In This Issue:
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‘ZIMMO’ URGES MORE PARTICIPATION IN SEARCH + Q&A: INSIDE THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT SUPERINTENDENT |
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Washington Post: FOUNDATIONS FUND L.A. TIMES’ EDUCATION REPORTING: “A CLEAR ETHICAL FAIL” |
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Update: THE PROPOSED CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION PROJECT |
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BOARD PRESIDENT, OFFICIALS, PARTNERS DEDICATE HOLLYWOOD HIGH WELLNESS CENTER |
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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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If you think the Superintendent Profile Survey is
somewhat silly – and it is – asking us to quantify+qualify
qualities-of-wonderfulness we know we all want:
• Rank from one-to-five (five being best) the importance of ethics v. pedagogy
• Using the rubric provided rate the importance of motherhood and apple pie
...do it anyway.
This is not an easy task. Finding the next supe is closer to the Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the universe than is to
finding Waldo in his stripes and stocking cap and glasses from the
picture books.
[This metaphor will be further abused later.]
The survey is like SETI@Home | http://bit.ly/1M4Bnb3
– using a volunteer network of distributed intelligence (where we’re
pretty sure there is some) to detect what we hope is out there.
Please, take the survey. Check all the boxes. Rank everything as a ‘five’ …or higher.
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see,
most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all
the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your
guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] THESE go to eleven.
– from This is Spinal Tap
Do it today, because today, Sunday Nov. 1, 2015 at 11:59 PM Pacific
Standard Time [¿Did you 'Fall Back'?] is the deadline. (Though will
probably be extended – Board President Zimmer: “But I don’t want
constituents to stop giving us input after this November 1 deadline.”)
But please: Draw your own line in the sand and just do it today!
The survey is like the old STAR standardized tests – after all the
bubble-in-the-answer (or-your-guess) on-the-multiple-choice-questions –
with the survey 90% complete – there are a couple of open-ended
questions that make you think …and the surveyors pay attention.
Welcome to the Common Core.
This is what we came here for!
On Screen #7, past the Measurements & Management and Instructional
Leadership and Community Involvement and Administrator & Teaching
Experience and District Quality rankings; there it is, two magic blank
boxes, waiting to be filled:
Additional Information:
PLEASE ADD ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS YOU WISH TO MAKE REGARDING NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS FOR A SUPERINTENDENT.
IF YOU KNOW OF SOMEONE THAT YOU THINK WOULD BE A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR THIS POSITION, PLEASE SHARE THEIR NAME BELOW.
If you know of someone who would be ‘perfect enough’ to be General
Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, put them in.
If you have someone in mind the search team and Board of Ed should
consider, rat them out.
And even if your answer to both is “Anyone but Deasy!” … put that in!
It couldn’t hurt. To quote the Book of Common Prayer on the Sunday after
the Feast of St. Crispian: “Speak now …or forever hold your peace”.
¡Onward/Adelante! – smf
‘ZIMMO’ URGES MORE PARTICIPATION IN SEARCH + Q&A:
INSIDE THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT SUPERINTENDENT
‘ZIMMO’ URGES MORE PARTICIPATION IN LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
by Mike Szymanski | LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1k1RdfD
Posted on October 30, 2015 3:17 pm :: Where’s Zimmo?
Dressed as the popular “Where’s Waldo” red-and-white-striped children’s
book character, LA Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer took to
the Vine Street Elementary School twice today to encourage parents and
teachers to get involved in the superintendent’s search.
He used his appearances to say he is extending the deadline for people
to complete the school board survey that seeks community input.
Even here, his home school, he found parents who didn’t know about the
survey. After attending more than half-a-dozen community forums, he said
he was disappointed in the low turnouts. However, he has done his own
canvassing.
“The most important revelation of the day is that we need to reach out
more to high school students,” Zimmer said. “High school students,
especially seniors, really care. We need to do that even if it takes
more time.”
Zimmer, who has kept a tight control of the superintendent search and
stayed in close contact with the search firm, said additional input
probably won’t delay the process of them compiling all the data.
One thing surprising him, he said, is that the high school students want
a superintendent who was an educator. He estimated that he talked to
130 students in the past two weeks about it.
Does he feel frustrated that some parents, teachers and community groups
feel as if their say doesn’t matter? “Not frustrated,” Zimmer said,
“but it’s a reminder that we still have a trust issue that is a very,
very real problem. This is an opportunity to motivate toward building
trust.”
