In This Issue:
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Local Control Funding Formula: COMPLAINT SAYS DISTRICT MUST REVISE LCAP IN PASSING BIG PAY RAISE +smf’s 2¢ |
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Breaking/Friedrichs v. CTA: SUPREME COURT'S DEADLOCK ON UNION FEES COULD BE THE FIRST OF MANY TIE VOTES …OK, the second |
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BAD BOY CHARTERS + smf’s 2¢: |
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N HOLLYWOOD’S BACKYARD, A PUSH TO RECTIFY ARTS INEQUITIES |
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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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LAUSD SIMPLIFIES ITS APPLICATION PROCESS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT | 89.3 KPCC
http://bit.ly/1pVNMcC |
Friday, after work, a number of us came together as
Like Minded Individuals and broke bread and celebrated ourselves and our
successes in educating and raising all these kids over time.
There may have been adult beverages.
It was April First and a perfect day for such April Foolishness. One of
our number quoted me quoting Jerry Garcia or Bob Weir from the Grateful
Dead Anthem “Truckin’”:
“What a long strange trip it’s been.”
It has been and continues to be …and the credited songwriters are:
Garcia, Jerome J. / Weir, Robert Hall / Lesh, Philip / Hunter, Robert C.
The Quadfecta of The Dead.
I stated it above and I will brook no argument: Any+all success in
raising+educating children must be measured over time. A long time.
Generations.
My daughter Alana was there Friday night – and many of the people at the
event hadn’t seen her since high school or before. She’s a candidate
for her MFA in Poetry – and many in attendance – teachers, school staff,
parents, grandparents and whatnot – the Whole Freakin’ Village – have
every reason to be proud.
The system works.
____________
Last week (“Putting a Circle around It”) I wrote of the unfortunate
social+cultural preeminence+dominance of the Baby Boom Generation;
probably the least said about that the better. Except someone wrote
similar words in the LA Times – and that prompted the following blizzard
of letters sent to the editor. There is a famous essay in The New
Yorker: “Within the context of no context” by George W. S. Trow. This is
somewhat like that, only more-or-less so.
Readers React QUIT MICRO-AGGRESSING BABY BOOMERS WITH YOUR MILLENNIAL WISECRACKS | http://lat.ms/1UM1VqC
March 30, 2016 5AM
To the editor: After reading Ann Friedman's Op-Ed, I was forced to stop
the game of “Pong” I was playing to respond. (“HOW TO HANDLE BABY
BOOMERS AT WORK,” Opinion, March 25 | http://lat.ms/1qoeF9S)
At first, I was going to send the author a response by regular mail, but
then I thought she might not have the set of skills necessary to open
an envelope and unfold a letter.
Then I thought about sending a video response, but I couldn't get the VHS tape into my laptop.
I would like to say that I always try to help millennials any way I can.
I try to assist them in crossing the street, so that they don't get run over while texting.
And since some of them are into albums these days, I've been showing
them how they can flip over the record and play songs on the other side.
During tax season, I've also been advising them that they can deduct a
portion of their bedrooms in their parents' houses for business
purposes.
And I do admit that I do not pay enough attention to
“micro-aggressions.” I was born and raised in New York City, so I am
only familiar with macro-aggressions.
Howard Levine, Encino
::
To the editor: What a fabulous piece. I learned the definition of
“micro-aggression.” What a great service The Times performed in printing
a piece that is the very definition of micro-aggression.
I do hope that this was tongue-in-cheek comedy. If it wasn't, then it is
a very sad world that we live in. Oh yes, “we are the people our
parents warned us about.” Someday, they will be too.
Kristin Cano, Corona del Mar
::
To the editor: The piece was clearly a parody of what the writer sees as
the condescending treatment millennial employees receive from the media
and corporations. She wasn't slamming boomers; she was illustrating the
absurdity of reducing any generation to a set of belittling
stereotypes.
I'm a baby boomer, and I for one found it very funny.
Linda Goldstein, Sherman Oaks
::
To the editor: Shame on The Times. You frequently report on the social
wrongs of the world (for example, the front-pager “Campus tainted by
misconduct” on the same day as this piece).
