Sunday, February 23, 2014

501



4LAKids: Sunday 23•Feb•2014
In This Issue:
 •  School SmARTS: PTA PROGRAM CREATES PARENT ADVOCATES
 •  The Budget Process - Two Reports from the Budget, Facilities & Audit Committee: ARE ARTS AND REPAIRS BEING SHORTCHANGED?
 •  John Marshall High School: ACADEMIC DECATHLON PUTS THE WORK IN TEAMWORK
 •  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.
With apologies, this edition of 4LAKids is a bit thin.

I spent the past few days at a quarterly California State PTA board meeting in Sacramento – filled with excellent content, conversation, thinking and action items. We are focused on children – with the subjects being the Local Control Funding Formula/Accountability Plan, Parent, Family and Community engagement, Early Childhood Ed, The Common Core and Smarter Balanced Testing, Children’s Healthcare and all the rest. The subject is 9 million California kids.

Parents are engaged and seizing the opportunity up+down the state. We cannot allow the not-so-fast/use the new money to pay last year’s deficit / “iPads will solve the problem” thinkers in LAUSD to blow the opportunity here in this District. The time for “The fierce urgency of now” is Now!

Read the EdSource piece following about School SmARTS, a PTA initiative to reinvest in parent education, increase parent participation in their children’s education and uses the arts to do the job. PTA didn’t come up with School SmARTS because of the LCFF – but the LCFF/LCAP revolution offers an opportunity to take the ongoing successful research-based program to scale. School SmARTS isn’t good thinking because it’s a PTA idea any more than Universal Free Kindergarten or Child Labor Laws or the School Lunch Program and Universal Polio Immunization in schools were good ideas because they were PTA ideas. Good Ideas stand on their own.

My participation in the PTA conversation in Sacramento was compromised by a family tragedy – at once unexpected+inevitable. Crises like comedy are more about timing than the story itself. Sometime when history repeats itself it is neither tragedy nor farce; it is déjà vu all over again.

My wife’s mother slips away. For the most part we live long lives; Valerie certainly did. We cling to our lives tenaciously …at our best we are vital. And every one of us is mortal. I call my daughter to tell her the unhappy news …a devastating job and we are both devastated. A door closes. A window opens. Mortality+immortality are the two apparent sides of the möbius strip as the circle closes and the sides are joined. As I sit in small room spreading bad news and making funeral arrangements a PTA brother enters rejoicing in the birth of a niece.

And so it is. Godspeed to the dearly departed and recently arrived.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


Video: DR. STEPHEN KRASHEN DEFENDS SCHOOL LIBRARIES AT LAUSD BOARD MEETING



School SmARTS: PTA PROGRAM CREATES PARENT ADVOCATES
By Susan Frey | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/1cEFigj

February 19th, 2014 | With 117 years of promoting parent involvement under its collective belt, the PTA thinks it has the right formula for training parents in their new watchdog role under California’s reformed school finance and accountability system.

The PTA program, called School Smarts, is aimed at giving elementary school parents the tools they need to advocate for their children and their school. The program includes a seven-week series of night meetings, held at school sites, that highlight the importance of parent involvement for their children’s success; explain how the school system works at the state, district and school level; and offer effective strategies to use to advocate for change.

School Smarts is being piloted in 14 school districts and 50 schools throughout California, including Sunshine Gardens Elementary in South San Francisco.

On a recent Thursday evening at Sunshine Gardens, about two dozen families gathered for dinner before the parents participated in the second weekly School Smarts training session. The sessions last from about 6:30 until 8 p.m. Child care is provided for the children in the cafeteria, while their parents attend the session in a nearby classroom.

Parents who have graduated from the program came to dish out the enchiladas, rice and beans and help the new parents – many new to the country as well as California’s public school system – get acclimated.

The graduates said the program has been transformative.

Erica Sanchez Vallejo, who graduated from the program three years ago, is from Mexico. “Over there parents do not get involved in education,” she said. “Here the focus is on educating the parents and being involved with your child even if you don’t know English. I want to see my daughter go all the way to college and graduate. This is what this program has taught me.”

Isela Ramirez said she has become more involved with her children since graduating from the program, expanding their learning beyond the normal school day.

“I read to them daily,” she said. “They’re involved in sports. I take them to the library. I do arts and crafts with them. I keep them engaged.”

She also attends more school functions, including school board meetings, and has become vice president of the campus PTA. “I feel like I have a voice,” she said.

Ryan Wibawa – who came with his family, including his now 10-year-old son Vincent, to the United States two years ago from Indonesia – was attending his second session of the program. An engineer, Wibawa said he is eager to learn more about the school system and hopes to be involved in making decisions about the use of technology. He too notes a difference between the education system in his home country and here.

“In Indonesia, they are focused on test scores,” he said. “Children know what to do, but they don’t know why they need to do it. Here children are encouraged to be creative.”

“I like it here better,” piped up Vincent.

Colleen You, president of the statewide PTA, said that the School Smarts curriculum is based on research on how to involve parents, and was positively evaluated after its first year in 2010-11 by SRI International. The researchers found that the vast majority of parents felt much better informed about how to support their children at home and at school after the program than they had before. They also expressed a much greater willingness to become involved in various school committees and said they better understood how to make changes at their school.

Each year, the School Smarts curriculum is revised, You said. This year, session 3 is about the state’s Local Control and Accountability Plan, which requires districts to include parents in deciding how funds should be spent to improve student achievement.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is funding the pilot program at no cost to schools. But Alameda Unified was so impressed with the pilot that it decided to make it a district program, this year allocating $5,000 for each of its 10 elementary schools. The funds cover child care, interpreters, materials, a light dinner and a stipend for a coordinator.

Often graduates of the program teach the classes.

“Those graduates can empathize with the struggles of the new parents,” said Barbara Adams, assistant superintendent at Alameda Unified.

