This changes everything.

4LAKids: Sunday 15•June•2014 Father's Day In This Issue:  •  VERGARA V. CALIFORNIA VERDICT: This Is Only The Beginning  •  WHILE OTHER STATES FOLD THE COMMON CORE, CALIFORNIA DOUBLES DOWN  •  UPDATE► LCFF/LCAP: LA SCHOOLS PARENT COMMITTEE BATTLING DISTRICT TO ELECT ITS OWN LEADERSHIP  •  Steve Lopez: AN L.A. UNIFIED WATCHDOG GETS PUNISHED FOR BARKING  •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  Give the gift of a 4LAKids Subscription to a friend or colleague!  •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404  •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!  •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. An awful lot has been written about the verdict in the Vergara v. California lawsuit. You can read about it here: • VERGARA DECISION IS TEMPORARY/FINAL JUDGMENT MAY TAKE 30 DAYS http://bit.ly/1kiEehv • Associated Press: CALIFORNIA TEACHER TENURE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL http://bit.ly/1iledi1 • VERGARA v. CALIFORNIA: Damage assessment, Punditry, Gloating and Aftershocks …24 hours after (multiple stories) |http://bit.ly/1pKmlOg • VERGARA v. CALIFORNIA: The official tentative decision |http://bit.ly/1oWmwF1 • Hiltzik: WHY THAT RULING AGAINST TEACHER TENURE WON’T HELP YOUR SCHOOLCHILDREN ANY MORE THAN DEASY’S iPADS | http://bit.ly/SCSBGQ • PHOTO: Why is this man smiling? pic.twitter.com/chtmVtSpeV • LAUSD’s JOHN DEASY WANTS TO HELP WRITE NEW TEACHER TENURE LAWS + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1vj5GDT Not ALL about it mind you …much more is yet to be written, over a long time. I’m going to leave it at this: This is not the Huge Victory for the Purveyors of ® eform that they shout – nor is it the End of World (and teachers’ unions) that they fear. What it is is irrefutable proof of the spuriousness of the claim that: “Were only in it for the Kids!” claimed by Plaintiffs, Petitioners, Superintendents, Unions and Billionaires alike. The sky hasn’t fallen and the Great New Wonderful Tomorrow didn’t dawn this morning. Or Tuesday morning either. GUN VIOLENCE: There has been, on the average, one school shooting per week since Newtown. It’s not funny, it’s ironic – but this from The Onion: "'No way to prevent this', says the only country where this regularly happens." |http://onion.com/1lmvhnB THE LOCAL CONTROL FUNDING FORMULA/LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN/DISTRICT BUDGET debate continues. The advice of the Parent Advisory Committee was apparently neither solicited nor desired - and there’s no appetite/time/imagination for an ideal Arts Ed - or any other ideal budget. Last Tuesday the board committed itself to equity …though it’s doubtful that the six agree on the definition of the word – and if they do whether the superintendent concurs.The superintendent published his draft overall school-by-school budget. Next Tuesday thirty community members are invited to comment on the LCFF and the budget at 2 minutes each at a special board meeting. 650,000+ students. One thousand+ schools. Thirty community members at 2 minutes each. An hour of community engagement over $6.6+ billion of spending. Sooner or later the board will weigh in. SUNDAY’S TIMES featured Steve Lopez' column about Stuart Magruder’s challenged reappointment to the Bond Oversight Committee (“L.A. UNIFIED WATCHDOG…” follows). Back in the day when California couldn’t get out a budget on time, this blog had a companion: “A State Without a Budget, a Government Without a Clue”. Now the lege bends over backwards to get a budget out on time (Midnight tonight!) to protect (What could be more important than…?) legislators paychecks …but the cluelessness of the legislators and the public is greater than ever. Legislators actually say the only way they can complete a budget is to do it behind closed doors! The Times in “BUDGET DEALS LESS THAN OPEN” http://lat.ms/1lwD07e reports: “The administration introduced a plan to limit the amount of money school districts can keep in their reserves, just hours before it was vetted by the joint budget committee Wednesday. "When this news broke, it was a shock to us," said Mark Ecker, superintendent of the Fountain Valley School District. "It came out of the blue. It was totally unfair." The esoteric proposal would take effect only if voters pass a ballot measure in November strengthening the state's rainy-day fund. Since a portion of the statewide fund would be dedicated for schools, the proposal would limit the size of school districts' individual reserves in years after deposits are made. H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Brown's Department of Finance, called it "a statewide mechanism that is designed to cushion dramatic drops in revenue that affect all school districts." But school officials say that wouldn't leave enough money in the bank if revenue unexpectedly plummets. "Who proposed this and why?" said Josephine Lucey, president of the California School Boards Assn. "There's no logic to it. It's fiscally irresponsible."  There are two editorials of note, cited below. THE KIDS CROSSING THE BORDER needs to be compare+contrasted with stories of the rather routine drowning of North African refugees in the Mediterranean. And A TEXTBOOK CASE OF MEDDLING describes why well-intentioned legislators should be kept away from mandating curriculum. There’s more, there always is. But for now: ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf VERGARA V. CALIFORNIA VERDICT: This Is Only The Beginning AALA Update : Week of June 16, 2014 | http://bit.ly/1qOBcHl June 12, 2014 :: In an eagerly anticipated decision that has reverberated around the country, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, sided with the plaintiffs in the Vergara v. State of California case, stating that the evidence of the effects of incompetent teachers is “… compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience.” The case, brought by Students Matter on behalf of nine students in five school districts, charged that five statutes in the Education Code regarding tenure, seniority and dismissal procedures violated the equal protection clause of the state’s Constitution. Students Matter claimed that the statutes resulted in grossly ineffective teachers obtaining and retaining permanent employment and that these same teachers are disproportionately assigned to schools serving predominately low-income and minority students. The five selected statutes in the Education Code are 44929.1(b), 44934, 44938(b) (1) and (2) and 44944. They require administrators to decide if a teacher should earn tenure after about 16 months in the classroom; require a costly and lengthy process before termination; and protect teachers with the most seniority from layoffs, even if they are perceived as less effective than their colleagues with fewer years of experience. The judge’s ruling means that the State Legislature must develop and pass new guidelines; however, since an appeal is expected, the ruling is stayed pending the appellate review, which could go all the way to the State Supreme Court and take years. The sixteen-page decision makes for compelling reading as the judge cites previous case law (Brown v. Board of Education, Serrano v. Priest, Butt v. State of California) to support his position that the statutes violated the equal protection clause and the students’ fundamental rights to equality of education. His ruling states emphatically, “This Court finds that plaintiffs have met their burden of proof on all issues presented…the…statutes impose a real and appreciable impact on students’ fundamental right to equality of education and…they impose a disproportionate burden on poor and minority students.” Judge Treu acknowledged that education generates intense political debate but that it was his job to avoid the political aspects and only focus on the legal ones. He cites the testimony of Dr. Raj Chetty, a Harvard professor and proponent of value-added measures (VAM), who published a study in 2012 that teachers who raised their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a lasting positive effect on their students’ lives outside of the classroom as well. Among its findings, the study showed that just one year of schooling under a teacher whose classes score highly on standardized tests increases a student’s lifetime earnings by an estimated $50,000. This precedent-setting trial was initiated and largely funded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David F. Welch through his nonprofit foundation, Students Matter, that also has ties to wealthy philanthropist Eli Broad, who is aligned with the current efforts to privatize public education. The decision is a significant defeat for teachers unions throughout the state that call it an attack on teachers and say the judge accepted the antiteacher, antiunion rhetoric of the attorneys. California Teachers Association (CTA) and California Federation of Teachers (CFT) had joined with the state as defendants in the case. The defense held that the workplace protections were critical to recruiting and retaining teachers and also accused the plaintiffs of scapegoating teachers when the true source of the achievement gap is poverty and neighborhood violence, as well as, poor management that fails to root out incompetent teachers. They also challenged the manner in which the plaintiffs determined teachers’ competencebased on their students’ test scores. