In This Issue:
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THIS IS WHY I SEND MY SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL + someone else’s 2¢ |
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CIVIC GROUP ASKS FOR OUTSIDE COMMITTEE ON L.A. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH |
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THE SURPRISING THING ABOUT SCHOOLS WITH LOTS OF TECHNOLOGY: The best way to use computers in schools is “moderately” + smf’s 2¢ |
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PAT+ELLEN: GODSPEED |
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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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“The military order ‘Havoc!’ was a signal given to
the English military forces in the Middle Ages to direct the soldiery
(in Shakespeare's parlance 'the dogs of war') to pillage and chaos.” http://bit.ly/1NBxqhw
Crying “Havoc” is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the Spanish and
Mexican bugle call “El Degüello”: No quarter given/Take no prisoners.
When the LA Times editorialized last Sunday that A CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION COULD BE GREAT FOR L.A. [last week’s 4LAKids | http://bit.ly/1OIA5Xr]
a metaphorical red line was drawn and a curse was cast. Those who hoped
that the demise of Austin Buetner as publisher of The Times marked the
end of Eli Broad’s bought+paid-for influence on editorial education
policy were quickly disabused.
How could it be any way else?
Did you see the cover of last Sunday‘s Arts&Culture Section?:
Smiling Uncle Eli, L.A.’s Philanthropist King, his head in a halo of
light, descending the escalator into his eponymous Art Museum.| http://bit.ly/1V3c8iE
I’m sure it’s a lovely museum, and I appreciate that it’s free to the
public …but what is it (besides accumulating billions of dollars) about
being a successful home builder, insurance executive and art collector
that makes one all-knowing about public education?
The reviews of The Broad have been mixed; the reviews I saw+heard of The Times editorial were quick+savage.
A former schoolboard member drew the obvious comparison of this “war”
with the one started by former Mayor Tony over AB 1381 – his attempted
unconstitutional takeover of LAUSD. An awful lot of time, effort and
money that could’ve been spent educating kids was wasted fighting off
Tony.
The eminently quotable and infinitely eponymous “Quentin Compson” wrote to The Times:
“Obviously the LA TIMES has just declared war.
“I think we both realize as this war begins in earnest over policy and public opinion, it will be a very long, protracted one.
“I fully expect the LA TIMES to put all its money, power and influence on the side of Charter expansion.
“With the Times' extraordinary record of being spectacularly wrong on
almost everything in the public education sphere from its enthusiastic
support of VAM testing, the propagation of John Deasy, the Times'
embrace of "realistic" budgetary constraints that determine larger
classes and fewer enrichment opportunities, and finally the over-the-top
Scott Walker/Chris Christie rhetoric about the evil teacher unions, the
LA TIMES supports a "fantasy" education panacea that, um,
coincidentally, those with tremendous money, influence and financial
interests in charter schools wildly support.
“You argue this war is for "the children", but the war is being planned
and operated from swank conference rooms in Five Star Hotels and
corporate executive suites far removed from the these kids' homes.
“The LA TIMES has convinced itself that charters are indeed public
schools by rewriting the definition of the word "public". It's the same
rewriting that corporate entities like The LA TIMES always champion as
they advance 1% Neo-liberal economic policies, promoting them as "good"
for the masses while fattening the portfolios of those with zero
children in LAUSD-like school systems.
“This is a watershed moment in LA's education history.
“We have contrary notions of what American democracy represents when placed on the streets and neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
Normandie will become Normandy.”
THAT FIRST SHOT BY THE TIMES was followed by a second opinion piece:
THIS IS WHY I SEND MY SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL – written by Michelle
Maltais, ostensibly a frustrated mom sending her four-year-old to a
private pre-school program. “Quentin Compson” responded again, the
article+reply follow below.
The parents of 4+5 year olds are historically+correctly squirrelly, they
are investing their most precious asset into a system
notably+infamously suspect. But the author/mom is basing her
rage+separation anxiety exclusively on test scores, notably the new test
scores – and nobody gets tested until the second grade!
