In This Issue:
 |
| • |
GRANADA
HILLS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL WINS STATE ACADEMIC DECATHLON: FRANKLIN IS
2nd, MARSHALL 3rd, FOLLOWED BY EL CAMINO & SOUTH PASADENA |
|
| • |
REPORT FINDS MASSIVE UNDER-INVESTMENT IN NATION’S SCHOOL BUILDINGS |
|
| • |
LEGISLATIVE ANALYST PROPOSES FULL-DAY PRESCHOOL FOR ALL LOW-INCOME WORKING FAMILIES IN CALIFORNIA |
|
| • |
LAUSD’S MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR DESCRIBES CHILD TRAUMA AS A SILENT EPIDEMIC |
|
| • |
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:
|
|
|
|
I am, admittedly+chronologically: a baby boomer.
A child of the sixties; maybe even an unrepentant/unreconstructed
hippie. I confess that my generation has-been-and-continues-to-be guilty
of being self-absorbed, too loud/too much/too many/all-at-once. A
recent bout of chemotherapy caused me to lose almost all my hair; now
that it’s growing back I may never cut it again!
Gimme head with hair
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming
Streaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there hair
Shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there mama
Everywhere daddy daddy
Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair
Yes, boomers gave the world The Beatles and The Stones and Bob Dylan and
paisley shirts and drugs. “Oh, Wow!”and the beads. Apparently we
discovered and popularized sex. Eventually we gave the world the ‘90’s
and Bill and Hillary and George W. Bush. Donald Trump is a boomer.
You’re welcome+we’re sorry.
I am a peace creep. I opposed the Vietnam War and campaigned for Eugene
McCarthy. I wept when JFK and Bobby and Martin were killed – and when
four died in Ohio when the National Guard shot up Kent State. Neil Young
said we were on our own – but we were never alone. There are just too
freakin’ many of us.
The Peace Sign means something to me, something beyond the symbolic
metaphor. The symbol is a combination of the semaphore signals for the
letters "N" and "D," standing for "nuclear disarmament”, created by
British artist Gerald Holtom in 1958. In semaphore the letter "N" is
formed by a person holding two flags in an inverted "V," and the letter
"D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other
pointed straight down. Superimposing these two signs forms the shape of
the center of the peace symbol.
Exploring the metaphor further, Holtom cites “The Third of May 1808” [http://bit.ly/1UdZRqD] by Francisco Goya, as inspiration for the peace sign.
“I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an
individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and
downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I
formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it.”
A handwritten note on a makeshift memorial in Brussels this week: “In
the end, when you see what can be done in the name of God, it makes you
wonder what is left for the devil.”
Which brings us to the Bosnian War Crimes Tribunal; set this week in a
bizarre European/accelerated 24-Hour-News-Cycle counterpoint to the
madness in Brussels.
Radovan Karadzic (a boomer, a psychiatrist and a poet. …and a madman for
our time) was convicted of one count of Genocide, five counts of Crimes
Against Humanity, and four counts of Violations of the Laws or Customs
of War.
I’m sorry, I am not such a peace creep as to not believe in spontaneous
retaliation or a right of self-defense. And deep in my amygdala I think
someone ought to punch Donald Trump (who called Brussels a “hell hole”
this week) in the nose. But aren’t Crimes Against Humanity and
Violations of the Laws or Customs of War mutually exclusive? Doesn’t one
preclude the existence (or confirm the illogic) of the other?
All I am saying
Is give peace a chance.
Whether your Easter is about the Redeemer Risen or chocolate bunnies and colored eggs: Happy Easter!
Peace+Love+Rock ‘n Roll.
¡Onward/Adelante! – smf
GRANADA HILLS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL WINS STATE ACADEMIC
DECATHLON: FRANKLIN IS 2nd, MARSHALL 3rd, FOLLOWED BY EL CAMINO &
SOUTH PASADENA
By Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1pFxZPG
3/20/16, 12:47 PM PDT | SACRAMENTO :: Granada Hills Charter High
School won this weekend’s California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento
and the ability to compete in the prestigious national competition next
month in Alaska.
It’s the San Fernando Valley school’s fifth state championship since
2011, and it will be vying for just as many national titles when it
competes at the 34th annual United States Academic Decathlon Competition
April 28-30 in Anchorage.
