In This Issue:
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LAUSD MiSiS PROBLEMS PERSIST, some graduating seniors caught in transcript hell |
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Rafe Equith+’Teacher Jail’: HAS LAUSD’s APPROACH TO TEACHER DISCIPLINE GONE TO FAR? |
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Friedrichs v. CTA: CALIFORNIA TEACHERS’ UNION CASE MOVES TO U.S. SUPREME COURT |
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Vivian Ekchian: NEW LOCAL DISTRICT NORTHWEST SUPERINTENDENT PLANS APPRENTICESHIPS, COLLEGE PREP COURSES AT LAUSD |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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Political satirist/cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz created
Votería! – a cartoon panel based on the popular Mexican "Lotería" or
Lottery, a bingo type game which uses tickets with pictograms of iconic
Mexican images – to satirize norteamercano politics in 2004.| http://bit.ly/1Jb7rrH
Americans mistake satire (Daily Show/Last Week Tonight/Colbert Report)
for the news. The difference between Truth and Reality is elusive –
especially if you are a political consultant and/or targeted
communications director chasing after ‘el soft money’.
Votería!, ladies+gentlemen/boys+girls, was a panel in a cartoon: A joke.
Lest we lose track of this: Alacaraz is a satirist and satire is not
reality! (But neither is Reality Television …but don’t tell Donald Trump
or any of the 12-15% of marginally-erroneous Republican poll-takers who
seem to agree with him.)
This year, in a moment much like opening a Monty Python Pet Shop or
forming a Spinal Tap Tribute Band, actual political activists with an
actual agenda of actually increasing voter turnout in the Hispanic
community [http://svrep.org]
actually ran VOTERÍA! in the LAUSD School Board Election in District 5
and announced a $25,000 prize to be awarded to a randomly selected voter
who turned up and voted! [http://bit.ly/1dSt336]
The voter turnout was abysmal across the city, with the percentage
turnout in District 5 (with Votería) about ½ percent LESS than District 3
(without Votería).
Nevertheless, shortly after the election Votería! sponsors Southwest
Voter Registration Education Project breathlessly (two exclamation
points) announced on their website voter participation had increased
[HALT IN DECLINING PARTICIPATION IN LAUSD DIST 5!! - http://bit.ly/1HlIedK] – using a graph that tracks visitors to their website to prove their dubious claim.
"We know this because, for example, unique visits to votería.com doubled
during Election week and tripled on Election Day. And we have lots of
anecdotal stories about people young and old asking about Votería at
polling places." Website visits and anecdotal stories!
And SVREP announced they had selected a $25,000 winner. Their website
said: “Breaking News: Votería Drawing has Picked a $25,000 Winner -
Details to Follow” [http://bit.ly/1fy3iqK].
Their website still says that. The Election was Tuesday May 19th, 8
weeks ago. No details have followed. The sound you hear is crickets. Los
grillos.
Who won the Votería! prize money? ¡Muéstranos el ganador!
BACK WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL schools and school districts raised their own
money, accessed their own taxes, set their curriculum and budgeted
accordingly. We didn’t call it that, but it was local control. Sure
there was state support, but it was support, not command+control.
California at that time collectively had the best public schools in the
nation. We didn’t spend the most money or the have highest paid teachers
and we didn’t have the highest test scores – but we were the gold
standard.
The Wilson brothers+cousins went to Hawthorne High. We wish they all could be California Schools.
Then in 1978 a big errant asteroid crashed into the Yucatan and wiped out the dinosaurs. We called it Proposition 13.
Because of Prop 13 the purse strings for public education moved up to
Sacramento from where they used to be at the school board and county tax
collector’s office. And in that same Capitol building the legislators
…seeing as how they’re writing the checks anyway - began to run school
districts, legislatively. Sometimes with a little help from their
friends in the lobbies – or pouring the drinks at Frank Fats.