At first impression the author/mom is entitled/elitist middle-class and
incidentally: Black. Private-school-educated, she imagines the “other”
children she doesn’t want her kids going to school with.
Further complicating the issue is that the author/mom is an LA Times
employee with the title of Deputy Director of Audience Engagement. That
fact was never disclosed – which brings the journalistic
ethics+integrity of The Times into question. We are back to the mutual
back-scratching between The Times and The Staples Center, or the
profiteering boosterism practiced by the Norman Chandler Times, land
developers and the William Mulholland DWP.
¿Chinatown, anyone? I’m sure it’s a lovely museum, and I appreciate that it’s free to the public…
MEANWHILE, THE ONCE+FUTURE POWE® B®OKERS took the school board president
to lunch at The City Club to see if they could influence the selection
of the next superintendent: CIVIC GROUP ASKS FOR OUTSIDE COMMITTEE ON
L.A. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH [follows].
“WAR,” Carl von Clausewitz said, “is the continuation of politics by other means.”
“WAR,” Edwin Starr sang, “(Good God y’all!) What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again”
AND WHILE WE ARE BRINGING UP THOSE NEW TEST SCORES, even though the LA
Times and others (including me) warned us they are essentially
meaningless baseline reference points, consider this:
• LAUSD’s highest performing school was Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched
Studies – a grade 4-12 magnet school. Not a charter school, a magnet
school. LAUSD’s Magnet Schools generally outperformed charter schools.
• Bravo Medical Magnet LAUSD school test scores outpaced all Alliance Charter Schools.
• LAUSD Magnet schools outpaced all schools in LAUSD on new SBAAC test,
including famed charters as well as Beverly Hills High, Agoura High,
etc.
• Magnet schools are not exclusively for gifted or high performing kids;
there are arts and music magnets, humanities and STEM and world
languages magnets …and many more. There will soon be an all-girls
magnet.
• LAUSD’s magnet program has many more kids on waiting lists than charter schools do.
Ladies+Gentlemen, Boys+Girls: ¡WE ARE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT IN LAUSD …AND WE HAVE BEEN FOR QUITE SOME TIME!
We need to expand the Magnet Program, not the charter program. With a
long term and a short term and a dynamic plan; a plan born in the school
community – not in swank conference rooms in Five Star Hotels and
corporate executive suites …or the dining room of The City Club.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
THIS IS WHY I SEND MY SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL + someone else’s 2¢
By Michelle Maltais in the LATimes Education Matters blog | http://lat.ms/1Ox8msT
Sept 15, 2015 :: Did you see the test scores last week?
This is why I send my son to private school.
Sure, the scores were said to be lower than the year before -- and yes,
this was a baseline year -- but it was something else that triggered
that response in me: The achievement gap.
It was no surprise, really, that the scores would be lower than last
year's. Many officials warned us ahead of time. The head of the Council
of Chief State School Officers, a nonprofit group that represents the
country's state education leaders, explained to The Times’ Howard Blume:
"This is going to show the real achievement gap. We are asking more out
of our kids, and I think that's a good thing."
OK, asking more sounds like a good thing on the surface.
But the real question is, will that be carried out across the board?
Or could black and brown students be allowed to continue to slip because expectations aren’t that high for them to begin with?
One thing I continue to learn as a mother is that kids perform to the
level of expectation. Set the bar high, and they will strive to reach
it. They don't know anything other than to reach and reach further -- if
that's what's expected of them. Expect them to fail, and they will.
My 4-year-old is just starting to navigate all of the adventures that
come with going to school. He’s an amazing little sponge, as all kids at
that age are. I can see him, with our guidance and that of teachers,
making connections and constructing for himself a floor, a foundation on
which the rest of his academic experience, curiosity and love of
learning will stand. My job is to push and block and fight to make sure
he -- and later, his baby sister -- gets the best possible education.
The challenges of raising and educating a black male in a major American city are not lost on me.
We live in a predominantly black community and checked out the schools
nearby. Everyone in the parenting circles I'm connected to extols the
virtues of magnet and charter schools. But getting into those schools is
largely a matter of chance.