Adams said that School Smarts graduates are participating at all levels in her district: school site councils, English learner advisory committees and the new Local Control and Accountability Committee. School Smarts gives parents an opportunity to “build their self-confidence, know that their advocacy for their child is important, and learn how to advocate in ways that result in the action they are hoping to achieve,” she said.

Creativity is also part of the lesson plan in School Smarts, which includes an art project in most of the sessions. Part of the program’s goal is to turn parents into advocates for including arts in the curriculum.

On this Thursday, Sunshine Gardens parents gathered in the 5th grade classroom of teacher Michelle Carabes, who leads the PTA training sessions. Her room is an advertisement for how to use art to make other subjects, such as math, come alive.

Not an inch of wall space is spared, as children’s colorful projects dominate the room, even hanging in the air from clotheslines. One clothesline holds a series of flowers called “Blooming Facts,” a project in which students assign numbers to the letters in their first name (A=1; B=2, etc.), then add up the numbers to determine whether their “name” is a prime number or a composite. Students show how many factors are in their name’s number by drawing petals for each factor on the flowers they have created.

The parents’ project that Thursday – to make paper masks that represent their child – also gives them a chance to get to know each other. Parents from different cultures and economic backgrounds sit on short, kid-sized chairs around tables, exchanging ideas, materials and laughter.

After completing their masks, one parent from each table held up a mask and explained it.

Lidia Munoz, who has a 5th grade daughter at Sunshine Gardens, chose to depict her 17-year-old son, Joel. Joel is focused on math, particularly the issue of infinity. She made the pupils in the mask’s eyes the mathematical sign of pi, an infinite number.

Kimberly Abalos held up a pink mask with a tiara representing her daughter, Ruthie, 7, who loves books, dance and fantasy. “I gave her only one ear,” Abalos quipped, “because she halfway listens to me.”

Wibawa’s mask of the quick-to-comment Vincent had an exclamation mark in the mouth.

The art element is a favorite among parents. “I reconnected with the artist in me after so many years,” said Marivic Quiba, a graduate of the program.

Quiba summed up what she learned from School Smarts in a speech at a Parent Engagement Night meeting at Sunshine Gardens, held to encourage parents to sign up for the training program.

The program has showed her that “learning begins at home, then at school, then back home – it’s just a cycle,” she said. “It’s taught me how to get involved, to understand the school system, to know your child’s progress and what they’re learning.”

School Smarts has also taught her “to be visible,” she said, “to speak up for the children to ensure they receive the education they so richly deserve.”

●●smf’s 2¢: This is a successful research-based program that works – involving parents in their children’s education and in the life of their school.
• School Smarts is not expensive, but it is not free.
• It can work here in LAUSD.
• It’s the kind of parent engagement/involvement/participation thing that NCLB and the Local Control Funding Formula had in mind – it can be legitimately paid-for using LCFF funds .
• School Smarts produces results in all populations including children of poverty, English Language Learners and Foster Youth.
• You don’t need a PTA at your school to get School Smarts – just like you didn’t need a PTA to have Universal Free K or Child Labor Laws or the School Lunch Program or Polio Vaccinations or Seat Belt Laws or any of the other programs that PTA has promoted and advocated for.

Follow the link below or contact me if you want further info about School Smarts at your school.


GOING DEEPER: More information on the School Smarts parent engagement program



The Budget Process - Two Reports from the Budget, Facilities & Audit Committee: ARE ARTS AND REPAIRS BEING SHORTCHANGED?
LA UNIFIED ARTS BUDGET: MOST FUNDS WILL GO TO 'ARTS INTEGRATION' TEACHERS, NOT CLASSROOM TEACHERS
Mary Plummer | KPCC Paas/ Fail | http://bitly.com/1hfgTPt

February 21st, 2014, 5:00am :: The Los Angeles Unified School District plans to increase spending on arts instruction by nearly $16 million over the next three years – but the majority of the new money will go to hire 101 “arts integration” teachers, trainers that will show classroom teachers how to integrate arts into academic lessons, officials said Thursday.

During the same period, the district plans to add 44 new dedicated traveling elementary arts instructors, bringing the total number of dance, choral, music, theater and visual arts elementary teachers to 220. There are about 450 elementary schools in the district.

The figures are from a draft arts education budget school district officials distributed in a Powerpoint presentation to the school board's budget committee Thursday. They did not distribute the document to the public or publish it on the district's website.

School board member Steve Zimmer asked why the new budget reflects a “dramatic increase" in arts integration and a much smaller increase in other areas of arts education when the school board in 2012 directed officials to make arts a core subject.

“The 'arts at the core' resolution signaled the board’s belief that access to arts education in robust and meaningful ways is an instructional priority of the board of education,” Zimmer said. “If it is not an instructional priority of the administration, we need to have that conversation.”

An administrator at the district replied that the district is focusing on arts integration because it's a more cost effective way to serve the district's students.

“It is our belief that ultimately in the arts integration approach it would be actually less expensive to do that that way,” said Gerardo Loera, executive director of the district’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction.

School board member Monica Ratliff said she was “fairly skeptical” of the district’s arts integration approach.

“I would be interested in finding out what research the district had done previously where it has been shown to work,” she said.

Loera said the district also plans to spread its 32 instrumental music teachers to twice the number of schools next year. They'll serve 320 schools instead of 160 – or 10 schools a piece during the school year, according to district numbers, in essence chopping their time at each school from a full year to just one semester.

During the meeting, Zimmer also asked administrators for a deeper dive into the equity issue of which students in the district have access to the arts, something he brought up at last week’s school board meeting.

The budget document showed the district will spend $19,783,968 for arts education in the current school year and plans to increase it gradually to $35,500,389 in 2016-2017 school year.

Officials said they're not even sure they'll be able to increase the funds that much.