He pointed outside to the hundreds of parents and students lining up for
the school’s costume parade in the courtyard and said, “Do they all
need to be in the room physically when we make this choice? Do they want
to be? But, intrinsically we have to bring them into the room.”
As search firm officials compile surveys completed so far, about 4,000,
and comments from private and public communities meetings, they plan to
develop a composite profile of what the district says it wants in the
next superintendent.
“But I don’t want constituents to stop giving us input after this
November 1 deadline,” said Zimmer, who extended the survey deadline by
four days.
“I still want to bring stakeholders to the table, but not the way it was
proposed last week,” Zimmer said, referring to Mónica Garcia’s plan for
a special committee of community representatives to offer input of the
candidates. “I don’t believe that we necessarily need the presence of
selected anointed, appointed community representatives in the committee
room.”
He said he does not have strong feelings about keeping the search so
secretive, but he does have strong feelings about “keeping the board
together and staying laser-focused on a positive outcome.”
He said he knows families have a lot to do other than dealing with the
“amorphous idea of the process of choosing a superintendent.”
And, he admitted, “I’m not sure that a school’s Halloween parade is the right place to do it.” But, he is trying.
_______________
Q&A: INSIDE THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT
by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC | http://bit.ly/1k9YVDM
October 27, 05:30 AM :: The man who heads the hunt for the next Los
Angeles Unified superintendent says the size of the 650,000-student
school district and its high-profile search are adding to the challenge
of finding a new leader.
Hank Gmitro, president of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, sat
down with KPCC to talk about his search firm's quest to find qualified
candidates who can manage a school district seen as among the most
difficult to run in the country.
The questions and answers have been edited for clarity and space.
Q: HOW MANY SUPERINTENDENT SEARCHES HAVE YOU CONDUCTED AND HOW DOES L.A. UNIFIED DIFFER FROM THOSE PREVIOUS SEARCHES?
A: I’ve been involved with 40 over the last six to seven years. Our
company has done over a thousand over the last 20-plus years.
This is similar in terms of engagement and the activities that have been
planned to other large system searches with community forums and the
sessions that are scheduled. But I will share that the scale of L.A. is
different than any place, just due to its sheer size.
Q: HOW DIFFERENTLY ARE YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUES APPROACHING THE LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH COMPARED TO THE OTHERS?
A: The difference is the scale and the public nature of it. Everyone
knows that L.A. Unified is looking for a new superintendent. So…the
advertisement to potential candidates isn’t really the need as in some
other places when you’re trying to get the word out that the position is
open.
I’ve worked on several other large system searches of a couple hundred
students and we have probably at least quadrupled our effort in the
amount of time that we’re devoting to leadership profiling activities
here and the number of sessions being offered.
Q: WHAT’S PREPARED YOU FOR THIS JOB?
A: I was a superintendent, so I know the role. I wasn’t a superintendent
in a really large system, it was a smaller suburban system. But I’ve
done this kind of work for the last, almost 10 years. I did a few
searches when I was a superintendent locally for the firm. One of the
things that we try to do when we recruit associates is to have people
who understand the process and the national perspective when it’s a
national search, but also understand the local dynamics and the state
dynamics. We try to have people on the team who understand California,
understand Los Angeles as well as a couple of people on the team who
understand our national process and outreach.
At this point in time, I have probably done six or seven searches of
school districts of the hundred largest school districts across the
country. I feel like I have some experience in knowing what those
dynamics are in large systems and how do you reach out to massive
audiences.
Q: NEXT MONTH, WHEN YOU START MAKING CALLS TO POTENTIAL CANDIDATES, HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT TELLING THEM THERE’S A JOB OPENING HERE?
A: That’s yet to be determined, because part of that is based on the
criteria that the board develops. So before you get too far into the
recruitment effort, you really want to know what the community is
looking for and what the board is looking for.
Some of the themes I’ve heard so far, across the board from students,
parents, staff members, board members is [they want] somebody who really
understands the educational system, has had some experience with
education or at least significant leadership roles in the delivery of
public service, human services. A common comment has been [they want]
someone who really puts the needs of kids first.
Q: ARE YOU GOING TO TALK TO CURRENT SUPERINTENDENTS AND FORMER SUPERINTENDENTS?