The neighborhood magnet left us a little cold: The children at this
"high ability gifted magnet" are performing at grade level, the director
told us. According to the LAUSD website, "Gifted/Highly Gifted/High
Ability Magnets serve students who demonstrate ability to work two years
above grade level in academic subjects."
That doesn't inspire much confidence in that system, either.
The case for higher expectations
My husband and I are mostly the products of private education. We grew
up hearing how our struggling middle-class moms scrimped and sacrificed
to give their kids the best education. To a large degree, when it comes
to the education we are responsible for providing our children today,
that narrative is ingrained in our DNA.
From kindergarten through eighth grade, I went to Palm Valley School in
Palm Springs. Though I was the only black student in every one of my
classes, all of us were expected to perform to a level of excellence. My
next four years, I went to a public high school that opened the year I
started. What a different experience.
Straight from private school, knowing nothing else, I was an annoying
overachiever my freshman year. But lowered expectations in most of the
public classrooms eventually had a detrimental effect on me by my senior
year.
A typical teenager distracted by all the things that come with the
fabulous life of a 17-year-old, I turned in a really substandard essay
in my English class.
At a conference with my mom, an English professor herself, the teacher
said he understood our challenge: It must be rough for me working two
jobs to support my family.
While that is a reality in some families, this assumption was preposterous in my case. He never really asked.
First, I had a weekend job at a movie theater -- primarily so that I
could buy my own clothes and gas up the car. Second, this was an
honors/AP English class. The performance standards should have been
higher -- for all students. I was excused from the expectation of high
standards and given a pass in the name of "understanding" instead of
digging deeper to find out what was really at play.
Later in the year, when I submitted an essay that was really up to my
standard of performance, that same teacher accused me of cheating.
Lowered expectations.
I want more for my son. I expect more of my son -- and so should his school.
Honestly, it’s been a long time since I was in school. And that was Palm
Desert. This is Los Angeles -- a diverse, overpopulated and overtaxed
school system that struggles to even keep the air conditioning current
and functional.
Yes, much has changed. However, the basic truths haven’t: Schools are
still struggling to lift performance across the board. Teachers are
still overworked and underpaid -- and underappreciated. Resources are
still hard to come by.
Black and low-income children overall are consistently still at the
bottom of the achievement list. And, no, most of them can't afford the
luxury of a private education. I get that. It's hard for my family, who
can't afford it either, but it's certainly harder for others. That is
real.
While state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson might be
"encouraged that many students are at or near achievement standards,"
this mother is sobered by that.
The fact is most students in the state are falling short of learning
targets and are not on track to succeed in college. Black students have
traditionally performed more poorly on these tests. They aren't expected
to reach the same level of achievement as the rest of their class. That
just will not do in my home.
That lowered performance bar has a detrimental effect on expectations --
those of the teachers, those of the students themselves and
collectively and certainly of the system overall.
The fact that the bar is only now being set higher overall doesn’t
really strengthen my confidence as a parent that the education system
will challenge, encourage and expect or even consider excellence from my
brown-skinned children.
There are no do-overs or reboots, and our primary job as parents is to lay a solid foundation for our children’s future.
Sure, it’s not all up to the schools to spark and develop the drive to
strive for excellence. That should but doesn't always happen at home,
too. But the place our kids spend the majority of their days cannot be
the force working to undo all of our work as parents. We must work
together as a team, setting and facilitating high expectations.
As Antonio Villaraigosa said of his family's choice to move from public
to Catholic school when he was running for mayor: "We want our kids to
have the best education they can. If I can get that education in a
public school, I'll do it, but I won't sacrifice my children any more
than I could ask you to do the same."
Put bluntly: My kids are not an experiment for a foundering system.
::
●●smf’s 2¢: The ever pseudonymous “Quentin Compson” writes to the Times | http://lat.ms/1Ox8msT:
Okay. My head is spinning.
The LA TIMES has gone beyond pathological in its take-no-prisoners public school war.