“All of this, of course, is dependent on the revenue actually becoming available as well as what the board ultimately decides in terms of its priorities,” said Loera, who led the district’s presentation to the Budget, Facilities and Audit committee.

After the meeting, the district’s K-12 Arts Coordinator Steven McCarthy said the district is heading in the right direction. He said he’ll follow up on board members' questions about arts integration.

“What they gave us is a good start," said Sarah Bradshaw, school board member Bennett Kayser's chief of staff. Kayser requested Thursday's presentation at the budget committee, which he heads. "We’re going to have to do some deep diving on it, check out the realities of it, and go forward, but it’s still not enough.”
__________________________

DESPITE $20 BILLION IN BOND FUNDS, LA SCHOOLS COMMITTEE UNCOVERS 50K BACKLOGGED REPAIR REQUESTS
Annie Gilbertson KPCC Pass / Fail | http://bitly.com/MRzIh9

February 20th, 2014, 5:26pm :: A Los Angeles Unified school board committee on Thursday found a backlog of 50,000 neglected repairs at campuses - a number that is only expected to grow. School district officials said the budget for repairs has been slashed by more than 65% since 2008.

Monica Ratliff, who joined the school board last year, said the public deserves to know why repairs are piling up.

“I believe it is a question people do want an answer to," Ratliff said. "I haven’t been here long enough to be able to answer that question, but if someone at some point could, I think that would be valuable.”

The text of the five bond measures passed by Los Angeles voters since 1999 totaling $20 billion all said the funds would go to, among other things, fix crumbling campuses.

"Measure K will permit local schools to repair leaky roofs, unsanitary bathrooms, and electrical wiring," read the arguments for the measure, according to information compiled by the League of Women Voters. "Everyone knows it is cheaper to upgrade and repair schools now, before problems get worse."

Tom Rubin, a consultant for the committee that oversees bond funds, said it's more common for bond funds to be used to replace a roof rather than fix a leak.

But even those repairs aren't being done. Records show 38 of the high schools surveyed are in critical need of new or repaired roofs. The roofs of more than 50 schools are reported as being in poor condition.

Even life-cycle repairs such as roof or air-conditioner replacements will inevitably exhaust available bond funds. Officials estimate those repairs will run over $13 billion over the next fifteen years, much more than the remaining bond funds.

The money is not coming from other usual pockets either. The state used to earmark 3% of the district's funding for upkeep, but since California moved to a flexible spending model, much of those funds have been diverted to other uses.

This year, L.A. Unified's maintenance office set aside $99 million for repairs, but officials estimate it will take closer to $400 million every year.

Thursday's debate at the Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee was ignited by Matthew Kogan, an L.A. Unified teacher who has gone public with his criticism of the district's plan to spend $1.3 billion on an iPad for every student and teacher when there are broken toilets and sinks without piping in some schools and rat droppings are routinely found on students desks in others.

Kogan started a facebook group called Repairs not iPads where teachers are posting photos of neglected water fountains, ceilings and windows. After KPCC reported on the group and other media followed, the school board budget committee decided to take up the issue.

“It’s not just iPads versus maintenance: it’s everything versus iPads," Kogan said during Thursday's meeting. "What hasn’t been cut to the bone? Early education, adult education, arts education!”


THE VIDEO FEED OF THURSDAY’S MEETING WAS NOT AVAILABLE AT THE TIME THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED BY 4LAKids-IT SHOULD BE POSTED @ THIS LINK [Video Stream]



John Marshall High School: ACADEMIC DECATHLON PUTS THE WORK IN TEAMWORK
MARSHALL TEAM MEMBERS FORGE FRIENDSHIPS, GAIN CONFIDENCE AND LEARN AS THEY TRAIN FOR THE STATEWIDE COMPETITION AFTER WINNING THE L.A. UNIFIED CONTEST.

By Alicia Banks, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1cED2FT

February 22, 2014, 3:00 p.m. :: Kenneth Huh and his parents have the same conversation over and over at the dinner table. They want to discuss the John Marshall High School junior's medals in the speech and interview portions of the Academic Decathlon earlier this month.

Kenneth, 16, suffers from hearing loss in both ears and the impairment affects his speech as well. He has trouble pronouncing words beginning with H, S and Z.

His parents, Kenneth said, are proud of him for those awards. "They don't bring up my six other medals, like in art and math," he said, smiling.

Winning the medals culminated in what he describes as "the best week of my life." Before joining the decathlon team, he isolated himself. Those who were nerdy or shy, or those with disabilities, he said, were his only friends.

"Joining decathlon, I was the odd one out, but as I got to know [the team members] more, I got included and felt better about myself," Kenneth said. "Now, one of my favorite things to do is say 'hi' to random people in the hallway or outside."

Members of Marshall's nine-member decathlon team have learned about themselves and one another, along with the 10 academic subjects they needed to know for the grueling competition. This year, the Los Feliz school beat out all other L.A. Unified campuses; Marshall will go on to compete in Sacramento next month. The school placed first in the L.A. Unified competition in 2010 and won the district's first national title in 1995.

Aside from Kenneth, Marshall's team members are Aninda Bhowmick, Kimiyo Bremer, Alexander Guillen, Ha Min Ko, John Lascano, Wen Lee, Alayna Myrick and Marvin Paparisto. The team consists of A, B and C students. The coach is Larry Welch.

Granada Hills Charter, which placed second in the L.A. Unified competition and has won three consecutive national titles, will also compete at state. One of Granada's coaches, Mathew Arnold, said team morale remains high.

"The school has done a great job of supporting the team, nurturing it and helping it grow," Arnold said. "It's part of the school culture."

At Marshall, study sessions start at 2 p.m. and are held six hours a day, six days a week. Students zip between rooms on the school's third floor and receive help from teachers and former team members Amy Tan, who is a co-coach in math, and Stanford University freshman Kevin Martinez, who specializes in economics.