A: That will certainly be one pool of candidates, but I’m also waiting
to hear a little bit further as to whether there are other categories of
people who should be approached. Some people have suggested internal
candidates. At each of our sessions, we always ask for recommendations
in terms of people we should approach. Some people have made some
suggestions.
Some people have said, someone who really understands the Los Angeles
area, the politics of the community, understands LAUSD in terms of the
history of the organization, [and knows] some of the things we have been
through in this community, some of the efforts we have tried, some of
the challenges we have faced. Could an internal candidate do that or
somebody who’s worked in the system at some point in time and maybe
moved on to another position?
Q: DOESN’T THAT MEAN THAT THERE’S A SHORT LIST OF THE HEADS OF THE
LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS OR THE TOP ADMINISTRATORS WITHIN LAUSD?
A: I don’t think there’s a short list, but there’s a possible list. If
you’re looking at just superintendents who have had experience of
100,000 students or more, there’s only 26 districts in this country that
are that size. So are you looking for someone who is in one of those
jobs, has been in one of those jobs and may be doing something else?
Sometimes people look at deputies stepping into the superintendency for
the first time.
There’s no list that has been developed yet, but there certainly are the
potential candidates … we might reach out to. But a large piece of that
is, once the board defines the characteristics that they’re looking for
in terms of leadership style, educational philosophy, experiences
they’ve had in terms of financial management or technology or certain
kinds of areas, that may lead you in one direction versus another
direction…. .
The other [thing] in terms of the short list is, some people moved just
recently. So they may not be likely to make a move. A lot of the top 25
districts have hired in the last year or two or three so whether someone
is willing to make a leap in that short of a tenure, I don’t know.
In the last 15 years, there have been divisions between those who
support charter schools and those who support the teachers union or
teacher-friendly policies. How will that play out in your search for a
superintendent?
It’s going to have to be an issue that the next superintendent, and
therefore the candidates who may consider the position, is ready to deal
with. The thing we have heard as the most common theme from the
sessions we’ve held hasn’t been so much about charter schools, but
[people want] someone who is pro-public education.
Q: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
A: One of the things I haven’t heard is a criticism of charter schools.
The frustration has been: shouldn’t charter schools have to play by the
same rules as everyone else? Shouldn’t they have to accept special
education students that want to go to them? Shouldn’t they have to be
held to the same accountability standards in terms of performance?
Q: WILL YOU BE ASKING CANDIDATES ABOUT CHARTER SCHOOLS, IF THE BOARD GIVES YOU THAT DIRECTION?
A: Sure, if that’s part of the definition that they define in their
profile, experience with charter schools or dealing with charter
schools.
Q: ARE INTERNAL POLITICS SOMETHING THAT YOU TREAD LIGHTLY ON?
A: We try to be as knowledgeable about them as possible and raise those
issues and have the board members think about those kinds of issues
before they ever see candidates, to say, what is that you’re looking for
in this area. The reality might be charter schools at the moment here,
but five years from now there could be a whole different issue that has
to be addressed in L.A. Unified.
Q: HOW MUCH WEIGHT DO THE PUBLIC COMMENTS HAVE SINCE, IN THE END, IT’S UP TO THE SCHOOL BOARD TO PICK THE NEXT SUPERINTENDENT?
A: I think they have a lot of weight. The board has been very consistent
and sincere and genuine in their direction to us that they want to know
what the public thinks before they define that criteria. But the
reality that everyone should be aware of is that everyone has a vote to
elect the school board and so they have a say in the decision about the
school board through a public election. But once the school board is
elected that’s the body that is vested with making the decision about
who the next superintendent is.
Q: HAVE SCHOOL BOARDS GIVEN YOU LISTS OF PEOPLE THEY DON’T WANT AS SUPERINTENDENT?
A: I wouldn’t say a list. But on occasion when a name is recommended or
considered, someone has said, ‘No, I don’t think that’s the right person
for us,’ based on the individual’s reputation or what they know of a
candidate.
Q: HAS THIS BOARD GIVEN THAT SORT OF DIRECTION?
A: Not at all.
Q: HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT APPROACHING PEOPLE FOR A SUPERINTENDENT JOB?
A: The job is advertised so anybody can submit an application online.