Four-days-a-week the poor legislator is away from hearth+home and the
scrutiny of his/her constituents. Accountability shifts and
transparency clouds when the guy who is buying you dinner and
contributing to your reelection needs help with a textbook deal or an
intro to someone who knows someone down at the pension plan. That guy
over there’s from the teacher’s union …and who knows more about schools
than the 325K teachers he represents? And this guy’s minister from the
big megachurch down by the mall really isn’t comfortable having teachers
teach what kids should have learned at home. Plus we all know kids
learn that stuff on the playground. Or work out the mysteries without
any clues.
So we have 120 state legislators and 1 governor dabbling in the running
of over 1000 school districts and we are shocked that it isn’t a smooth
running machine producing perfect outcomes. I found a listing in the
UCLA Library for the 1978 (pre Prop 13) edition of the California Ed
Code [http://bit.ly/1HlRSgs]; it’s 28 pages long. The current 2015 Ed Code is 2524 pages. http://tmsnrt.rs/1HveE4K
They have been busy up there in Sacramento.
There is a great tendency among the special interests and the especially
interested to go around the legislature, either directly – though the
Initiative+Referendum Process – (like Prop 98 – which sets a minimum
level for school funding [The legislature and the governor must live in
the apartment below, they consider that floor a ceiling]) and most
recently: The Courts. i.e.: Vergara v. California …and (in this edition
of 4LAKids) Friedrichs v. CTA.
• Initiatives are very expensive, labor intensive and time consuming.
• The courts are less expensive, less labor intensive and just as time consuming.
• Initiatives are democratic. Complete with mass mailers and TV ads.
• The courts are anti-democratic in that they only require that your
attorney convince a probably unelected judge that you are right in such a
way that a couple of panels of probably unelected appeals court judges
will agree. Or not agree if the first judge turns out to be disagreeable
– it’s only the last verdict that matters!
• Vergara is one judges' opinion. One judge. Judge Rolf M. Treu was
first appointed to the West Covina Municipal Court in 1995 by Governor
Pete Wilson. He became a judge of the superior court after the state's
superior+municipal courts were unified. In 2014 Treu ran for
re-election. As an unopposed incumbent, he was automatically re-elected
without appearing on the ballot.
• In Friedrichs v. CTA they shopped the case all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court – where they are asking that court to reverse a supposedly
final decision from 1977.
While there they should review Prop 13!
MEANWHILE THE US SENATE & HOUSE OF REPS do battle over the poor
desiccated corpse of NCLB. Take it down, fold it up and send it to the
Confederate Soldiers Museum already.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
LAUSD MiSiS PROBLEMS PERSIST, some graduating seniors caught in transcript hell
Mary Plummer | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1JUAXHT
July 9, 5:30 AM :: Problems with Los Angeles Unified’s student data
tracking system known as MiSiS continue to haunt the district and the
latest issue is plaguing graduating seniors.
The $133 million MiSiS system is still coughing out transcripts that
inaccurately report whether students have met their graduation
requirements, according to officials familiar with the district's recent
problems.
UTLA Secondary Vice President Colleen Schwab said up to 7,500 students may be affected.
"I understand that they have been working diligently day in and day out
to try and fix the problem, but the result is that kids culminated
[graduated] that may or may not really have qualified," she said.
Schwab said she spoke with counselors who report that they are being
unfairly blamed for signing off on graduating students who hadn’t met
the requirements needed to graduate.
Jefferson High School and Hamilton High School are among the schools
whose students are affected by transcript problems. Other schools may
also be impacted.
LAUSD acknowledged the latest problems with MiSiS, but declined to
comment on the number of students affected or the scope of the issues.
In a written statement issued to KPCC on Tuesday, Superintendent Ramon
Cortines said the district was taking steps to solve the problems:
“The District’s My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS)
recently identified reporting issues with graduation requirements for
students in the Class of 2015.
“Local district superintendents, along with their secondary principals,
assistant principals, counselors and central office staff, have been
working hard to address these issues. Through this collaboration, the
number of student records with discrepancies has been greatly reduced.
