Setting the agenda

4LAKids: Sunday, June 10, 2007 In This Issue: • UNION LEADERS IN A BIND + DISCOVERY SCHOOL FAILURE • OpEd: LAUSD LOCKS DOWN LOCKE? + L.A. UNIFIED: THE SCHOOL BULLY + WAS IT A POLITICAL OR AN EDUCATIONAL DECISION? • WHEN SHOULD A KID START KINDERGARTEN? • THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL IN MAKING A HIGH SCHOOL GREAT • THE NEWS THAT NEVER FITS MEETS SOME RANDOM MUSING • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • 4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved! • 4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. "The mayor, a former UTLA organizer and committed union liberal, has insisted his agenda puts teachers first." —from a Daily News story "Union Leaders in a Bind" about the role of UTLA in school reform [below]. ►PLEASE RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND AND REPEAT AFTER ME: Until the mayor, the union, rank-and-file teachers, principals, the superintendent, the board of ed, the media, the district and city, county, state and federal governments put CHILDREN first on the agenda we are on a fast track to failure. This is an article of blind faith. It does not require data, standards, rubrics, benchmarks or scientific proof. Parents get this and I think almost all teachers and school site administrators do too. For the rest it needs to be a mantra repeated until either belief or other employment sets in. —smf "News reports high dropout rates," Ivan said. "In my magnet class every senior graduated in the last four years. Why not not report those statistics?" UNION LEADERS IN A BIND + DISCOVERY SCHOOL FAILURE ►UNION LEADERS IN A BIND: Reform-minded UTLA chiefs struggle to win over teachers by Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer, LA Daily News 6/10/2007 - With momentum growing for drastic reform at Los Angeles public schools driven by the superintendent and mayor, the politically powerful teachers union finds itself on the front lines of a potentially divisive battle. United Teachers Los Angeles' own crew of reform leaders is walking a tightrope between privately backing reform efforts it has long sought, while publicly defending the rights of a rank-and-file that is being described as staunchly rigid and unaccepting of change. Led by President A.J. Duffy, the small team of advisers is keenly aware that it must quickly and smoothly work to engender the support of its membership or risk jeopardizing the unprecedented alignment of leaders to spark a revolution at the beleaguered school district. After decades of failed reforms, achievement scores lagging well behind the state averages and dropout rates estimated between 24 percent and 50 percent, the lives of more than 708,000 students and teachers hang in the balance - and with that, the health of the city itself. "I don't think it's the union leadership any longer. It's a battle between the leadership being more reform-minded than the membership and the membership dragging down what the leadership wants to do in political and classroom advances," said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "It's a tussle with the staunchly rigid rank-and-file where the reformers are on top, but they're being held back by a fear of change in the predominant majority of members." Los Angeles teachers, who have been on the receiving end of countless promises while little has resulted from previous reform efforts, have become mistrustful of the district even as they have wielded considerable clout in district politics. The divide is deep, especially in the wake of the backroom deal struck by the mayor with the union leadership to create Assembly Bill 1381, which would have given the mayor a substantial role in the school district. Maclay Middle School algebra teacher Tim Henricks, who considers himself new to the profession with seven years experience, said what he sees is a membership divided, particularly between newer teachers and their more senior colleagues. Younger teachers seem more receptive to ideas like charter schools or getting charter-like freedoms, while those who have been in the Los Angeles Unified School District system far longer may be more complacent. "With charters, there's more freedom to do what you want without the LAUSD breathing down your neck. But the major concern is, what happens after five years and the issue (arises) of getting rid of teachers with just cause? "It's the parents and the teachers - nothing really gets done without that, anything that's productive anyway, that moves in the right direction. Without our support, it's going to go nowhere." SUSPICIOUS OF REFORM At Cleveland Humanities Magnet High, teachers have a long record of classroom success by working together closely to help students do well in core classes. But they said that despite getting 40 percent of their graduates last year into University of California schools, they are facing increasing pressure to follow a standardized approach. "Teachers are skeptical of the reforms that would seemingly help them because of all the strings attached," said Gabriel Lemmon, a 10th-grade philosophy teacher in the magnet program. "Bureaucracy should fit itself around good teaching. Teaching should not fit itself around a bureaucracy." For Duffy, the key to winning broad support for reform is local control. "I've seen this district reorganize every four and a half years for a new reform, and teachers are tired of putting their time and energy, their hearts and their souls into reforms that are not going to bring better student outcomes and more support for teachers in the classrooms and health and human service professionals at the school sites." MINDFUL OF ELECTION With a union election coming next February, Duffy and his team will likely be treading carefully, especially with the district facing a deficit that might jeopardize its ability to win further increases on top of the 6 percent raise won this year. "The union's leaders are not strongly moving forward with any reform agenda because it's a very fine line with the upcoming election," Regalado said. And although AB 1381 is dead - defeated in the courts, with the mayor announcing he won't pursue appeals after he secured a majority on the school board - the sentiment of a "hostile takeover" is very much alive among the members who were split down the middle on support for the legislation. As school board officials and the Mayor's Office are working quietly to develop a plan for Villaraigosa to oversee a "demonstration project" of low-performing schools, the union has sent a clear message to them: Let the schools come to you with the overwhelming consensus of teachers or we will be forced to oppose the move. "The mayor has a nasty habit of jumping too quickly," said one official, who asked for anonymity. "What we're trying to get him to understand through back channels and get him to do is not move so quickly." At a recent news conference announcing the mayor's decision to give up the legal fight for AB 1381, Deputy Mayor Ray Cortines emphasized that the mayor's team will not actively "pick" schools. Rather, it will look to schools that ask for the office's involvement. ALLAYING FEARS The mayor, a former UTLA organizer and committed union liberal, has insisted his agenda puts teachers first. He has formed an alliance with new Superintendent David Brewer III, won majority control of the school board control and embraced union leaders. But it will take all his powers of persuasion to assuage fears of the rank-and-file. "The public schools in Los Angeles are not going to be able to change unless you have buy-in on the part of the teachers, administrators, and parents," said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center. "The fact that the mayor came out of the teachers union, and the fact that he's a very persuasive, charismatic leader, the potential still exists for the mayor to play an important role in shaping the discussion on how to best improve the schools in Los Angeles and getting buy-in from the teachers to make that happen." Villaraigosa said he believes any reform effort has to come from the "ground up, not from the top down," and that the union is "key to any effort to reform our schools." He admitted there will be challenges with the union, but he repeatedly emphasized one point: his long-standing relationship with the powerful organization. "I've got a long history with them and we go way back, and my expectation is that we'll be able to work just fine," he said. "Challenges are opportunities and I can't tell you that there won't be some challenges, but I can tell you that I've got a long history with them, a very, very long history, and I think it's one that will provide the foundation for a successful partnership." NEED FOR CHANGE Brewer insists he wants to work with the union but also made clear he means those who share the reform vision. "Believe it or not, there are people inside the union that really understand that they need to change, and we just have to work with those people," he said. What the mayor, Brewer and the union are seeking to achieve are the same core reform concepts: Small schools, greater local autonomy with teachers and principals having more control over budget and curriculum, and streamlining the bureaucracy to redirect those funds to classrooms. Few can deny that teachers would embrace all those ideas, but the key to getting their support will likely come down to the process and showing teachers they are valued as professionals who have something to say about the reform proposals. Wong said with public education on the forefront of public discourse, teachers feel under attack. "There is a concern on the part of many teachers that their input is not being fully appreciated, so they resent it when people use the discussion about school reform as an opportunity to make disparaging remarks about teachers, that