The recruitment effort is what’s more than likely going to generate
applications that the board is going to want to see. That effort is
about picking up the phone and asking them, ‘Are you interested?’ It
might be based on the name being recommended by someone. It might be one
of our associates making a referral. We have 120 associates across the
country and I regularly send out information — this is what the school
district is looking for here’s their profile. Is there someone you would
recommend that you know of who fits this profile?
Q: THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SEARCH UNTIL THE APPOINTMENT. WHAT STEPS DO YOU TAKE TO ENSURE IT REMAINS CONFIDENTIAL?
A: The names are not released of who the board is interviewing or
considering. I think it’s important for people to understand the
rationale for a confidential search. The board has a desire to see the
very strongest candidates. I’m from Chicago. Say I’m the superintendent
of Chicago public schools and I’m thinking, ‘Well, maybe I would be
interested in talking to L.A. about this particular opening.’
If I know my name is going to be held in confidence through those stages
of that conversation with the board, I might be willing to take that
step. If I know that my name is going to become public that I’m applying
for that position and considering that position, I’m putting my current
job at risk. I’ve seen people lose their jobs over applying for other
jobs when their names have become public. Their board has said to them,
‘If you want to leave, maybe we don’t want you here.’
Q: WILL CURRENT L.A. UNIFIED EMPLOYEES BE MEASURED DIFFERENTLY FROM CANDIDATES OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT?
A: The board said, ‘We’d like to consider internal and external
candidates against the same criteria.’ Once we develop that criteria,
that’s what we’ll use to assess their match for what we need to move
forward. At this point in time, it’s open to everyone.
Q: WHAT’S NEXT IN THE L.A. UNIFIED SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH?
A: Through the end of October, through the 28th, 29th the survey is up
and running. We encourage everyone to take the survey. The meetings will
be occurring through the 29th. October is really focused on the
community portion of the search.
All that information will be compiled into a written report that will be
presented at a public board meeting on November 10th and the board will
use that information to discuss the criteria they want to establish.
And that’ll have to move fairly rapidly during the beginning part of
November because November is really the time that we’re going to be
recruiting and vetting candidates against that criteria. And then the
board will start interviewing candidates through a two-stage process
starting in December.
The first round of interviews will be scripted interviews that they ask
the candidates the same questions so that they’re assessing all the
candidates equally.
Q: ARE YOU IN THOSE MEETINGS?
A: Sometimes we are, sometimes we aren’t. That’s up to the discretion of
the board. We’re there to help facilitate the debriefing of the
candidates after they do the interview. Sometimes boards like us to sit
in on the interviews, sometimes not.
Once they interview the first round of candidates they will determine
who they would like to bring back for second interviews which are much
more conversational, interactive type of interview where it could be a
two, three, four-hour dialogue back and forth between the candidate and
the board assessing their match.
One thing that’s important for everybody to remember is that candidates
are interviewing boards and the job as much as the board and the
district is interviewing the candidate. They’re trying to determine, “Is
this a place I feel like I’m a good match for, and can I do good work
here, and meet the needs and expectations they’re looking for?”
Q: DURING NOVEMBER, HOW MANY PHONE CALLS WILL YOU MAKE, HOW MANY NAMES WILL COME TO YOU?
A: Probably hundreds of phone calls because, in addition to calling
candidates, we’re also calling references and following up and vetting
candidates whether they should move forward.
In a typical superintendent search, a pool of 30 to 40 qualified candidates is a pretty strong showing.
People often think there’s hundreds of people who want these jobs or are
willing to make moves. That’s not always the case. Credentials and
qualifications are often a driving factor. Experience is a driving
factor. And for some place as large as L.A., that pool may be smaller in
terms of people who ultimately commit.
Washington Post: FOUNDATIONS FUND L.A. TIMES’ EDUCATION REPORTING: “A CLEAR ETHICAL FAIL”
Washington Post: FOUNDATIONS FUND L.A. TIMES’ EDUCATION REPORTING: “A CLEAR ETHICAL FAIL.”
by Paul Farhi, The Washington Post's media reporter | http://wapo.st/1LH7xvh
October 29 at 6:22 PM :: The Los Angeles Times announced what seemed
like good news for its readers in August: a new reporting initiative
that would expand the paper’s coverage of local education.
“Our goal is to provide an ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12
education in Los Angeles, California and the nation,” wrote
then-Publisher Austin Beutner. He noted that the project, called
“Education Matters,” would be funded by a series of charitable
organizations.