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy testified in the case and is happy with the decision, saying that the existing laws saddle students with ineffective teachers without realistic recourse and that he looks forward to helping to develop the new laws. Dr. Deasy was present when the judge issued his verdict and is quoted as saying that LAUSD has 350 teachers who need to be dismissed. Many perceive the ruling as an attack on tenure; however, the judge says that the two-year time frame that the statute mandates is too brief for administrators to make an informed decision regarding tenure. California is one of only five states that grant tenure in two years or less. Forty-one states require three or more years and four states have no tenure. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson released a statement on Tuesday saying, “All children deserve great teachers. Attracting, training and nurturing talented and dedicated educators are among the most important tasks facing every school district, tasks that require the right mix of tools, resources and expertise. Today’s ruling may inadvertently make this critical work even more challenging than it already is…” Students Matter and other education reform groups are planning on bringing similar lawsuits in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Oregon, according to Politico.com. In fact, it appears that California is just the start of a planned effort to knock down tenure in a state-by-state campaign across the country. Those who oppose tenure have long said that the protection is an impediment to stronger U.S. education because it keeps bad teachers in the nation’s classrooms. “This is going to be the beginning of a series of these lawsuits that could fix many of the problems in education systems nationwide,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Theodore Boutrous. “We’re going to roll them out to other jurisdictions.” Representatives of educational organizations were swift in attacking the verdict. “Let’s be clear: This lawsuit was never about helping students, but is yet another attempt by millionaires and corporate special interests to undermine the teaching profession and push their own ideological agenda on public schools and students while working to privatize public education,” Dennis Van Roekel, President of the National Education Association, said in a statement. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, said that the lawsuit focused on the relatively small pool of grossly ineffective teachers and ignores other factors that affect the quality of education, such as funding inequities, school segregation and high poverty. Legal analysts agree that an appeal could go either way and both sides also agree that the laws need to be revised. Many educators are questioning how this decision will affect due process rights for employees and if it will have any impact on teaching and learning? California teacher David Cohen posted an article on noted educator Dr. Diane Ravitch’s blog in which he advised, “Therefore, with years of appeals ahead, and then a legislative process to follow, I think it’s too soon for teachers or unions to begin talk of disaster.” We agree with his assessment; however, in the interim, it would be wise for the Legislature to get input from teachers and administrators and begin to rework the current statutes before being mandated to do so. Look for more articles about this closely-watched case in future issues of Update. WHILE OTHER STATES FOLD THE COMMON CORE, CALIFORNIA DOUBLES DOWN By Charles Taylor Kerchner | Education Week's blogs | On California | http://bit.ly/1qODsyc June 11, 2014 1:44 PM :: One more example of what I've been calling the California Exceptionalism was exhibited last week. During a week in which two states caved to political pressure and folded the Common Core, in California the candidate for state superintendent who opposed the new standards finished third, and more than 300 organizations signed on to support it. The state essentially 'doubled down' its bet. In Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin bowed to political pressure and signed legislation requiring the state to come up with new standards that the legislature would approve essentially bypassing the state school board. In January, Fallin had praised the Common Core at a meeting of the National Governors Association, saying: "Local educators and school districts will still design the best lesson plans, will chose appropriate textbooks, and will drive classroom learning." South Carolina also dumped the Common Core on May 30. But in California, Lydia Gutiérrez, who would have brought opposition to the Common Core into the fall campaign for state school superintendent, was eliminated in the June 6 primary. The two remaining candidates—incumbent state superintendent Tom Torlakson and challenger Marshall Tuck—both support it and the associated Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBAC) tests. In addition, Children Now, a health and education policy advocate, released a statement signed by hundreds of individuals and organizations representing a wide swath of policy leadership in the state including civil rights organizations, prominent school superintendents, several United Way organizations, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Even the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company signed on. What is essentially a stay-the-course message was crafted during the pilot testing of the SBAC tests this spring. Children Now anticipated a bumpy ride and possible catastrophic failure during the pilot testing. "Fortunately that didn't happen," said Debra Brown, Associate Director of education policy at Children Now, "but we decided to go ahead." In April, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly had predicted a wave of opposition was about to rise in California. Donnelly, who ran a strong second in last week's Republican primary election for governor, had introduced an unsuccessful bill to abandon the Common Core. Despite the bill's defeat, Brown said that we wanted to, "show nationally and in the state, so that there is strong push back against opposition." So, why does California not look like Oklahoma? Business and educator support for the new standards there were overridden by political opposition, as U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan remarked on Monday. The state's Democratic tilt didn't hurt. "It helps when there isn't a reflexive opposition," said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now. "But the conversation got off on the right foot here; it was generally understood that the old standards were a problem, so 'let's update them.'" "There's a lot that people disagree on, but the Common Core isn't one of those things. Both the business and the civil rights community are behind it and so are the various education reformers," he said. Does that mean California's adoption faces a smooth road. Not by a long shot. Knowledge about the Common Core is not widespread in California, and next year the SBAC tests will yield published grades. The shock of new, lower, grades for schools and students has led to massive opposition from parents, teachers, and politicians in other strong adopter states, such as New York. Children Now has a Common Core education program, but it, and the work of others, isn't high profile enough. California will face an implementation backlash; that's part of the process of starting complex projects. To be successful, the state's educators need to successfully communicate the utility and benefits of the new standards to parents and students. (More about the politics of implementation in a future post.) But so far the predicted tsunami of opposition hasn't arrived. UPDATE► LCFF/LCAP: LA SCHOOLS PARENT COMMITTEE BATTLING DISTRICT TO ELECT ITS OWN LEADERSHIP ANNIE GILBERTSON| PASS / FAIL | 89.3 KPCC HTTP://BIT.LY/1OJ2SXG June 11th, 2014, 4:21pm :: The Los Angeles Unified School District has warned members of two parent committees if they organize their own leadership, as they would like, they'll be breaking the law. ●●see 4LAKids: UPDATE: LAUSD RESPONDS TO REQUEST FOR “AUTHENTIC PARENT ENGAGEMENT THROUGHOUT THE LCAP PROCESS” BY THREATENING CRIMINAL PENALTIES+CIVIL ACTION, SUPERINTENDENT ISSUES NEW DRAFT LCAP |http://bit.ly/1j8tUsM LAUSD’S LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE WRITES A LETTER TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION: seeks “authentic parent