In This Issue:
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BETTER EDUCATED PUBLIC SCHOOL KIDS – FOR A PRICE + smf’s 2¢ |
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L.A. SCHOOLS: CALIFORNIA ‘ENGLISH LEARNER’ TESTS INCORRECTLY LABEL BILINGUAL KIDS |
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TWO LOS ANGELES CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSED WITHOUT INPUT + smf’s 2¢ |
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LAUSD SEES SURGE IN WHOOPING COUGH, URGES PARENTS TO GET CHILDREN VACCINATED |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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In thirty-two minutes of the twenty-four-hour-news-cycle on Thursday all hell broke loose.
At 15:24 GMT the news broke that Malaysian Airlines flight 17 from
Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky over Eastern Ukraine.
Thirty-two minutes later Israel announced it was sending ground troops into the Gaza Strip.
One can almost feel the Four Horsemen mounting up as the Last Reel is loaded into the projector.
There is nothing unique about either of these events. Israel has invaded
Gaza before. Civilian aircraft have been shot down before. The Soviets
shot down KAL flight 007 in 1983 – an act President Reagan called “…a
massacre. The attack by the Soviet Union against 269 innocent men,
women, and children aboard an unarmed Korean passenger plane, this crime
against humanity, must never be forgotten.”
Later in the Reagan administration the guided missile cruiser USS
Vincennes shot down Iran Air flight 655 in 1988 at a cost of 290 lives,
mistaking the Airbus for an F-14. Both KAL 007 and Iran Air 655 were
jumbo jets; all passengers and crew died in both.
Malaysian Airlines flight 17 is another outrage of unspeakable proportions.
International crises have happened concurrently before.
The Suez Crisis of 1956 –when Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt -
occurred the same time as the Soviet invasion and crushing of the
Hungarian Revolution – many historians believe the Soviets “got away”
with that brutal crackdown because the European powers and the US were
distracted by Suez.
And other crises fester at lower levels. Though of course if you are a
Syrian or an Iraqi or an Iranian or an
Afghan/Ukrainian/Kurd/Pashto/Salvadorian (or a person from Highland Park
whose water main has burst) the crisis of the moment/in your
intersection of spacetime is The Crisis.
If one is to look at the current crises in the Middle East as a combined
crisis the front stretches from the shores of Gaza – where four young
cousins playing in the surf were killed in an air raid – to Lahore in
Pakistan – where a bus bomb and gun battle between militants and the
police killed 9 on Thursday. That’s a front that extends 2,335 miles
across three time zones.
And a hemisphere away The War on Drugs in Central and North America
sends its young refugees north. In the jungles of Africa Ebola virus
mutates.
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
With apologies to Yeats: My generation, fearful of duck+cover nuclear
World War III for half a century now sees the advent of the Third World
War; not just slouching towards Jerusalem – but slouching towards Tahrir
and the Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev and the Maidan e Shohada in Tehran
…and the Plaza Central inTegucigalpa …and Brownsville and Murrieta and
Wall Street and Main Street.
We see in this thirty-two minute slice of the present Robert
Oppenheimer’s Trinity nightmare/dream/vision of the future played out in
super slow-mo; not in the singularity of destruction; not the Big Bang
or a cataclysm of apocalypse …but in the hope of a hundred revolutions
and the cut of a thousand wounds and the whimper of a hundred million
sighs.
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few
people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the
Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the
Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his
multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of
worlds’."
It is interesting to note that Isherwood’s translation of the
Bhagavad-Gita –which Oppenheimer quotes - gives this line to Vishnu
inhabiting his avatar of Krishna. Other translators say a better
rendition from the Sanskrit might be: “I am become Time, destroyer of
worlds.” One wonders if Oppenheimer and Einstein would have preferred
that translation.
Lest we forget - should all or any of this seem too dark and depressing:
Forty-five years ago today men, who came in peace for all mankind,
first walked upon the moon.