it's their fault," Wong said. Union leaders believe their fatal political misstep was the decision to strike the backroom deal on AB 1381 with the mayor without involving UTLA's governing bodies. Now they are working hard to educate teachers about the different reform options and what they would mean to them. "These changes cause so much uncertainty for many teachers - we're not the most revolutionary of folk - and uncertainty causes folks to get very conservative in their thinking," Cleveland High's Magnet Program coordinator Lemmon said. "So I don't know. I hope that we do something, but it seems that bottom-up or top-down, at the end of the day, it all seems about the same." _________________________ ►DISCOVERY SCHOOL FAILURE: LAUSD gets tough, but only on charters Daily News Editorial 6/10/2007 — It's hard to fault LAUSD officials for wanting to shut down the Discovery Charter Prep School in Pacoima. A school that can only claim 1 percent of its students at grade level in math doesn't exactly inspire confidence. But it's amusing to see the district that's long dismissed test scores as a measure of education citing test scores to shut down one of the charters it so loathes and fears. It would be nice to see the district as concerned about failure within traditional public schools. Does anyone remember the last time the Los Angeles Unified School District tried to close down one of its own underperforming campuses? We don't either. But with charters, failure has consequences. Unlike the rest of the LAUSD, only good charter schools stick around, and for that, the students benefit. This just in: LAUSD PAYROLL SNAFU'S COSTS SOARING by Joel Rubin | LATimes | Widespread problems and delay adds more than $46 million to tab OpEd: LAUSD LOCKS DOWN LOCKE? + L.A. UNIFIED: THE SCHOOL BULLY + WAS IT A POLITICAL OR AN EDUCATIONAL DECISION? OpEd: LAUSD LOCKS DOWN LOCKE? + L.A. UNIFIED: THE SCHOOL BULLY ►LAUSD LOCKS DOWN LOCKE? District officials say teachers changed their minds about turning their school into a charter. In any case, the board should let them go Green Dot. LA Times editorial June 6, 2007 — Just When It Looked like the rebel forces at Locke High School were going to wrest their school from the inept clutches of the Los Angeles Unified School District and convert it to a Green Dot charter, the empire struck back. The district invalidated the charter application last week, saying the petition no longer had the requisite majority of teachers on board. Seventeen teachers, the district says, want to rescind their signatures because they misunderstood what they were signing. Can't they read? Didn't they do their homework and speak to colleagues at other Green Dot schools? At this point, the school board should step in and rap its administrators on the knuckles — because only it has the authority to reject a petition for lack of signatures. And if it doesn't do so, we hope that this will be the first order of business for the new school board, which takes over next month. Voters want charters, and they want the school district to clear the way for them to happen. District officials are adamant that they did not pressure teachers at Locke to change their minds, suggesting that teachers had opted for Green Dot partly out of ignorance about the district's alternative plans for reform. What alternative plans? The district — along with the teachers union — has had decades to give students and parents a better school than Locke. Having failed to deliver, the district now owes them the chance to try something else. That is the great promise and potential of charters, which create laboratories for innovation, places where educators can put more money into the classroom and test educational theories — such as longer days, uniforms for students and more latitude for principals. Not all of those ideas will work, but if the district welcomes rather than fights them, it too can learn and adapt. Instead, the district has resisted change. The result: There may be genuine confusion at Locke about Green Dot, but there's also a real atmosphere of fear at the school. After the principal attended a Green Dot meeting and spoke disparagingly of the LAUSD, he was ousted from his job and escorted from campus — ostensibly for having allowed teachers to use class time to sign the charter petition. Even if teachers didn't read the petition carefully, that's the sort of handwriting on the wall anyone could see. It's still unclear whether the teachers at Locke can rescind their signatures. One lesson Green Dot should take from this is that it must ensure that teachers truly are informed about the changes coming their way when they sign a charter petition. State statutes, however, clearly give school boards authority to deny charter applications if there aren't enough signatures. The current school board still has the chance to get this right. If it cannot bring itself to supervise a fair process, it should defer final judgment on Locke's petition and turn this matter over to a board that will — the new school board. _________________________ ►L.A. UNIFIED: THE SCHOOL BULLY A teacher's inside look at the district's aggressive campaign to keep Locke High School from going charter. by Bruce William Smith, opinion from the Los Angeles Times Smith teaches English at Locke high school. June 7, 2007 — I am one of the leaders of the teacher revolt at Locke High School. Locke was, for many years, the ashcan of the Los Angeles Unified School District, mismanaged in every way. Things have improved here, but not enough, and efforts to do more have been frustrated by district interference. Now, after a majority of teachers expressed a desire to break away from the LAUSD, the district has revealed to everyone how little regard it has for teachers, majority rule or state law. Conflict, controversy, despondency — all are present in full measure these days at Locke, a 2,500-student campus in Watts, as we wrestle with the future of the school. Green Dot Public Schools, the most prominent charter school operator in Southern California, negotiated with the district for months about the fate of Locke. But then, on April 13, the Los Angeles Board of Education — showing little concern for our current students and teachers — approved eight Green Dot start-up schools for the surrounding neighborhood, which would certainly bleed Locke dry. But another option emerged a couple of weeks later: Alain Leroy Locke Charter High School. This would keep the charters on our campus but under a Green Dot umbrella, funded directly by the state. Founder Steve Barr and Green Dot fully realize what many teachers here have long known: The only satisfactory solution is to save Locke but remove it from LAUSD control. To that end, I and other teachers last month circulated a petition that documented our support for the new Green Dot plan. A majority of our tenured teachers — 41 out of 73 — signed it. On May 8, the day we finished collecting signatures, Principal Frank Wells was escorted off campus by an LAUSD official. Three days later, when the petition was filed with the district, I was relieved of all my non-teaching duties (coordinating assessments and writing our school improvement plan) and was assigned to supervising our legion of rebellious, tardy students. I lost my summer employment too, and thousands of dollars in pay. The district's disinformation campaign was launched the next week. We had a mandatory after-school meeting, at which representatives from the LAUSD and the teachers union attacked the plan for three hours. Green Dot was barred from participating. Mat Taylor, the United Teachers Los Angeles rep from Fremont High School, told our faculty: "You fired yourselves when you signed that petition." Others said that Green Dot offered no healthcare benefits (a falsehood retracted after I objected), that a continual stream of unhappy Green Dot teachers reapply to the LAUSD and other distortions. After all that, some teachers withdrew their signatures. In the following week, six hours of meetings (time originally scheduled to prepare for reaccreditation) were spent hearing about five new rival proposals for Locke's future — as if we'd never made a choice. An anti-Green Dot petition was circulated persistently until, having cajoled, confused and intimidated our teachers, the LAUSD was satisfied: 17 had rescinded their signatures. When the LAUSD threw out our charter petition, district officials, including Supt. David L. Brewer, insisted that no one was pressured or coerced. This simply strains credulity. The LAUSD has proved again and again that it can't manage urban high schools. Test scores are low. Student attendance is low and declining. Parents have no confidence that they're sending their kids to safe campuses. There's massive teacher and administrative turnover, so improvement plans are drawn from scratch year after year. Among the attacks launched against Green Dot is that the charter plan is all about money. Well, that's true. This is about money. If Locke — and then maybe Santee or Taft, where teachers are also talking to Green Dot — withdraw from the LAUSD, district enrollment will continue to decline. Funding is based on enrollment, so if that keeps dropping, then how will the district pay for its bloated bureaucracy? The LAUSD doesn't have the right to summarily reject our charter. State law is clear: A petition can be discarded by the school board only if it "did not contain the requisite number of signatures at the time of its submission to a school district." On May 11, the date in question, ours did. By acting as if our petition never happened, the LAUSD keeps it from reaching the Los Angeles Board of Education. Without a board vote, the LAUSD's reasoning goes, a rejection can't even be appealed to the county or state boards of education. This is a shameless ploy by a desperate district. Like