engagement throughout the LCAP process” |http://bit.ly/1pOy94m & LAUSD’S LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE TREATED LIKE KINDERGARTNERS*: Given minutes to make million dollar decision | http://bit.ly/1oDQSvE Under new state funding rules, all school districts in California are required to involve parents in budgeting decisions. L.A. Unified did so by creating two committees of about 50 parents each to represent all parents in the district. In a letter addressed to school district leadership Thursday, 23 parents complained they are not permitted to run their own meetings: they can't set an agenda, don't have their own officers and district staff control which limited transcripts of meetings and committee recommendations are sent to administrators. "This process, which should have been collaborative and inquiring, was instead divisive and simplistic," said the parent letter. Friday is their next meeting with the district, and parents would like to pass bylaws and elect leaders by the end of the month. District officials responded with their own letter, telling the parents they were breaking the law. "We are concerned that any concerted actions of the committee members listed in the letter may have violated the Ralph M. Brown Act," Sung Yon Lee, assistant general counsel for L.A. Unified wrote, referring to state laws governing open meetings for elected bodies. "Brown Act violations could subject individual PAC [Parent Advisory Committee] members to criminal penalties." It's the group's second attempt to organize. When the parent committees convened publicly a few weeks ago to review Superintendent John Deasy's budget, one parent motioned to elect leadership. District organizers did not permit the motion to move to a vote, citing the Brown Act, which requires elected bodies to post agenda items at least 72 hours ahead of a meeting. It's unclear whether the parent committees are subject to the Brown Act at all. The law covers publicly elected bodies and some of their committees. Peter Scheer of the First Amendment Coalition said the group should follow the rules, whether or not the law requires it. But he said the act isn't meant to stop them from electing leadership. "They've been given a complete ‘Catch 22" by L.A. Unified officials, Scheer said. "If they can't put something on agenda, they don't even have the power to take the first step." ●●smf’s UPDATE: I attended the special meeting of the LCFF Parent Advisory Committee on Friday, June 13 where the committee was to review the newest draft revision of the superintendent’s plan. There was not a quorum present at that meeting …or at the similar briefing Thursday of the District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC). The lack of quorum (probably caused by last minute notification of the meetings …though Friday the 13th and a full moon didn’t help!) will not prevent staff from compiling comments from the two committees. District staff apologized for the threatening tone of a letter from Office of Legal Counsel (see http://bit.ly/1j8tUsM)and committee members were assured there is no legal action pending against committee members. Time constraints did not allow a complete review of the draft plan by the committee. There was a good faith effort from the Parent Community Branch to facilitate establishment of committee bylaws and governance structure over the summer to alleviate the Catch 22. ●●●4LAKids reader 'Faithmight' comments: "This is why I have long believed and held the position that this LCAP PAC should be the District Advisory Council (DAC). The DAC already has bylaws and is self-governing. It meets regularly and has been in the business of drafting, editing, reviewing, and monitoring school/district plans and budgets for years (in some capacity as it probably varies district to district). Districts should be using the DAC as the 2nd PAC and not creating ad hoc groups that they control and call parent engagement. What is going on now is a guise. What is the LAUSD DAC position in all this?" ●●smf: Not to beat up on Faithmight - but to establish how deep this goes: Superintendent Deasy disbanded the DAC in 2011. Steve Lopez: AN L.A. UNIFIED WATCHDOG GETS PUNISHED FOR BARKING By Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1y16y2o June 14, 2014, 12 PM :: If Stuart Magruder knew how to play the game, he might still have his volunteer watchdog job today. But he just had to speak up. The arrogance, the temerity, the insolence. How dare he challenge the leadership of the Los Angeles Unified School District? Exactly what sins did Magruder commit to get bounced last month from the district's Bond Oversight Committee, and will rabbit-eared school board members reverse the decision at their Tuesday meeting? Before I answer, let's revisit the 1990s, when L.A. Unified officials wanted to raise bond money for new construction and building repairs but wisely suspected that nobody trusted them. Polling suggested voters would have a little more faith if independent citizens could keep an eye on things, and thus was born the Bond Oversight Committee. Technology doesn't solve problems unless humans and teachers use it well- Stuart Magruder Since 1997, voters have approved multiple bond measures totaling roughly $20 billion, about two-thirds of which has been invested in building new schools and shoring up old ones. Now a little more than $7 billion — most of it from voter-approved Proposition Q — remains to be spent. Supt. John Deasy and the Board of Education have been salivating over the chance to get their hands on some of that money to buy a digital tablet for every student, teacher and administrator. Last year, they began purchasing tablets for classrooms, and now they would like to tap about $1 billion in bond money to finish the job. But there have been questions about the legality and efficacy of using the bond money for portable tablets with an estimated three-year life span in a district with an estimated $50 billion or so in needed repairs and upgrades. And even more questions about whether the district has a well-considered plan, or a get-out-of-the-way compulsion to plow ahead as quickly as possible, with Deasy leading the charge. Nobody expressed more concerns than Magruder, an architect who was appointed to the oversight committee two years ago. He thought the district's legal justification for buying tablets was flimsy, and that was just part of his objection. "My primary concern was that there clearly was no strong pedagogical idea behind this program, and they were literally throwing all this technology and money at teachers and students, expecting great things to happen with no proper preparation," Magruder said. There's not enough space here to itemize all the issues raised at various times by Magruder and other committee members, along with members of the media. But to name several: Why iPads versus other, possibly less expensive tablets or laptops? Why did the need for detached keyboards, at a cost of millions, seem to be such an afterthought? Why did the district buy software sight unseen and only partially developed? Why had there been so little teacher training and preparation? Why so little consideration of who would be responsible for lost and damaged tablets? And how useful could the tablets be if, by one legal interpretation, students wouldn't be allowed to take them home each night? "I'm invested in this," said Magruder, who has two kids in L.A. Unified and got a first-hand look at the problems when his daughter's school was included in an early phase of the iPad rollout. Magruder didn't find the programming engaging, compelling or linked to a larger curriculum strategy in a way that had been explained to teachers, parents or students. "Technology doesn't solve problems unless humans and teachers use it well," said Magruder, who noted that the software company did manage to neatly promote itself to students with a logo on its programs. "Not an 'M' for math or an 'E' for English, but a big 'P' for Pearson," he said. Scott Folsom, another member of the oversight committee, and Tom Rubin, the committee's consultant, both told me they thought Magruder and others consistently raised important questions in a fair, thoughtful and constructive way, forcing the district to slow down and rethink some of its plans. But that was Magruder's downfall. In raising inconvenient truths, he exposed and embarrassed district officials. Three weeks ago, the petulant school board threw a little tantrum and refused to reappoint him to the committee, a move that's being challenged by Magruder, the oversight committee and the architect association that nominated him to the board. School board member Tamar Galatzan, one of the biggest proponents of the tablet program, has given several reasons for blocking Magruder's reappointment. She told me she thinks the committee has done too little oversight on construction projects and too much on technology, and she argued that Magruder