…and the masculine shall be deemed to include the feminine. Thank God.
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
BETTER EDUCATED PUBLIC SCHOOL KIDS – FOR A PRICE + smf’s 2¢
By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/1oHUdbq
July 16, 2014 :: Children in the United States get unequal educations;
that's unfair but unlikely to change in the near future. Some school
districts have more money to spend than others. Wealthy parents can sign
up their children for private tutoring. In some districts,
not-for-profit private foundations established by parents raise funds
for art, music and other programs that the local public schools
otherwise couldn't afford.
Public schools shouldn't play along with a system that gives some students an academic head start over others.
It's laudable when parents do all they can to bolster their children's
education. But they go too far when their foundations, which supposedly
exist to help all students in the district, offer for-credit classes
only to those students whose parents can afford to pay for them. Public
schools shouldn't play along with a system that gives some students an
academic head start over others.
It's happening this summer, according to a story in The Times [Private
summer schools prompt debate on education inequality] on Saturday.
Parent foundations in generally affluent areas in Southern California
are offering academic summer school classes to help students finish
required courses so that, during the school year, they can polish their
resumes with more Advanced Placement classes or raise their grades in
courses already taken. The classes are for the most part conducted on
public school campuses, taught by the school's teachers, with full
academic credit granted by the school. But they're officially offered by
the private foundations, with prices of $600 to $800 each. Sometimes
there are scholarships for needy students, sometimes not.
These private classes for public school credit are an end-run around
state law that says public schools cannot charge for classes, required
course materials or extracurricular activities. Parents, of course,
should be welcome to donate money for the creation of programs open to
all students within a district, but school districts should not be
enabling parent groups to offer for-credit courses that are not
available to all students.
Obviously, the problem is lessened if the foundations offer scholarships
to any students who need them, and if they guarantee that access to the
classes won't go first to those who pay. If scholarships are offered,
it is important that they be processed in a way that doesn't stigmatize
families or force them to divulge sensitive financial information.
Yet even with those safeguards, it is still troubling that budget woes
are prompting public schools, in essence, to privatize their most basic
function: offering academic classes for credit to students.
●●smf’s 2¢: A commenter on The Times website opines: “Kids with smart
parents are going to get better educations than kids with dumb parents.”
There is no arguing with this – and no amount of do-goodery or social
engineering will undo it.
It is just as true to say that “Kids with well-off parents are going to get better educations than kids with poor parents.”
Academic summer school programs for credit – when attendance and the
grade goes down in that all-important “Permanent Record” – are a far cry
from a summer playground program or after school math tutoring or a
dance class or chess club.
These inroads made by private educators into public education leverage
pocketbook-driven-parent-involvement – whether of the garden variety
bake-sale-and-gift-wrap-drive fundraising model or the
pay-extra-for-extra-stuff-model for profit. And using public facilities –
and with little or no benefit to students whose parents cannot afford
for them to participate – is (for lack of a better word): wrong.
Not evil or illegal or immoral or unethical – wrong. The thing we –
parents, teachers, the community - need to teach our kids the difference
between right and.
L.A. SCHOOLS: CALIFORNIA ‘ENGLISH LEARNER’ TESTS INCORRECTLY LABEL BILINGUAL KIDS
by Annie Gilbertson | 89.3 KPCC | http://bit.ly/1mhhkrZ
July 16th, 2014, 5:00am :: Arianna Anderson is one of 180,000 students
enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District's program for
English learners.
Over 90 percent of students in the program speak Spanish. Most everyone else speaks Armenian, Korean or Filipino.
And Arianna?
"I'm not an English learner," the 9-year-old said with a shrug.
The daughter of a Hawaiian father and Mexican-American mother, Arianna
was raised speaking English, from the breakfast table to bedtime
prayers.
Yet, every day for the last five years, she has been pulled out of her
regular class at Van Deene Elementary in Torrance for an hour to get
special tutoring for children who speak English as a second language.