any party to a dispute, we are entitled to a fair hearing before an impartial body. The district bureaucrats should let the members of the newly elected Board of Education, their new bosses, consider and vote on Locke's charter. If the LAUSD is to have any credibility in educating our young people about open, democratic government and fair play, it must. _______________________________ WAS IT A POLITICAL OR AN EDUCATIONAL DECISION? from the AALA (Administrator's Union) newsletter for the Week of June 4, 2007 The following article was printed in the Los Angeles Times on May 26, 2007: "Retired Principal Neal B. Kleiner, a losing candidate in this month�s school board race, was asked to be interim principal at troubled Locke High School, but the offer was rescinded when he showed up for work, district officials confirmed. "Kleiner said Local District Superintendent Carol Truscott apologized and told him that her superiors had nixed the arrangement. Filling in instead will be retired Principal Travis Kiel. "Truscott did not return calls. Kleiner lost a hard-fought race to Richard Vladovic, who will represent the district that includes Locke." AALA wants to be clear up front. We have the utmost respect for the integrity and capability of Travis Kiel, and our concern regarding this incident in no way is a reflection on his ability to lead Locke. However, AALA is concerned when unnamed �superiors� nix an interim principal assignment made by a local district superintendent when the interim candidate is clearly qualified for the position. Neal Kleiner worked directly for Local District 7 Superintendent Carol Truscott as principal of Muir Middle School and was highly successful by all accounts in a school with demographics and needs similar to Locke. In addition, Mr. Kleiner taught at Locke for many years and was respected by teachers and community alike. There was no better person to help the troubled school. So, that begs the question, why was a political decision made to nix the assignment? When AALA got involved in opposition to mayoral control of the school district, one of the main reasons was the potential for politicizing the assignments of school-site administrators. Is every administrator going to need to undergo a political litmus test regardless of professional accomplishments and capabilities? Many years ago, the tenure laws were instituted to protect teachers from the politicizing of the curriculum. School administrators need political protection NOW and it must come from the Superintendent of Schools. He is the only person who can stand up and protect his site administrators from unwarranted political influences. It certainly is the right of the Superintendent to make administrative assignments, but they must be made on sound educational grounds and not for purely political reasons. This sorry situation undermines the morale of all administrators and the general public who want the highest ethical standards to guide our schools. ►4LAKids 2¢: The handling of the Locke/Green Dot revolt has all the earmarks of amateur hour in Dixie – and I apologize to everyone South of the Mason-Dixon line for the slight! Green Dot's stealth campaign to organize the teachers and LAUSD's efforts to undo the damage was shocking and awful. These sort of shenanigans played against the backdrop of utter adult failure at Locke is almost enough to drive one to drink the AB1381 Kool-Aid …as advertised in the LA Times! The Times quotes Kleiner as quoting Local District Superintendent Truscott saying 'her superiors' had nixed the arrangement. My reading of the LAUSD org chart/chain of command shows Truscott as having only one superior: the superintendent — who in turn reports to the board of education. MAKING RETIREES' SECOND ACT A CLASS ACT by Howard Blume, LA Times Staff Writer| Governor & Sherry Lansing unveil effort to hire math+science teachers WHEN SHOULD A KID START KINDERGARTEN? NOTE: Proposed Legislation AB683 (Sharon Runner) changes, from December 2 to September 1, the date by which a child must turn 5 years old to enroll in kindergarten in California , beginning with the 2009-10 school year. AB1236 (Mullen) moves up the date by 3 months by which a child must be 5 years old to enroll in kindergarten and 6 years old to enroll in first grade, beginning in 2011-12; makes kindergarten compulsory, beginning in 2010-11; and establishes the Kindergarten Readiness Program, beginning in 2011-12. There is an excellent long form article in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine by Elizabeth Weil - an article 4LAKids reader and friend Sandra Tsing Loh calls "well researched and heartbreaking" even as she questions whether the issue isn't really more about class than age. WHEN SHOULD A KID START KINDERGARTEN? - by Elizabeth Weil from the New York Times Magazine - Sunday, June 3, 2007 THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL IN MAKING A HIGH SCHOOL GREAT While Newsweek's ranking of the 1200 Best High Schools in America is, as reported earlier, suspect - and 4LAKids apologises to Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (SOCES) for leaving them off the list (#4 in LAUSD/#281 in the nation) the article on the role of the principal at successful schools accompanying the list was excellent! It too is too long for this format, but definitely worth a read! THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL by Barbara Kantrowitz and Jay Mathews Newsweek May 28, 2007 issue THE NEWS THAT NEVER FITS MEETS SOME RANDOM MUSING Thursday I went to the groundbreaking for the new gym at San Pedro High - it was a beautiful day and a beautiful event; SPHS will have a beautiful gym! Everyone who attended was given a sting of beads to wear. I am old enough to remember when you were busted for wearing beads to school ...but what goes around, comes around. And sometimes not nearly soon enough! (warning: if hippie peace-creepiness offends you, read no further!) Last weekend we had a Community Talent show at the local elementary school (the community of Mount Washington has a lot of professional talent and our show really rocked!). A woman I have known for about four years from our work on the neighborhood council went on stage and sang some peace songs from the youth she and I shared in the sixties. She has a clear soprano, a beautiful voice. Some of the other acts were selling CDs and doing a brisk business; Maggie isn’t in their league. She chose to be a school teacher or perhaps that profession chose her. She sang: Last night I dreamed the strangest dream I'd ever dreamed before I dreamed the world had all agreed To put an end to war. I dreamed I saw a mighty room The room was filled with men And the paper they were signing said They'd never fight again And when the papers all were signed And a million copies made They all joined hands end bowed their heeds And grateful prayers were prayed And the people in the streets below Were dancing round and round And guns and swords and uniforms Were scattered on the ground I enjoyed all the other acts, I bought someone else’s CD – but it was Maggie’s song I took away with me. The song was written in 1950 in protest to the ‘oh dear, here we go again’ Korean War by folk singer Ed McCurdy; it’s been recorded by just about everyone since from Pete Seger and The Weavers to Simon & Garfunkel, John Denver, and Johnny Cash. Somewhere along the line we’ve stopped singing that song and dreaming that dream. But to quote Pete Seger’s one improvement to King James’ Ecclesiastes, “….I swear it’s not too late.” I don't know a dream that's not been shattered or driven to its knees but it's alright, it's alright for we lived so well so long Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on I wonder what's gone wrong I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong — Paul Simon: “An American Tune” MAJORITY & MAJORITY We agonize in the country about the age of majority. • In California one must go to school until one completes the twelfth grade or reaches 18. • One can’t buy tobacco products until one is 18. • One can start driving at 16, but the real driver’s license doesn’t come ‘till 18. • You can’t vote or join the army/navy/air force/marines or move away from home ‘till 18. • You can’t drink ‘till you’re 21. You can’t go to adult jail or prison ‘till you’re 18 – although we chafe at this and try to try minors as adults rather capriciously based on the reprehensibility of the offense and the politics of the moment. A 17 year old who fails to go to school will be called to account in juvenile court along with his or her parents. Ironically a 15 year old who does his parents in quickly becomes emancipated in more ways than one! I’m a PTA leader and PTA was instrumental in advocating for the juvenile justice system at the beginning of the last century. I have a problem with this flip-floppery. Not a solution, just a problem. This brings us to child soldiers and the majority/majority conundrum. THE MAJORITY OF FOLKS IN THIS COUNTRY OPPOSE THE CURRENT CONDUCT OF THE WAR this nation is embarked upon, at least the Iraq portion of it. We’re tired of the Afghan part too, but we seem resigned to that: bin Ladin, al Qaeda and the Taliban are bad guys we understand. We Americans also don’t like child soldiers or the idea of them. The best seller status of the book “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah, an autobiography about child soldiers in Sierra Leone proves this out. (If booksellers and chat show/TV newsmagazine commentary are barometers of public opinion …and why not?) Yet in Guantánamo Bay we hold a Canadian subject/child soldier arrested in Afghanistan for being a war criminal at 15 years old. The US accuses Omar Ahmed Khadr of murder for killing an American soldier, not in an ambush but in a firefight. Khadr was held in a CIA secret prison until he was 16, then he was sent to Gitmo. Guantánamo Bay has become our Devils Island …except that the French had due process before prisoners were sent to Île du Diable. Go rent the move “Patton”. George C. Scott as Gen. Patton delivers that rousing speech at the opening of the film – truly heroically, the flag behind him. “Your job is not to die for your country; your job is to make sure the other poor dumb bastard dies for his country.” That, like it or not, is what war is all about. And you’re not supposed to like it. To take a fifteen year old, hold him for five years in solitary confinement and accuse of murder under a statute that didn’t exist until a year before seems both cruel and unusual and a violation of the (Article I, Clause 3) US Constitutional prohibition of ex post facto prosecution. Not to mention the niceties of international law and the Geneva Convention. There was a firefight on that day in July 2002 near Khost, Afghanistan. Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, the US soldier Kahdr killed was a combatant. After the fight Khadr, who was wounded, was captured. From then on he was a prisoner of war — the Geneva Convention applied along with international law holding that child soldiers are victims rather than criminals. Except that in 2002 President Bush declared that the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war doesn’t apply to Guantánamo Bay detainees because they are, by his declaration: “unlawful enemy combatants”. On Monday a military judge disagreed, finding Kahdr to be simply an “enemy combatant” and therefore outside the scope of his court’s jurisdiction. The judge said Khadr hasn't been declared an "unlawful" enemy combatant with no right to fight in Afghanistan -- something required by the Military Commission Act passed by Congress last year. Under the Geneva Convention enemy combatants are accorded rights currently being denied – though not to a trial because being a combatant is not in itself a crime. Certainly if Guantánamo detainees are complicit in crime – such as suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – or of true war crimes – they warrant trial and punishment. But not torture or the endless charade of indefinite confinement and semi-secret show trails that fail to get off the ground. THERE ARE SAD HISTORICAL PARALLELS IN CHILD SOLDIERY. The lowest ebb in the middle ages was the Children’s Crusade of 1212. A ‘crusade’ and a ‘jihad’ are the same ‘holy war’ (a most obscene oxymoron) from the other side of the battlefield. The last defenders of Chapultepec Castle (‘The Halls of Montezuma”) during the Mexican War of 1847 were six teenage cadets. According to legend, the cadets fought the Americans until, refusing to be captured, the last survivor hurled himself off the castle walls to his death on the rocks below, wrapped in the Mexican flag. The six cadets are known in Mexico as the "Boy Heroes of Chapultepec." A century later President Harry S Truman laid a wreath at the Niños Héroes monument. When US reporters asked him why, Truman replied: "Brave men don't belong to one country." Indeed. —smf Read more | CURRENT EVENTS: Child Soldiers, Guantánamo & International Law EVENTS: Coming up next week... ► SUPERINTENDENT BREWER'S ANNUAL STATE OF THE SCHOOLS ADDRESS Thursday, June 14, 2007 — 9AM John Liechty Middle School 650 S. Union Ave @ Wilshire., Los Angeles. CA ►IN OUR OWN WORDS High school youth from South Los Angeles will lead walking tours, open to the public, of the Vermont corridor neighborhood. Focusing on local economic health and transportation issues, the youth will tell stories of the neighborhood's history, connecting it to conditions today. The tours will highlight community landmarks and cultural institutions as well as significant historical changes •TOUR DATES/TIMES: Saturday, June 16 (Transportation) Tours at 10:30 a.m and at 1 p.m. •TOUR START: Southern California Library 6120 S. Vermont Avenue, L.A. 90044 (between Slauson and Gage) •Tours are about a mile in length and last approximately one hour. Comfortable walking shoes strongly recommended. For more information and to reserve a spot Phone: (323) 759-6063, ext. 17 Web: www.socallib.org •Wednesday Jun 13, 2007 ► VALLEY REGION NEW HIGH SCHOOL #9 CEQA Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Meeting LAUSD has completed a Draft EIR for this new school project. This report evaluates the potential impacts the project may have on the surrounding area. The purpose of this meeting is to present the Draft EIR to the community, and receive comments and questions regarding the results. Your input is very valuable. 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Fulton College Preparatory - Auditorium 7477 Kester Avenue Van Nuys, CA 91405 •Thursday Jun 14, 2007 ► SOUTH LA AREA NEW HIGH SCHOOL #3: Presentation of Design Development Drawings At this meeting we will present the design of the new school and discuss the next steps in the school construction process. 6:00 p.m. Budlong Elementary School 5940 S. Budlong Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90044 *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: 213-893-6800 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Mike.Lansing@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Jon.Lauritzen@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 David.Tokofsky@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • 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 Schwarzenegger: 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. • Register. • Vote. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council. • 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 SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

One bird sings | Ten thousand stars dance

4LAKids: Sunday, June 3, 2007 In This Issue: • “This morning I opened my eyes at 4:00 a.m. and realized with deep despair that I am no longer a teacher of young children.” • NEXT STEP FOR SCHOOLS • DISTRICT BLOCKS LOCKE HIGH'S DEPARTURE + TOO LITTLE TOO LATE FOR L.A.’S URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS • DISABLED ACCESS IN SCHOOLS FAULTED: Random audit finds that 19 L.A. Unified schools have not made upgrades for the handicapped. • FUND CREATED TO REBUILD GARFIELD HIGH AUDITORIUM • HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • 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 morning I opened my eyes at 4:00 a.m. and realized with deep despair that I am no longer a teacher of young children.” by Robin Atwood Friday, May 25, 2007 "I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance." e. e. cummings Last week, after twenty years of introducing first graders to the power of words, I wrote words I never thought I’d write: Please accept this letter as formal notification that I am leaving my position. . . .I had put off writing the words simply because I couldn’t think of what to write. Suggestions from friends included such eloquent missives as "I quit" and "Take this job and shove it". But did I quit the system, or did the system quit me? And no, I do not want them to take the job and shove it. I want them to take the job and restore some dignity to it. Better yet, I want them not to take the job at all but to get their hands off it and let someone do it well and with passion. While my co-workers spent the past four days attending meetings about next year, I worked in my classroom, packing away materials I hope to use again some day. While they looked over the schedule for testing every child in early August in order to get baseline data outlining the "basic skills" the children cannot perform, I packed away juggling scarves and pondered: What is basic? It seems to me that the term "basic" encompasses all those things human beings would do if there were no outside interference. "Basic" is organic. I imagine a conversation between Abraham and Sarah sitting under the stars in Mesopotamia. Isaac is sleeping in the tent behind them. Sarah says, "Is there anything you’d like to do before I douse the cookfire?" Abraham scratches his beard, thinks a moment, says "I know! Let’s segment some phonemes!" Sarah says, "Nah. We did that last night. Why don’t we do phoneme deletion tonight?" Basic. If left completely alone, people would work to find effective ways to communicate, discover artistic ways to explore beauty and truth, invent tools and machines to make their work easier. Basic. And, yes, woven into and throughout the basic there would be wordplay: bibbity bobbity boo, john jacob jingleheimer schmidt, flip flap flee I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut tree. I can’t imagine that there would be such inorganic permutations of letters as voj or fek. I pack away the multi-cultural paint and remember the day we made an amazing discovery: Ain’t none of us black and ain’t none of us white. I think back to the day last November when the world began to crumble under my feet, the day I sat in a meeting and was told we would be administering DIBELS next year. "DIBELS?", I asked in disbelief. "Wait a minute. Back up, please. This district has purchased DIBELS? Without asking the teachers?" Oh, yes, I was told. The state is really cracking down on progress monitoring. We must have something in place to test the children three times a year for comparative data, and every two weeks for those who do not measure up. DIBELS is quick and easy. "But it only gives information that is not useful," I said, still struggling to make sense of the news. "The tasks it tests are not things I want my children to be able to do anyway." We have to have something. It’s quick and easy. Quick and easy. Quick and easy. Quick and easy. Becoming literate is not quick and easy, I’ll have them know. It happens over a lifetime. It’s not something you do; it’s something you are. It’s the velveteen rabbit you love the fur off of until it becomes real. I cannot spend the first week