Speech and interview practice start at 3:30 p.m. The boys slip into pressed blazers. To warm up, some read Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" with a cork between their teeth. The team's only girls, Kimiyo and Alayna, change into high heels over their mismatched socks. Alayna practiced her speech about family and baseball; her gaze never veered from the lockers a few feet away.

She joined the team after shattering her ankle playing softball. She wanted to feel part of a group again.

Alexander has a different story. He stopped attending decathlon practices last summer to continue playing varsity football. But he came around after his mother and Welch implored him to return to the decathlon team.

He said participating in decathlon eased his mother's fears that Alexander would drop out of school, as his brother did a few years ago.

He won nine medals at the competition, five of them gold.

"My brother told me 'You're going places.' It was the proudest look I've ever seen on his face," Alexander said. "To have that from my mother and brother was the greatest satisfaction I could have. I thanked Mr. Welch for that after the city win."

On a recent evening, the team discussed a practice economics exam. One question stumped the students — except Kimiyo.

"Yes! I got it. Do you want me to explain it?" she asked excitedly, as the group broke into laughter.

She said she joined the team as a way to challenge herself and as a way to thank her mother, a single parent, for working hard to support her.

Aninda joined decathlon after a trip to Bangladesh a few years ago. He saw throngs of children begging for taka, the country's currency, and he met a boy of about 13 who quit school to work in a car repair shop to support his family.

"It changed me and motivated me to use my time and the opportunities I had for myself," Aninda said. "Their lives aren't great and yet, I have a decently pretty good life. I was wasting it."

He started as a C student his first year and moved up to the B group. His parents were suspicious, wondering if Aninda truly was attending decathlon sessions — until his report card showed six A's and two Bs. His father cried.

Aninda didn't do it alone.

"Whenever someone has a problem or [is] feeling down, everyone gathers to help them out with a little intervention, if you will," Aninda said. "I had trouble with confidence before decathlon, but now I know I can do anything."

The group ended the recent study session by testing one another's strength with push-ups. On Valentine's Day, they played air hockey, activities that Welch sprinkles throughout the study sessions to keep the atmosphere fun.

Some students call him the father of the group. It fits — especially because Welch doesn't have children.

Welch worked with Kenneth on his pronunciation and articulation three months before the competition. Kenneth won a gold medal in speech and a silver medal in interview.

"The work that Mr. Welch does for us is insane," Alexander said, noting that the coach spent two years trying to convince him to try decathlon. "I've never seen someone dedicate themselves the way that he deals with us. Props to him."


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED PARENTS, TEACHERS CRITICIZE iPAD ROLLOUT, CALL FOR SCHOOL REPAIRS: By Dakota Smith, Los An... http://bit.ly/1e7XeRG

School SmARTS: PTA PROGRAM CREATES PARENT ADVOCATES: By Susan Frey | EdSource Today  http://bit.ly/1moAqyX

John Marshall High School: ACADEMIC DECATHLON PUTS THE WORK IN TEAMWORK: Marshall team members forge friendshi... http://bit.ly/1jr2eBG

HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULTS THAT OCCURRED IN 1999 AT FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL | http://bit.ly/1pdZcnD

Ripped from the pages of the supermarket tabloids: MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCAN’S DEATH INSPIRED REALITY STAR OMAROSA... http://bit.ly/1gHsAPp

PEARSON FOR PROFIT: You Do the Math: by Alan Singer from the Huffington Post | http://bit.ly/1bm8BpD

INDEPENDENT STUDY: Gov. Brown’s new online learning target: by Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/1oSC0v6

Sylvia Rousseau: L.A. UNIFIED NAMES CARETAKER FOR VACANT BOARD SEAT IN SECRET SESSION + more ... http://bit.ly/1jHnYZy

13 CANDIDATES FILE FOR BOARD DISTRICT 1 ELECTION: from CITY OF LOS ANGELES CLERK - ELECTION DIVISION by Order... http://bit.ly/1oS13hQ

Weigh in: NEW NATIONAL ARTS EDUCATION STANDARDS ALMOST FINAL: Mary Plummer, Educatio... http://bit.ly/1j9bees

LCFF: Promise of CA’s New School Finance Law Hinges On Parents: by Peter Schurmann, New America Media, News Re... http://bit.ly/1j8ZVTz

THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY ...with Dr. Benjamin Bloom (of Bloom’s Taxonomy) and Dick Dale (of The DelTones)! http://bit.ly/auDNT3

ONE CHILD AT A TIME: Custom Learning in the Digital Age: This radio documentary was broadcast on KPCC/89,3 at... http://bit.ly/1dG8Zyg

Video: DR. STEPHEN KRASHEN DEFENDS SCHOOL LIBRARIES AT LAUSD BOARD MEETING: Posted by Robert D. Skeels to solidaridad http://bit.ly/1jzkFDA


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee - February 25, 2014
Start: 02/25/2014 1:00 pm
Agenda: http://is.gd/XqPg9z
*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.


Sunday, February 16, 2014

500



4LAKids: Sunday 16•Feb•2014    St.V/President's Day
In This Issue:
 •  BILL SEEKS TO BAN USE OF SCHOOL BOND MONEY FOR iPADS
 •  BREAKING BREAD …OR BREAKING FAITH?
 •  THE LAUSD BOARD’S TURF WAR: Its decision to close two excellent charter schools is a reminder of what prompted school reform + smf’s 2¢
 •  REPAIRS NOT iPADS? The world is watching …and there’s an app for that!
 •  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.
This marks the 500th weekly edition of 4LAKids.