“In addition, the District has implemented a multi-step strategy going forward:
1. Principals and school site staff continue to verify all
information in each student’s individual file. Central office staff is
validating this information, as well.
2. Each local district has developed a plan to monitor
students from 9th to 12th grades. Each local district will institute a
process with checks and balances that work for their students.
3. Each local district has put a plan together – using MiSiS –
to go back into all records for current high school students to verify
that the existing information is accurate.
4. Each local district has developed a plan to ensure our
incoming class of seniors (2015-16) will meet graduation requirements.
“All local district plans will require a mid-year report and a timeline for reaching specific goals and milestones.
“I am confident the District has the proper tools in place to ensure accurate record-keeping going forward.
“Graduates who have questions may call: 213.241.7510.”
A spokeswoman for the Cal State University system said officials there
know of no recent problems related to transcripts from incoming LAUSD
students or applicants. In October, Cortines sent a letter to various
university leaders apologizing for data problems related to GPA,
transcript errors and class rank. Cal State LA and Cal State University
Northridge were among those that received the letter.
The district initially spent $29 million for the student data tracking
system, which was designed to replace an earlier system that proved
unsatisfactory. Since then it has spent an additional $100 million on
the system, including expenditures meant to fix issues from a year ago.
Major problems with MiSiS emerged as soon as it rolled out last summer.
Students' class schedules were fraught with issues; the system failed to
record grades or attendance. About 600 students at Jefferson High ended
up spending their days in the auditorium because the school lacked
academic classes for them.
In August, frustrated Jefferson High students walked out of the school
in protest. Two months later, Alameda Superior Court Judge George
Hernandez ruled the loss in class time caused by the scheduling problems
was so egregious that the rights of the Jefferson students were being
violated.
He ordered school officials to immediately fix the problems. The
district brought in more teachers, expanded the school day to provide
more class time, and hired retired educators to help address
inaccuracies in student transcripts.
The problems with MiSiS, along with the district's problem-plagued iPad
program, contributed to the resignation of former Superintendent John
Deasy in October. A month later, a consultant group hired to review the
MiSiS problems said in a report that top district administrators ignored
warnings the data system was not ready for launch.
In February of this year, Jefferson High school officials reported
repairs to MiSiS were taking hold and class scheduling problems were
being resolved.
But the district’s logs for known issues with MiSiS show 355 problems as
of Wednesday, including pending problems with student transcripts.
In December, Cortines defended the MiSiS system. “With these
improvements, I am confident that MiSiS will prove to be a landmark
achievement for LAUSD," he told board members by email. Earlier that
same month, the superintendent estimated it would take another year to
resolve problems with the data system.
Rafe Equith+’Teacher Jail’: HAS LAUSD’s APPROACH TO TEACHER DISCIPLINE GONE TO FAR?
By Howard Blume | L.A. Times | http://lat.ms/1dSnQbJ
11July2015 :: In the wake of the Miramonte child abuse scandal, the
Los Angeles school district took unprecedented steps to better protect
students: Hundreds of teachers were removed from classrooms, an
investigative team took over probes from principals and officials
lobbied for state laws to make it easier to fire instructors.
School officials scoured personnel records and reported far more cases
of potential misconduct to law enforcement authorities and the state
teachers credentialing agency.
But the removal of a renowned educator from his classroom in April has
raised questions about whether the new approach to teacher discipline
has gone too far. It also overshadowed recent efforts to treat accused
instructors more humanely.
Supporters of fifth-grade teacher Rafe Esquith say the investigation has
been unreasonably secretive and more of a fishing expedition than a
focused probe.
L.A. Unified School District officials, however, defend their efforts in
this case and others, saying these investigations can take time and
that Esquith's suspension from school was appropriate, regardless of the
outcome. The officials said the inquiry began after Esquith made a
reference to nudity in class.