The Times should not allow this author's stereotyping (Luddism and fragile egos) of groups of people who are different.
Times management: Please set the bar higher.
Dennis Ford, Lompoc
::
To the editor: I was trying to figure out if the author was engaging in
satire or whether her piece was to be taken seriously. Then I realized
that the micro-aggression-obsessed millennials don't have a sense of
humor.
In her psychological analysis of baby boomers using the scientifically
rigorous 140-character Twitter social networking service, she has failed
to realize that most of us have retired.
The reins of business are now in the hands of GenXers like my executive
niece, who — guess what — also says millennials come to the workplace
with “a sense of entitlement, a tendency to overshare on social media,
and frankness verging on insubordination.”
Melissa Verdugo, Rancho Palos Verdes
::
To the editor: The advice to millennials reminded me of my own
eye-rolling at my parents' befuddlement in setting up a “complicated”
VHS recorder menu.
The author forgets that many of us boomers were not only inventors of
some of the current digital technologies but — necessitated by our
computer-impacted jobs — made to become early adopters of the same.
With the coming computational developments envisioned by technology
futurists, the children of these millennials will more than likely, with
their eyes rolling, patiently explain to their non-cybernetic parents
the advantages of brain chip implants.
Larry Lytle, North Hollywood
::
To the editor: I thought that this opinion piece had to be a joke. But millennials don't read the news.
So who exactly is the target audience supposed to be?
I'll wager that most oldsters won't think it's funny. I didn't.
Constance Rawlins, San Diego
::
To the editor: Instead of the tech-savvy, with-it senior citizen I
thought I was, apparently I'm a Luddite with a fragile ego. Who knew?
Damn. I think I've been “micro-aggressed.”
Lorraine Gayer, Huntington Beach
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
Local Control Funding Formula: COMPLAINT SAYS
DISTRICT MUST REVISE LCAP IN PASSING BIG PAY RAISE +smf’s 2¢
By John Fensterwald | Ed Source Today | http://bit.ly/22Ml93G
March 28, 2016 :: In the first step toward a potential lawsuit, a
public interest law firm on Monday filed a complaint with the state
alleging that the West Contra Costa Unified School District violated the
disclosure requirements of the state’s Local Control Funding Formula
when it approved a pay raise for district staff. It charged that the
district failed to explain to the public how the pay raise might affect
spending commitments, including money targeted for English learners,
low-income students and foster youths.
The 11-page complaint by San Francisco-based Public Advocates [http://bit.ly/1Y7qJGZ]
doesn’t claim that the district categorically cannot grant the pay
increase – totaling $25.8 million over three years – it approved last
month. But the law firm says that West Contra Costa Unified never told
the public last summer that it might use $4.3 million that it is
required to spend this year to improve programs and services for
high-needs students to help pay for the across-the-board raises for
staff.
The complaint says the district put that money in a reserve without
adequately informing the public and failed to include it in the Local
Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP, a three-year planning
document, updated annually, that the school board passed last June.
Last month, on the same night that the board ratified the staff
contract, which includes a 12 percent increase over 12 months, the board
voted not to use the $4.3 million to fund the raises after all. It
shifted the money back into the general fund, directing the district to
spend the money on high-needs students.
But Public Advocates’ complaint says the school board should amend the
LCAP after a public hearing to spell out how all this new money will
benefit high-needs students. Otherwise, the public cannot track the
money and make sure the district spends it as it says it will and not as
a back-door plan to fund pay increases now or in the future.
John Affeldt, managing attorney of Public Advocates, said that he
suspects that West Contra Costa Unified is not alone in skirting the
law. “We are seeing a lot of districts giving pay increases,” he said
Monday. “We want to see teachers fairly paid, but this must be done in a
way that honors the community conversation. An involved community is
sacrosanct under the Local Control Funding Formula.”
In a one-paragraph statement, the school district denied that it did anything improper.