crossed a line on technology, questioning not just purchases but policy and curriculum. I didn't find any of her justifications remotely compelling. Deasy, meanwhile, told The Times that he wasn't taking sides. Why would he, when he's got plenty of loyal board members to do his dirty work for him? Voting by the oversight committee on school projects, by the way, has no binding authority on district officials. This is simply a group of 15 volunteers whose role is to represent taxpayers by keeping an eye on how their money is spent. Getting rid of a good watchdog wasn't just petty. Spotlighting Magruder for asking the tough questions the board should have been asking was a political blunder too. And the only way to save face, if the matter comes up for reconsideration as expected Tuesday, is to apologize to Magruder and invite him back for another term. As Magruder reminded me, it's an oversight committee. It doesn't look good when those being overseen try to control who's doing the watching. ________________________ ●● Boardmemeber Kayser's resolution to reappoint Stuart Magruder to the Bond Oversight Committee will be heard at the special meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday June 17th at 2PM HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources THE KIDS CROSSING THE BORDER The new crisis: undocumented and unaccompanied minorshttp://bit.ly/1kDlo4T Retweet/must read from Leonie Haimson[Class Size Matters]: DON’T TAMPER W/TEACHER TENURE UNLESS YOU WANT TO SEE SCHOOLS POLITICALLY ENTANGLED AS PORT AUTHORITYhttp://go.shr.lc/TZ4ok5 Dorie Turner Nolt ‏@EDPressSec from Secretary ArneDuncan: DRAWING THE RIGHT LESSONS FROM VERGARAhttp://ow.ly/y38HO A TEXTBOOK CASE OF MEDDLING IN CALIFORNIAhttp://bit.ly/1p4QPuR LAUSD’s JOHN DEASY WANTS TO HELP WRITE NEW TEACHER TENURE LAWS + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1vj5GDT Steve Lopez: WHEN THE L.A. UNIFIED WATCHDOG WATCHES TOO CLOSELY http://bit.ly/TWOzul LAUSD SUPERINTENDENTS DRAFT $4.58 BILLION SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL 2014-14 BUDGET–not covered is $2B+ in administrative costs http://bit.ly/1lf2hhL UPDATE► LCFF/LCAP: LA Schools Parent Committee Battling District to Elect Its Own Leadership http://bit.ly/1kRZAYh+Catch 22 LAUSD style! SPECIAL MEETING OF THE LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Friday, June 13 – 9AM to Noonhttp://bit.ly/1isayyW PHOTO: Why is this man smiling? pic.twitter.com/chtmVtSpeV Hiltzik: WHY THAT RULING AGAINST TEACHER TENURE WON’T HELP YOUR SCHOOLCHILDREN ANY MORE THAN DEASY’S iPADS | http://bit.ly/SCSBGQ Howard Blume @howardblume • Jun 12 There's now an interesting face-off between unions, w largest non-teachers union, Local 99 of SEIU, going for Alex Johnson. Howard Blume @howardblume • Jun 12 The L.A. teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has endorsed George McKenna for the Board of Education, a needed win for him. #GunViolence: "'No way to prevent this', says the only country where this regularly happens." - The Onion RORY PULLENS CONFRONTS TO CHALLENGES OF ART, MONEY AND LAUSD + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1mKFL1x VERGARA v. CALIFORNIA: The official tentative decision |http://bit.ly/1oWmwF1 VERGARA v. CALIFORNIA: Damage assessment, Punditry, Gloating and Aftershocks …24 hours after (multiple stories) |http://bit.ly/1pKmlOg Associated Press: CALIFORNIA TEACHER TENURE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL http://bit.ly/1iledi1 DIANE RAVITCH ON BILL GATES’ COMMON CORE COUP: “It’s time for Congress to Investigate.” http://bit.ly/1kY59VW Bought+Paid-for: HOW BILL GATES PULLED OFF THE SWIFT COMMON CORE REVOLUTION | http://bit.ly/1jitOPz Vergara Decision is temporary/final judgment may take 30 days http://bit.ly/1kiEehv Total win 4 Vergara plaintiffs. Victory on all counts. Judge stays changes 2 law, pending appeal. more>> From @StephanieSimon_ #Vergara judge put impact on hold, letting statutes stand while appeals go forward, CA Fed Teachers tells POLITICO Judge rules in favor of plaintiffs in #Vergara trial. California teacher tenure laws unconstitutional. Appeal is inevitable. EVENTS: Coming up next week... Budget, Facilities, and Audit Committee - CANCELLED Start: 06/17/2014 10:00 am SPECIAL BOARD MEETING I - June 17, 2014 - 2:00 p.m. Agenda: http://bit.ly/1utzfAg Committee of the Whole - CANCELLED Start: 06/17/2014 3:00 pm SPECIAL BOARD MEETING II (LCAP) - June 17, 2014 - 3:00 p.m. Agenda: http://bit.ly/1kVsXbX ● 30 public comment speakers will be allowed for the District's Final Budget and the Local Control Accountability Plan. ● Each speaker will be able to make a 2 minute presentation *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-241.8700 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 Liaison Sylvia.Rousseau@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600 • Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail:http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ • Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school. • Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it! • Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child. • If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE. • If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE. • If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

Howl+Hope

4LAKids: Sunday 8•June•2014 In This Issue:  •  GALATZAN DOUBLES DOWN ON EFFORT TO BLOCK NOMINEE WHILE KAYSER MOVES TO REINSTATE iPAD CRITIC TO BOND COMMITTEE  •  LAUSD’S LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE TREATED LIKE KINDERGARTNERS …or maybe the Board of Ed?  •  TEACHING THROUGH TRAUMA: LAUSD says budget’s too tight to treat stressed out kids  •  SURGE OF UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN IS OVERWHELMING BORDER PATROL & DETENTION FACILITIES + smf’s 2¢  •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  Give the gift of a 4LAKids Subscription to a friend or colleague!  •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404  •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!  •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. The last week was a roller coaster ride. Which is just a cheap way to introduce the biggest horror of them all: Magic Mountain is tearing down Colossus! …slipping that news into the cycle where it was lost amid hockey and basketball and elections and Guantanamo and D Day and The End of the School Year and general LAUSD adult misbehavior. SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER! Cue the music, Alice: “Well we got no class / and we got no principles / and we got no innocence / we can't even think of a word that rhymes!” HOW ‘BOUT THAT ELECTION? There was a 19% turnout in California, the lowest in history. I voted on Tuesday. If you voted that just about accounts for everybody that did …except perhaps for the Assad loyalists in Syria who had to vote. If you don’t vote your car explodes. There was some good news about the election: In the little community where I live there was a polling place at the café which generally functions as a boys club for out-of-work screenwriters. The café – which was famous for milkshakes & cherry cokes in my youth now has a beer+wine license - and the greasy hamburgers are less so and come with kale salad. (We Boomers look out for ourselves.) They continued to pour at the café during the election! I can remember when all bars and saloons were closed on Election Day. Being able to take a frosty craft-brewed IPA or an oaky chardonnay into the polling booth is Reform I can support! THERE WAS NO BOARD MEETING LAST WEEK, but Ms. Galatzan continued to attack Stuart Magruder of the Bond Oversight Committee – changing her rules of engagement from an attack on Magruder to one on the Bond Oversight Committee itself – whom she accuses of “assuming responsibilities outside its purview” and “second-guessing decisions made at school sites by teachers and principals”. What part of ‘Citizens’ Oversight’ is so hard to comprehend? THE POWERS-THAT-BE’s ATTACK on the Bond Oversight Committee – and before that other duly constituted parent groups, task forces and representative assemblies continues. Ignored and spoon-fed something not approved for the School Lunch Program – the state-law-mandated-and-District-policy-formed Local Control Accountability Plan Parent Advisory Committee grew restless+testy+ignored last week – and a group of them made some polite requests …or a “List of Demands” if you are from the other side. A couple of them went so far as to write an Op-Ed that employed sarcasm. The Powers-that-Be believe they are doing their best to comply with state law; the PAC doesn’t think their best is good enough; it’s a parent thing. They seek ‘active engagement and meaningful dialogue’, not ‘compliance’. The differences between the PAC side and the Superintendent’s side are more than just over the semantics of ‘compliant’ and ‘compliance’; it is also on the semantics of “Advisory” – as