of August asking children "What do you get if you take the /ch/ off chair?" Nothing you can sit on, that’s for sure. NCLB is taking more than the /ch/. They’re taking the rest of it, too. The very air is being sucked right out of our classrooms. If I don’t spend the first week of August, all of August, all of the entire year, asking "What do you love? What are you afraid of? What do you think? What do you feel? What do you dream?", then I can’t teach the children. If I don’t observe them while they’re building their Play-doh sculptures, performing their puppet plays, playing with the parachute in the yard, then I can’t know as much as I need to know about their oral language patterns, their work habits, their thought processes. I don’t want to give them busywork to do while I test children individually. I want to sit on the rug with them and read aloud Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and laugh and giggle at her reverse psychology methods. I can’t teach them if I don’t do these things and they can’t learn from me if I don’t tell them all about my fear of dogs when I was in first grade, the morning I went to get in the car for Daddy to take us to school and saw the neighbor’s house was on fire, the time I spent with my aunt while Mama and Daddy were on a business trip and the only thing I would eat was grits three times a day, and that I cried every single day of first grade–every single day–because I wanted to stay home and play on my swing set and read Nancy Drew instead of Dick and Jane. The reason I became a first grade teacher is that I hated first grade so very much because the teacher put us all through the same program of "basic skills" even though some of the children didn’t know the alphabet and I could already read the newspaper. I was determined never to do that to children. Never to standardize; always to individualize. That was 36 years ago, and we know too much to do that to children now, don’t we? Apparently not. I roll up the rug, and I am overcome with remembering all the time I spent on rugs with children over the last 20 years. I remember the day we were sharing our fears and Maddie spoke very slowly, cautiously choosing the words through which she would bare her soul: "I still watch Barney. I’ve been scared to tell anybody that. That’s what I’ve been scared of. That somebody would find out." A tense moment followed the cathartic confession she’d made on the safe territory of the rug. Then, gradually, one by one, others began confessing that they, too, watched Barney or Teletubbies. Connections were made, bonds were forged, sighs of release and relief issued forth. After that, when we used Maddie’s "Barney" word card for word sorts, it was so much more than an r-controlled vowel and a proper noun and a capitalization rule, though it was all of that. It had feelings and emotions and new concepts attached to it. I have wondered often since November if I am doing the right thing by leaving. Shouldn’t I stand in the gap? Shouldn’t I try to be an Esther in the palace saving her people? I don’t truly know. I think maybe the only life I can save is my own. As I packed the jump ropes and the handbells and Mac Davis’s "I Believe in Music" CD, I wondered if they’d ever be used again. At least I could’ve tried to work in some good things around all the testing, right? I really don’t think so. The struggle of going to work every day and having to choose between being a good employee or a good teacher, a choice none of us should have to make, became too much for me. The changing of definitions became too much. A good assessment is quick and easy? Being "professional" is implementing the plan handed down without asking any questions? I had reached the point where I could hardly look the children in the eye; I knew I’d let them down, but I didn’t know how to get around all the paperwork and testing. How could I teach them when I was so busy doing paperwork and testing them so I could prove I’d taught them? People need to realize this is far more than that swinging pendulum you hear so much about in education. Good teachers never swung with that thing anyway. Good teachers don’t go back and forth, only forward. When good teachers can’t go forward because someone has thrown such a heavy weight on them that they can’t even pick up their feet, where can they go but home, I ask you? I ask you, because I truly do not know. . I cannot stand in the gap anymore. I tried to, and they knocked me down and walked right over me. I think of Mac Davis’s song, and I want to be "young and rich and free". I think of my favorite line in Charlotte’s Web: An hour of freedom is worth more than a barrel of slops. So I run free. "Nor all your tears wash out a word of it. . ." ►Robin Atwood is/was a first grade teacher in Seminary, Miss. SEM•I•NARY Pronunciation: 'se-m&-"ner-E Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural -nar•ies Etymology: Middle English, seedbed, nursery, from Latin seminarium, from semin-, semen seed 1 : an environment in which something originates and from which it is propagated [a seminary of vice and crime] 2 a : an institution of secondary or higher education — from Webster Online Mrs. Atwood writes/wrote a blog, Robin Atwood’s First Grade News at http://robinatwood.blogspot.com/ that begins each entry with “Good Morning Boys and Girls” She also writes an adult blog at http://robinatwoodsweblog.blogspot.com NEXT STEP FOR SCHOOLS IT IS CRUCIAL THAT THE NEW BOARD SET PRIORITIES, DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY AND ENSURE THAT CHILDREN GET THE GREAT EDUCATION THEY DESERVE. EDITORIAL from the Los Angeles Times June 3, 2007 — THE LAWSUIT has been dropped, the board is about to morph and almost everyone is impatient for change. So the question of the moment is: What next for L.A.'s schools? Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his new majority of allies on the board have plenty of work ahead. They must revisit lost ambitions and set new priorities for making the schools more transparent, accountable and, above all, effective centers of learning: DON'T FORGET THE AUDIT. For well over a year, the mayor and City Controller Laura Chick have called for Chick's office to conduct an independent financial audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District, whose $11-billion budget is a murky affair to even the most erudite outsiders. The board and former Supt. Roy Romer resisted. The new board and Supt. David L. Brewer should welcome the scrutiny. THE SPIDER-MAN RULE. The flavor of the year is "local control" — allocating more money and decision-making to schools rather than centralizing it at district headquarters. This approach is popular with parents, who want more say, and United Teachers Los Angeles, whose member teachers crave a return to what they see as the more creative and fulfilling old days. But the district has changed; a quarter of LAUSD's roughly 700,000 students move every year. A consistent curriculum and instructional approach minimize the disruption to their education. There's nothing inherently wrong with empowering campuses, which is the case at many charter schools. But history offers a lesson here: The district didn't centralize power without reason. In the old days, teachers might have enjoyed their creativity, but many students weren't learning how to read or do math. Uncle Ben's line from "Spider-Man" is as apt for L.A. schools as it was for Peter Parker: With great power comes great responsibility. Charter teachers have more authority because they put their jobs on the line; they can be fired for poor performance and charter schools can be closed for failing to raise test scores. The district should hand more control to schools only with strict accountability. It's about teaching. Redirecting power, making schools smaller — these might help, but they shouldn't be confused with real reform, which is about instruction, not structure: fine teachers, strong curriculum (that means keeping LAUSD's highly successful Open Court reading program), excellent textbooks. The district needs more coherent, accountable teacher training and the authority to fire ineffective teachers and reward star staff. Principals need relief from rigid contract rules that keep them from assigning teachers where needed and asking them to do what it takes to raise achievement. The board and Villaraigosa — who has longtime UTLA ties — must push hard against the union's intransigence, insisting on a contract that works best for students. LEARN FROM CHARTERS. Rather than continue to be defensive about charter schools, the new board must invite charters with innovative programs to take over where the district's own schools have failed. Charter schools offer safe, disciplined alternatives to LAUSD's more chaotic campuses, and higher academic ambitions. That's a choice all L.A. families should have. THE OUTSIDERS. Villaraigosa and the school board's four newest members — Yolie Flores Aguilar, Tamar Galatzan, Monica Garcia and Richard Vladovic — have played valuable roles as high-profile critics of the district's status quo. Once inside the system, the natural temptation will be to turn cheerleader. That would be a mistake. There must be firm benchmarks in place to measure progress. (See the Spider-Man rule.) Within two years, the dropout rate should fall by at least five percentage points, and the vast majority of middle and high schools should meet their growth targets under the state's testing program. Within that timeline, new charter schools should be flourishing in district-provided facilities in neighborhoods where LAUSD schools have fallen short. The teachers contract should include more realistic work rules, and the student discipline policy should be toughened and fully implemented. ►The LA Times is quite right, this is a tipping point; a paradigm shift. The weatherman we don’t