I have written this puppy from five or six different desks and/or kitchen tables in four different houses; from hotel rooms all over the place, from accommodations above the pub in Scotland and from buses in Spain, from aircraft tray tables and from ships at sea. If there was something you really liked please let me know; or if something provoked action or disgust or offense or outrage. There’s a ten year anniversary coming up in a few months – an excellent opportunity to get all maudlin+retrospective.

Writing and editing 4LAKids is a pleasure and an obsession. I hope my sharing has been thought provoking. I try to shine a light, not to be enlightening or even illuminating but to selfishly connect my own thoughts to what I see in those moments when I’m paying attention. To those who stop me and say thank you I can only say thank you for reading. To those who don’t stop and thank me I still say thank you for reading thus far and not stopping me!

A teacher told me that FDR said: “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”

Folsom’s First Law of Communications says you can always find a snappy quotation by some famous bozo to justify any preposterous position you care to defend …but I think they should put FDR on the dime and elect him president four times over for saying that. I thank the teacher who told me that and I thank all the other teachers for all the other stuff they told me – even the ones that said “Just say no” when I already knew “yes” was my last-and-final answer.

I thank Mrs. Robertson who taught third grade in Greenfield, Mo. for teaching me the importance of The Story – you were my Joseph Campbell. I thank Mr. Schaeffer, sixth grade teacher at Prince’s Gate American School for teaching me that education is too important to be taken seriously. We Americans are Mark Twain’s children; the Brits are Rudyard Kipling’s and that’s all you need to know about that. Thank you Miss Hamm (who wasn’t a Ms. yet in 1961) at Le Conte Jr. High – not for teaching me how to write, but to write.

Building youth is like herding cats, organizing parents or educating educators. Or teaching an apocryphal pig to dance.

Our children in the end are our hopes and dreams made flesh and blood and run completely amok – our best laid schemes gang agley – all complicated and confusing and unexpected and funny. “What were any of us thinking?” we laugh.

Thank you gentle readers for everything you do for children every day.


THE LESS SAID ABOUT LAST WEEK’S BOARD OF ED MEETING the better. (see "TUESDAY’S BOARD MEETING: Six votes in search of a censensus" in Highlights/Lowlights below)

ON FRIDAY THE APPLE COMPANY and the Common Core Technology Project invited me and some others down to Fullerton to visit Robert C. Fisler Elementary School – an Apple Distinguished School. Fisler is a K-8 ten years into a 1-to-1 computing program (all Apple laptops) a school master-planned into a master-planned affluent community with free universal Wi-Fi and a pair of Lexi, Audi, Mercedes or somesuch in every garage. The work done by teachers, staff and students at Fisler is extraordinary …but so are the demographics.

First they eliminated poverty and then they gave every child a laptop.

In the debrief we were asked to address+enumerate the barriers to that level of success in LAUSD. A teacher long ago taught me to avoid 'laundry lists'. Friday was Valentine's Day - so let me simply allude to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s exquisite list in Portuguese Sonnet 43: “Let me Count the ways…”

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


BILL SEEKS TO BAN USE OF SCHOOL BOND MONEY FOR iPADS

By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1j29fZh

February 14, 2014, 5:40 p.m. :: A new bill introduced Friday would prohibit California school districts from using voter-approved construction bonds for non-facility related items -- a move spurred by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s $1-billion plan to purchase iPads for every student, teacher and administrator.

L.A. Unified’s iPad project, launched last year, is funded with one-time, school construction bonds paid back over about 25 years. The plan, which includes network upgrades at schools, is expected to consume all the technology funds available though the bonds.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills), who authored the bill and has been vocal in his opposition to the iPad program, said the public is led to believe that bond money will be used to build new schools or refurbish aging ones and not for other, unrelated purposes.

“It is important that construction bond money be used for school facilities, and not for things like iPads,” Hagman said.

Los Angeles Unified Supt. John Deasy has been steadfast in asserting that the technology upgrade is an essential academic initiative.

Deasy could not be reached for comment.

The bill would prohibit districts from purchasing “instructional materials” – including “textbooks, technology-based materials and other non-facility related items with a short usable life.”

Those items should be purchased with money allocated from the state for those purposes. “That’s what they should be buying this stuff with – not long-term debt money,” he said.
____________________

BILL NUMBER: AB 1754

INTRODUCED BILL TEXT

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hagman

FEBRUARY 14, 2014

An act to add Section 15267 to the Education Code, relating to school bonds.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1754, as introduced, Hagman. School bonds: instructional materials.

The California Constitution limits the maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property to 1% of the full cash value of the property except for ad valorem taxes or special assessments that pay the interest and redemption charges on certain bonded indebtedness, including bonded indebtedness incurred by a school district, community college district, or county office of education for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of school facilities, including the furnishing and equipping of school facilities, or the acquisition or lease of real property for school facilities, approved by 55% of the voters if the proposition includes specified accountability requirements. This bill would prohibit proceeds from the sale of bonds authorized and issued pursuant to the exception described above to be used to purchase instructional materials, as defined.

Vote: majority.
Appropriation: no.
Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Section 15267 is added to the Education Code, to read:
15267. Proceeds from the sale of bonds authorized and issued pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 1 of Article XIII A and subdivision (b) of Section 18 of Article XVI of the California Constitution shall not be used to purchase instructional materials, as defined in subdivision (h) of Section 60010.


BREAKING BREAD …OR BREAKING FAITH?
●● Somewhere between OUR DINNER WITH DR. DEASY from AALA and LAUSD DISRESPECTS OUR SACRIFICES from UTLA lies the truth of union solidarity in LAUSD. There is an unfortunate tendency in the office of the superintendent (“Management”) to approach any-and-all communications, accountability or community outreach/engagement – whether with the Board of Ed or Parents – whether about LCFF, LCAP, The CORE Waiver, The Common Core Technology Project, the Budget or Whom to appoint to fill the District One Vacancy as a adversarial negotiation – to be contained in a Cone of Silence and discussed in orchestrated meetings. Data is unquestioned and Information is a one way street.