in: Who advises whom? Whatever the differences are, the District side decided the most prudent response is to threaten legal action. Criminal+civil. Advocate for children, go to jail. Then the Superintendent’s side published an overdue and half-hearted response to the PACs previous, not current, criticism. And issued a new Draft LCAP with lots of cosmetic changes and the same bottom line. THE PAC and the parents they represent are not colleagues or collaborators or advisors. They are adversaries. Welcome to the Business Model. Bury them. A Reminder, gentle reader: The Local Control Accountability Plan forms the foundation for the LAUSD (and every district+charter school’s) budget for the next three years – and the Board of Ed must agree on it, approve it and get it into the County Office of Ed by the end of June. Or the crocodile with the ticking clock in its belly – and a taste for their captain – eats them all! Maybe it’s not a croc …maybe it’s an allegory? THE YEAR END BRINGS CHANGE. ISIS, the acronym for the LAUSD information database is to be replaced by a new system and a new acronym: MISIS. Kids graduate+matriculate. Educators retire, others advance. New folk come aboard. Deck chairs are moved. The dance band plays the old Christian hymn and the games of musical chairs continue. The shards of ice on the starboard first-class deck are not from the cocktail lounge. I see the best educators of this generation destroyed by apathy, unsupported by their leaders, undone by bullies – badgered by anti-social media and surrounded+confounded by ethical invertebrates. I see parents and the truths-they-know-to-be true ignored; the truths they teach to their children disputed by half-baked data. A parent writes me: “That's the problem with the District. They never are really truthful so we are forced to go through their publications […questioning everything and separating this half-truth from that half-truth]. The result is that some are truly affected by the experience and can no longer keep their grasp on reality”. There were no test scores this past year for us to judge teachers or measure progress or ethics or the basic playground values of fairness. There are dark eddies pulling us down and false navigators claiming that direction is forward. The voices of the institutional memory and the don’t worrywarts remind us that this too will pass in time. And it will …and inevitably is not soon enough. And the Darwinian survivors will be here to help clean up the mess. The voice of Hope in the Gale is heard /And sore must be the storm / That could abash the little Bird / That kept so many warm. And the sun pours down like honey / On our lady of the harbor / And she shows you where to look / Among the garbage and the flowers / There are heroes in the seaweed / There are children in the morning / They are leaning out for love / And they will lean that way forever. And if you think any of this mash-up is about you, whether hero or villain or victim, take it to heart. They are all the same those three. And then we do Something About It. Those children are leaning out for love. And knowledge+meaning+direction. Lean in. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf  GALATZAN DOUBLES DOWN ON EFFORT TO BLOCK NOMINEE WHILE KAYSER MOVES TO REINSTATE iPAD CRITIC TO BOND COMMITTEE ►GALATZAN DOUBLES DOWN IN EFFORT TO BLOCK NOMINEE TO BOND PANEL by Vanessa Romo, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1mtaQ9G June 5, 2014 1:39 pm :: LA Unified school board member Tamar Galatzan is not going down quietly when it comes to Stuart Magruder, a staunch opponent of the district’s $1 billion iPad program whom the board removed from the Bond Oversight Committee last month. Magruder was the representative of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Galatzan had opposed his renomination to the committee, and now that board member Bennett Kayser is introducing a resolution next week to reappoint him to another two-year term, Galatzan is not backing down. “Nothing has changed,” she told LA School Report. “I talked with General Counsel, I looked at the Memorandum of Understanding and the state law, and it’s very clear that the appointment is with the Board of Education.” While the committee’s legal counsel has said the board agreed in 2002 not to interfere with committee appointments, LA Unified’s chief lawyer, David Holmquist, has sided with Galatzan, saying the board has the right to intercede. The board effectively blocked Magruder’s reappointment through an effort led by Galatzan, leaving an empty seat on the 15 member BOC, an independent panel that oversees bond money spending for school construction and repairs — and iPads. But in a letter to board president Richard Vladovic days after the vote, Nicci Solomons, Executive Director of AIA, reminded the district of the existing contract between the LA Unified and the BOC, that “while the formal appointment would be done by the board as a ‘receive and file,’ the board would faithfully appoint the nominee of each stakeholder.” Solomons “respectfully” resubmitted Magruder as AIA’s chosen representative on the committee. Galatzan’s response: “That’s ludicrous, it’s a illogical…and it violates state law to assign the appointment to another agency.” She contends the campaign against Magruder, whom she says she has never met, is not against him personally. Rather, it represents her broader opposition to the BOC’s assuming responsibilities outside its purview. “This is about the proper role of the Bond Oversight Committee in relationship to the Board of Education… and individual committee members are substituting personal judgment for legal analysis. They’re second-guessing decisions made at school sites by teachers and principals,” she said. Tom Rubin, a consultant for the bond panel told the LA Times, the district has never blocked the appointment of a nominee by an outside group until now. ___________ ►AFTER PUBLIC OUTCRY, LA SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER MOVES TO REINSTATE IPAD CRITIC TO COMMITTEE Annie Gilbertson | | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC |http://bit.ly/1tWdDwa June 6th, 2014, 2:01pm Los Angeles Unified school board member Bennett Kayser wants the board to reinstate a critic of the district's iPad program to the committee overseeing its school bonds. Architect Stuart Magruder fought against the iPad program all school year, arguing the bond money used to purchase the devices for a one-to-one technology program would be better spent on building and repairing campuses. School board member Tamar Galatzan led the effort to toss Magruder off the Bond Oversight Committee last month. Within days, Magruder supporters launched a petition demanding he be reappointed, quickly gathering more than 500 signatures. Fellow committee members also rallied behind Magruder. The oversight committee's lawyer said appointments should be free from political motives and claims the board violated the committee's founding documents. One of the seats is designated for the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects - and Magruder is the group's nominee. Lawyers for L.A. Unified said the board can revoke nominees. Under school board procedure, Kayser's motion will be read on Tuesday and go to the board for a vote on June 17. Superintendent John Deasy could have expedited the vote by re-introducing an original motion to continue Magruder's appointment, but did not. LAUSD’S LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE TREATED LIKE KINDERGARTNERS …or maybe the Board of Ed? ...GIVEN MINUTES TO MAKE MILLION DOLLAR DECISION  First person report written by Rachel Greene and Andrew Thomas In CityWatch LA | http://bit.ly/1hlP0sz 06 Jun 2014 :: We sat at assigned tables. They read us stories. We colored. They reviewed the rules. If we behaved, we got to watch a video. Adults helped us find our words, and wrote them on posters for us. Then we got stickers to tag our favorites on the posters. Free lunch was provided by Cafeteria Services. Most of us threw away our apples. Kindergarten? No. We are the LAUSD's inaugural 47-member Parent Advisory Committee (PAC): business owners, IT guys, foster guardians, HVAC techs, community organizers, a nursing mom who brought her baby and trenchant questions about our District's past spending patterns. Previously, we'd attended four days of training on California's replacement for the baroque "categorical" system of tying state funds to specific educational uses. This sweeping change to education budgets--the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)--balances increased spending flexibility with accountability. The formula adds dollars for high-needs students. It also incrementally restores funding to pre-2009 levels over the next several years with "gap funding." School districts must show in their new Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) how they spend to support student learning generally, and under-served