Commencement season is upon us and with it, the rush to find moving speakers to lead graduating students through the expensive right of passage. Sometimes schools get lucky, such as UC Irvine, which this year reeled in President Barak Obama by sending 10,000 postcards from students, staff and alumni, inviting him to be the guest...

LA Unified Board member Bennett Kayser is not only thinking about the LCAP, arts education, and transitioning to Common Core standards, he’s also thinking about soap. Specifically, unscented soap. According to Kayser, who has championed a variety of health issues since joining the board, the almond-scented, goopy, pink soap found in nearly every restroom, classroom...

After weeks of trying, a group of students from Fremont High School finally got a meeting yesterday in the office of LA Unified Board President Richard Vladovic to promote their Special Need Index for use in the board budget negotiations. Vladovic wasn’t there, they were told, but they presented a petition with 4,300 signatures to Chris Torres, his...

Nearly two dozen LA Unified schools were among the 424 elementary schools cited by the state today as California Distinguished Schools. The announcement came from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson who said, “I applaud these strong, thriving schools that are making such impressive strides in preparing their students for continued success.” The 2014...

Candidates for LA Unified’s District 1 board seat are participating in two forums in early May, but not all candidates are attending both. On May 7, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, George McKenna, Alex Johnson and Sherlett Hendy-Newbill will take questions from a moderator and the audience in an event organized by 10 community groups under the sponsorship...

By Linda Yaron A vote for online voting next month might be the most important decision UTLA members make as a union. It has the potential to systemically increase teacher participation at a foundational level of our union and make it far easier for all members to have a voice. As a 10-year teacher in LAUSD,...

And now for the celebration. In honor of its seventh national Academic Decathlon championship, El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills is holding a rally tomorrow morning for a team that won the title last Saturday in Honolulu. Neighboring Granada Hills Charter High School, which had won the championship in each of the...

The LA Unified School Distirct issued a statement from board vice president, Steve Zimmer, on the election of Alex Caputo-Pearl as president of UTLA, the teachers union: “I want to congratulate Alex Caputo-Pearl, and his team of candidates upon their election to the leadership of the nation’s second-largest teacher union, local United Teachers Los Angeles....

UPDATED* Alex Caputo-Pearl was declared the new UTLA president today as he overwhelmed incumbent Warren Fletcher in the second-round of voting, the LA teachers union announced today. After outpolling Fletcher 2-1 in the first round, Caputo-Pearl beat him by more than 4-to-1 in the runoff, with 5,801 votes (80.18 percent) to Fletcher’s 1,434 (19.82 percent)....