something in you that I believe in. I’m going to hear you out. I’m going to listen. I’m going to give you a chance,’” Hill said.

“I didn’t know how he was going to vote today. He told me initially he wasn’t going to vote for me. Maybe he would have, maybe he wouldn’t. I don’t know,” Hill added. “The biggest disappointment I had today, and we’ll move on from it — we have to make sure that we do something different as a community, is we give every student and every adult an opportunity, and when they fail, we pick them up together. I am here to help, to lead, to serve, and I want to thank the board for seeing what’s in me and helping me realize the leader I can be.”

The board continued with its regular meeting, and adjourned about 12:15 a.m.


Video of Board Mtg



DISTRICT EXPELS PEARSON FROM ‘iPADS FOR ALL’ CONTRACT: “APPLE AND PEARSON PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART SOLUTION, THEY HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT”
LAUSD DITCHING PEARSON IPAD PROGRAM SOFTWARE, DEMANDING MULTIMILLION DOLLAR REFUND
by Annie Gilbertson KPCC | http://bit.ly/1EIpffI

4/15/2015 :: Los Angeles Unified told Apple Inc. this week that it will not spend another dollar on the Pearson software installed on its iPads and is seeking a multimillion-dollar refund from the technology giant.

If an agreement cannot be reached, the nation's second-largest school district could take Apple to court.

"While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution for ITI implementation, they have yet to deliver it," David Holmquist, the school district's attorney, wrote in a letter to Apple's general counsel. The ITI, or Instructional Technology Initiative, is the district's name for its iPad program.

Holmquist said the district is "extremely dissatisfied" with the work of Pearson on its technology initiative to get computers into the hands of each of the district's 650,000 students.

"As we approach the end of the school year, the vast majority of students are still unable to access the Pearson curriculum on iPads," he wrote.

L.A. Unified's $1.3 billion iPad program has been fraught with problems, from issues getting the technology to work in the classrooms to questions about how the tablets were procured.

The FBI launched an investigation into the purchase in December, carting out 20 boxes from the district office on bidding material, communications and other records involving Apple and Pearson.

An investigation published by KPCC last August found former Superintendent John Deasy and top district staffers had close ties with Pearson executives before the contract was awarded.

District officials purchased Pearson's software even though it was unfinished, and teachers complained the material seemed rushed: lessons were missing math problems and reading material and included errors. The software also lacked many interactive elements that were promised, teachers said.

“[Pearson] missed the whole point of technology — individualized instruction, all the material in the palm of your hand," said Ben Way, a math teacher at Alliance Cindy & Bill Simon Technology Academy, a charter school that also purchased Pearson's iPad app.

Pearson and Apple executives could not be immediately reached for comment, but Pearson representatives maintain they have held up their end of the deal.

"The course content has been complete for over a year," wrote then-Pearson spokesman Brandon Pinette in an email to KPCC in September. "Yes, there are important enhancements to add as there always will be. We will add twice a year. No digital product should ever be considered complete."
________________



Tweet by Howard Blume ‏@howardblume 15 April 2015

L.A. school board voted Tues. in closed session to pursue possible litigation against Apple/Pearson over $1.3 billion iPad effort.

________________


►LAUSD to Apple: STOP SHIPPING OUR iPADS WITH DODGY PEARSON SOFTWARE
By Associated Press , from Daily News | http://bit.ly/1cx1QD0

Posted: 04/15/15, 2:23 PM PDT | LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Unified School District is telling Apple it is dissatisfied with the Pearson Education Inc. curriculum delivered on student iPads and wants to be reimbursed for all the learning materials schools haven’t been able to use.

In a letter to Apple Monday, LA Unified’s general counsel orders Apple to end Pearson products and services under contract as soon as possible.

General counsel David Holmquist says that while Apple and Pearson promised state-of-the-art technology, they haven’t delivered. Holmquist says most students still can’t access Pearson curriculum on their iPads.

The Associated Press asked Pearson for comment by email Wednesday.

Apple subcontracted with Pearson under the district’s technology initiative to transition schools to the new Common Core academic standards and provide every student with an iPad or other device.


Holmquist’s LAUSD “Lawyer Letter” to Apple re: Pearson



SEC LAUNCHES INFORMAL INQUIRY INTO LAUSD'S USE OF BONDS FOR IPADS
By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1CUdjDd

17 April 2015 | 3AM :: The federal SEC has opened an informal inquiry into LAUSD's use of bonds for its iPad project

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened an informal inquiry into whether Los Angeles school officials complied with legal guidelines in the use of bond funds for the now-abandoned $1.3-billion iPads-for-all project.