populations, specifically. Proportionality is a guiding principle, calculated to ensure that services for high-needs students are "increased or improved" in proportion to the amount of additional dollars they bring to the district. The legislature only promulgated the template for this sea-change via emergency regulations in January. So the timeframe for stakeholder engagement prior to School Board approval in June is compressed. The PAC's task--in a mere three hours--was to submit comments on the draft LCAP. By law, Superintendent Deasy must respond to our comments in writing. Problems were apparent from the get-go. The document we received could only be graded as incomplete, with missing pages, blank sections, and no contextual information on other funding streams for the proposed line items (recommended in the legislation, and helpfully provided in other Districts' drafts). If we hoped for a 21st century vision for the best use of $4.5 billion in educational opportunity for the largest concentration of under-served youth in the State, our hopes remain unfulfilled. Instead, we got a grab bag of justifications for existing programs and administration; disjointed at best, misleading at worst. We asked for and eventually received the proportionality calculation missing from the LCAP's final section. However, it reiterated a misstatement from Superintendent Deasy to the School Board that proportionality only applies to the "new" dollars each year. Even as the funding formula increases distributions to Districts, the "new" gap funding compared to the prior year's increase actually shrinks over time. This seems a tricky way to decrease the amount that must be spent on the neediest children -- and contrary to the law. But back to our day in Kindergarten working on issuing comments for Deasy's written reply: Seated in small groups, we were given eight minute periods to generate comments on broad swaths of the LCAP, some worth nearly $1.9 billion of expenditures. And we had to relay our comments to our "Parent Coaches" -- District employees with varying levels of comprehension and dedication to accurate transcription on the posters. Thus comments like, "The Elementary School Focus line appears to reduce spending for Arts, Libraries, and Assistant Principals by over $7 million for next year," magically became: "This reduces funding for schools." Once posted on the wall, devoid of any context, that phrase appeared misinformed and untrue, rather than factually reflecting the independent research District personnel suggested we conduct. Meanwhile, the "iPads for all students!!!" comment gathered stickers of approval. If our District had provided the requested budgetary data, PAC parents would have known how many iPads are purchased with bond money -- separate funding invisible in the draft LCAP. Did these parents mean to say they wanted to use basic education dollars to buy more than one iPad per student? We'll never know since we never convened as a whole to form consensus and comment in our authentic voice. The best part of Kindergarten was missing: Circle Time, when you take turns sharing, keeping ears open and mouths closed while your friends speak. Ultimately, the District's legal obligation of accountability to parents for improved services for our neediest youth is not child's play. Committee members should be treated like adults. Instead of elevating speed over comprehension and forced choices over informed analysis, the District should let this deliberative body work collectively to give meaningful and constructive feedback. We are parents, after all. That is what we do. ●The authors are At Large Representatives on the LAUSD Parent Advisory Committee. Rachel Greene is a prosecutor assigned to forensically complex cases and has a child in elementary school in LAUSD. Andrew Thomas is father of two LAUSD high-school students and uses his PhD in Education to analyze educational programs and advise school districts. See also: • LAUSD’S LCFF PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE WRITES A LETTER TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION: seeks “authentic parent engagement throughout the LCAP process”.http://bit.ly/1pOy94m • UPDATE: LAUSD RESPONDS TO REQUEST FOR “AUTHENTIC PARENT ENGAGEMENT THROUGHOUT THE LCAP PROCESS” BY THREATENING CRIMINAL PENALTIES+CIVIL ACTION, SUPERINTENDENT ISSUES NEW DRAFT LCAP |http://bit.ly/1j8tUsM • THE REVISED VERSION OF THE SUPERINTENDENT’S LAUSD'S LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN | (LCAP). (Dated 6/10) | http://bit.ly/1kJ9Hyn • THE PUBLIC PRESENTATION DECK [PowerPoint] OF THE REVISED LAUSD'S LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN (Dated 6/10) | http://bit.ly/1jddiAm TEACHING THROUGH TRAUMA: LAUSD says budget’s too tight to treat stressed out kids ANNIE GILBERTSON | KPCC 89.3 FM | PASS/FAIL | HTTP://BIT.LY/1KKPYMI ● Teaching Through Trauma: the second in a series of stories on poverty in Los Angeles schools. June 4th, 2014, 5:02am :: At Benjamin Franklin High School in Highland Park, ninth-grader Noemi Potenciano and her friends sit at a table in the quad after school, listening to R&B music. They are like a lot of kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District: The girls pull their hair back in bandanas - like wartime assembly line workers - and wear bright red lipstick. They are more likely to hit you back on Instagram than return a call. And every one of them knows someone who died from a gunshot. Potenciano was in third grade, skidding across the blacktop at Monte Vista Elementary in a game of handball when Los Angeles police officers showed up. They put her in the back of the patrol car and took her home where she’d learn brother had been shot and killed outside the family house on Monte Vista Street. The world was suddenly a very dark and very scary place. “The school? They didn’t care,” said Potenciano, now 14. Los Angeles public schools might look like fertile ground to try new approaches to helping kids with trauma and stress that researchers say can hold them back. It's the second largest school district in the nation and 80 percent of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch. But while one Los Angeles charter school is showing success through increased student counseling - services at traditional L.A. Unified public schools are severely limited. The district currently employs about 300 psychiatric social workers to serve roughly 800 schools — a ratio of about 2,200 students to one counselor. A solution As researchers work to solve one of the most persistent problems in public education – why kids in poor neighborhoods fail so much more often than their upper-income peers – more and more they’re pointing the finger at what happens outside the classroom. Shootings. Food insecurity. Sirens and fights in the night. Experts are finding that those stressors build up, creating emotional problems and changes in the brain that can undermine even the clearest lessons. In a recent study at high-poverty schools, L.A. Unified officials found that eight in 10 kids had suffered three or more traumatic events in the preceding year alone. One solution cropping up at a smattering of schools across the country: school-based therapy. “These children need to feel empowered to be able to feel like they are agents of their own change,” said Dr. Victor Carrion, a professor and psychiatrist at UC Berkeley who’s working on interventions for kids suffering from what’s become known as toxic stress. “They are going to have themselves for the rest of their life,” he added, “so the best thing they can have is to be equipped to manage traumatic stressors later in life.” But at the Los Angeles Unified School District, counseling services have been in decline for years. The issue is money. Cash Strapped Between 2008 and 2013, L.A. Unified lost $2.8 billion in overall funding from the state. School board member Steve Zimmer said it was a battle just holding on to teachers. “We had a cataclysmic experience in the district with the budget. Everything that was, is no more,” Zimmer said. A lot of people lost jobs: teachers, librarians, custodians. And counselors. During those recession-era cuts, prevention and early intervention funds for mental health services all but disappeared said Pia Escudero, director of school mental health at L.A. Unified. Now, she said, her staff’s caseload consists almost entirely of students whose problems are so severe the district is required to treat them under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Students like Noemi aren't likely to see a school counselor unless they get so sick a psychiatrist diagnoses them as emotionally disturbed. “You are always summoned to put out fires versus really embedding programs,” Escudero said. The financial tide is only now starting to turn at L.A. Unified. California is sending more money to schools to help the neediest students. L.A. Unified will see its budget increase by $332 million next