Granada Hills Charter’s score is “the highest team score ever in the
history of Academic Decathlon,” including the nationals, said Cliff Ker,
coordinator for Academic Decathlon at Los Angeles Unified School
District, by phone Sunday. “There was a huge gasp in the audience when
they announced their score.”
The nine-member team beat out 68 other schools by scoring 61,149.6
points out of a possible 65,400, followed by two other LAUSD schools —
Franklin High School in Highland Park, which earned 59,133.3 points and
John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, which earned 59,109.15,
according to California Academic Decathlon.
“We went into the competition feeling prepared but we also knew that our
competing schools were just as prepared,” said Granada Hills Charter
senior Joshua Lin. “We went into the awards ceremony very nervous, not
sure what the outcome would be.”
Lin earned the highest score of any student in the competition — 9,600 points out of a possible 10,000 points.
Granada Hills Charter, which won the national title last year in Garden
Grove, is well aware of its competition and believes that Highland Park
High School in Texas will be the team to beat in Alaska, said Mathew
Arnold, a Granada Hills Charter team coach. Only one school from
California is allowed to compete in the national competition that’s held
in a different state each year.
“The way they work for each other is one of the main reasons they’ve
been as successful as they have,” Arnold said by phone. In addition,
“they’re fortunate to be at a school where the support for the team is
really strong.”
LAUSD’s El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills, which won
the national championship in 2014, came in fourth place this year with
59,104.5 points while South Pasadena High came in fifth with 56,845.7.
As second place winner, Franklin High School will now compete against
other large schools in the national online competition in April. West
Covina Unified School District’s Edgewood High School, which earned the
medium school title, and Fresno Unified School District’s University
High School, which earned the small school title, will also compete
against similar-sized schools in the online competition.
Granada Hills Charter and Marshall High School both earned the highest
possible score in this year’s fast-paced Super Quiz relay involving
multiple choice questions on a variety of subjects. El Camino Real
Charter and Bell High School tied for second, while Edgewood High School
from LA County finished third in the relay before an audience that
resembles a game show format.
Each nine-person team must include three honor students (3.75 and above
GPA), three scholastic students (3.00-3.74 GPA) and three varsity
students (2.99 GPA and below.)
Members of the winning Granada Hills Charter team are Aishah Mahmud,
Joshua Lin, Melissa Santos, (Honor); Isha Gupta, Jorge Zepeda, Mark
Aguila, (Scholastic); and Mayeena Ulkarim, Christopher Lo, Julian Duran
(Varsity). In addition to Arnold, Jon Sturtevant and Rachael Phipps are
coaching the team’s students this year.
For Zepeda, who is competing for a second consecutive year, being on the
Academic Decathlon team has helped him to be more organized, focused
and goal oriented, he said.
“It’s also helped me to be a better person, to learn to take
responsibility, to know what it means to be a leader and to help your
teammates,” said Zepeda, who said he looking forward to a well-deserved
spring break this week.
Another San Fernando Valley school, Burbank High School, earned the top
score among Division II teams. Division I teams include the top 20
highest scoring teams, while Division II includes the next top 20 teams,
according to the California Academic Decathlon.
REPORT FINDS MASSIVE UNDER-INVESTMENT IN NATION’S SCHOOL BUILDINGS
By Emma Brown, Washington Post | http://wapo.st/1pIoEH1
March 23 at 3:00 AM :: The nation is spending $46 billion less each
year on school construction and maintenance than is necessary to ensure
safe and healthy facilities, according to estimates in a new report.
The study, released by a group that advocates for environmentally-sound
buildings, is meant to draw attention to the condition of buildings that
on weekdays house some 56 million students and teachers — more than
one-sixth of the U.S. population — but that nevertheless attract little
attention in the national debate over education policy and reform.
“We are consistently and persistently underinvesting in our nation’s
schools,” said Rachel Gutter of the D.C.-based Center for Green Schools
at the U.S. Green Building Council, which co-authored the report.
“Communities want to resolve these issues, but in many cases the funds
simply aren’t there.”
Detroit has made headlines this year for crumbling schools plagued by
rats, roaches and mold. But while conditions in the Motor City are
particularly deplorable, the average U.S. school is more than 40 years
old, and thousands of school buildings nationwide are in need of
upgrades, according to the federal government.