Michelle Maltais has a four-year-old whom she will not deign pollute
in a public system. She, unlike most other parents, so loves her child,
she will "sacrifice" anything to give this child the "best".
Maltais looks at the test scores of public schools and sees a system that does not set high standards for kids.
She sees a school system and parents that accept mediocrity as the norm.
As we proceed sentence by sentence further in this commentary, this woman's INSUFFERABLE privilege becomes written in neon.
Columbia J-School educated Maltais looks at the kids and families
who would surround her children and it obviously makes her sick. Not
that they are not good, hard-working people--but definitely not people
who care about education as she and her private school educated husband
do. Not like private school parents.
She ticks off the problems with society that undermine the schools
as if they were mere obvious nuisances--but nothing that couldn't be
overcome by setting a high bar.
She ends, "Put bluntly: My kids are not an experiment for a foundering system."
Yes, your kids ARE an experiment in a foundering system. A system
that culls children based on race and class from the start and is run by
politicians and bankers to the detriment of these kids.
And your grotesque "take" on that society in relation to your kids propagates that system.
God speed, Ms. Maltais. You love your kids. Wish you loved ours
CIVIC GROUP ASKS FOR OUTSIDE COMMITTEE ON L.A. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
By Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1NFeI8B
Sept 18, 2015 9:20AM :: A group of civic leaders has privately urged
the Los Angeles Board of Education to appoint an outside committee to
assist with or even lead the search process for a superintendent of
schools.
Their early efforts culminated in a noon lunchtime meeting on Aug. 19 at
the City Club, on the 51st floor of a downtown skyscraper.
The unofficial delegation met with school board President Steve Zimmer,
who did not commit to the idea but said he would put the matter before
the full board. So far, the board has not taken action on the proposal.
"Having a broader external committee would be a good addition to the
process," said Elise Buik, president and chief executive of the United
Way of Greater Los Angeles.
Such a committee would not only provide valuable assistance to the board
but also result in broader buy-in to the selection process and support
for the eventual person chosen, she said.
Buik said she envisions a search committee that would include
representatives of students, teachers, community groups, the business
sector and civil rights organizations.
At the meeting with her were: Antonia Hernandez, head of the nonprofit
California Community Foundation; Ed Avila, a former city official and
leader of the downtown revitalization group Project Restore; Monica
Lozano, a University of California regent and publisher of the
Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión; Nolan V. Rollins, leader of the
Los Angeles Urban League; Gary L. Toebben, president of the Los Angeles
Area Chamber of Commerce; and George Kieffer, a partner in the law firm
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and also a UC regent.
Kieffer also heads the Civic Alliance, a coalition of groups that has
worked with and tried to influence L.A. Unified. The group strongly
backed former Supt. John Deasy, who resigned under pressure a year ago
after losing the confidence of a majority on the Board of Education.
The individuals meeting with Zimmer were doing so in their role with Civic Alliance.
If the board favored a committee, said Buik, she would like one that
could screen potential candidates and present the board a small list of
finalists.
Kieffer said a search committee could take a variety of forms.
“Anything that would be done would be up to the board,” Kieffer said.
“It’s done different ways in different searches. But I think that the
more different kinds of folks they could have on a search or advisory
committee, the stronger their selection process would be.”
The Board of Education chose Deasy without considering other candidates
after a brief trial period during which he served as deputy to
then-Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. At the time, key local leaders, including
some within the Civic Alliance, pressured the board to choose Deasy
without a search.
Cortines returned from retirement when Deasy left but would like to hand over the office to a successor by the end of the year.
The school board recently hired an executive search firm to assist with the process.
Zimmer characterized the City Club meeting as “very positive.”
“It was a very open and frank conversation, and an important
conversation, and I hope they will invite me to meet with them again
soon,” he said. “I think their voice is an important voice in the
process.”
Other groups also are weighing in. The influential teachers union, for
example, would like the finalists to be announced publicly.
“We would like to see a process where the finalists would come in front
of parents, students and educators,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president
of United Teachers Los Angeles. “We want to make sure that parents,
students and educators have an opportunity to weigh in during the
superintendent search.”