It's impossible to tell how many other Los Angeles Unified students are
mislabeled and receiving the wrong instruction. District officials said
Arianna's case is unique — but acknowledge the English learner program
has been poorly supervised in the past.
A review of L.A. Unified's program by the U.S. Department of Justice's
Civil Rights Division in 2011 found neither state nor district officials
were effectively monitoring student progress, resulting in students
labeled English learners falling further and further behind without
intervention.
Arianna has spent five years in the program. The district began
investigating her case this spring and declined to comment on its
status. But it appears she will still be labeled an English learner when
she starts 5th grade in the fall.
Easy to get in
A single form triggered Arianna's ultimately being labeled an English
learner: a home language survey. It was buried in the stack of forms all
California parents have to complete when enrolling kids in school for
the first time.
The form asks what languages are spoken at home. School staff use the survey to figure out who needs help learning English.
As one of three and half million immigrants in Los Angeles County,
Arianna's mom, Hilda Anderson, indicated that English and Spanish are
spoken at home.
“I was an English learner, like, 30 years ago," said Anderson, now fluent in both languages.
Most parents in Los Angeles County speak a foreign language, though
often in addition to English. Less than half of the county population
speaks English only, according to Census figures.
If a language other than English is reported on the form, California
requires schools to gives students an English proficiency test.
New California funding laws give more money to districts with more English learners and other high needs students.
Last year, L.A. Unified tested twice as many kindergartners as the year
before and more than four times as many as were tested in 2010.
Census figures do not jibe with the upswing. Since 2007, the number of
children born to immigrant families in L.A. County has been on a slow
decline.
Of L.A. Unified kindergartners who were tested for English proficiency,
70 percent of scored intermediate or worse on the test, state records
show.
Some parents and educators said the test is too hard for most 4- and 5-year-old children, even native English speakers.
“I’ve had plenty of English-speaking kids that don’t pass it just
because they are immature," said Cheryl Ortega, who began teaching
English learners 43 years ago and recently retired from Los Angeles
Unified.
Test questions provided by the California Department of Education ask
students to think of rhymes, write simple words and correct basic
grammar.
“How is a child that has never been to school going to know punctuation?” Anderson, Arianna's mom, asked.
In 2013, the California Department of Education reviewed the tests and
found only one in four questions fit what students were learning in
class. Writing tasks differed the most from what students were learning
in the classroom: Only one in 10 questions fit California's learning
goals for English learners.
The state is developing new tests for the 2016-2017 school year based
primarily on listening and speaking skills for the youngest students.
Until then, the misaligned test remains in place.
Once enrolled in the program, federal law requires students to receive
tailored English instruction as well as access to literacy, math,
science, social studies and arts content taught to mainstream students.
Parents and advocates claim schools rarely comply, and English learners
are often deprived of enrichment activities and even time in core
subjects such as science.
Hilda Maldonado, the director of the Multilingual and Multicultural
Education Department at L.A. Unified, said that's not true. California
requires teachers to give all students the same content, even if that
means recasting a science lesson to meet the needs of English learners,
she said.
"In essence, they won't miss out because teachers will be addressing
their content while addressing the language demands in the content,"
Maldonado said in an email.
Last fall, parents at Granada Hills Elementary Community Charter School
held a protest to complain about L.A. Unified's practice of separating
young English learners from other students.
Parents grumbled that one only needed to show up with the last name
Garcia or Rodriguez to trigger the English learner enrollment process,
putting bilingual kids behind their English only peers.
"Secluding them in a classroom, the first thing that comes to mind is
segregation," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, whose child goes to Granada
Hills Elementary Community Charter School. "A lot of parents are feeling
that way."
Studies show the longer these students stay in the program, the wider
the achievement gap grows between them and their mainstreamed peers.