In particular, the agency was concerned with whether the L.A. Unified School District properly disclosed to investors and others how the bonds would be used, according to documents provided to The Times.

District officials said they were optimistic that they had addressed the SEC concerns.

The news of the SEC inquiry came the same week that L.A. Unified officials demanded a refund from computer giant Apple over curriculum supplied on the devices by Pearson, which sells education services and materials worldwide. Pearson was a subcontractor to Apple under a contract approved by the Board of Education in June 2013.

That fall, problems immediately plagued the rollout of devices to campuses, and questions soon arose about whether Apple or Pearson had an unfair advantage in the bidding process. An ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI is looking into that matter. Current and former district officials have denied any wrongdoing.

Apple has not responded to requests for comment. Pearson has consistently defended its actions, including on Thursday, when top executive Michael Barber said that L.A. students would benefit if the district stayed the course with the company's product.

The SEC declined to comment and does not, by policy, confirm or deny investigations. L.A. Unified acknowledged meeting with an agency attorney.

The federal agency is charged with protecting investors and maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets. Its enforcement division frequently looks into "misrepresentation or omission of important information about securities," according to the commission.

With the help of an outside law firm, L.A. Unified prepared a presentation, dated March 31, that outlined measures it took to inform the public and potential investors about how the taxpayer-approved bond funds would be spent.

"LAUSD was transparent regarding the program and its funding," and all necessary disclosures were made to the public, underwriters, rating agencies and investors, the district told the SEC representative.

The district also distinguished between the L.A. Unified bonds and different types of bond debt that are issued under other disclosure rules.

The L.A. Unified general obligation bonds are paid back over time through property taxes. Projects funded by the bonds have no role in generating revenue to investors, the district said.

"The particular use of the bond proceeds is not material," the district wrote.

California law allows school construction bonds to be spent on technology; districts also list the intended uses of bond funds in ballot materials available to voters.

L.A. Unified clearly designated funds for technology, but did not mention tablets. At the time of the district's most recent bond issue, in November 2008, iPads were still two years away from entering the marketplace.

But officials have maintained that tablets are a modern equivalent of the traditional computer lab and therefore a legal and appropriate use of bond funds.

A separate question has been whether the district acted properly in using bond funds to purchase curriculum on the devices. But that issue was not part of the district's presentation.

School board member Bennett Kayser said Thursday that legal questions regarding use of the bonds were not sufficiently examined before the project moved forward.

"I wish the SEC had looked into this over a year ago," Kayser said.

(Kayser did not participate in the original discussion or vote on the contract because he owned a small amount of Apple stock. He sold his holdings and emerged as a project critic, although he later voted to purchase additional devices for schools and for testing.)

The district's demand for a refund came in the form of a letter sent Monday to Apple.

L.A. Unified bought 43,261 iPads with the Pearson curriculum. The curriculum added about $200, for a three-year license, to the total price of $768 for each device. (The district purchased another 77,175 iPads under the contract without the Pearson curriculum to be used initially for state standardized tests.)

Pearson offered only a partial curriculum during the first year of the license, which was permitted under the agreement.

The product has not caught on in L.A. Unified. Only two schools of 69 with the devices use Pearson regularly, according to an internal March report from project director Bernadette Lucas.

The report cited a litany of complaints, including content that could not be fully adapted for students with limited English skills, a large group in L.A. Unified. The district also claims the curriculum lacks important features such as online tests and data on how and when students are using it. Another problem has been getting access to the online curriculum quickly and consistently.

Barber, Pearson's chief education advisor, acknowledged that there have been difficulties and said that Pearson, Apple and the district shared responsibility as partners in the effort. But he added that Pearson was willing to work through such issues.

With such sweeping change, "you're going to have glitches. You're going to run into challenges," he said. In the long run, he predicted, Pearson's product could help "transform teaching and learning."

"Once you get used to using these materials," he said, students and teachers would find them "very engaging, very empowering."

The iPad project was pushed by then-Supt. John Deasy, who resigned under pressure in October, largely due to fallout from the iPad effort and a faulty new student records system.


AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT!
By smf for 4LAKidsNews

18 April 2015 :: EdWeek reports that a spate of recent laws and policies intended to better protect the privacy of students' sensitive information don't go nearly far enough, according to researchers concerned about commercialization in public education. | http://bit.ly/1DmlO96

"Computer technology has made it possible to aggregate, collate, analyze, and store massive amounts of information about students," according to a new report from the National Education Policy Center, based at the University of Colorado, in Boulder.

"This has opened opportunities for private vendors to access student information and share it with others. Further, the computerization of student work offers opportunities for companies that provide education technology and educational applications to obtain and pass on to third parties information about students."