The search firm has recommended a confidential selection process, saying it would yield a stronger field of applicants.
THE SURPRISING THING ABOUT SCHOOLS WITH LOTS OF
TECHNOLOGY: The best way to use computers in schools is “moderately” +
smf’s 2¢
TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS DOESN'T ALWAYS ADD TO LEARNING
By Joy Resmovits |LA Times | http://lat.ms/1LyNr3i
Sept 15, 2015 :: More time spent on technology in the classroom
doesn’t necessarily help kids do better in school, a new study has
found.
In fact, above a certain threshold, an over-reliance on technology might actually detract from learning.
“Limited use of computers at school may be better than no use at all,
but levels of computer use above the current … average are associated
with significantly poorer results,” states a new report released late
Monday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
“Students who use computers very frequently in school don’t outperform
students who use them moderately, even when we modify for social
background,” OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, said in an
interview.
It’s a lesson Angelenos might want to consider as the Los Angeles
Unified School District rethinks its relationship with educational
technology, thanks in part to a failed attempt to provide iPads to every
student districtwide. In Los Angeles, the FBI is investigating the
bidding process that led to the iPad program, which now includes other
devices.
Supt. Ramon Cortines decided in February that the $1.3-billion program
was too expensive to continue. At the start of this school year, only
one school had devices for every student because the other schools had
not yet had their technology instruction plans approved by the district.
L.A. Unified chose the schools now slated to receive the devices by
examining campuses and determining which schools had such minimal or
outdated technology that they needed an immediate boost, or which
schools were optimally positioned to incorporate new digital tools into
their lessons. The district also chose schools that were part of a U.S.
Justice Department settlement agreement to provide more resources to
schools with large populations of black students.
A report released earlier this month found that the district still
struggles with integrating devices. That LAUSD-commissioned report --
conducted by the American Institutes for Research -- found that teachers
didn’t receive enough tech support, and that Wi-Fi access on campus
remained inconsistent.
Now, an L.A. Unified task force is devising a technology plan for the district.
The new study is based on the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) test, an international exam given to 60,000
15-year-olds in 32 countries. OECD has previously released results on
the subject tests — many Americans are familiar with these scores, as
they create educational rankings between countries.
Monday’s report marks the release of the digital test associated with
PISA — in general, students took the pencil-and-paper test in the
morning and the computer test the afternoon of the same day.
Overall, the report finds that the best way to use computers in schools is “moderately.”
What exactly does moderately mean? Not too often, and for deliberately
chosen activities. For example, as Schleicher notes, students who
“practice and drill” on computers in school at least once a week perform
more than 20 points below students who don’t do this.
And while some degree of browsing the Internet for assignments is
helpful, performance drops significantly, on average, when it is done
“almost every day” or more regularly.
Why might this be? “If you have 21st century technology added to 20th
century classrooms, it might be unrelated and take opportunities away,”
Schleicher said. “Schools probably haven’t become good enough at the
kind of pedagogies that use technology well.”
If you have 21st century technology added to 20th century classrooms, it
might be unrelated and take opportunities away. - Andreas Schleicher,
OECD's education director
For example, while a school might call itself tech-savvy for having
students copy and paste answers on Google to pre-fab questions on
smartphones, “it won’t make kids smarter,” Schleicher said. “If it’s
used on a smaller scale, which is more useful, it’s usually more
interactive teaching. If you want students to become smarter than a
smartphone you have to think about instructional methodology and
learning environment.”
That’s another lesson for Los Angeles. Cortines has said that the
district lacks a coherent way for wrapping technology into pedagogy.
According to a self-reported survey, students across OECD countries
spent at least 25 minutes online every day at school. That number ranges
from 58 minutes in Australia to less than 10 minutes in South Korea.
American students performed better on the reading test on screens than
they did on paper. On the general PISA, the U.S. performed at the
average level of OECD countries. But on the digital test, America
performed slightly better than average. And on PISA’s pencil-and-paper
math test, Americans performed below average. But taking the test online
bumped the U.S. up to the OECD average.