A focus on quality
Several experts said parents should be less concerned with their child
being labeled English learners and more concerned with the quality of
tutoring that comes with it.
“Why in god's name do we want to get them out of the program as quickly
as possible, lose the funding and support rather than examining what we
can do for these kids to make sure they are competitive?” asked Patricia
Gandara, the director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
Gandara's own bilingual kids nearly got labeled English learners. She
raised them speaking English and Spanish. She said the research is
clear: Bilingualism can support superior academic gains.
But when the school started asking about English proficiency, Gandara
stepped-in, and the process stopped before her children were given the
English test. Parents have a limited window of time to dispute the
enrollment process, but it's unclear to what degree they are informed of
that right or the consequences.
In Los Angeles, where 34 percent of children live in poverty, Gandara
said many parents should welcome the tutoring that comes with being
designated an English learner.
“My read is that you get labeled [an English learner], which means you
are going to get extra support, which means someone is going to provide
this targeted English instruction for you and you should get access to
every thing every other kids get,” she said.
In Arianna's case, the tutoring isn't helping. She's still not doing
well in school. But it's unlikely she'll be leaving the English learner
program anytime soon.
Even though Arianna was mislabeled, California law prohibits L.A.
Unified staff from moving her over to the mainstream until all
proficiency requirements are met.
That means she'll have to pass the California English Language
Development test for older students, which has more challenging
questions. She'll also have to show she knows the basics of 5th grade
reading and writing on the new Common Core test given to all California
students.
Her parents think she needs help with school, just not specialized English learner services.
Anderson, Arianna's mom, said if she had known the heartache ahead, she
never would have told the district of the family's bilingual background.
"You just start filling this stuff out, and they don't tell you what's going to happen to your kids," she said.
TWO LOS ANGELES CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSED WITHOUT INPUT + smf’s 2¢
By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1rgUhni
Posted: 07/20/14, 4:23 PM PDT :: Los Angeles Unified School District
officials quietly decided to shut down two schools, both charters that
outperform their district-run peers in the classroom, based on the
finding of a “draft” audit district officials have yet to release. Some
400 families — the majority of whom enrolled their children at Van Nuys’
Magnolia Science Academy 7 elementary — may need to find a new school
if district officials prevail in their efforts to close the charter and
its sister institution, Magnolia Academy 6 middle school.
Los Angeles Unified’s school board “conditionally” approved renewing the
schools’ charters — contracts allowing them to educate kids — in March,
with the explicit direction that should the audit raise any concerns,
district staff were to report back to board, documents show.
But district administrators didn’t follow the procedures before revoking
the charters and shutting down the schools late last month.
The California Charter Schools Association said in a written statement
that district officials acted outside of state law in a “troubling” move
that leaves more than 400 students and their families, a majority of
them poor, with very little information.
“State law also does not allow the district to conditionally renew a
charter, let alone rescind that renewal without presenting its findings
or providing the school with the opportunity to correct any issues,”
according to a statement from the California Charter Schools
Association.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge will consider issuing an injunction
Thursday that could stop the district from closing the schools, while
Magnolia officials appeal to the Los Angeles County Office of Education
and, perhaps, state officials.
Magnolia officials did not return calls for comment.
Superintendent John Deasy declined to comment, stating the matter was
being handled by the Office of the Inspector General and school’s legal
counsel.
General Counsel Dave Holmquist did not return calls for comment,
referring questions to the district’s media department, which did not
answer questions.
The Office of the Inspector General, meanwhile, said that the audit
prompting officials to close the schools is a “preliminary” draft,
making it legally unavailable to the public. since drafts are exempt
from the California Public Records Act, according to a letter from the
General Counsel’s Office.
Board member Tamar Galatzan, who represents the Van Nuys area and Magnolia 7, declined to comment, citing the legal fight.
Between 1 percent and 2 percent of charter schools across California
close due to financial reasons, according to the California Charter
Schools Association.