year for a total of about $6.8 billion. But that still leaves the district – and California – near the bottom of school funding in the nation. Even with the influx of cash, very few students will see a counselor. The district is adding 97 counselors, but they’re going to a select group of schools to settle a lawsuit, and to help foster kids stay on track. Yet Escudero said the need across the district is overwhelming. Signs of trauma Schools have long screened for common problems like dyslexia or poor eyesight. But screening for violence and trauma is extremely rare. Escudero took part in a pilot program screening and treating students for trauma-related problems at four L.A. schools. She wanted to see how much of a difference full, in-school services would make. With parent permission, children were paired with health workers, who filled out a 30-question survey in about 45 minutes. The results surprised even Escudero. Of those students screened, 81 percent had experienced three or more traumatic events in the past year. The other 19 percent experienced zero to two such incidents. Then the counselors probed deeper. Have you had upsetting thoughts or images about the event that come into your head when you didn’t want them to? Have you had bad dreams or nightmares? Have you been upset when think about or hear about the event? Such as breaking into a sweat of heart racing? About 40 percent said they’d experienced symptoms at levels the counselors found required treatment. Escudero said she had to limit how many children she screened. She simply didn’t have the staff to treat them all. Searching for solutions Some enterprising schools have found a way to provide more services. “We knew from our first year of operation that we working in a community experiencing a lot of trauma outside the school walls,” said Anna Ponce, CEO of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. At its eight charter schools, therapy and “trauma informed” teaching have become a central priority. About one in four Camino Nuevo students either get one-on-one counseling or participate in a support group. What helps children suffering from the stressors of poverty is not far off from what works for veterans returning from war. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a common evidence-based approach, where children narrate the incident and are guided through the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors and are coached through coping skills. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network outlines the vast research, finding trained clinicians can help children in as few as 12 treatment sessions. To get therapists in its schools, Camino Nuevo tapped into a network of mental health service providers through the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. The state picks up most of the bill because most low-income students qualify for MediCal. Left to principals Those are the same funds L.A. Unified already taps into to pay for some of the care it does offer. But the district doesn’t do it on a large scale, according to the county’s records. Instead, schools have to make connections on their own if they want to increase counseling. About 70 of the 2,116 schools in Los Angeles County have worked out deals with government-funded mental health providers to get more counselors in their schools, according to Robert Byrd, clinical district chief at the Department of Mental Health. He doesn’t know how many of them are in L.A. Unified. “Some schools really welcome them and set them up, give them access,” he said. “Some schools don’t have any room so its kind of hit and miss to try and find the place to meet with kids.” Not everyone agrees the Medi-Cal model is best. Some of L.A. Unified's in-house psychiatric social workers argue a heavy reliance on MediCal would be ultimately discriminatory because undocumented students aren't covered. No matter who's paying, Byrd said there’s no question it’s best to have counselors at the schools. “The value,” he said, “is to catch the mental health needs early enough so that children and youth have a more positive trajectory in life and don’t need intensive services later.” Afraid of the dark After her brother was killed, Noemi had a hard time sleeping, worried the gang would come after the whole family. “Every night I would pray to not be scared,” she said. Teachers called up her mom, Grace Potenciano, to report her daughter was crying in school. It took some legwork, but her mom was ultimately able to track down a counselor close to home, part of a program to help victims of crime. She was in no state to care for her daughter’s mental anguish on her own, she said. “For three months, I didn’t know what day it was, what time it was,” Potenciano said. “You are just like a zombie.” “Do you think the counseling helped me?” Noemi asked her mother. “Yeah, because you are normal now,” she replied, and they both exploded with laughter. Wellness Centers L.A. Unified is experimenting with "wellness centers" as one way to increase counseling and health services for students and recently allocated an extra $50 million to expand them. It runs 12 on- and off-campus centers where students and families can receive a variety of health services, staffed by mix of county-funded providers and school district employees. “Students and families with the right supports have the power to transform their context,” Zimmer said on a recent tour of a center in an East Hollywood strip mall. He has field office there, too. The center’s full-time psychiatric social worker, Rachel Badillo, said it’s a big challenge to treat children, many of whom have trouble even describing how their week has been. “Sometimes kids have the words and sometimes they don’t,” Badillo said. For those that don’t, she holds up a card showing 10 faces displaying common emotions and tells them to point to one. “Then we kind of explore it and work on positive coping,” she said. As she was explaining the process to a reporter, she looked up at the clock. It was 4 p.m. Her next client was either late or a no-show. Even at full capacity, the centers can serve only a tiny fraction of the district’s families. And kids and families have to find a way to get there, which is not so easy when you rely on public transit. Escudero, of L.A. Unified, said she’s all for wellness centers. But if schools don’t have dedicated mental health workers, hundreds of thousands of students may continue to go untreated. “Our services really have to be at the school site for them to be effective,” she said. SURGE OF UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN IS OVERWHELMING BORDER PATROL & DETENTION FACILITIES + smf’s 2¢ By Cindy Carcamo, Molly Hennessy-Fiske , Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1nsWKIJ Published 8 Jane 2014 :: Though overall illegal immigration has declined in recent years, two waves — one of unaccompanied children, another of parents with children — have presented a challenge for officials who say they don't have the facilities in the Southwest to detain these groups. The presence of unaccompanied migrant children is not new, but the surge in recent months has overloaded Border Patrol stations and detention facilities, particularly in Texas. Most of the children come from Central America, a region long plagued with poverty but now having to grapple with escalating drug cartel and gang violence. On Saturday alone, 367 children were taken from Texas to a processing center run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Nogales, Ariz., Andrew Wilder, spokesman for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, said Saturday. A day before, 432 unaccompanied minors were taken to the same facility and another 367 are expected Sunday. "We fully expect this crisis to continue because there is no solution to fix it," Wilder said. Brewer blasted the transfers and, in a letter to President Obama, complained that she learned of the operation through the media, not from his administration. She has yet to hear back from Obama, Wilder said. In a statement Friday, the Republican governor said: "This is a crisis of the federal government's creation, and the fact that the border remains unsecure — now apparently intentionally — while this operation continues full-steam ahead is deplorable." The unaccompanied children housed in Nogales are supposed to stay for up to 72 hours before they are sent to longer-term facilities at military installations in California, Texas and Oklahoma. Last week, immigration officials gave reporters a tour of the shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The 1,015 youths at the facility range in age from 12 to 17. Among them was a boy who appeared to be on the younger side, with spiky black hair and a red T-shirt. He listened as a caseworker, her laptop propped on the table between them, explained that she would help with his paperwork. The government would attempt to place him with relatives or an approved