need to know which way the wind blows forecasts a perfect storm brewing. The Times in its history has been wrong and right and progressive and reactionary – read the New Yorker profile on Mayor Villaraigosa cited in the May 20th 4LAKids [link below] to see how wrong and right The Times had it on mayoral takeover of schools and how instrumental it was in all that happened. The Times in its aspiration to be “a national newspaper” may or may not even be relevant in Los Angles anymore …owned from afar, cutting back on newsroom staff, employee morale plummeting, being sold or selling out, no longer carrying a education column. It’s too soon to call for last rites but time will tell if The Times doesn’t. —smf The New Yorker profile on Mayor Villaraigosa DISTRICT BLOCKS LOCKE HIGH'S DEPARTURE + TOO LITTLE TOO LATE FOR L.A.’S URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS ►DISTRICT BLOCKS LOCKE HIGH'S DEPARTURE: Saying most tenured teachers no longer back a takeover, L.A. Unified tosses out Green Dot's charter plan. The firm's founder cries foul. by Joel Rubin, LA Times Staff Writer June 2, 2007 — In the high-stakes struggle for control over one of the city's most troubled public schools, Los Angeles school district officials have rejected plans by a leading charter group to take over the campus. Last month, Green Dot Public Schools announced that it had collected "signatures of interest" from a majority of the tenured teachers at Locke High School — clearing the major legal hurdle toward converting the campus into a series of charter schools. But on Friday, Los Angeles Unified School District officials threw out the formal takeover plan submitted by Green Dot on grounds that the group no longer has the support of a majority of the teachers. Many faculty members rescinded their signatures, district officials said, because of confusion over the proposed takeover. The district's decision drew a quick and angry response from Green Dot leaders, who accused district leaders of deliberately trying to undermine their efforts. They vowed to push ahead with plans to convert Locke by 2008. Charters are publicly funded but run independently, outside of many of the regulations imposed by school districts. In exchange for the freedom to innovate in the classroom, charters must improve student performance. Unlike the handful of other schools that converted to charters in L.A. Unified, Green Dot's gambit, if successful, would mark the first time an outside charter group organized a break from the district. Since Locke teachers indicated a willingness to leave the district, teachers at two other high schools have met with Green Dot founder Steve Barr to discuss possible partnerships. The prospect of a teacher revolt at Locke, as well as losing control of a campus and its millions in state funds, had sent district and teacher union officials scrambling to counter Green Dot. Within days of Green Dot's announcement, district officials had Locke Principal Frank Wells escorted off campus and relieved of his duties pending the outcome of a district investigation into allegations that he allowed teachers to leave their classrooms to collect and sign the petitions. In hurried, closed-door faculty meetings, district officials tried to assuage frustrated teachers with sudden offers of increased authority and reforms. Officials also emphasized that, if the takeover went through, teachers would have to reapply to Green Dot for a job at the newly reconfigured Locke or transfer to another district school, and that Green Dot does not offer lifetime benefits provided by the district. And, because of strict state law, teachers were told their signatures would leave the district's Board of Education little choice but to approve Green Dot's takeover if it reached them for a vote. After the meetings, 17 of the 41 teachers who had signed the petitions asked to remove their signatures, saying they had not fully understood the implications, district officials said. "This is not a technicality of whether teachers signed the right form or not," said Kevin Reed, the district's general counsel. "This is a question of whether they had a true understanding of what they were signing." Indeed, confusion seems to have pervaded every aspect of this power struggle between Green Dot and the district. Some teachers interviewed by The Times said that Wells and others who gathered signatures had not been clear on Green Dot's plan. Other teachers said they withdrew their signatures after district officials indicated they had put their district employment at risk. One of those teachers, history instructor Frank Wiley, said that, like most faculty at Locke, he was desperate to see some improvements at the school, which has languished for years as one of the district's worst, where half of the 2,800 students drop out and others post dismally low scores in state testing. Wiley signed the petition in hopes it would bring changes but had no intention of joining the Green Dot staff. District officials, he said, led him to believe that his signature was tantamount to resigning from the district and applying to Green Dot. The petitions, copies of which were obtained by The Times, used language commonly included in charter conversions, in which signatures "indicate that [teachers] are meaningfully interested in teaching at this charter school." Reed, senior district official Kathi Littmann and district Supt. David L. Brewer have said repeatedly in interviews that teachers were not coerced or pressured to change their minds. Regardless, Barr accused district leaders of deliberately misleading teachers about Green Dot's takeover plan. Barr expressed confidence that Green Dot would win back teachers — and regain the 13 signatures they need for a majority — after the faculty learns more about Green Dot's model, which places high demands on teachers but offers them higher pay and more autonomy over resources and curriculum. Charter authorities in the state Department of Education said it was unclear whether Los Angeles Unified officials were allowed to summarily reject Green Dot's takeover proposal, or whether the Board of Education is required to vote on it. Without a formal rejection by the board, they said, Green Dot is unable to appeal to county and state officials. If he is unsuccessful in wresting control of Locke from the district, Barr said he plans to use eight charters already approved by the school board to open schools in the neighborhoods around Locke. At a meeting with parents and other community members scheduled for Wednesday at the school, district officials plan to further refine their own plans for changes at Locke, as well as the middle and elementary schools that feed it. A.J. Duffy, president of the teachers union, said he was pleased Green Dot had "lit a fire" under district officials but criticized the way signatures had been collected. "The problem here is there is no process that allows teachers to choose the particular reforms they want." Another Viewpoint: TOO LITTLE TOO LATE FOR L.A.’S URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS by Areva D. Martin DISABLED ACCESS IN SCHOOLS FAULTED: Random audit finds that 19 L.A. Unified schools have not made upgrades for the handicapped. MONITOR SAYS DISTRICT HAS ACTED IN 'BAD FAITH'. By Evelyn Larrubia, LA Times Staff Writer May 31, 2007 — An audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s progress in building and remodeling schools to make them accessible to the disabled found chronic problems in the design of parking, restrooms, ramps and drinking water fountains, as well as a troubling lack of documentation and misstatements of accomplishments. “We find this to be really offensive and frankly kind of squandering limited tax resources that are designed to build schools for everyone,” said Catherine Blakemore, a lawyer with the public interest law firm Protection and Advocacy. Her firm was one of three that sued the school system in 1993 on behalf of disabled students, principally alleging that the district had failed to provide adequate special education. The suit resulted in two consent decrees, known as the Chanda Smith decrees, in which the district agreed to make future schools accessible to the disabled and spend at least $87.5 million to upgrade existing campuses to provide access, in compliance with state and federal laws. An independent monitor was appointed by the court to review the district’s performance. “The progress report raises serious issues,” school district general counsel Kevin Reed said in a written statement Wednesday. The school system is reviewing the report and will come up with an “action plan” within 60 days, he said. He did not address specific problems. The audit, performed by Disability Access Consultants, found ramps with handrails that stopped short, new bleachers without wheelchair seating and outdoor lunch tables without wheelchair access. Bathrooms or stalls marked for use by the disabled did not provide proper clearance or the appropriate height for wheelchair users. Auditors found numerous problems in each of the 19 schools selected randomly for compliance, including four new campuses. It was the latest audit in a series commissioned by the monitor, but the first to tackle disabled access. In a scathing letter to the school board and superintendent, monitor Frederick Weintraub said the district had failed so dismally that it “appears indicative of a systemic problem in the management and oversight of the district’s facilities program.” Weintraub directed the school system to hire an accessibility expert to oversee the upgrades. Weintraub said it is impossible to know how much the district has spent on projects to improve access, because after nearly a year of meetings, telephone calls and broken promises, the district had acted in “bad faith” by failing to provide backup documentation