►OUR DINNER WITH DR. DEASY

From the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update Week of February 17, 2014 |
http://bit.ly/1g9Y1PG

13 Feb 2014 :: On Monday evening, February 10, 2014, Superintendent John Deasy hosted a dinner meeting with leaders of all LAUSD unions. This was a first. While this event was nothing like the memorable meal portrayed in the film, My Dinner with Andre, it did provide the opportunity for the Superintendent to share some important budget-related information with the union leaders, while allowing us to offer our candid views and ask some critical questions. We look forward to a continuing conversation with the Superintendent on this and other matters of importance to union members.

MORE BOARD COMMENTS

At the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday immediately following Dr. Deasy’s dinner, the LAUSD union coalition, this time represented by CSEA’s Letetsia Fox, again made comments regarding our unions’ shared priorities. Following is our joint statement which we also shared the previous evening with Dr. Deasy:

Recent budget reports from the Governor show promise that the California economy will continue its rebound, and that school districts stand to receive increased funding overall. Particularly, with the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula, LAUSD will receive much needed supplemental and concentration grants in addition to the base grant. This boost to LAUSD funding is critical to improving the quality of services and programs to our students and communities.

As the District begins its development of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), input from all stakeholders must be meaningful, and the process must be transparent. As stakeholders, employees play a vital role in the delivery of services in the District. As such, LAUSD unions must play a critical role in the development of the LCAP. Our unions have a united viewpoint as to what the LCAP should look like, and we intend to jointly express this in any LCAP development meeting.

We ask that the leadership from all our unions, certificated and classified, be invited to participate jointly in any future meetings scheduled to receive input from employees on the development of the LCAP. Together let’s develop a plan that addresses all eight priority areas of the LCAP to make our schools:

• Safer
• Cleaner
• Better supervised with improved delivery of essential services such as instructional support, school to home communication and involvement of parents, students, staff and community members.

We believe a service and program restoration plan must include the restoration of its service providers—the hardworking men and women of LAUSD. Let’s also repay these hardworking men and women for their years of sacrifice which kept the District afloat. The coalition of LAUSD unions concurs that a balanced approach for salary and staffing restorations should be a high priority in the LCAP’s implementation of the LCFF.

________________________________________

LAUSD DISRESPECTS OUR SACRIFICES: We saved the day, and we're being stiffed
UTLA President’s Perspective | http://bit.ly/1f8cU7n

Jan 31, 2014 :: "We are angry that the same people who came to us during the recession, hat in hand, expecting us to essentially bail out the District by taking pay cuts, have now conveniently forgotten those hard sacrifices and are ready to embark on half-baked spending sprees for things like iPads."

Last week, I sent the following letter to Superintendent John Deasy, with copies to the members of the Board of Education:

Dear Superintendent Deasy:

On January 15, the UTLA House of Representatives, by a near-unanimous vote, directed me to communicate to you, and to the School Board, UTLA’s salary negotiations demand for immediate bargaining and for implementation retroactive to the beginning of the 2013-14 school year.

UTLA’s demand is for an increase in salary of 17.6%.

This demand reflects the undisputed fact that, since the beginning of the recession, L.A.’s teachers and health and human services professionals have, again and again, voluntarily made deep financial sacrifices in order to keep the District afloat. We have made these sacrifices even as workloads have greatly increased, and while the cost of living has continued to rise. Simple equity demands that these sacrifices be repaid.

This demand also reflects a new economic reality. In light of both the passage of Proposition 30 and the steadily improving California economy, the governor and the Legislature have made it clear that it is their intent to fully fund schools and to repair the damage done to schools by the recession, including a commitment to making teacher salaries competitive. It would be a travesty if these statewide commitments to our schools and our children were not translated to reality in Los Angeles, where the children’s needs are the greatest, and where the sacrifices by educators were the deepest.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Warren Fletcher
UTLA President

cc: Members, LAUSD Board of Education

Under our union constitution, the UTLA House of Representatives acts as the elected voice of the teachers and health and human services professionals of Los Angeles. And there can be no question that, when the House spoke on that January evening, they were giving voice to the feelings and frustrations of the credentialed professionals at every school in the District.

Put simply, L.A.’s educators are tired and angry.

We are tired of ballooning class sizes. We are tired of seeing hundreds of our dedicated colleagues remain in laid-off status, living month-to-month without permanent contracts, more than a year after the passage of Proposition 30. We are tired of seeing vital services for our students (like libraries and student mental health) slashed during the recession, but not restored as funding now becomes available.

And we are angry. We are angry that the superintendent and his Beaudry staff (and even some of our supposedly “friendly” School Board members) have decided that restoring teacher pay is simply not a priority. We are angry that the same people who came to us during the recession, hat in hand, expecting us to essentially bail out the District by taking pay cuts, have now conveniently forgotten those hard sacrifices and are ready to embark on half-baked spending sprees for things like iPads. Most of all, we are angry at the sheer disrespect that all of this shows toward us and toward our profession.
Turning anger into action

Some of the greatest triumphs in our union’s history had their genesis in righteous indignation. It’s important to remember that even our 1989 strike was less about salaries and benefits than it was an expression of professional anger and frustration at the District’s upside-down spending priorities and top-down directives.

The District was rescued from the fiscal abyss by our sacrifices and by Proposition 30. And make no mistake about it, Prop. 30 would not have passed without the hard work of L.A.’s teachers and health and human services professionals. We saved the day, and we’re being stiffed. But it’s not enough for us to be angry alone. We need to make sure that parents and the community are angry as well. They need to know that the clear intent of Prop. 30 is being ignored in LAUSD.