sponsor while his case made its way through immigration court. "You have to be patient," she said. The shelter first opened two years ago to cope with an earlier surge of immigrant minors. The facility closed after two months as officials found ways to more quickly place youths. But two weeks ago, overwhelmed again by a new surge of unaccompanied minors, officials reopened the shelter. It's already approaching its capacity of 1,200. Another shelter, capable of housing 600 youths, opened Friday at Port Hueneme in California. Immigrant advocates say they understand that the government is pressed to house young migrants, and that the shelters are stopgap measures. But they fear the youths may languish in the institutional settings. The young migrants' ranks have tripled in five years, and could reach a new high of 60,000 this year — and more than double that the following year. By then, the costs of shelters and resettlement could reach $2.28 billion. Last week, the president directed the heads of the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to join in an interagency Unified Coordination Group to address the growing numbers of unaccompanied young migrants. Administration officials characterized the trend as an "urgent humanitarian situation." At Lackland, the spiky-haired boy's identity and origins, like scores of others, remained a mystery. Before he arrived at Lackland, he was screened for potential mental health issues, vaccinated and checked for lice and scabies. Once here, he was assigned to a 60-bed dorm. Each bed comes with a gray metal locker that occupants attempt to personalize with drawings, paper lanterns and flowers. Judith Elena Mendez Rivera wrote her name on a sign attached to her bed, No. 46, along with "El Salvador" and "100% Guanaca," slang for Salvadoran. "God is always with us in the good and the bad," said another handwritten sign nearby. "Listen God," a third homemade sign exhorted in Spanish, "and let this torment end soon." It's not clear how quickly youth at the shelter will be released to be placed with relatives and sponsors. Jesus Garcia, the federal Health and Human Services official leading the shelter tour Thursday, said youth are only released to "vetted family or sponsors." Maria Woltjen, director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights in Chicago, says she worries that the youths will miss out on the legal assistance, counseling and care they need. "For the ones fleeing violence, who have been harmed or legitimately fear harm in their home country, how will we know?" she said. "Those kids will fall through the cracks." On Friday, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. announced the start of a new effort, coordinated with the AmeriCorps community service program, to provide about 100 lawyers and paralegals to immigrant children. ●● smf: Some of the Red State/Red Meat commenters on The Times site call for Gov. Brewer to send in the Arizona National Guard to keep these ILLEGAL ALIENS (their emphasis) out! There’s nothing like a twenty-year-old with an AR-15 to apprehend a child. These are minor children and I think all of us – especially the Minutemen – have to admit that the ICE agents and the Border Patrol don’t get all – or probably even most – border crossers. My concern is for what happens to the kids who manage to avoid the authorities, vigilantes, coyotes, elements and narco -mafiosi. Hopefully most/some are united with their families – but how many don’t? How many slip entirely between the cracks and become victims of human trafficking? In my grandmother’s day the danger+horror was White Slavery. The only difference today is of complexion. CAN THE LEGISLATURE REPEAL PROP. 187? The 1994 measure denied undocumented immigrants education, healthcare & services. 187 was found unconstitutional HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources ►AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN FOR CALSTRS FUNDING DEFICIT From AALA Update | http://bit.ly/1nt3qH3 June 5, 2014 :: The June 15 deadline for California to have a 2014-15 budget is rapidly approaching. You may recall that Governor Brown presented an ambitious May Budget Revision last month that addressed the $74 billion unfunded liability that CalSTRS is facing. The proposal mandates that school districts would increase their STRS contributions by 1.5% beginning July 1, 2014, while employees’ contributions would increase by only .15%. School district leaders, professional organizations and other groups began immediately lobbying lawmakers to delay the implementation of the changes until July 1, 2015, citing that most districts have nearly completed their 2014-15 budgets. The Local Control Funding Formula mandated that districts develop their budgets and accountability plans in collaboration with parents and other stakeholders. Multiple meetings have been held and goals, services and expenditures necessary to support strong academic and social outcomes for students have already been determined. To have to go back and change them because of a reduction in anticipated revenue puts an untenable burden on school districts. Leilani Aguinaldo Yee, LAUSD Deputy Director of Government Relations, testified during a two-hour hearing in Sacramento last week that the District would lose $35 million from its budget and would be forced to make significant changes, thereby eroding the trust that has been established with parents and community groups. Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Senator Norma Torres, D-Pomona, who chair committees looking into the pension issue, have endorsed an alternative plan that reduces the increased contribution amounts of school districts by 50% in 2014-15. This proposal was suggested by CalSTRS and would have the districts make up the difference with higher payments in future years. The alternative plan would still leave intact the other key elements of the Governor’s plan to eliminate CalSTRS’ deficit. The budget must be finalized by June 15, so a decision on the new plan has to be made soon. ______ TWO MORE STATES REPEAL COMMON CORE ED STANDARDShttp://bit.ly/1prrU45 TWO CORPORATE JETS DONATED TO LAUSD AIRCRAFT MECHANICS SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT |http://bit.ly/SFqjvE DISTRICT 1 RIVALS MUST ACT QUICKLY: McKenna, Johnson seek funding+endorsements in LAUSD race/Unions face tough choice http://bit.ly/SFmwyv NEW ORLEANS REBUILDS EDUCATION SYSTEM WITH CHARTER SCHOOLS - FROM THE PBS NEWSHOUR |http://bit.ly/1oscH3g 1. LAUSD RESPONDS TO REQUEST FOR “AUTHENTIC PARENT ENGAGEMENT THROUGHOUT THE LCAP PROCESS” BY THREATENING CRIMINAL PENALTIES+CIVIL ACTION... 2. ...AND SUPERINTENDENT ISSUES A NEW DRAFT LCAP (The more things change, the more they stay the same ol', same ol') http://bit.ly/1j8tUsM 1944 June 6 2014 | D Day @ 70: "Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered... We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition." http://tl.gd/n_1s21pp2 6/4/89 TIANANMEN@25 :: Those who choose to remember know it’s safer to forget. pic.twitter.com/ZV5ZHZXA3n TEACHING THROUGH TRAUMA: LAUSD says budget's too tight to treat stressed out kids | http://bit.ly/1nOHkSH EDUCATION OVERTURNED, WRITTEN BY RED QUEEN IN L.A., FROM HER BLOG | http://bit.ly/auDNT3 FIRST OFFICIAL COUNT OF HIGH-NEEDS STUDENTS UNDER LCFF IS IN: Number of students who stand to benefit from the law in LAUSD is lower than expected | http://bit.ly/1o3i9f1 OpEd: LAUSD MUST USE FUNDING TO SUPPORT FOSTER YOUTH + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1xugJfx LAUSD BOARD #1 RACE: My evil twin feels cheated of hearing Omarosa telling Dr. D: “You’re fired!” | http://bit.ly/1oaqTNY ELECTORATE SEES SHADOW: LAUSD Board dysfunction to continue until August - McKenna & Johnson to faceoff in runoff ELECTORATE SEES ITS SHADOW (cont.) 3-to-3 tie on Bd of Ed will decide Budget, LCFF …or more likely: Not! |http://bit.ly/1oaqTNY @LASchoolReport: State of CA Edu Supt Torlakson at 48.9 has a [huge lead over] Tuck @ 27.5 | 23.5 Gutierrez McKenna (39%) and Johnson (25%) lead in early returns for L.A. school board w/ 30% in | http://fw.to/IiLCAfX  EVENTS: Coming up next week... • Regular Board Meeting - June 10, 2014 (9:00 a.m.) including Closed Session items Start: 06/10/2014 9:00 am Agenda: http://bit.ly/1qd6MhA • Regular Board Meeting - June 10, 2014 Start: 06/10/2014 1:00 pm Agenda: http://bit.ly/1kQ9muX *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-241.8700 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600 • Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail:http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ • Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school. • Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it! • Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child. • If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE. • If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE. • If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.