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Cortines decision on bond money for iPads: a policy u-turn?
A decision by LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines to proceed with the next phase of the district’s controversial iPad program appears to contradict statements he made a month ago, opposing the use of construction bond money to pay for devices pre-loaded with curriculum. Three days ago, Cortines gave the go-ahead to spend capital improvement funds...
By Vanessa Romo | November 24, 2014
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Cortines approves next phase of LAUSD iPad program
Let the iPads roll. Again. LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines today approved moving ahead with the next phase of the district’s iPad program, officially known as Phase 2B of the Common Core Technology Project. It’s actually, iPads et. al. The goal with this action is to complete the second round of buying digital devices by...
By LA School Report | November 21, 2014
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Chandler, LAUSD’s head of IT, resigns in face of MiSiS crisis
Ron Chandler, LA Unified’s Chief Information Officer and the public face of the district’s two biggest technology programs, iPads and the new student-tracking system, resigned today in a shuffling of the district’s Information Technology Department. The move is the latest and most decisive change during Ramon Cortines‘s first two weeks as superintendent, and it comes as...
By Vanessa Romo | October 31, 2014
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Galatzan volunteers to lead panel on email retention policy
Board member Tamar Galatzan volunteered yesterday to lead a task force examining LA Unified’s email deletion and retention policy, which is intended to eliminate unnecessary emails even as some some board members fear it could lead to the destruction of important records. “It is critical that the public have confidence in the district’s commitment to...
By Vanessa Romo | October 15, 2014
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Lots of strike talk expected as teachers union opens conference
United Teachers Los Angeles opens its annual Leadership Conference today, and strike talk will be a prominent theme. As part of the three-day gathering at the Concourse Hotel at LAX, local union leaders will hear from union chiefs from other cities who used the threat of a strike to get a new labor agreement. They’ll...
By Michael Janofsky | September 19, 2014
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Teachers union changes tactics, urges board to ‘evaluate’ Deasy*
*Correction In an earlier version of this post we mistakenly reported that UTLA is “urging the school board to fire” superintendent John Deasy. This is incorrect. We try our hardest to write with accuracy, but on this one, we missed the mark – and we regret the error. What follows is UTLA’s letter to us...
By Vanessa Romo | September 16, 2014
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UTLA holds morning rally to insist Deasy be thrown into ‘jail’
UTLA is calling on Superintendent John Deasy to lock himself in teacher jail while he’s under any investigation over iPads, computer systems or anything else. At a rally earlier today union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told a crowd of teachers, “We are saying that he has to play by his own rules… He must not report...
By Vanessa Romo | September 3, 2014
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iPad report shared only with LAUSD officials in secrecy
A draft report on LA Unified’s handling of the controversial iPad contract that was leaked to media outlets last week was made available to board members and district administrators only if they agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, barring them from sharing the report with anyone. While some signed, others, including Superintendent John Deasy, did...
By Vanessa Romo | August 25, 2014
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At One LA Unified School, the iPads are ‘Rocking and Rolling’
All 338 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Cimarron Avenue Elementary in Hawthorne have iPads at their fingertips. The rollout has gone smoothly at the school, one of the first in LA Unified to receive the tablets when distribution began in August. “We’re rocking and rolling here,” said Cimarron’s principal, Cynthia Williams. Critics have called...
By Brenda Iasevoli | November 8, 2013
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LA Times Gets iPad Story Wrong, the Rest of Us Follow
A story published in the Los Angeles Times yesterday reported that LA Unified’s plan to purchase district-wide iPads would cost significantly more than originally estimated. But according to district officials there’s been no change at all to the cost of the iPads since the district signed the contract with Apple in July. “This is not...
By Chase Niesner | October 23, 2013