“We believe the District has followed the procedures outlined by the
Local Control Funding Formula,” spokesman Marcus Walton wrote in an
email. “Our district’s Local Control Accountability Plan Parent
Committee appropriately made recommendations, many of which the Board
incorporated into the approved LCAP plan. The original plan for the
2015-16 school year included a $4.3 million reserve, which was approved
after the proper notifications and hearings. When the reserve was no
longer needed, those funds were allocated in accordance with the
priorities of the LCAP, following a public hearing on the matter.”
Public Advocates filed a complaint with State Superintendent of Public
Instruction Tom Torlakson – a step that precedes going to court.
Claiming “irreparable and immediate” harm from further delays, the
complaint gives state officials 10 days to order the district to suspend
spending on the raises. The district must consult with the community on
revising the LCAP to include $3.3 million for the raises this year and
to measure the impact of the full $25.8 million raise over three years,
the complaint says. The state should also require the board to explain
how it is using the $4.3 million for high-needs students, the complaint
says.
If the department doesn’t step in, Public Advocates said it will seek a
temporary injunction in Superior Court. The law firm filed the complaint
on behalf of three parents: Isabel Cruz and two unnamed parents, all of
whom serve on an LCAP district advisory committee, the complaint said.
The state distributes about 90 percent of K-12 funding through the Local
Control Funding Formula. Most of the money is provided through a
uniform base grant for all districts. In addition, districts receive
“supplemental” dollars for each enrolled English learner, foster and
homeless child and low-income student, plus additional “concentration”
dollars for districts with large percentages of those students. With
high-needs students making up 74 percent of West Contra Costa Unified’s
enrollment, the district received $200 million in base funding plus
$36.3 million in supplemental and concentration dollars in 2015-16.
West Contra County Unified’s 67-page LCAP for 2015-16 lays out in great
detail how it plans to spend money for the high-needs students on five
primary goals, including improving school climate, parent involvement,
the use of technology in schools and raising achievement. But the
district noted in an early LCAP draft that $4.3 million – 12 percent of
its supplemental and concentration funding – would be put in a reserve
account, then deleted any reference in the final LCAP about moving it
after Public Advocates publicly questioned the expenditure, the law firm
said. Public Advocates said that the district has ignored repeated
inquiries about its failure to specify what it intended to do with the
money. The complaint says the law firm also raised the issue in a letter
to the Contra Costa County Office of Education, which approved the
district’s LCAP without commenting about the $4.3 million.
USING TARGETED DOLLARS FOR GENERAL RAISES
The state Department of Education has given ambiguous advice about using
supplemental and concentration dollars for general raises, as West
Contra Costa Unified had considered doing.
In May 2015, Jeffrey Breshears, an administrator at the department,
advised districts would face a heavy burden in using the money for this
purpose. Quoting the LCFF law, he wrote that a district would have to
show that a general raise would be an “effective” strategy for raising
achievement for high-needs students, and that teachers and other staff
are underpaid relative to the surrounding districts, putting the
district at a competitive disadvantage. The district would have to cite a
goal for student improvement that the pay increase would help achieve
and rescind the pay increase if it weren’t met, Breshears wrote.
Two weeks later, after employee unions complained, Torlakson issued a
clarification that backed off of some of Breshears’ requirements, while
confirming its basic point: Districts could use money for a general pay
raise if they documented in the LCAP that students’ academic progress
was affected by the difficulty in recruiting, hiring and retaining
teachers.
The district said that the new pay package will enable it to better
compete for teachers. “It’s no secret that our teachers have been
underpaid relative to their peers in neighboring school districts,”
Walton told the Contra Costa Times. “Correcting that has been a priority
identified by the Local Control Accountability Plan, the administration
and the Board of Education in order to help with the recruitment and
retention of our teachers.”
The Local Control Funding Formula says a school district must seek the
advice and recommendations of parents, students, teachers and other
community members before adopting an LCAP. The law – Education Code
52060 (c) – further says that the district “may adopt revisions to” an
LCAP during the year, but only if it follows the same process of
involving the public and adopts the revisions at a public meeting.
Affeldt said that approving a $25.8 million pay increase in effect
changed the LCAP, creating new expenditures that will force the
elimination of other priorities.