School board president Steve Zimmer, a teachers union ally, said he
couldn't comment on the ongoing Esquith case but did say that the
district has worked to find the best approach to investigations and,
along the way, had to err on the side of caution.
"I'm proud of the fact that we're doing a better job of protecting
students, but I'm not proud that the rights of employees suffered in
that pendulum swing," Zimmer said last week. "This is tough stuff and
now we're attempting to rebalance post-Miramonte."
In January 2012, Miramonte third-grade teacher Mark Berndt was arrested
on suspicion of lewd acts with dozens of children. He was sentenced to
25 years in prison. The district paid out record settlements — nearly
$170 million — to alleged victims and their families.
Shortly after the arrest, then-Supt. John Deasy instituted changes in
the handling of misconduct allegations. He removed the staff at
Miramonte for the remainder of the school year and launched the
comprehensive review of employee files. That survey uncovered a small
number of employees who, like Berndt, had escaped close scrutiny despite
warning signs or earlier allegations of abuse.
Meanwhile, teachers complained that the district had become overzealous,
or worse. Some administrators, they said, were using any allegation to
get rid of instructors they disliked. Minor infractions, they said,
suddenly became grounds for dismissal and unproven allegations were
enough to keep a teacher from ever returning to work.
This is tough stuff and now we're attempting to rebalance post-Miramonte. - Steve Zimmer, L.A. Unified school board
"It's been an ongoing concern that often the people who have been caught
up in these investigations are people who we think are being targeted
for something other than what is stated, if anything is stated, such as
union activity or teacher-performance issues," said Alex Caputo-Pearl,
president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
Many teachers under a cloud were fired or pressured to retire. Of the
359 who were suspended after Berndt's arrest, many remained in limbo for
months or longer — including some who were cleared of wrongdoing or
disciplined for minor violations of district rules.
Employees who were removed from their schools typically reported to
district administrative offices where they waited out the school day,
which they referred to as teacher jail. Most continued to be paid.
"The most important thing is not the length of the investigation, but
that we get it right," said Gregory L. McNair, a senior attorney with
L.A. Unified.
The district wasn't prepared for the post-Miramonte deluge, officials said.
After Berndt's arrest, the number of employees pulled from classrooms
soared; more than a third of the allegations involved sexual abuse or
harassment.
On the day of Berndt's arrest, 161 teachers and other staff had been
removed. By June 2012, that number was 284. Nearly a year later, it was
322.
L.A. Unified had long relied on principals to conduct internal
inquiries, but officials concluded that these administrators frequently
lacked the time and expertise.
As a result, the district last year assembled an 11-member Student
Safety Investigation Team, at a cost of $1.8 million annually.
The team has opened 219 investigations, including Esquith's case, and
completed 180, according to the district. Of those, 30 resulted in
dismissal proceedings, 34 returned to work without discipline and five
employees resigned; the unit didn't track the resolutions of many of the
cases.
●●smf: Excuse my math, but of 180 completed investigations, 30
resulted in dismissal proceedings, 34 returned to work and 5 employees
resigned? That accounts for 69. What happened to the other 111?
The number of employees removed from classrooms — or "housed," as the district calls it — has dropped to 174.
Union leaders, however, said the district hasn't followed its own
policies on disclosing information to accused teachers and closing cases
quickly.
Under the teachers contract approved in April, the union and district
will meet monthly for a status report on suspended employees. There also
are firmer timelines for conducting investigations and providing
information.
"We're encouraged there is the potential to move to a better system that
protects student safety, but also honors due process and classroom
stability," Caputo-Pearl said.
The district already had reconsidered some practices. A year ago,
teachers were allowed to wait out their suspensions at home. And more
teachers were permitted to continue teaching while an inquiry proceeded,
provided that student safety was not an issue.
In Esquith's case, the district initially looked into a joke he had told
about nudity — a reference to a passage in "The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn." Investigators then turned to his nonprofit
foundation, which pays for an annual play, field trips and tutoring.