Poor communities in far-flung rural places and declining industrial city
centers tend to be in a particularly bad situation: School construction
budgets rely even more heavily on local dollars than operating budgets.
And in many places spending has not recovered from cuts made during the
recession, leaving school districts struggling to patch problems.
In Philadelphia, which has suffered deep budget cuts in recent years, an
elementary school was forced to delay its opening last fall after a
worker discovered that the building’s foundation was structurally
unsound. A boiler exploded at another of the city’s elementary schools
in January, seriously injuring an employee.
“These things are happening because too many public officials have
turned a blind eye to what’s really going on in schools across
Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent Hughes (D) said in a statement,
calling on the state legislature to increase its investment in public
education. “This is a fool’s errand.”
The federal government contributes about 10 percent to operating budgets
but virtually nothing to school construction or renovation. Some
states, such as Wyoming and New Mexico, have strong statewide programs
for school construction, but a dozen states offer no assistance, which
means the cost of school construction falls entirely on local taxpayers.
Among the states that do not contribute to school construction is
Michigan, where Detroit has struggled so mightily to maintain healthy
and safe buildings. Others are Wisconsin, Indiana, Oregon and Nevada.
“It’s entirely tied to the wealth of the district,” said Mary Filardo,
executive director of the 21st Century Schools Fund, a D.C.-based
nonprofit and report co-author. “It’s got inequity built into it.”
Filardo said that there is a growing body of research that shows links
between the school environment and a child’s ability to learn, and yet
the condition of school buildings remains little-mentioned in
discussions about closing achievement gaps.
She suggested that the federal government could help push for equitable
school facilities by providing funding for construction in high-poverty
schools, as it now does for teaching and learning through the Title I
program. But that would be politically difficult given the GOP-led
Congress and its push to shrink federal spending, she acknowledged.
The last time the federal government attempted to survey the condition
of the nation’s school buildings was in 1995. At the time, more than 8
million students attended 15,000 schools with poor air quality; 12
million students attended 21,000 schools in need of new roofs or roof
upgrades; 12 millions students attended 23,000 schools with inadequate
plumbing.
[Read the 1995 GAO report on the condition of schools | http://www.gao.gov/assets/230/220864.pdf]
And the list goes on: The Government Accountability Office estimated
that it would cost about $112 billion to ensure that all schools were in
good condition.
In the two decades since the GAO made that estimate, the nation has
spent an average of $99 billion a year on maintenance, operations and
construction, according to the new study.
And that’s far less than the $145 billion that’s needed, according to
the study, which suggested a standard — a tweaked version of
commercial-building standards — that should be used to estimate the cost
of maintaining the nation’s school facilities.
The report calls not only for greater public investment in school
facilities, but also for an effort to collect and share more information
about the condition of school buildings — which account for the
second-highest level of public infrastructure spending, after highways.
There is no comprehensive federal data source on school buildings, and
the quality and amount of information varies widely at the state level.
The inconsistency and scarcity of data on schools has contributed to
their neglect, Gutter said: “This is a problem that we’ve just made it
so easy for ourselves to ignore.”
ALSO SEE: Investment in Nation's School Buildings Falls Woefully Short, Report Finds - District Dossier - Education Week http://bit.ly/1LHdpZ9
LEGISLATIVE ANALYST PROPOSES FULL-DAY PRESCHOOL FOR
ALL LOW-INCOME WORKING FAMILIES IN CALIFORNIA
By Jeremy Hay | EdSource Today |http://bit.ly/22Iv0nD
March 22, 2016 :: The state should require all its preschool and
transitional kindergarten providers to offer, at a minimum, part-day
programs to all low-income families, with full-day programs available
for all low-income families with working parents, the state Legislative
Analyst’s Office is advising.
The recommendations, contained in a review of Gov. Jerry Brown’s
proposed childcare and preschool budget for 2016-17, would cover 270,000
4-year-old children through both part- and full-day publicly funded
programs. That would be nearly 50,000 more than the combined number of
children now in the California State Preschool Program, which serves
low-income and at risk-children, and transitional kindergarten programs,
which provide an extra year of public school for 4-year-olds with fall
birthdays.