Except the newspaper left out a key detail: Some of the foundations
funding “Education Matters” are among the most prominent advocates of
public-education reform in Los Angeles. One of them is the principal
backer of a proposal to convert nearly half of Los Angeles’s public
schools into charter schools.
In other words, the Times’ new education-reporting project is being
funded by some of the very organizations the new education-reporting
project is likely to be covering.
The Times has said the foundations will provide $800,000, enough to
cover the salaries of two education journalists for at least two years.
Nevertheless, the initiative has raised suspicions, most notably among
teachers’ union representatives and others who oppose the reformers’
agenda. Can a news organization, they ask, take money from vested
interests and cover the issues fairly?
“It’s dead wrong,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United
Teachers Los Angeles, the city’s largest teachers’ union. The Times’
readers, he added, “are harmed when they don’t know what they can trust
in the biggest paper in Los Angeles.”
Three of the Times’ benefactors — the K&F Baxter Family Foundation,
the Wasserman Foundation, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation — have
been major supporters of charter and school-privatization efforts that
are strongly opposed by teachers’ unions.
More specifically, the Broad Foundation developed the Los Angeles
charter proposal, which would cost $490 million to create 260 new
charter schools enrolling at least 130,000 students in the sprawling
district (charters are publicly funded but independently operated
schools that are usually nonunion and exempt from work rules that
govern traditional public schools).
The Broad Foundation’s chairman, billionaire businessman and
philanthropist Eli Broad, has repeatedly expressed his interest in
buying the Times. The newspaper’s owner, Tribune Publishing, has
rejected his offers, reportedly including one this month.
Major news organizations have long tended to fund their own
news-gathering activities, on the principle that taking money from
another group could compromise their independence, or prompt readers or
viewers to question their reporting.
But the practice isn’t unknown; NPR, a nonprofit organization, takes
“grants” from organizations to fund reporting on international affairs
and education. The Times has accepted grants from the Ford Foundation to
expand its environment and immigration reporting.
Both organizations say the money doesn’t buy influence.
“There is no editorial control or say that the funders have on our
newsroom,” said S. Mitra Kalita, the Times’ managing editor for
editorial strategy. “As an editor, you want to ensure that this distance
does exist. . . . The integrity of the news side is fundamental to what
we’re doing.”
Broad, a major civic figure, has received copious coverage from the
Times, some favorable, some less so. But in either case, his connections
to the paper have not always been made clear to readers.
The Times’ editorial board recently applauded his foundation’s school
overhaul proposal, headlining its endorsement, “A charter school
expansion could be great for L.A.” The editorial made no mention of the
Broad Foundation’s funding of the Times’ education reporting (the Times’
newsroom and editorial board are managed separately).
A recent Times news story reported on a poll co-commissioned by the
Broad Foundation that found widespread support for the foundation’s
charter-school plan. The article also didn’t mention the foundation’s
support of the Times (the foundation didn’t return a request for
comment). Mitra said that was an oversight and that the disclosure would
be appended.
Meanwhile, the Times’ lead education reporter, Howard Blume, has
mentioned the Broad funding connection in his stories. His scoop about
the Broad charter plan in September noted the Broad Foundation’s
involvement in the Times’ education initiative.
But Broad’s multiple entanglements with the paper have prompted Caputo-Pearl and other critics to dub the paper “the Eli Times.”
The teachers’ union is especially critical of the Times’ reporting on
union organizing efforts at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, a
local charter network. A superior court this week granted a request by
the state labor agency, the Public Employment Relations Board, for a
temporary restraining order to stop Alliance from what the board
characterized as abusive anti-union tactics. Alliance has denied
wrongdoing.
Among Alliance’s board members is Frank Baxter, whose Baxter Family
Foundation is one of the funders of the Times’ education reporting
effort. The Times hasn’t mentioned Baxter’s role in its coverage of the
Alliance issue. The Times editorial praising Broad’s charter proposal
also favorably referenced Alliance but didn’t mention Baxter’s ties to
the newspaper.
Kalita said the newspaper discloses such relationships when it reports
directly on an organization or individual, but not when an individual
has a secondary or indirect involvement in a story, as Baxter does with
Alliance.