Later, they learned about an abuse allegation from 40 years earlier,
which became part of the inquiry.
Esquith has defended the joke as a literary reference that his students
at Hobart Boulevard Elementary were knowledgeable enough to understand.
Through his attorneys, he denied any wrongdoing related to other topics
of the inquiry that have come to light.
Esquith attorney Ben Meiselas said his team is considering a
class-action suit against L.A. Unified over the treatment of teachers
because, "what's happened to Rafe is completely consistent with dozens
of calls and emails we get from teachers every day — all with horror
stories that are eerily similar."
Friedrichs v. CTA: CALIFORNIA TEACHERS’ UNION CASE MOVES TO U.S. SUPREME COURT
From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update of July 13 | http://bit.ly/1Cxok2s
9 July 2015: : Over the written objection of California Attorney General
Kamala Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Friedrichs v.
California Teachers Association (CTA) case sometime during its next
session which begins in October 2015. In this case, ten public school
teachers from different districts around the state (not LAUSD) are
challenging a 1977 decision (Abood v. Detroit Board of Education) that
permits public-sector unions to compel those employees who do not wish
to join to pay what is commonly known as an agency or fair share fee.
The plaintiffs in the case say that requiring them to pay dues and join
the union or pay the agency fee is a violation of their right to free
speech. They also object to having to go through the opt-out process
every year. CTA says that the fees cover the administrative costs of
collective bargaining that benefits all teachers, such as salary
increases and working conditions, and eliminating those fees would be a
significant
loss of revenue. Harvard Law School professor Benjamin Sachs says that
the Supreme Court decision, “…may well be life or death for the
unions.”
If the court rules against the union, public employees would neither
have to pay dues nor the agency fee, but still benefit from the
union-negotiated contracts. Since unions are required to represent
everyone, the loss of the fees collected from those who are considered
nonmembers would be significant, but more importantly, it would open the
floodgates for many others to decide not to be members. Unions
generally see the case as an attempt by conservatives to weaken
public-sector unions and have reacted with alarm and anger to the
decision by the Court to hear the case. The leaders of the NEA, AFT,
CTA, SEIU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, who, combined represent more than 8 million California
employees, issued a joint statement critical of the decision and promise
a fight when the case is being heard in the fall.
Former Assembly Speaker John Perez was quoted in the Los Angeles Times
(follows) saying, “This is part of an ongoing, concerted effort to
undermine the existence of unions and weaken them.”
______________
▲LABOR FEARS SETBACK AS SUPREME COURT HEARS CASE ON UNION DUES, FEES
By Michael Finnegan | L.A. Times | http://lat.ms/1HmU3Tb
30 June 2015 :: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a California
challenge to the financing of public-sector unions sent fear through
organized labor Tuesday, with the threat that the justices could blunt
one of the state's most powerful political forces.
If Orange County teacher Rebecca Friedrichs wins her case against the
California Teachers Assn., it could prompt an exodus of members and lead
thousands of the state's public workers to stop paying union dues or
fees.
Labor leaders and their allies said dwindling membership rolls — and
shrinking treasuries — would undercut unions' strength in collective
bargaining.
"This is part of an ongoing, concerted effort to undermine the existence
of unions and weaken them," said former state Assembly Speaker John
Pérez, a longtime labor leader who argued that labor is crucial to fight
growing income inequality.
Unions in California give millions of dollars in campaign contributions
to Democrats who dominate both houses of the Legislature and hold every
statewide elective office.
Their influence is unrivaled in healthcare, education and other policy
areas. No voice is louder on protecting retirement benefits for the
government workforce.
"The public employee unions make the robber barons and the railroad
barons of 100 years ago look like small potatoes," said Republican
campaign consultant Kevin Spillane.
Under state law, government workers covered by collective bargaining
agreements are not required to join a union and pay dues. But they must
pay a fee — a bit less than dues — to cover the union's cost of
representing their interests, for example in negotiating higher wages.