The recommendation inserts the highly regarded Legislative Analyst’s
Office, or LAO, into the robust policy conversation about the importance
of early education and how the state should support it. It also raises
the less charted question of how much additional value full-day
preschool adds compared to part-day, and how many hours constitute an
effective full day.
At a glance, said Alisha Roe of Oakland, the change sounds welcome.
“I’m a grandmother raising her grandbaby, and I’m working part-time.
This is a great facility and with full-time I would love to go back to
school. It would give me the opportunity to become more
self-sufficient,” Roe said, as she collected her grandson from the
Community Child Care Council of Alameda’s Child Development Center.
But early education advocates have not warmed to the LAO recommendation,
saying it could be impractical for working parents if it is not
year-round, and sidesteps the question of additional funding for early
education. Still, policy experts said the recommendation will carry
weight.
“People pay attention to (the LAO) because it’s going to be part of the
discussion when the governor and the Legislature get together to try and
reach consensus,” said Mark Baldassare, president of the nonprofit
Public Policy Institute of California. Along with the state Department
of Finance, “it’s widely understood that these are among the state’s
most influential and expert analysts of the budget,” he said.
Early education administrators said that when it comes to learning
activities, there are benefits to full-day programs, though they don’t
clearly outweigh part-day programs.
“When you look at the part-day program, they’re missing some components;
with the full-day, the teachers definitely can build in some more, but
not head and shoulders above,” said Cynthia Young, director of the Long
Beach Unified School District Child Development Centers.
The LAO’s recommendation doesn’t differentiate between preschool and
transitional kindergarten, defining preschool as anything prior to
kindergarten, although it confines its plan to 4-year-olds. It also
doesn’t specify whether a full day means the length of a school day or
longer, nor whether it would be a full-year program or one aligned to
the 180-day school year.
“Local providers would have broad discretion to operate for the number
of hours they saw fit,” said Virginia Early, an LAO fiscal and policy
analyst who focuses on early education. If the local preschool provider
were a school district, for example, it would make sense that the length
of the day and year correspond to the 180-day school schedule, she
said.
There are 138,400 4-year-olds in the state’s preschool program now,
according to the LAO. Another 83,000 are in transitional kindergarten
programs. The latest figures available from the state Department of
Education show that in the 2014-15 school year, 39,381 4-year-olds were
in full-day preschool.
The LAO’s proposed program, which would be funded through a $1.6 billion
block grant that Brown is proposing, includes an illustration of one
possible funding arrangement, based on a 180-day schedule in which
providers would be paid $7,800 per child.
“I think that families do want and would benefit from having full-day
preschool programs, because of parents having to work and have their
children in a safe learning environment,” said Marco Chavez, community
relations administrator at the San Mateo County Office of Education.
That has disturbed early education advocates because it seemingly
departs from the goal spelled out, though not mandated, in the 2014-15
state budget of providing year-long, full-day preschool to all
low-income 4-year-olds. That objective came to be called the “preschool
promise.”
“That goal was an achievement, and I believe that this (LAO) proposal
represents a step backwards from that because it is not addressing the
full needs of working families” by covering the length of a work day,
said Erin Gabel, deputy director of First 5 California.
Advocates’ hopes were dashed last year when Brown vetoed a bill that
would have given the preschool commitment more substance by setting a
timetable for the state to fulfill it.
Others say the LAO’s proposal is as problematic as the governor’s
childcare and preschool budget proposal, which adds no new early
education funding for childcare and preschool programs for children
under the age of 5. Instead, it would consolidate into a single $1.6
billion block grant the funding for the state’s preschool, transitional
kindergarten and quality rating programs, and lift the requirement that
school districts offer transitional kindergarten.
“We don’t want to get in this game of ‘Let’s move things around with the
same $1.6 billion,’” said Giannina Perez, senior director of early
childhood policy at Children Now. “There’s a lot of moving parts and we
want funding to be part of that conversation, too, especially in a year
when there are resources available.”
The LAO’s proposal itself, in that it opens the door to preschool
programs tied to the length of a school year, Perez said, falls short.
“One hundred and eighty days, for many folks, isn’t going to cut it,” she said.
The LAO says a “reasonable cut off” for family income eligibility for
the program would be 185 percent of the federal poverty level – or
$44,955 for a family of four. The LAO is recommending that children who
are at risk of abuse and neglect, who have disabilities, or are homeless
also be eligible.