“We were quite disappointed by the findings in general,” Schleicher
said. “Bringing technologies to the classroom didn’t seem to be related
to positive skills outcomes.” There’s a lot of investment in educational
technology right now, he said, “but we haven’t gotten it right.”
●●smf’s 2¢: This is not “just another survey”, this is the PISA/OCED
Survey – the gold standard in comparing educational outcomes across
nations/around the world (see blizzard of news stories below) used
frequently by those who would beat-up the US education system and and
American teachers.
It is also interesting (in a couriouser+couriouser way) that The
Times provides links to the AIR report critical of LAUSD’s tech roll-out
– which is about something else - but none to the actual survey that
that this article is about – which follows.
PAT+ELLEN: GODSPEED
Remarks by Scott Folsom to the LAUSD Board of Education meeting Tuesday afternoon, Sept 15th:
President Zimmer, Superintendent Cortines, members of the board:
L’shannah tovah.
I am Scott Folsom, California State PTA Vice President for Health.
One would think the PTA would find a healthy VP …but elective politics is what it is.
In PTA we traditionally open our meetings – right after the pledge of
allegiance – with inspirational remarks. A story. A poem. An inspiring
anecdote.
The Queen of Inspiration in PTA in LA was Patricia Hansen; she collected
the stories and poems and anecdotes in an archive; it wasn’t a PTA
meeting until Pat spoke. She was a past President of Los Angeles Tenth
District PTA from 1983-1985 – she first joined PTA in 1949 – and was our
institutional memory – reminding us of when PTA members wore hats and
gloves – and wore their passion for children’s issues on their sleeves
…back in the day as it is today.
We lost Pat a few days ago, after a long life-well lived – and we will miss her.
We also lost Ellen Eckard, past 31st District President from 2009-11.
Ellen was young and vital and served at her school, Sutter Middle, as
the Parent Center Director. She enabled the network that brought
together the PTA and the School and the teachers and administration and
parents and students – building the school community …and the bowling
league – sponsoring the bake sale and the can drive and making what
needed to happen happen.
She organized middle schoolers; and the only things squirrelier than they are their parents. And teachers.
A former Sutter Principal, who had retired to the Sacramento area,
suggested to Ellen that they have lunch together when PTA had our
convention up in the capital. Ellen suggested to the principal that she
come and volunteer at the convention instead; effective PTA leaders make
these offers that can’t be refused!
Ellen died too young – but left the promise for us to continue to keep.
If Pat Hansen was “Old School”: “Your Mother’s …or even Your
Grandmother’s PTA”; Ellen Eckard was “New School”: “Definitely Not Your
Mom’s PTA!”
But both kept the promise that each and every one of us make:
To speak for all children
With one strong voice.
Good job.
And Godspeed.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
TEACHERS WANTED: PASSION A MUST, PATIENCE REQUIRED, PAY NEGLIGIBLE
by Lillian Mongeau | http://bit.ly/1YrAT7z
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE $100 MILLION THAT NEWARK SCHOOLS GOT FROM FACEBOOK’S MARK ZUCKERBERG? NOT MUCH
by Arianna Skibell | http://bit.ly/1YrB0zS
TEST SCORES SHOW ACHIEVEMENT GAP, EVEN IN HIGH-PERFORMING SCHOOLS
byAdolfo Guzman-Lopez | http://bit.ly/1FnQH4N
Op-Ed on School Fundraising: HAWKING POINSETTIAS TO PAY FOR HIGH SCHOOL EXTRACURRICULARS
By Lisa Lewis | http://lat.ms/1LGGT2A
LAWSUIT: SCHOOLS FAILED TO INFORM PARENTS OF RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF TESTS
By Sarah Tully | http://bit.ly/1KD4FA2
STATE NAMES SAN JOSE SUPERINTENDENT TO RUN INGLEWOOD UNIFIED
By John Fensterwald | http://bit.ly/1MzVeUi
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
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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