“Financial imperatives” have driven news organizations to accept outside
funding, but “all such arrangement are, in my mind, ethically suspect,”
said Steven A. Smith, a journalism professor at the University of Idaho
and a former newspaper editor. “Foundations are no less agenda-driven
than any other institution with which a news organization does business.
. . . The traditionalist in me says, ‘no, we go it alone.’ ”
At the very least, said Smith, news organizations that make such deals
should engage in “complete, exhaustive, repetitive transparency,”
disclosing all of their financial connections in news articles.
The lack of disclosure in some of the Times charter stories “is a clear ethical fail,” he said.
●●smf’s 2¢: By the numbers: HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT IS INFECTED BY THE BROAD VIRUS http://bit.ly/ByTheNos
by Sue Peters, a parent in Seattle Public Schools, an infected district.
She is the Founder of the SeattleEducation2011 blog and also Parents
Across America, the Centers for Disease Control battling the Broad
Epidemic. | http://bit.ly/lxOI8h
#39. Local newspaper fails to report on much of this.
#40. Local newspaper never mentions the words “Broad Foundation.”
#41. Broad and Gates Foundations give money to local public radio
stations which in turn become strangely silent about the presence and
influence of the Broad and Gates Foundation in your school district.
Update: THE PROPOSED CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION PROJECT
From the AALA Weekly Update of Nov. 2, 2015 | http://bit.ly/1GUUOpI
29 Oct 2015 :: As Eli Broad and his wealthy colleagues, the Walton
heirs, etc., move ahead with their plans to privatize public education
in Los Angeles by opening 260 new charter schools to serve 130,000
students, questions about the viability of the plan continue to arise.
Unions throughout Los Angeles have banded together, with community
organizations, to oppose the plan that LAUSD Board President Steve
Zimmer has called “a strategy to bring down LAUSD…”
In a recent move, Broad hired Paul Pastorek to lead his foundation’s
efforts to raise the $490 million that he plans to spend to open the new
schools. Pastorek is an attorney who was education superintendent for
the state of Louisiana from 2007 to 2011 and worked to establish more
charter schools, particularly in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,
where he fired all of the teachers and converted almost all of the
public schools to charters. According to the Washington Post, “By most
measures, school quality and academic progress have improved in
Katrina’s aftermath. But many community members feel that the city
schools are worse off in ways that can’t be captured in data or graphs,
arguing that parents have less voice than they once did and that the new
system puts some of the neediest children at a disadvantage, especially
those with disabilities or who are learning English as a second
language.” So, while some test scores did improve, researchers have
found that the
so-called reforms exacerbated inequities within the system. In fact,
one-third of New Orleans charter school principals said that they
cherry-pick students to improve their school performance as judged by
test
scores.
Current charter schools in Los Angeles do not have a stellar reputation
in enrolling children in special education, at-risk students, or English
learners and there is no reason to expect that the Broad plan will
address this discrepancy. That’s one of the main reasons why the public
says this expansion is the number one issue facing the next
superintendent of LAUSD as it will drain the District of students and
much needed resources.
Another disturbing report about charter schools nationally was recently
released by the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit liberal
advocacy organization. The report, Charter School Black Hole, reads,
“What is even more troubling is how difficult it is to obtain essential
information on how some charters have spent federal and state tax
dollars…Unlike truly public schools that have to account for prospective
and past spending [via] public budgets provided to democratically
elected school boards, charter spending of tax monies is too often a
black hole.” It points out that a lack of accountability has led to
fraud, waste, and mismanagement with no policing. Some key findings
were:
In 2011 and 2012, $3.7 million in federal money was awarded to 25 schools in Michigan that never opened.
In California, more than $4.7 million of federal money was given to
schools that closed within a few years. (In Los Angeles, 37 charter
schools have closed since 2000.)
Ohio had 15 charters that closed and seven that never opened that were recipients of more than $4 million.
How can the public be sure that Broad’s $490 million push for
privatization will not just continue this alarming trend of less
accountability, with fewer standards and lack of transparency?
BOARD PRESIDENT, OFFICIALS, PARTNERS DEDICATE HOLLYWOOD HIGH WELLNESS CENTER
by Samuel Gilstrap | LAUSD Daily | http://bit.ly/1NKgeFC
Oct 29, 2015 :: The Hollywood High School Wellness Center was one of
the first of its kind to be established in the Los Angeles Unified
School District. After a great deal of work and bringing in several new
partnerships, the center is celebrating a new chapter in providing
onsite direct medical and mental health wellness to the community.