“Everybody who fits these criteria can access those programs, they don’t
go on a waiting list, and they can access it for a full day,” Early
said. Non-working families would have access to the full-day programs,
but the state wouldn’t pay for them, Early said.
Research has concluded that quality early education programs, including
transitional kindergarten, provide significant benefits, especially for
low-income children. But fewer studies have looked at the effects of
full-day versus part-day preschool. More are being done, though, and
most have found that full-day programs offer greater value.
“We found better learning gains for kids,” said Steven Barnett, director
of the National Institute for Early Education Research, a Rutgers
University-based organization that focuses on early childhood education.
But that improvement depends on several factors, he said. Key among
them, he said, is what is done during the extra time students are
spending in full-day programs.
“The implications are, if you’re going to tell people to do this you
have to provide support so that teachers can effectively change what
they do rather than just figure it out on their own,” he said.
Also, Barnett said, there is the question of what children are doing
during the time they spend outside preschool. That factor is among those
that have led to conclusions that preschool, especially full-day
programs, is particularly valuable for low-income children, who
generally have fewer structured early learning options.
And full-day programs do attract a number of families who without it
would not participate in any preschool at all, Barnett said.
“I think that families do want and would benefit from having full-day
preschool programs, because of parents having to work and have their
children in a safe learning environment,” said Marco Chavez, community
relations administrator at the San Mateo County Office of Education. The
county has 926 children in full-day programs and 1,150 in part-day in
California State Preschools, he said.
Alejandro Nicolas of Petaluma said having access to full-day care would help his family financially.
“I already work eight hours a day, but then my wife could work. She
can’t now because she has to take care of my daughter. It would help us a
lot,” he said, after dropping off his daughter at the Willow Creek
State Preschool in Santa Rosa on his day off.
The LAO’s proposal leaves questions about preschool curriculum and other
quality-related factors aside, but does call for providers to share
with the public key information about their programs, such as curriculum
and family engagement and child development activities.
Early said the LAO proposal was not a comment on the relative value of full-day versus part-day preschool.
“We made the recommendation primarily because we were concerned that
without it, families would not come into the program,” she said.
LAUSD’S MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR DESCRIBES CHILD TRAUMA AS A SILENT EPIDEMIC
By Jeremy Loudenback | Posted on L.A. School Report,
published in partnership with The Chronicle of Social Change. | http://bit.ly/22J62o1
March 24, 2016 9:52 am :: As director of the School Mental Health unit
at the Los Angeles Unified School District, Pia Escudero supervises
more than 300 psychiatric social workers, clinical psychologists and
other mental health professionals. She has also worked to create
trauma-informed systems and therapeutic approaches in schools. Escudero
was part of a team that helped developed the Cognitive Behavioral
Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program, an intervention
aimed at reducing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
and behavioral problems. The School Mental Health team has successfully
deployed CBITS in several schools, but the need for more trauma-informed
resources is high at LAUSD, where the student population numbers more
than 650,000.
Over the past two years, Escudero and her team have introduced a
universal prevention curriculum in partnership with the Nathanson Family
Resilience Center at the University of California Los Angeles.
Originally designed for children in military schools facing family
disruption issues as a result of deployment, the Families Over Coming
Under Stress School-Based Skill Building Groups (FOCUS-SBG, or FOCUS) is
designed to complement CBITS and the school district’s other
trauma-related resources. Last week, she presented on her work with
FOCUS at Echo Parenting and Education’s conference on creating
trauma-informed schools.
THE CHRONICLE OF SOCIAL CHANGE: You’ve described child trauma as a
“silent epidemic.” Why is this the case and how did you come to see it
this way?
PIA ESCUDERO: Silent epidemic seemed like a compelling and accurate way
to describe it. Consistently every time we’ve screened for trauma
throughout the years at LAUSD, the rates are extremely high. When we
first started doing targeted screening of sixth and ninth graders in
2000, our RAND partners would tell us to do it again. ‘The rates are
really high.’ But we know that traumatic events are common here, and
today, when we’ve screened, about 98 percent of our children have had at
least one traumatic event. The average is between six and eight events.
Trauma is common in our children’s lives, but multiple traumas are also
very common.