When the school board voted to conditionally approve the charters in
March, their lead staff, Director Jose Cole-Gutierrez said the schools
didn’t have the recommended 5 percent “rainy day” fund, but that the
parent organization had more than that level, 7.3 percent, in its
reserves.
At the time, there was a question as to whether schools as small as the
Magnolia academies were financially viable. Los Angeles Unified has shut
down small schools because of their higher per-student cost to operate.
“The difference is, in each of these cases, they’re responsible for the
fiscal viability,” Deasy said, referring to Magnolia being liable for
any financial difficulty, at the March 4, 2014, board meeting.
●●smf’s 2¢: This story broke publicly at the July 1 Board Meeting – at
which Magnolia’s attorney protested vehemently. LA Schools Report –
notoriously charter-friendly – has been all over it – with the LASR’s
publisher writing an article last week: “Magnolia charter troubles
having an impact beyond LA Unified” - http://bit.ly/1sCjOJu
The real under-reported complications / the herd of
elephants-in-the-room - lies in the fact that Magnolia is affiliated
with the Turkish Fethullah Gülen Movement charter management
organization …and those complications are truly complicated! http://bit.ly/1tovnlp
LAUSD SEES SURGE IN WHOOPING COUGH, URGES PARENTS TO GET CHILDREN VACCINATED
By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1wL0qru
07/18/14, :: 7:19 PM PDT Fifty Los Angeles Unified School District
students have come down with whooping cough since the beginning of June,
officials said Friday, with more than a third of them from the San
Fernando Valley and many from the South Bay.
A total of 84 cases of the infectious disease have been reported
throughout the district since March. That’s triple the number of cases
in a normal year, said Dee Apodeca, director of LAUSD nursing services.
__________________________________________
► ALL STUDENTS GOING INTO SEVENTH GRADE NEED PROOF OF A WHOOPING COUGH BOOSTER, ACCORDING TO STATE LAW.
► UNDER A STATE LAW THAT WENT INTO EFFECT JAN. 1, PARENTS WHO EXCLUDE
THEIR CHILDREN FROM IMMUNIZATIONS MUST SUBMIT A SIGNED STATE FORM
PROVING THEY RECEIVED INFORMATION ABOUT THE RISKS AND BENEFITS OF
VACCINES FROM A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL, WHO ALSO MUST SIGN THE FORM.
_______________________________________
“Most of the children (with whooping cough) are from middle school and
high school, which confirms the fact that immunity from the vaccine
wanes,” Apodaca said.
Of the 50 cases reported from June to July, 19 were from the San Fernando Valley, and 14 were from the South Bay.
The rise in rates of whooping cough, also known as Pertussis, is a
reflection of an overall increase statewide. Latest figures show there
have been 5,393 cases in California as of July 8, according to the
California Department of Public Health, double the number from last year
and enough to prompt state health officials to declare an epidemic. An
updated report is expected next week.
Of the cases this year, Latino infants less than a year old were most
likely to have whooping cough, according to state figures. But the data
show that 64 percent of all 10-to-17-year-olds infected this season
where white.
The highest rates are occurring in Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties in
Northern California, where data show more parents choose not to
vaccinate their children under the state’s personal belief exemption.
Under a state law that went into effect Jan. 1, parents who exclude
their children from immunizations must submit a signed state form
proving they received information about the risks and benefits of
vaccines from a health care professional, who also must sign the form.
Parents who are opting out due to religious reasons are exempt from the
requirement.
In Sonoma County almost 6 percent of all children who entered child care
centers were unvaccinated under the personal belief exemption compared
with 2 percent of L.A. County’s toddlers.
Overall, about 3 percent of the parents of California children 2 to 4
years old in child care have claimed a personal belief exemption.