That is why I have reactivated the UTLA Crisis Committee. Throughout our history, UTLA presidents have called upon the Crisis Committee to plan and coordinate parent and community outreach and mobilizations, as well as member militancy activities. I have asked one UTLA officer and one of the UTLA Area chairs to co-chair the committee. The Crisis Committee will regularly report to me (and to the UTLA Board and the House of Representatives) on planned actions. Their first order of business will be to coordinate citywide informational picketing at every school site in the District. Parents and the community must be made aware of LAUSD’s refusal to fulfill the promise of Prop 30.
A pro-active, pro-student vision

It is important to remember that our message to parents and the community must be about more than just our salaries. Fortunately, UTLA’s bargaining demands are not limited to issues of pay and benefits.

In April 2013, the UTLA membership overwhelmingly voted for the “Initiative for the Schools L.A. Students Deserve.” The initiative commits UTLA to a broad-based set of demands around the issues that teachers and parents truly care about, including smaller class size and full staffing, safe and clean schools, and adult ed and early ed restoration. At the same House of Representatives meeting at which our salary demand was adopted, dozens of proposals around these demands were also adopted. Parents can have confidence that our vision for repairing schools and keeping the promise of Prop. 30 is a vision that goes beyond simply our paychecks and that embraces better, safer, and healthier schools for their children.
We mustn’t settle for crumbs

In the end, our ability to secure our demands depends on our unity, our discipline, and our focus.

Throughout the recession, Deasy and the District tried to divide us, to pit young teachers against experienced teachers, register-carrying teachers against health and human services professionals, and K-12 people against adult ed and early ed. They thought that during times of cuts and scarcity, they could get us to turn on each other. It didn’t work. Throughout the trying times and the heartbreaking cuts, we stayed true to our students, true to our profession, and true to each other. We were a union in the best sense of the word.

Going forward in our fight, we must continue to live and embody that same unity and solidarity and commonality of purpose. And we must not settle for less than we deserve. If we send a message of disunity to the District, they will respond by offering us crumbs, secure in the knowledge that they can get away cheaply by playing us off against each other. If that happened, it would be a tragedy. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.

As it says in the Book of Job, “It was when we were tested most severely that we shone forth as gold.” We proved that during the recession, when we saved the schools for our students. Now we need to show that same resolve in order to secure the schools that our students deserve.

We will be united. And we will win.


THE LAUSD BOARD’S TURF WAR: Its decision to close two excellent charter schools is a reminder of what prompted school reform + smf’s 2¢

Editorial by The LA Times editorial board | http://lat.ms/1hnjslE

February 16, 2014 :: It was just like old times at the Los Angeles Unified school board meeting last week. The board voted to close two excellent charter schools for reasons that had nothing to do with the quality of education they are providing to students but rather over provincial concerns about turf.

This was the kind of board behavior — common a decade ago — that drove so many frustrated parents and policymakers into the arms of the school reform movement. We had hoped those days were over.

At issue were charter renewals for two Huntington Park schools run by Aspire Public Schools, one of the most highly regarded charter operators in California. At both schools, more than 90% of the students are poor enough to qualify for subsidized lunches and at least half are not fluent in English. Despite student demographics that are usually associated with low performance, these schools' Academic Performance Index scores are above 800, which the state has set as the target for a school's proficiency.

What riled the majority on the board was that the schools had contracted outside the district for state-required special-education services. All schools must sign up for such services, which provide professional development and oversight to ensure that special-ed students are receiving a sound education. Most schools must do this through their regional special-ed agency, but charter schools are allowed to go elsewhere for cheaper or more helpful services.

This would be a problem if there were any evidence that Aspire's students were suffering as a result. But parents whose children have severe disabilities — traumatic brain injury or autism, for example — praised the schools to the board. Even the district's head of special education said that from everything she's seen, the schools are doing well with their learning-impaired students.

Regardless of the quality of education, board members Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff said they want to ensure that all charter schools contract with L.A. Unified for special-ed services.

Not only is that wrong thinking, it flouts state regulations. L.A. Unified has gone to pains to lower the prices — and improve the services — of its special-education wing, but that doesn't give it the right to look askance at those who make other choices. Aspire contends that the agency it uses in El Dorado County provides the same amount of oversight and better data services for less money.

Aspire will appeal to the county Department of Education, which should quickly and enthusiastically approve the charter renewals. As for the school board, what it should do is feel ashamed for once again putting students, families and educational achievement at the bottom of its priority list.

●●smf’s 2¢: “In 1974, the California State Board of Education adopted the California Master Plan for Special Education.
“This statewide plan to equalize educational opportunities outlined the process of developing a quality educational program for the disabled students of California.
“The Master Plan required that all school districts and County Offices of Education join together in geographical regions in order to develop a regional special education service delivery system. A region might be a group of many small districts or a large single district, but each region must be of sufficient size and scope to provide the full continuum of services for children and youth residing within the region boundaries.
“The service regions were named Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs).” – from the California Charter School Association Website: http://bit.ly/1mllncR
• SELPAs do not provide Special Education services; they are planning areas that provide program support and oversee that the services take place.
• THE TIMES IS RIGHT, Aspire’s performance in handling Special Education needs at these two schools is exemplary – not “just for a charter school” but truly outstanding.
• THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IS RIGHT: SELPAs are “geographic planning areas” serving “children and youth residing within the region boundaries”. Aspire is affiliated with the El Dorado County Charter SELPA headquartered in Placerville, CA, 423 miles from Huntington Park.

Call me cynical; I’m not the only one. The reality is that years ago charter schools banded together and cultivated the El Dorado County Office of Education Charter SELPA to avoid local accountability+oversight of their programs by electing to keep the overseers as far away from the parents, meddlesome school boards and questioning+scrutiny of stakeholders.

There are ten charter schools in El Dorado County; there are 190+ charter schools in the County Charter SELPA. Aspire’s success in doing it their own way creates a mythology that the El Dorado Charter SELPA is effective …when Aspire is an outlier in a very sketchy scheme.