With our partnership with the Nathanson Family Resilience Center over
the past two years, we’ve adapted the curriculum they developed for
students in military schools dealing with the issue of deployment and
family disruption, but for our schools in an urban setting in Los
Angeles. With the FOCUS pre-test, there are resiliency questions and
skills, but also four trauma-related questions: if they answer two or
more, they’ve been exposed to a traumatic event and they could be in the
range of needing clinical support or further intervention. What we’ve
found is that in the fifth-grade classrooms this past year, 73 percent
of children score within a clinical range of PTSD.
An epidemic occurs when the rate of disease substantially exceeds what
is expected. In the general population, rates of PTSD average 7 to 12
percent and a little higher for military. Across LAUSD, trauma
screenings have identified over 50 percent of students reporting
moderate to severe traumatic stress symptoms. So if the common rates are
7 to 12 percent, this is something that’s really masked and been under
the radar in our classrooms.
THE CHRONICLE OF SOCIAL CHANGE: So how should school districts be
approaching child trauma/adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and what
can they do to deal with students’ mental health needs that arise
through the screening process?
PIA ESCUDERO: As we’ve been doing this work more and more, we’re very
careful about screening because when you screen there’s a huge ethical
commitment to treat because you will find something. You can’t just
screen and walk away and not treat the matter. We only screen when we
are going to have a therapeutic approach to align with that approach.
With FOCUS, the encouraging news is that once children get this
curriculum children who have core treatments like problem solving and
relaxation techniques, they dramatically improved. The concept of doing
curriculum-based teaching in the classroom early on and in middle school
is something that’s brand new for us. Based on the high numbers of
children who have been exposed to trauma, we now know there has to be a
universal approach and it has to be something that really is available
to all children, not just a select few. It really calls for a systems
lens.
THE CHRONICLE OF SOCIAL CHANGE: How important is the process of trauma screening as it relates to trauma-informed schools?
PIA ESCUDERO: It’s critical. I think the way our educational system is
set up is to really support the teacher, to be the best teacher possible
with the best instructional materials or technology. If we focus
entirely on that, and there’s trauma in the classroom and the teacher’s
not prepared to deal with that barrier or is not aware of the barrier,
it doesn’t matter how good of a teacher she or he is or what type of
instructional material they have. This really addresses the need for
looking at attachment or regulation activities. That’s why we have a big
miss academically. Our children are coming with these high rates of
exposure to trauma and our teachers sign up to teach, and they’re not
able to do this effectively. And it leads to burnout.
Untreated trauma is so costly to our society. These are the kids who
drop out of school, end up in then juvenile justice system, early death
and with very maladapted behaviors that cost us. But the fact that we
can see children bounce back, learn skills and get some support is
critical.
THE CHRONICLE OF SOCIAL CHANGE: Why are schools a good place to address mental health challenges?
PIA ESCUDERO: One of the reasons I’m so passionate about being in the
schools is that people feel that schools are extensions of the family
and they come. When we refer children out, we know that they’re very
unlikely to get that treatment. Our partners in RAND have done some work
of tracking services, and they’ve found that services rendered at
schools are much more likely to be completed and more effective versus
[seeking treatment outside the school]. Families in LA have long work
hours, plus getting on a bus or traveling somewhere else with the
transportation, and then we also lose a day of school.
That’s why we set up our school wellness centers. It’s a new model. We
just launched them about a couple years ago. They’re attached to
schools, and students and their parents can get health and mental care,
and students don’t have to miss a day of school. We have 14 of these
new-model wellness centers, and seven of them are co-located with school
mental health staff. Our school mental health staff are trained on
individual trauma-focused therapy, but then if we have a school-based
social worker at the school, they’re doing all the macro work, student
campaigns, doing presentations in class, and surveying children in the
center. It’s really a public mental health model. Teachers and
administrators really appreciate it. These children come with such a
load of barriers. It’s not just being homeless or just child abuse.
They’re homeless, they’ve experienced trauma and they’re living in a
community with violence and they might have a parent who is
incarcerated. It’s usually
multiple issues facing their lives when they come into the
classroom.