The report, titled "ON THE BLOCK: STUDENT DATA AND PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE” |http://bit.ly/1OrYxsK is the latest in a series from the NEPC on "schoolhouse commercializing trends." The group has consistently released reports critical of the private sector's role in public education.

“A trifecta of laws passed in California— especially the Student Online and Personal Information and Protection Act, or SOPIPA—were praised by the National Education Policy Council for their expansive definition of the student data to be protected and their restrictions on commercial use of student information.”

BUT THERE IS ALREADY LEGISLATION from $pecail intere$ts in the hopper in Sacramento to limit SOPIPA. To amend it into squishy meaninglessness.

Here are comments from an authority on online student privacy – culled from an email, his first+best appraisal of recent amendments to AB 817, not his last+final word. As a work in process I cloak the writer in anonymity:

“As amended, AB 817 would severely limit SOPIPA by creating broad exemptions to the definition of “K-12 school purposes.

These exemptions would leave sensitive student information vulnerable to privacy and security risks.
They would mean numerous operators collecting sensitive student information from students in schools are no longer subject to SOPIPA.
·It would also vastly limit the sensitive student “covered information” protected by SOPIPA.

“Our students’ privacy and safety is not served by taking these broad categories of activities and exempting them from SOPIPA. Any app designed to help a student with helping K-12 students outside the classroom—or even standard school hours—could be considered an “extracurricular educational” product. “Enrichment opportunities” could be limitless. The law has not even gone into effect, but already it appears that certain players are looking for loopholes and ways out.

“These exemptions could give companies license to market to our students in schools and eliminate protections California decided to put in place for our students’ sensitive personal information. This is an example of precisely the kinds of results SOPIPA was designed to prohibit. Students deserve the school zone to be a privacy zone, a trusted environment where they can focus on learning.”


AB 817 Assembly Bill – AMENDED



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT REACHED BETWEEN TEACHERS AND L.A. UNIFIED | http://lat.ms/1DoW3oF

SENIOR L.A. UNIFIED OFFICIAL WILL HEAD BURBANK SCHOOL DISTRICT | http://lat.ms/1IsWyT6

CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS SHOULD PASS THE VACCINATION BILL | http://lat.ms/1Q5AHqb

AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT! | http://bit.ly/1Q3yzPJ

Video of Board Mtg: BURBANK APPOINTS NEW SUPERINTENDENT | Matt Hill to be paid $241K vs $205K for current supe | http://bit.ly/1cDGHXT

BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT | http://bit.ly/1NYWktZ

STUDENTS WOULD BENEFIT IF LAUSD KEPT CURRICULUM, PEARSON EXEC SAYS. Sir Michael Barber: “It’s a brilliant product” | http://bit.ly/1G3ZVTb

3 new stories: L.A. SCHOOLS iPAD PROGRAM SUBJECT OF INQURY BY SEC | http://bit.ly/1HAytvy

LAUSD BOARD APPROVAL OF NEW SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE PROMPTS REVOLT | http://bit.ly/1FSm3KS

MATT HILL APPOINTED BURBANK USD SUPERINTENDENT AMID NEW+CONTINUING CONTROVERSY | http://bit.ly/1G3Z595

L.A. SCHOOLS iPAD PROGRAM SUBJECT OF INQUIRY BY SEC | http://lat.ms/1Hcv8SP

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SUPE CRITICIZES COMMON CORE TESTING, shares opt-out info

LAUSD’s MATT HILL A FINALIST FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF BURBANK SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1H9jTKT

LAUSD: "APPLE AND PEARSON PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION, THEY HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT” | http://bit.ly/1J4HWcC

LAWSUIT IN THE WORKS? :: LAUSD EXPELS PEARSON FROM APPLE/PEARSON/LAUSD ‘iPADS FOR ALL’ CONTRACT | http://bit.ly/1J4HWcC

NEWS CORP’s $1 BILLION PLAN TO OVERHAUL EDUCATION IS RIDDLED WITH FAILURES | http://bit.ly/1FTbTPf

The education of Murdoch, Bloomberg & Klein (+Cortines): TABLET COMPUTERS+ONLINE CURRICULUM WERE SUPPOSED TO REVOLUTIONIZE SCHOOLS. THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN | http://bit.ly/1FTbTPf


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
2pm | April 21, 2015: The Board of Education Committee of the Whole FOCUS ON ENROLLMENT:
• Enrollment & Equity
• Enrollment & Empowerment
• Enrollment & Excellence
Agenda/List of presenters: http://bit.ly/1JjvqX0
Beaudry Boardroom, 333 S Beaudry L.A. 90017

*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
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!


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




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.
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