for a majority of projects that had been chosen for the audit. District staff acknowledged that three projects reported as completed had never been started, and a site visit of one school found that work that was shown to be finished was not. The district kept a log intended to outline the renovations completed for disabled access, but the audit showed it to be “considerably inaccurate in many areas and a misrepresentation of funds expended. These inaccuracies extend beyond what may be characterized as reporting errors,” Weintraub wrote. He questioned the district’s decision to include as disability access improvements $66 million in fire alarm strobe light upgrades, when the reduction of barriers should have been given higher priority. The log also included projects labeled class-size reduction and earthquake repair. • “Franklyly kind of squandering?”, “‘Appears indicative’ of a systemic problem in the management and oversight of the district’s facilities program”. Really? Kind of…? Appears to indicate…? This is about as mealy-mouthed and pussy-footy as the English language goes; how many maybes can one string together without getting a laugh? Is this a hard hitting accusation or an appeal for another audit contract? Rumor has it that part of 'bad faith' shown was in failing to admit the surprise auditors when they showed up unannounced an unexpected at facilities that were not open. And that some of the non-compliance cited was in cases where waivers had been granted by the State Architect and/or State Board of Education. And perhaps a little ‘Goldilocks gotcha’ was played when access signs, etc., were found to be non-compliant if they were an inch or so too-high or too-low on doors, etc. That being said, as someone with oversight over the district’s expenditures (…and presumably part of apparently indicated failure of oversight) I look forward to the official rather than the water cooler response to the audit report. If it is true that projects reported as completed have never been started that is an egregious failure; heads should roll, etc. I do no mean to question Mr. Weintraub’s lifelong commitment-to and expertise-on the educational needs of exceptional children but I do question his quoted assertion that fire alarm upgrades somehow have lower priority than access ramps. Fire alarm systems are outside the scope, mission and purview of the audit and I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb – or even into the realm of political incorrectness – in saying that the safety of all children and every child is-and-must-always-be the most important mission of the whole enterprise of public education. —smf FUND CREATED TO REBUILD GARFIELD HIGH AUDITORIUM TOKOFSKY COMMITS $500.000 | A $25,000 DONATION KICKS OFF THE EFFORT TO REPAIR FIRE DAMAGE AT THE HISTORIC EAST L.A. HIGH SCHOOL by Carla Rivera, Times Staff Writer May 31, 2007 — The Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday announced the creation of a special fund to rebuild the historic auditorium at Garfield High School, gutted recently in a suspicious fire that caused an estimated $30 million in damage. "We suffered a great tragedy when this magnificent and historical building was destroyed by fire," said Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David L. Brewer, who was joined at a morning news conference in front of the East Los Angeles school by several lawmakers and business and community leaders. "We're looking forward to working with the community to rebuild this great auditorium. It's an opportunity in Los Angeles to do something good for all schools." Arturo Sneider, founding partner of Primestor, a real estate development firm with ties in the Latino community, inaugurated fundraising by presenting school officials with a $25,000 check. In addition, Brewer said the school would soon receive an initial $2.5 million in insurance money for remediation, environmental testing and rebuilding. Outgoing school board member David Tokofsky presented Brewer with a $500,000 check from his district discretionary fund to pay the insurance deductible. The building is fully insured for replacement, including code upgrades, said Steven La Shier, the district's deputy director of risk management. The policy also includes an antique historical building restoration clause. It is uncertain, however, how high rebuilding costs will climb. Officials hope not only to rebuild the 1925 auditorium but also to reconstruct original architectural details such as the ornate plaster molding, handcrafted wooden seating, murals and paneled ceiling. One source of encouragement is the existence of the building's original plans and blueprints from 1924, which are vital to accurately replicate the design. Tokofsky also invited school graduates with pictures or memories of the auditorium's earliest years to help fill in anthropological puzzle pieces, which will also be crucial for insurance claims. "We're lucky enough to have the drawings, but that's not enough," Tokofsky said. "But in talking with historical architects, we need the texture of what those walls and ceilings looked like." Still, some distinctive features such as the Depression-era glass chandeliers may be difficult or impossible to replace. Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Montebello), who grew up a block from Garfield High, has asked the Legislature's budget conference committee to provide an initial $1 million in education facilities bond money for reconstruction and up to $5 million total, depending on rebuilding costs. "Garfield High School is not merely an educational landmark; it is a beacon in East Los Angeles" that has lighted "the way to economic, artistic and academic achievements for generations of students." The May 20 blaze that gutted the auditorium is being investigated as an arson fire by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's and Fire departments and Los Angeles school police. No suspects have been identified, said school Police Chief Lawrence E. Manion, but he encouraged anyone with information to contact the sheriff's arson hotline at (323) 881-7530. On Wednesday, as students were immersed in state tests on the campus, the school's main building, which is attached to the auditorium and contains key offices and classrooms, was being heated to 140 degrees to inhibit the growth of mold. Air samples so far have tested below regulatory levels for asbestos and school officials said they hoped to reopen the building by June 11. * Donations to the Fund to Rebuild Garfield Auditorium can be made at any Bank of America branch, officials said. [BofA Account # 21296-51293] HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources ►LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT JOIN FORCES FOR PANDEMIC FLU PREPAREDNESS LA County Health Dept Press Release from Medical News Today 30 May 2007 — Students and school staff are one of the largest populations vulnerable to serious complications from the seasonal flu. Today the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) today announced a new partnership to help prevent students and staff from catching seasonal flu, and to collaborate on pandemic flu preparedness. By joining forces, county health officials and schools will be able to implement important preventative measures to keep children healthy during flu season. "Children are especially vulnerable to catching the flu, but there are ways to help them stay healthy," said Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, Public Health Director and County Health Officer. "Our collaboration with LAUSD is a partnership to encourage seasonal and pandemic flu preparedness with simple steps to prevent the spread of flu with washing your hands, covering your cough and sneezes, not touching your hands to your face, nose, or mouth, and getting a seasonal flu shot." As part of its seasonal and pandemic flu preparedness plan, LAUSD produced and distributed an instructional DVD and supporting materials to more than 800 schools in collaboration with the Department of Public Health's Clean Hands campaign to help students stay healthy all year long. "Helping our children and staff stay healthy ensures that learning and achievement are not interrupted," said LAUSD Superintendent David L. Brewer III. "By making this DVD available to all schools so that students learn how to stay healthy, we are taking proactive, preventative steps to minimize the impact of flu or pandemic on our students and staff. I am pleased to partner with LA County Department of Public Health to inform families about staying healthy." The partnership with the LAUSD is part of Public Health's "Clean Hands" campaign, a multicultural and multi-language grassroots program focusing on the importance of hand washing as a means to avoid influenza [or the flu]. The "Clean Hands" campaign illustrates just how easy it is to transmit germs during one's daily routine. The campaign shows how simple steps like hand washing, covering your cough, and getting a flu shot can not only keeps one healthy but also reduces the risk of foodborne illness. Due to Los Angeles County's diverse population, the "Clean Hands" campaign was launched in 12 different languages and targets 13 markets, including Hispanic, Asian, Russian, Armenian, Arabic, African American, and people with disabilities. "Clean Hands" focuses on reaching children, businesses, faith- based and other community-based organizations, individuals, and families. The Department of Public Health is committed to protecting and improving the health of the nearly 10 million residents of Los Angeles County. Through a variety of programs, community partnerships and services, Public Health oversees environmental health, disease control, and community and family health. Public Health comprises more than 4,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $700 million. For