• Jeremy Loudenback is child trauma editor for The Chronicle of Social Change.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
Getting the lead out: SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE STILL GRAPPLE WITH
LEAD IN WATER, DIGGING FURTHER INTO A WATER PROBLEM + CA ISN'T USING BLOOD-TEST
DATA THAT COULD HELP FOCUS EXIDE LEAD CLEANUP EFFORTS
http://bit.ly/1PxegWX
"Chronic Underfunding": FEDERAL FUNDING FORMULA HURTS CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS, REPORT SAYS http://bit.ly/25oGRcI
LAUSD’S MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR DESCRIBES CHILD TRAUMA AS A SILENT EPIDEMIC
http://bit.ly/1WMxuxz
Accomplishing change w/o changing anything: ESSA RULEMAKING: Day 3
http://bit.ly/1ZxqeHA
LAO PROPOSES FULL-DAY PRESCHOOL FOR ALL LOW-INCOME WORKING FAMILIES IN CALIFORNIA
http://bit.ly/1VK8b0T
DR. DEBRA DUARDO NAMED COUNTY SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT
http://bit.ly/1RzEfop
REPORT FINDS MASSIVE UNDER-INVESTMENT IN NATION’S SCHOOL BUILDINGS
http://bit.ly/1RkUrXn
TEACHERS' PENSION FUNDS INVESTED IN PEARSON?
http://bit.ly/1XKGZO2
SUPERVISORS HIRING AN EX-DROPOUT TO LEAD L.A. COUNTY EDUCATION OFFICE
http://bit.ly/1RekFfh
A FOUR-LETTER WORD FOR CALIFORNIA EDUCATION
http://bit.ly/1RdM7IE
One year later: VACCINE DEBATE RETURNS TO CALIFORNIA CAPITOL | http://capradio.org
http://bit.ly/22soHYt
LA SCHOOL REPORT/THE 74 ATTACKS PROGRESSIVES ON CHARTER SCHOOLS & QUOTES THEMSELVES TWICE AS GUARDIANS OF TRUTHINESS
http://bit.ly/1T4gALQ
LA CITY COUNCIL BEHIND LAUSD EFFORT TO INCREASE AFTER-SCHOOL FUNDING
http://bit.ly/1XHPd9v
HOW TO HELP ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FEEL SAFE AFTER A STABBING ON CAMPUS
http://bit.ly/1Mjpi7z
GRANADA HILLS WINS STATE ACADEMIC DECATHLON: FRANKLIN IS 2nd, MARSHALL 3rd, FOLLOWED BY EL CAMINO & SOUTH PASADENA
CA CHARTER SCHOOLS PUSH FOR 1 MILLION STUDENTS BY 2022; BROAD PLAN CHANGES, "BUT THE ORIGINAL INTENT HASN'T CHANGED" http://bit.ly/1WCNbY1
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
LAUSD schools are Closed Monday. WHAT’S CLOSED, OPEN ON CESAR CHAVEZ DAY IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA, MARCH 28 AND 31
By Holly Andres, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1ZBwUo1
Posted: 03/24/16, 4:02 PM PDT
BANKS: Banks and financial markets are OPEN both days.
GOVERNMENT:
•City of Los Angeles offices, including libraries (www.lapl.org), are CLOSED on Monday March 28.
•Los Angeles Superior Court is CLOSED on Thurs. March 31.
•State offices, including the Department of Motor Vehicles (www.dmv.ca.gov), are CLOSED on Thurs. March 31.
• Los Angeles County and federal offices are open both days.
MAIL: The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail both days. www.usps.com
SCHOOLS:
• Los Angeles Unified School District schools are CLOSED on Monday March 28 (home.lausd.net).
• Cal State Northridge, Mission, Pierce and Valley colleges are CLOSED on Thurs. March 31.
TRANSIT: Buses and subway services in Los Angeles will run on a regular
schedule (www.metro.net) as will Metrolink trains
(www.metrolinktrains.com).
TRASH: Pick up is on a regular schedule in Los Angeles
(www.lacitysan.org), Burbank (www.burbankca.gov) and Glendale
(www.glendaleca.gov) on both days.
__________
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 9:00 a.m.
SPECIAL BOARD MEETING - INCLUDING CLOSED SESSION ITEMS
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 1:00 p.m.
SPECIAL BOARD MEETING
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state
legislator, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the
president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state
legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Volunteer in the classroom.
Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child -
and ultimately: For all children.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
|