Should Special Ed parents wish to challenge Aspire’s process or the SELPA’s decisions – or just attend a meeting of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) the legally mandated group formed to advise local governing bodies about issues which affect children in special education. - they must travel 423 miles to Placerville. If The Times wants to cover a meeting of the SELPA they must travel to Placerville. Neither happens. 4LAKids believes that charters should be able to select their SELPA partner …but it should at least be in the same county as the school!

...and what part of serving “children and youth residing within the region boundaries” is so difficult to understand?


REPAIRS NOT iPADS? The world is watching …and there’s an app for that!
by smf for 4LAKids

16 Feb 2014 :: The Repairs Not iPads Facebook Page [http://on.fb.me/1gr3YtW] has grabbed the notice of the powers-that-be at a Beaudry; folks in the Facilities Services Division and LAUSD Maintenance & Operations are watching. Folks in Superintendent’s office and the boardmember’s offices are watching. The Bond Oversight Committee is watching. The local and national media are watching.

SAFETY TRUMPS POLITICS

As a political animal I recognize that the intent is to question the superintendent’s commitment to technology (and Breakfast in the Classroom) at the expense of maintenance and operations/safety and repairs. I cannot report that the folks on the 24th floor have given up on iPads and BiC to fix and maintain plumbing in LAUSD. That’s probably not going to happen as long is this regime is the regime - but the attention is paying off …and increased attention and effort and commitment and hopefully funding is going into the M&O effort.

It’s working!

One complaint that the Facilities bigwigs make is that problems and photos on the Repairs Not iPads Facebook Page do not identify – or misidentify - locations of the problems.

4LAKID’S SUGGESTION IS THIS:


• Download the LAUSD Service Calls App (see following) to your smartphone and use the reporting function when you encounter graffiti, vandalism or the need for repair. Take pictures. It is possible to report anonymously [in Settings] if you so desire – but be sure to correctly report the location of the problem. Use the phone’s location function if you can. And yes, it is possible to track the results of your service call.
• Then post the same photo on the Repairs Not iPads page if that is your desire – the public pressure helps!

The Service Calls App was created before the District’s iPad initiative so the App is not available for iPads at this time – but I will advocate that iPads be added to the platform base – which will add students to the reporter base!

from LAUSD FSD |http://bit.ly/NUF6Rv

Are you tired of seeing graffiti, vandalism, and repairs needed in our schools? Ever wondered how you can report these issues? We have an App for that! Introducing LAUSD Service Calls.

LAUSD Service Calls is a free and easy to use mobile service that allows anyone within the LAUSD boundaries to report maintenance service calls using their mobile phone. Principals, Teachers, Students, Parents, and the public as a whole will be able to easily report issues to maintenance services (Graffiti, Vandalism, Repairs) for quick resolution.

LAUSD Service Calls support three major mobile application platforms: iTunes, Blackberry, and Android. LAUSD Service Calls will be available in the Windows Mobile and Palm platform later this year.


To download the LAUSD Service Calls App simply access the iTunes, Blackberry or Android stores and search for 'LAUSD' …or FOLLOW THIS LINK



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
REPAIRS NOT iPADS? The world is watching …and there’s an app for that! by smf for 4LAKids 16 Feb 2014 ::... http://bit.ly/1gr5lca

L.A. UNIFIED HAD REQUESTED GUARD AT CROSSWALK WHERE WOMAN WAS FATALLY HIT. But its request was denied, officia... http://bit.ly/1gL0Qrc

THE VIRAL PHOTO OF THE FRUSTRATED GIRL: Don’t blame it on Common Core …It’s the Worst Job in the World!: This... http://bit.ly/1iXO5vk

AB 1432: SPI TORLAKSON ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR BILL TO REQUIRE FORMAL TRAINING FOR ALL SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ON ID AN... http://bit.ly/1gvuQY2

UPDATED: TUESDAY’S BOARD MEETING: Six votes in search of a consensus. Now with more stories …and less consensus! | http://bit.ly/1aVQdUh

TUESDAY’S BOARD MEETING: Six votes in search of a censensus: I watched Tuesday’s festivities from the comfort ... http://bit.ly/ML3TpV

CALIF RANKS 6th IN US ON AP EXAM PARTICIPATION + smf’s 2¢: The Associated Press FROM The Sacramento Bee | http... http://bit.ly/1iLGPCH

ZIMMER’S PLAN FOR LAUSD DISTRICT 1 VACANCY FACING BIG VOTE: by LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1glP5Ze Poste... http://bit.ly/1lwcvNI

from KPCC: LAUSD WI-FI UPGRADE TO COST $800 MILLION, VERGARA UPDATE + DEASY TO ANNOUNCE ARTS+MUSIC PLAN: Pass ... http://bit.ly/1aRoPH5

AB 1442: CA BILL AMONG MANY PROPOSALS TO PROTECT STUDENT DATA: by Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report :: The... http://bit.ly/1iLiTQ0

Q&A: PUBLICLY FUNDED PRESCHOOL ‘TOP PRIORITY’ FOR U.S. DEPT. OF EDUCATION: By Lillian Mongeau, EdSource Today ... http://bit.ly/1aRkF1L

LAUSD RESPONDS TO CRONYISM ALLEGATIONS IN MIRAMONTE ABUSE LAWSUITS: Previous information from an LAUSD whistle... http://bit.ly/1lvAs7H

THE iPAD IS NOT A LAPTOP: iPad Be Nimble, iPad Be Quick: Technology Integration from Edutopia | http:... http://bit.ly/1iHikqp

pic.twitter.com/RZnWakCjut

KEEP CALM AND KEEP MAKING A PROFIT FOR PEARSON: An Interview with Alan J. Singer by Michael Shaughnessy Edu... http://bit.ly/M5XKVi


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• 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.