School board President Steve Zimmer was master of ceremonies, telling
guests that the facility is part of an effort to make the campus the
heart of Hollywood.
“As a resident of this community and a long-time fan of this amazing
high school, I am proud that through this Wellness Center, we are able
to move toward our goal of making access to quality wellness care a
right for our citizens and not just something for the affluent and the
lucky,” he said.
Now 3 years old, the center operates through a partnership among LAUSD
Student Health and Human Services, Planned Parenthood, Kaiser
Permanente, and Aviva Family & Children’s Services.
“We are celebrating a new chapter in health and wellness in LAUSD,” said
Dr. Kimberly Uyeda, director of the LAUSD’s Community Partnerships and
Medi-CAL Programs. “After a long search for the right partners, we are
fortunate to have the support from numerous organizations alongside our
own Student Medical Services.”
Dr. Uyeda noted that whereas many Wellness Centers consist of a single
clinic, the Center at Hollywood High School connects students and
families to a variety of important services, including health education
and mental health services.
“Through onsite wellness centers like this, we are able to educate the
whole child,” Zimmer said. “On the numerous occasions when I have
visited this school, I remember often talking to students and hearing
about how when they had a medical problem, they came to this Wellness
Center, and the doctor helped them.
“So, I want to thank everybody here for playing a role in ensuring that
students can continue to get access to the wellness care they need so
they can focus on achieving academic success.”
Joining Zimmer in dedicating the Center were state Sen. Ben Allen,
D-Redondo Beach, and Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica. Also
addressing attendees were Scott Folsom, the parent representative on the
Bond Oversight Committee; Mark Hovatter, LAUSD Chief Facilities
Executive; Regina Bette, President and CEO of Aviva Family and
Children’s Services; Nicole Ressa, Senior Director of Community
Education and Training for Planned Parenthood; Mario P. Ceballos,
Community Benefit Manager from Kaiser Permanente; and students Adriana
Hernández (grade 11) and Sara García (grade 12) from Hollywood High
School.
Hollywood High School Principal Alejandra Sanchez received accolades
from the various speakers for her tireless efforts to keep one of the
longest-standing and best-known California high schools effectively
linked to its community. She was presented with certificates of
appreciation from Senator Allen and Assemblyman Bloom.
“The most exciting thing about having a Wellness Center at a school is
the kind of support that it provides to our students,” said Principal
Sanchez. “The attendance rate has gone up 10% since last year alone. Our
standardized test scores have gone above the District average. And, the
mental health services in particular have helped our faculty serve
students more effectively than simply removing them from class or
suspending them.”
The Wellness Center was dedicated as part of a Hollywood High School
consortium of community services including the new World Language
Resource Center slated to open in about a month.
●●smf’s 2¢: my remarks at the dedication:
I am Scott Folsom. Hollywood High School. Class of 1966.
If you do the math, that makes this my fiftieth anniversary year. Fifty!
Fifty years ago it was the worst nightmare of the principal of Hollywood
High that somehow I would be allowed to speak to a group of
distinguished guests like this one.
I’m looking forward to my fiftieth reunion. Bunch of old folks. Partying. Dancing. Reliving the past. Drinking adult beverages.
But this, today, is better still. Here on campus. Opening this Wellness
Center. In Hollywood. At Hollywood High: The most famous school in the
world. It doesn’t get any better: Surrounded by bright engaged
committed young people - and caring adults and educators and community
partners.
Achieving the Honorable.
When the voters and taxpayers of Los Angeles voted to pass the BB, K, R,
Y and Q bonds we voted to build new schools where new schools were
needed -- and to repair and modernize existing schools like this one. We
made an investment in the future that keeps on paying off. We invested
in the most important infrastructure of society: Our Young People.
We ended forced busing.
We ended the year ‘round calendar.
We relieved overcrowding.
We implemented Full Day Kindergarten in every elementary school.
We made a commitment to the health and safety and well-being of the
youth of Los Angeles. We started to rebuild The City of Angels we
aspire to be.
One of the bond program’s great strategic initiatives was the support
for School Based Community Wellness Clinics like the one we cut the
ribbon on today. A partnership between the school district and community
partners and students and educators and healthcare providers. We
committed thirty million dollars in facilities money to create
joint-use/shared-use opportunities in school communities throughout the
District; we look forward to investing another fifty million in the next
phase.