If the court rules against the teachers union, public employees could
pay neither the fee nor the dues, but still benefit from
union-negotiated contracts.
"It would bankrupt the union," said Scott Mandel, a Pacoima Middle
School teacher and representative of United Teachers Los Angeles in the
eastern San Fernando Valley.
Mandel, who does not speak officially for the union, said atrophy of the
membership rolls would pose a serious threat if unions lose the case.
"We wouldn't have the resources to protect our teachers," he said.
For unions, the immediate challenge would be to persuade the public
employees they represent that it serves their interests to be
dues-paying members, a potentially tough task with workers struggling to
pay monthly bills.
Lou Paulson, president of the 30,000-member California Professional
Firefighters, raised the specter of divided workplaces, with those
paying their share of union costs looking upon those who pay nothing as
freeloaders.
He used the scenario of 10 people dining together every night, with
eight of them required to pick up the tab for the two who refuse to pay
for meals.
"That's going to create problems," he said. "That's just human nature."
Of 169,765 California state government workers represented by unions in
December, 47,805, or 28%, were paying what the unions call "fair share"
fees rather than full-scale member dues, according to the state
controller's office.
For many of those who opt to pay fees instead of joining a union, it's a
means of avoiding putting personal money into political causes they
don't support, such as labor's campaign donations to Democrats.
Republican leaders and business groups have put multiple ballot measures
before California voters in recent years to curb union spending on
politics, but voters in the heavily Democratic state have rejected them.
A longtime supporter of such measures is Larry Sand, a retired Los
Angeles teacher who declined to join UTLA and paid the fees instead.
"We get to have choices in everything else we do in life — the
restaurants where we eat, the clothes we buy, the cars we drive," said
Sand, now president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, a
group that opposes teachers unions. "Why not union participation?"
Sand hopes the court case will diminish teachers unions' clout in Sacramento.
"Without teachers paying," he said, "they just won't have enough money to force their work rules down everyone's throat."
______________
Vivian Ekchian: NEW LOCAL DISTRICT NORTHWEST
SUPERINTENDENT PLANS APPRENTICESHIPS, COLLEGE PREP COURSES AT LAUSD
By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1HgcPJL
Posted: 07/08/15, 6:59 PM PDT | The new local superintendent in charge
of schools in the northwest San Fernando Valley plans to create an
apprenticeship program that will help Los Angeles Unified students land
jobs in skilled trades when they graduate.
Before taking charge of 127 schools from North Hollywood to Chatsworth,
Local Superintendent Vivian Ekchian had already started laying the
groundwork in her previous position heading up contract negotiations
with the district’s labor unions.
The deal she struck with the school district’s building and construction
trade union provides for a partnership to train and employ students.
Ekchian said the initiative will be rolled out to high schools in the
northwest San Fernando Valley this year.
“I would like our students to have access to an apprentice program so
they can come back and work for this district or any other place,”
Ekchian said.
New superintendent for LAUSD San Fernando Valley Vivian Ekchian at
Daniel Pearl Magnet School in Van Nuys on Wednesday, July 8 2015. (Photo
by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News) >>
Students are rarely offered training in skilled trades, because LAUSD began eliminating vocational classes in the 1980s.
In all of Los Angeles Unified and charter schools in its territory, only
31 campuses offered classes in auto repair and building trades,
according to the most recently available state records for the 2013-14
school year.
Ekchian said the program’s details will be worked out with principals after they return from summer break July 23.
“I have meetings set up to discuss which high schools would like to dive
in immediately and which ones would plan accordingly,” Ekchian said.
Ekchian started her new position July 1, which was 30 years after she
began working for LAUSD as a teacher at Union Avenue Elementary in the
city’s Pico Union neighborhood.
In subsequent years, she served as director of instruction to San
Fernando Valley schools and the district’s chief human resource officer.