But it did so without a public process. Instead, the complaint said,
West Contra Costa Unified acted “without the transparency, engagement,
public hearing, and county approval process required to ensure equity
and accountability for LCFF funds.”
Peter Birdsall, executive director of the California County
Superintendents Educational Services Association, which represents
county offices of education, said county offices and districts have
assumed that pay contracts passed after LCAP approval don’t require
mid-year revisions. Changes can be accounted for in the yearly LCAP
update in June, he said.
But Affeldt said that would be too late for parents and the public to
have any impact on major changes in the LCAP and spending commitments
made without their knowledge.
___________________
●●smf’s 2¢: LAUSD delivered a major pay raise after its 15-16 LCAP was
submitted+approved. Not a lot of resistance was presented as those
contract negotiations took place over John Deasy's dead body ...and
labor+management+parents+staff were all too busy singing "Ding Dong,
The Witch is Dead" to question the LCAP legal niceties.
Eyebrows were raised, even at LACOE, but that was extent of it.
I seriously doubt if the line “Our district’s Local Control
Accountability Plan Parent Committee appropriately made recommendations,
many of which the Board incorporated into the approved LCAP plan" could
be delivered with a straight face under any circumstances in LAUSD,
prior-to-or-after the LCAP was approved.
The LAUSD LCAP PAC are an Advisory Committee ...and they were advised.
LAUSD’S LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE TREATED LIKE KINDERGARTNERS
...GIVEN MINUTES TO MAKE MILLION DOLLAR DECISION | http://bit.ly/1hlP0sz
Breaking/Friedrichs v. CTA: SUPREME COURT'S DEADLOCK
ON UNION FEES COULD BE THE FIRST OF MANY TIE VOTES …OK, the second
David G. Savage | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1UrRuYO
March 29, 2016 | 1:26 PM | Reporting from Washington :: A well-planned
legal assault on public unions collapsed Tuesday when the Supreme Court
deadlocked over a California woman’s lawsuit to strike down mandatory
fees, the strongest evidence yet that Justice Antonin Scalia’s death has
stymied the court’s conservative justices.
The 4-4 split keeps in place a 1970s-era rule that authorizes unions to
require municipal employees, teachers, college instructors and transit
workers to pay a “fair share fee” to help cover the cost of collective
bargaining.
The tie vote, widely expected after Scalia’s death, nevertheless came as
a relief to union officials who feared the conservative justices were
on the brink of striking down the pro-union law as a violation of free
speech.
In another sign Tuesday that the high court continues to grapple with
the vacancy left by Scalia, justices asked for additional briefings in a
pending dispute over the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate
under the Affordable Care Act.
The request was widely seen as an attempt by the justices to find a
compromise in that case, which appeared evenly split during oral
arguments earlier this month.
Tie votes could be a theme this year as justices vote on several major
disputes that divide along ideological lines, including abortion,
election districts and immigration.
The White House said the court’s deadlock in the union case underscores
the need for the Senate to confirm his nominee, Merrick Garland, chief
judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,
to replace Scalia. The Republican-controlled Senate is refusing to act
on Garland’s nomination, saying the next president should fill the seat.
“With a Supreme Court that’s not fully staffed, it makes it more likely
that situations can arise across the country with different rulings in
different courts that aren’t resolved by the Supreme Court,” White House
Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Earlier this month, the court split, 4-4, in a narrow case involving
spousal liability and gender discrimination, the first such vote since
Scalia’s death.
The deadlock in the union case leaves in place mandatory fees allowed by
law in California and 22 other mostly Democratic states. Such fees are
prohibited in “right to work” states across the South and in much of the
Midwest.
Orange County teacher Rebecca Friedrichs and several others had sued to
overturn the mandatory fees, saying they objected being forced to
support the California Teachers Assn.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected her suit, citing the 1977
Supreme Court ruling in Abood vs. Detroit Board of Education, which had
authorized these fair share fees in the first place. That case held
that workers could be required to share in the cost of collective
bargaining, but they did not have pay for a union’s political
activities.