Keeping students well and healthy, with access to medical and mental and
oral health care, to adolescent medicine and family health care and
adequate nutrition and physical exercise is a prerequisite to
educational success. A student who does not feel well or safe cannot do
well; a child with oral health pain cannot succeed in class …or on a
test …or in life.
Hollywood is a magical and imaginary place, created out of dreams and celluloid.
But it isn’t all Lana Turner and Fay Wray – Hollywood also a very real
community of workers and immigrants and students and teachers – of hard
work and commerce – and actors and dancers and writers and artists and
musicians and singers. Hollywood is, as Norma Desmond said, “all those
wonderful people out there in the dark!” This school is the center of
that community; this wellness center is centered and present in our
community.
The good work that young people do at this school every day, supported
by educators and the community are what earns this school and its
students (and alumni) the title of World Famous Hollywood High School.
The work of this Wellness Center is no less so because together we do the Right Things for the Right Reasons.
Achieving the Honorable. Day in and day out. Every day.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
TAKING ON THE BROAD-WALMART PLAN - by UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl
http://bit.ly/1LHb1Oe
ONLINE CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENTS LEARNING LESS THAN PEERS, STUDY FINDS | EdSource
http://bit.ly/1Mn9BWh
NYC SCHOOLS THAT SKIP STANDARDIZED TESTS HAVE HIGHER GRADUATION RATES - The Hechinger Report
http://bit.ly/1jXCwKu
Washington Post: FOUNDATIONS FUND L.A. TIMES’ EDUCATION REPORTING: “A CLEAR ETHICAL FAIL.”
http://bit.ly/1kZEoCL
Incoming California Assembly Speaker Rendon: CUTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION ‘A VERY BAD THING FOR OUR WORKFORCE’
http://bit.ly/1Oe1qSX
At a NYC Success Academy Charter School: SINGLING OUT PUPILS WHO HAVE ‘GOT TO GO’
http://bit.ly/1Q0fezJ
Arne Duncan: DITCH TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOKS FOR ‘OPENLY LICENSED DIGITAL
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES’: U.S. would mandate that all copyright materials
developed with federal funds have open license
http://bit.ly/1Pa8Ox1
L.A. UNIFIED AGAIN FIRES ATTORNEY WHO BLAMED STUDENT FOR HAVING SEX WITH TEACHER
http://bit.ly/1XyAI8V
Q&A: INSIDE THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT
http://bit.ly/1LYFDZz
CALIFORNIA CONSIDERS PENALIZING EDUCATION TESTING SERVICE $3.1 MILLION FOR LATE TEST SCORES
http://bit.ly/1RdfAkJ
NOTHIN' BUT NAEP!
http://bit.ly/1jOv4RV
OBAMA’S STUNNING REVERSAL ON STANDARDIZED TESTING: Why his latest comments could spell doom for “®eformers”
http://bit.ly/1S7HvU6
NCLB+ESEA REWRITE: No Child Left Behind: What Worked, What Didn't
http://bit.ly/1kMFSjD
NCLB+ESEA REWRITE: Forcing Schools to Hit The 'Reset' Button
http://bit.ly/1MpLyw5
URGING STUDENTS TO APPLY TO COLLEGE, NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS WILL MAKE SAT FREE FOR JUNIORS
http://bit.ly/1NygKXp
TOO MANY TESTS? OBAMA’S PLAN TREATS THE SYMPTOMS, NOT THE CAUSE
http://bit.ly/1idcjWo
Breaking: LA SCHOOL BOARD WILL CONSIDER APPOINTING OUTSIDE SUPE SEARCH COMMITTEE IN CLOSED SESSION…AGAIN! + smf’s 2¢
http://bit.ly/1MQTxNd
School Attendance: MAYBE ACADEMIC SUCCESS COMES DOWN TO JUST SHOWING UP
http://bit.ly/1NuqD8j
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
●TUESDAY: November 3, 2015
10:00 a.m.: CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY COMMITTEE MEETING -
Subject: The New Science Standards, The agenda has not yet been posted
●THURSDAY: November 5, 2015
GUY FAWKES DAY
“Remember, Remember, The fifth of November….”
*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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