Ekchian’s current job and district were created by Superintendent Ramon
Cortines, who re-drew the boundaries of local districts as part of a
reorganization earlier this year. Cortines has said one of his top
priorities is to give more control to local districts and the
superintendents who run them.
Ekchian has her work cut out for her, as LAUSD prepares for the first
time to require students pass college prep courses needed to attend
state universities before they can graduate high school.
More than half of LAUSD’s incoming seniors, 15,099 students, will need
to make up courses if they are to graduate under the new rule.
Ekchian said students will need a coordinated effort by educators and
parents. To that end, educators will need to very carefully plot course
schedules. Workshops will also be held to inform parents about the
requirements.
Additionally, students who are falling behind in classes will need early interventions to ensure they pass.
“That’s really important, not just being placed in a class, but successfully completing it,” Ekchian said.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
Quote o' th' Week: "There was absolutely no reason to
host our largest fundraiser at a Trump facility after Donald Trump
shared negative immigration comments,” said Alvaro Cortés, who heads
LAUSD's Beyond the Bell Program.
_______
“… this week is the closest Congress has come to rewriting the federal
rules of education in more than thirteen years. The changes in the
legislation could have a profound effect on every school in the country.
Stay tuned.”
- Hechinger Report :: http://bit.ly/1K2hims
WHY LAUSD WANTS EXEMPTION FROM LOW-BIDDER LAW FOR $2 BILLION IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
http://bit.ly/1Sh5sXC
CSBA, Bay Area school trustees urge Legislature: REPEAL CAP ON RESERVES
http://bayareane.ws/1JYTQcD
Rafe Equith+’Teacher Jail’: HAS LAUSD’s APPROACH TO TEACHER DISCIPLINE GONE TO FAR? http://bit.ly/1GeufV6
WETZEL’S PRETZELS, RICK CARUSO DONATE $7,500 TO COVER LAUSD DEPOSIT AT TRUMP CLUB
CORTINES SAVES SOME LIBRARY AIDE JOBS, TRYING TO SAVE MORE
http://bit.ly/1eNI4UJ
LAUSD MiSiS PROBLEMS PERSIST, some graduating seniors caught in transcript hell
http://bit.ly/1eNHTIW
HOUSE THREADS NCLB NEEDLE – Leaders eke out passage of education bill
http://bit.ly/1JSQh7K
L.A. UNIFIED TAKES ON SEXTING WITH EDUCATION CAMPAIGN, NOT PUNISHMENT
Vivian Ekchian: NEW LOCAL DISTRICT NORTHWEST SUPERINTENDENT PLANS APPRENTICESHIPS, COLLEGE PREP COURSES AT LAUSD
http://bit.ly/1D48Oq0
TO DO OR NOT TO DO AWAY WITH MANDATORY UNION DUES
http://bit.ly/1RmY8OW
Editorial: MUST THE COURTS IMPROVE CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS? + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1NPxR5F
L.A. UNIFIED CANCELS FUNDRAISER AT TRUMP GOLF COURSE, BILLIONAIRE WON’T RETURN $7,500 http://bit.ly/1RloaSC
LAUSD CANCELS CHARITY EVENT AT TRUMP GOLF COURSE, TRUMP REFUSES TO REFUND DEPOSIT http://bit.ly/1UBYS1R
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO STOP THE PEARSON OCTOPUS
http://bit.ly/1LSHYIt
FINALLY, CONGRESS TO START DEBATE ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND REWRITE
http://bit.ly/1MaSo46
Opinion: POLITICS, SELF-INTEREST INFEST CONSTRUCTION OF CALIFORNIA’S SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢ I+II
http://bit.ly/1Th2dld
LAUSD STUDENTS DOING THE SUMMER SCHOOL SCRAMBLE TO CATCH UP http://bit.ly/1fhk1yh
Politico says this week is the charm!: CONGRESS TO TAKE UP NCLB/ESEA
bit.ly/1S33o5r
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
No upcoming events available
*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:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@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, county supervisor, state
legislator, 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 at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
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