Before Scalia’s death, the court’s five more conservative justices had
served notice that they were ready to overturn Abood and declare such
forced fees as unconstitutional. The same five justices who in the
Citizens United case struck down campaign spending limits on free-speech
grounds seemed to view the union fees as a similar 1st Amendment
violation.
Instead Tuesday, the justices issued a one-line statement saying the 9th
Circuit’s ruling is “affirmed by an equally divided court.”
Labor law scholars said unions would have been crippled if nonmembers
had no longer been required to pay anything to support the union. “It
would have been like a knife in the heart of the unions,” said Gary
Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in
Massachusetts.
The National Education Assn. -- the nation's largest union with 3
million members -- hailed the outcome as a victory. Eric Heins,
president of the California teachers group, said “wealthy corporate
special interests” had brought the case to “make it harder for working
families and the middle class to come together, speak up and get ahead.
Now it’s time for senators to do their job and appoint a successor
justice to the highest court in our land.”
Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders agreed that the deadlock
“underscores the need to a confirm a Supreme Court nominee who will
protect the rights of American workers to collectively bargain for fair
wages and safe working conditions. The extreme right wing is just one
conservative Supreme Court justice away from dismantling the rights of
public sector unions to organize and collectively bargain on behalf of
all workers.”
Conservatives said they saw no incentive to allow Obama to appoint
another left-leaning judge, which would give the court a liberal
majority for the first time in generations.
Curt Levey, executive director of the FreedomWorks Foundation, said that
the Supreme Court would shift “dramatically to the left with the
appointment of Merrick Garland or any other liberal, [and] become a
rubber stamp not just for the wishes of powerful labor unions, but also
for virtually the entire progressive agenda.”
Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, which helped
launch Friedrichs’ lawsuit, said the group would try to raise the issue
again. “We believe this case is too significant to let a split decision
stand, and we will file a petition for rehearing with the Supreme
Court,” he said.
A labor policy expert who supported Friedrichs said challengers should
now to look to state legislatures to strike down the fees.
“With a divided court, thousands of public servants around the nation
must still financially assist a government union that they disagree
with,” said Trey Kovacs, a labor expert with the Competitive Enterprise
Institute. “Now it is up to state legislatures to provide public
employees with the freedom to choose whether or not to pay for union
representation.”
In the Obamacare case, the justices said Tuesday that they wanted to
hear further arguments on whether insurance companies may directly
provide contraceptives to some women without the religious charities and
nonprofit organizations that employ them and object to birth control
playing any role.
Last week, the justices sounded evenly divided in a clash between the
Obama administration and Roman Catholic archbishops over the
contraceptive coverage that is now a required part of all health
insurance plans under Obamacare.
The administration had previously said that the Catholic charities and
other nonprofit religious groups need not pay for this coverage, but
that they must formally notify the government of their religious
objections so insurers can be ordered to provide the contraceptives.
But some Catholic leaders objected nonetheless and argued that notifying
the government would trigger the coverage and make them “complicit in
sin,” because they view some forms of the contraceptives as abortion.
On Tuesday, the justices asked lawyers on both sides to submit a new
brief on whether insurance companies could be required by law to provide
the contraceptive coverage on their own so that the church-based
employer “would not required to submit any separate notice.”
The new briefs are due April 12. That suggests the justices still hope to decide the case this term.
BAD BOY CHARTERS + smf’s 2¢:
From Politico Morning Ed, via email
March 29, 2016 :: Sean Combs, the hip hop mogul (currently known as his
stage name Puff Daddy or Puffy, and formerly known as his stage name
Diddy and P. Diddy) , plans to open a charter school in New York City's
Harlem this fall. The school, Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School,
will follow the model of Hartford, Conn.-based charter school Capital
Preparatory Magnet, and it will be overseen by that school's founder,
Steve Perry. (Dr. Steve Perry Founder & Head of Schools for Capital
Prep, hosted TVONE's Save My Son - MSNBC & CNN Education Contributor
– which makes him a Cable T.V. Education Pundit – not to be confused
with Steve Perry, lead singer of “Journey”)
Combs, who was born in Harlem, said the school is a "dream come true." More: http://lat.ms/1PCOv7E
• Teachers of the school's sixth and seventh graders will be called
illuminators, new Principal Danita Jones said. "Illuminators literally
... coparent," Jones said. It entails calling parents every two weeks
and setting aside time each day to check in on students'
social-emotional needs.