more information on Public Health, please visit http://www.lapublichealth.org. LAUSD has taken a number of steps to prepare for a pandemic, including delivery of "cough and sneeze etiquette" materials to schools that stress the importance of frequent hand washing, development of a pandemic flu response plan and establishment of clear lines of communication between the District and governing health agencies. LAUSD has also established a pandemic flu website at http://www.lausd.oehs/pandemicflu.asp. _______________________________________ ►KNOW CHIULD LEF BEHIGHND • smf note: some friends recently gave up on LA and LAUSD and went up to Portland because the grass is greener where it rains the most and the schools seemed better. Some teacher types in Portland disagree; they have a rad/lib/free range libertarian / anti-establishment / anti-union / ain’t-gonna-take-it-anymore website called Gnuteacher.com. The following is from there. • smf note2: more recently the Portland friends are back in LA. A long time ago, the federal government decided that our schools were not doing a very good job of turning out German rocket scientists. They knew this for a fact because the commies had managed to accelerate a 183lb. lump of metal named Sputnik up to 17,900mph with THEIR German rocket scientists. The U.S. meanwhile, had spent over 4 billion dollars and had been unable to make a rice crispy move much faster than 9.8m/sec2. The feds knew they needed some more smart people and they needed them pronto! Thus was born the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which allowed our Prez to throw money at schools like french fries towards pelicans. Now, instead of training young minds in all aspects of adulthood and citizenship, the job of the schools would be to create scientists, mathematicians, engineers and other assorted dweebs. Because, as we all know, Science and Math are "important" subjects that are actually useful in life as opposed to those "unimportant" subjects such as Art, Music and Philosophy which can only be used by sensitive undergrads to get the bra off an impressionable freshman Psychology major. This new paradigm of education did little to create German rocket scientists but much to create a lot of free time for beatniks and their hippie children which led to protesting the Vietnam war, joining the Weather Underground and kidnapping Patty Hearst. The public schools were happy for the new source of revenue because now they could buy new ashtrays for the teacher’s lounge and get those really nice rulers with the metal in the edge which didn’t break the first time you smacked a kid’s ear with it. And they knew they’d be doing a lot of smacking if they were going to produce enough quality German rocket scientists to get an American to the Moon by 1969 by gum! Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell them that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to get involved in education or maybe somebody did tell them but that person didn’t have tenure so it probably wasn’t true. Either way, the money started rolling in and it hasn’t stopped since even though, to the best of our knowledge, very few German rocket scientists were created. Then again, maybe they were but no one would have sex with them so they died off eventually. What did everyone outside of education learn from the Defense Education Act of 1958? Lots of money thrown at a problem does not necessarily produce results. Time marched on but our schools still rode in the horseless carriage. Hippies got into teaching because it was "groovy, man" and you got the summers off. Students were told to question everybody else’s authority and "call me Dave". These yarnheads forced the old and sick onto the ice flows of early retirement. Latin teachers were the first to go followed by administrators who knew someone who knew someone who had actually known John Dewey. Next came Mrs. Zamanigian who failed you if you only got one wrong on your multiplication tables. Gradually, spelling bees and dodgeball were outlawed as "negatively reinforcing self-esteem activities" and replaced with more "at task" activities such as "share bear" and sitting on a hard chair for six hours at a time listening to Ms. Freerainbowhug wax poetic about something called the underground railroad which, you are shocked to find out, has no Morlocks and even fewer horsepower. We should have all marched into their classrooms right then and put an end to that nonsense but we didn’t and their demon seed would come back to haunt us in the 1990�s. What did everyone outside of education learn from this new pedagogy? Demanding and knowledgeable teachers are often the best teachers. Next came the Age of Theories. Whole language vs. phonics, Classical Education vs. Frisbee Golf and who can ever forget the monumental brouhaha which was Didactically Oriented Systems of Axioms for Elementary Geometry vs. Look, A Square! As teachers began losing the respect of their students because, let’s face it, they were not the brightest people in the village anymore; they felt the need to create the illusion that learning was somehow akin to alchemy and only THEY knew how to work the lodestone. Thus, schools of education bloomed. Now, one no longer needed to acquire mastery of a subject in order to become a teacher. You could walk right down to your local state college and major in education even if you were as dumb as a sack of hammers. You would be taught the latest theories of cognitive development, learn how to create lesson plans and sit at the feet of master teachers who, while not ever having actually taught in a real school, had many friends who were teachers. You would graduate with a degree, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, to anyone who cared to notice that you had paid your tuition. Now it was time to get into teaching, snag tenure, coast for 10-15 years, become a principal and retire from a job well done. What did everyone outside of education learn from this? Schools of education can’t make silk purses out of sow’s ears. What makes a good teacher? Knowledge of the subject at hand and high scores on verbal aptitude tests. Simple as that. The field was now plowed and the seeds of our present situation could be planted. Television failed from its early promise and became a mugwump wasteland which would undermine parental authority and lobotomize our children. In the good ol' days we had secrets which we kept from the young until they had earned that particular right of passage. Now with television, everything was out there: from sex to murder and cannibalism. Unfortunately, seeing something is not quite the same thing as understanding something, and our kids grew up thinking that they knew everything but they lacked the maturity and wisdom which would only come with age, booze and a divorce. Parents also should share some of the blame for the sorry state of our society by remaining children themselves. They refused to grow up and accept the responsibilities of adulthood and parenthood whilst livin' in the 'hood. Even the "good" parents were culpable by refusing to set limits, instill civility and manners and wanting to be a best bud to their child instead of a parent. Finally, the schools themselves and especially the teachers are the biggest reason for most of the problems we face as a society today. Quite simply, they have not done the job we paid for. Somewhere along the line, they forgot that their purpose was to create a life-long learner not produce fodder for the cannons of industry. The schools have followed the whims and orders of Business and assumed that the goal of education was to provide the local widget factory with entry level widget technicians. Business, much like the Army doesn’t want free-thinkers and poets, they want you to have that report on their desk by 4:00pm or else. Schools stopped asking "why" a long time ago and they've spent the last twenty years chasing their tails and digging themselves in deeper. It’s time for a revolution in education. You know it and I know it. What are you gonna do about it? EVENTS: Coming up next week... ► Saturday June 9th – 4PM HE TEACHER YOU WISH YOU/YOUR KIDS HAD! King Middle School Poetry and English Teacher Steve Abee leads a reading of his students’ work at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027 ►Wednesday Jun 06, 2007 East Los Angeles High School #2 | ESTEBAN TORRES HIGH SCHOOL GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY: Please join us to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new community school! Ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. Hammel Elementary School 438 N. Brannick Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90063 ►Thursday Jun 07, 2007 SAN PEDRO HIGH SCHOOL NEW GYMNASIUM: GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY Please join us to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new gymnasium at San Pedro High School! Ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. San Pedro High School 1001 W 15th Street San Pedro, CA 90731 ►Thursday Jun 07, 2007 EAST LOS ANGELES NEW HIGH SCHOOL #1: Pre-Construction Meeting 6:00 p.m. Utah Elementary School - Auditorium 255 Gabriel García Márquez Los Angeles 90033 *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: 213-893-6800 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Mike.Lansing@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Jon.Lauritzen@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 David.Tokofsky@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • 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 Schwarzenegger: 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. • Register. • Vote. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council. • 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 SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.