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LA Unified wants you: 47 parents and your spending priorities
It’s rare these days that the LA Unified school board agrees on anything. Now, imagine this: Over the next few weeks, district officials will take on the daunting task of assembling a committee of 47 parents and guardians to help decide how to spend tax dollars coming into the district. It’s the next step in...
By Vanessa Romo | January 29, 2014
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A few words on public education from Governor Brown
In his State of the State address today, Gov. Jerry Brown spent a few minutes talking about public education in California. Here’s what he had to say: “Last year, I spoke of the principle of subsidiarity, a rather clunky word that nevertheless points to a profoundly important principle, namely that in our federal system there...
By LA School Report | January 22, 2014
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Deasy on new state funding regs: ‘The right balance’
LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy yesterday offered unqualified support for the proposed regulations governing how state money for public education will reach individual school districts. Speaking at a meeting of the California Board of Education in Sacramento, he said the new Local Control Funding Formula “strikes the right balance” between districts and the communities they serve,...
By LA School Report | January 17, 2014
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‘Rally the Valley’ hoping to give parents a voice in funding
A new San Fernando Valley organization is seeking a greater role for parents in future LA Unified funding decisions, now that parents are part of the state’s new approach to education support, known as the Local Control Funding Formula. Heather Thompson, a parent at Hesby Oaks Leadership Charter in Encino and acting spokeswoman for last...
By Chase Niesner | January 15, 2014
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Deasy Escalates Dispute with State over Meal Program Verification
Friction between LA Unified and the state escalated today as Superintendent John Deasy lashed out against a new state rule that requires low-income parents to verify their economic status to insure that their children remain eligible for free or reduced-priced meals. The state is asserting that failure to provide the proof on an annual basis...
By LA School Report | December 3, 2013
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Board, not Schools, Gets Final Say on Spending New CA Money*
Ending a debate that was just getting underway within LA Unified, an official from the California School Boards Association said today school boards make all decisions on how Local Control Funding Formula money is spent, not individual schools. Appearing before the LA Unified Board’s Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee, Teri Burns, the association’s senior director...
By LA School Report | October 22, 2013
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CLASS Calls Meeting with Vladovic ‘Productive’
A coalition of community groups known by the acronym, CLASS, finally had a meeting today with LA Unified Board President Richard Vladovic. The groups’ mission was to press the case for individual schools, rather than district administrators, deciding how to spend money coming into LA Unified from Gov. Jerry Brown‘s new Local Control Funding Formula,...
By LA School Report | October 18, 2013
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Anger, Frustration Evident as LAUSD Officials Meet Community
One parent wanted more counselors. Another wanted more security personnel. A student came forward with a friend and said, “You’re spending all that money on iPads. We’d prefer you spend it on nurses and librarians and can you please fix the bathrooms.” This was Tuesday night, in the auditorium of Burroughs Middle School in Hancock...
By Michael Janofsky | October 17, 2013
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Local Groups to LA Unified Board: Let Schools Decide Spending
A broad coalition of more than 40 community and advocacy groups is jumping into LA Unified’s prolonged spending debate, urging the board to allow individual schools, rather than centralized administrators, to decide how to spend the billions of dollars coming into the district from Gov. Jerry Brown‘s Local Control Funding Formula program. Organized by the...
By Michael Janofsky | September 30, 2013
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LA Unified Board Considers Common Core — Yet Again
Today is expected be another long day for LA Unified School Board members. Last week’s eight-hour session — only the second board meeting of the school year –was not long enough to hash out the details of the district’s Common Core implementation plan, so they’ve sandwiched in a Special Board Meeting between two others that...
By Vanessa Romo | September 17, 2013