• Diddy joins a long list of celebrities setting their sights on
education: Fellow entertainer Pitbull opened a charter school in Miami
in 2013 and has broken ground on another in Las Vegas, to open this
fall. Tennis sensation Andre Agassi opened a charter school, also in his
hometown of Las Vegas in 2009, and former NBA player Jalen Rose helped
open a charter high school in his hometown of Detroit in 2011. NBA
legend Magic Johnson and crooner Tony Bennett have also founded schools.
• A big name doesn't guarantee success , however. NFL star Deion
Sanders' Texas charter school, Prime Prep Academy, closed last year,
weighed down by debt and lawsuits. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith opened a
private elementary school that closed in 2013 amid concerns the school
may have been affiliated with Scientology.
●●smf’s 2¢: Charter school proponents say there is no way to make
beaucoups of money in the charter schools biz ; one needn’t look much
further than Andre Agassi to puncture that myth.[ANDRE AGASSI’S PIVOT TO
EDUCATION CAPITALIST | http://bit.ly/1zVYxPz]
Charter schools need services – and if you are in the position to
provide those services – whether real estate, meals, access to credit or
selling t-shirts, backpacks, textbooks or off-the-shelf curriculum –
you can write your own ticket. Hip Hop music moguls are not about
losing+or managing money; they are about accumulating Bling!
When privatizing public education is about Bling and egos we are in big trouble.
But I think we knew that already.
N HOLLYWOOD’S BACKYARD, A PUSH TO RECTIFY ARTS INEQUITIES
By Christine Armario | Associated Press /from the Washington Post | http://wapo.st/1RJ6EC6
March 29 at 11:34 AM :: LOS ANGELES — Miles from the Hollywood Walk of
Fame and the red carpet, Steve Shin belts out tunes on a piano scarred
with nicks and love notes written in scratches, teaching children how to
sing.
In scores of other middle schools, his students might have already
learned how to read the notes on a scale. But years of cuts have
stripped arts classes from much of the Los Angeles district, leaving
many children in the world’s entertainment capital with no instruction
in music, visual arts, dance or theater.
When Shin arrived for the first day of class, he quickly realized many
of his students were starting from zero. “A lot of them didn’t even know
they were going to be in a music class,” he said.
Now the nation’s second-largest school district is trying to enlist
Hollywood studios to “adopt” schools and provide students with
equipment, mentorships and training as a way to reverse the layoffs that
have decimated the curriculum.
The financial picture is slowly changing. The arts budget has grown to
$26.5 million, about 40 percent higher than five years ago, but still a
fraction of the $76.8 million sum that was once available for the arts.
For the next school year, it will increase to $32.3 million.
In 2014, the district hired former TV writer and producer Rory Pullens
as its executive director for arts education. He has since hired an arts
teacher at every school.
Pullens is convinced his work in a district that has 90 percent minority
students will one day help diversify Hollywood — a widely discussed
goal after the criticism of this year’s all-white list of Academy Award
acting nominees. He has already met with Paramount, Universal and dozens
of other industry leaders to solicit help.
“It is well within all of our powers, if we work together, to remedy
that by really addressing the deep-rooted symptoms and not just trying
to put in a couple remedies on the surface,” Pullens said.
The renewed push for arts education in LA comes as new federal education
policies stir hope that schools will begin shifting more time and money
toward classes such as dance and drama. In recent years, districts have
focused on areas emphasized by the No Child Left Behind law, the 2001
law that required schools to meet annual targets for math and reading
proficiency or face intervention.
“We do see the pendulum swinging away from the stark focus on discipline
and standardized testing toward a more well-rounded definition of what
education should be,” said Scott Jones, senior associate for research
and policy at the Arts Education Partnership.
Forty-four states require high schools to offer arts classes. Forty-five
states make the same requirement for elementary and middle schools. But
at many schools, policy doesn’t necessarily match up with course
offerings.