Dr. Gil Chavez, state epidemiologist at the Center for Infectious
Diseases has said reasons for the soaring numbers are varied: The
disease is cyclical, with peaks every three to five years; there’s an
increased awareness and better reporting from health departments; and
immunity from the Tdap vaccine, which many kids get young, tends to wane
with age — a main reason booster shots are recommended for all
10-year-olds.
Health officials fear a repeat of 2010, when whooping cough reached
epidemic levels in California, with more than 9,100 cases, including 10
deaths — the most in more than 60 years in the state and across the
nation.
“It is too early to say whether or not the disease has peaked because
the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) continues to receive
reports for past weeks,” Chavez said in a statement Friday. “The
department needs data from additional weeks to confirm that case numbers
are trending downward.”
Within the LAUSD, 84 percent of all students have proven to be
vaccinated with a booster Tdap vaccination, Apodaca said, noting that is
about 8,000 students [...who have NOT been vaccinated].
All students going into seventh grade need proof of a whooping cough booster, according to state law.
The district will formally kick off vaccination clinics at several
school sites beginning July 28, though only children who are uninsured,
are Medi-Cal recipients or are Alaskan or Native American qualify for
the program.
Chavez and other health officials continue to emphasize vaccination for
pregnant women in their third trimester, regardless of previous Tdap
vaccination. Infants as young as 6 months old can be inoculated. And to
help prevent babies from sickness, older children, pre-adolescents and
adults should also be vaccinated against pertussis, according to current
recommendations.
Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can spread by
coughing, health officials said. The disease is characterized by
persistent coughing fits and gasping.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
LEAD LAUSD ATTORNEY IN CHILD ABUSE TRIAL STEPS DOWN TO ASSUME JUDGESHIP | http://bit.ly/1rqtPt7
Politco Morning Ed: CRISIS AT THE BORDER Read: http://tl.gd/n_1s2hde4
Special Ed: BY GETTING IT HALF RIGHT FEDS GET IT ALL WRONG | http://bit.ly/1tXTpYt
Koch High: HOW THE KOCH BROTHERS ARE BUYING THEIR WAY INTO THE MINDS OF PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS | http://huff.to/1mm8yZT
"If there's ever a good time to be an unemployed teacher, this has to be the one." | http://bit.ly/1ribuOR
CALIFORNIA FUNDING FORMULA CREATES TEACHER DEMAND | http://bit.ly/1ribuOR
Breaking News: LAUSD BOARD MEMBER MONICA RATLIFF BACKS GEORGE MCKENNA IN DISTRICT 1 RACE | http://bit.ly/UcBXiu
●●smf U P D A T E: Monica Garcia has endorsed McKenna’s opponent – so now it’s the battle of the Monicas!
LOOKING FOR A NEW SUPERINTENDENT? Check out CSBA's executive search service with McPherson & Jacobsen http://ow.ly/z3rk3 #caedu #supt
Music Ed develops key skills including self-reflection, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation | http://bit.ly/1jy4dYG
HOW MUSIC ED POWERS THE STEAM MOVEMENT | http://bit.ly/1jy4dYG
ARNE DUNCAN FLUBBED ON COMMON CORE …AND THEN HE MADE IT WORSE | http://bit.ly/1p8THoB
LA SCHOOLS: CALIFORNIA ‘ENGLISH LEARNER’ TESTS INCORRECTLY LABEL BILINGUAL KIDS | http://bit.ly/1wvbQj6
"Public schools shouldn't play along with a system that gives some students an academic head start over others." | http://bit.ly/1nJ3Qud
BETTER EDUCATED PUBLIC SCHOOL KIDS – FOR A PRICE | http://bit.ly/1nJ3Qud
●A Picture worth a 1000¢: Retweeted from #BadAssTeachers and the Angry
Birds: All the little birdies on Jaybird Street....
pic.twitter.com/xCzNWfmEyH
●●smf: Far better background on L.A. street gangs+their effect on the
child immigration crisis than last Sunday's 4LAKids! NPR | http://n.pr/1mhn0Cc
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
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!.
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