The new federal law instructs schools to offer a balanced education that
includes music and other arts. In Los Angeles, school leaders are
hoping a revised funding formula and industry engagement will rectify
longstanding inequities in arts education.
When Pullens arrived, one of his first initiatives was to survey every school to find out what arts programs they had.
In a presentation last spring at a Hollywood middle school with an aging
auditorium, Pullens outlined the bleak findings: About 45 schools had
no arts teachers and most had no alignment between elementary, middle
and high school course offerings. He called on Hollywood executives to
pitch in and hired Alyson Reed, a dancer and actress whose credits
include playing Ms. Darbus in “High School Musical,” to begin reaching
out to industry contacts and coordinating donations.
Film and music studios have chipped in to help Los Angeles schools
before, but their contributions tended to focus on the schools directly
in their backyard: Warner Bros. has provided funding to improve
auditoriums at Burbank schools. Sony Entertainment Pictures has run
career workshops at Culver City schools.
But the schools with the biggest needs are in less affluent neighborhoods.
Some studio leaders said getting involved with Los Angeles schools was
difficult and bureaucratic. Others were simply unaware of the depth of
the district’s problems, Reed said.
Kelly Koskella, president of Hollywood Rentals, which will be donating
studio equipment ranging from lights to fog machines, said he was
stunned to learn many Los Angeles Unified schools lack even the kind of
gear used in public schools in the mid-1970s.
“It seemed very strange hearing that our schools here didn’t have the
type of equipment that we were using 20 and 30 years ago,” Koskella
said.
To date, the Los Angeles district has confirmed partnerships with
Nickelodeon, Sunset Bronson Studios and Sunset Gower Studios. Reed said
she and Pullens have also had encouraging meetings with many others,
including Disney, Sony and CBS and hopes more will be announced soon.
Most of the donations have not reached students yet. Reed said the
district is still assessing how the equipment will be dispersed.
In Shin’s class, students get by with the bare minimum: an overhead
projector displaying lyrics across the screen, two microphones and two
standing lights placed in front of the class to make a stage-like
performance space.
In a deep voice, Shin calls on students as if they’re performing in a
real concert in front of their peers. On a recent afternoon, they sang
everything from Mexican ballads known as corridos to angst-ridden songs
by Adele.
Terry Quintero, 12, had never been in a music class before and now
dreams of becoming a professional singer like one of her idols, Adele.
When she’s singing, Terry said, she leaves everything that’s troubling
her behind.
“What matters right now,” she said, “is this class.”
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
LAUSD SIMPLIFIES ITS APPLICATION PROCESS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT | 89.3 KPCC
http://bit.ly/1pVNMcC
SAY GOODBYE TO EIGHTH GRADE ALGEBRA 1 AND HELLO TO
THE RISE OF COMMON CORE MATH (…OK, California Standards Math)
http://bit.ly/1ROnxS4
IN HOLLYWOOD’S BACKYARD, A PUSH TO RECTIFY ARTS INEQUITIES
http://bit.ly/1qg5IPS
Local Control Funding Formula: COMPLAINT SAYS DISTRICT MUST REVISE LCAP IN PASSING BIG PAY RAISE + smf's 2¢
http://bit.ly/1V2AkQ8
BAD BOY CHARTERS: Puff Daddy Prep
http://bit.ly/1okx85r
Breaking/Friedrichs v. CTA: SUPREME COURT'S DEADLOCK ON UNION FEES COULD BE THE 1st OF MANY TIE VOTES …OK, the 2nd.
http://bit.ly/1UThyfa
US SCHOOLS STILL GRAPPLE WITH LEAD IN WATER + MORE plus CALIFORNIA NOT USING BLOOD-TEST DATA IN EXIDE LEAD CLEANUP
http://bit.ly/1PxegWX
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY COMMITTEE MEETING – Tuesday/ April 5, 2016 - 10:00 a.m.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND PARENT ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE - Rescheduled to April 19, 2016 - 2:00 p.m.
*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 the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...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. Volunteer in the classroom.
Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child -
and ultimately: For all children.
• 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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