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LAUSD board honors Marguerite LaMotte, retiring employee
The LA Unified school board honored two people at its meeting Tuesday as retiring 20-year employee Linda Perez received a certificate of appreciation and late board member Marguerite LaMotte was remembered with a moment of silence. LaMotte was a long-serving member of the board when she passed away on Dec. 5, 2013 at the age...
By Craig Clough | December 12, 2014
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Cortines backpedals from statement that charters get more
UPDATED* LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines has corrected a statement he made at Tuesday’s board meeting, telling the members in an email that he erred in saying charter schools receive more in state funding than traditional public schools. “One of the problems is the funding of charters versus regular schools. And the charters in the state get...
By Craig Clough | December 11, 2014
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LAUSD lawsuit over leaked Miramonte case files continues
A judge has ruled that LA Unified’s lawsuit accusing its former chief risk officer of stealing confidential documents related to the Miramonte school sex abuse case and leaking them to the media will move forward, as it does not violate the defendant’s First Amendment rights, City News Service reported. The lawsuit against Gregg Breed was filed in...
By Craig Clough | December 10, 2014
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LAUSD board, unions vow support on Obama’s immigration action
The LA Unified school board and union leaders moved today to help ensure that district schools are “safe havens” in support of President Obama‘s recent executive orders on immigration. The orders, announced last month, potentially give deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants and their children. A resolution introduced by board members Steve Zimmer and Monica...
By Craig Clough | December 9, 2014
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Computer Science Education Week kicks off at LAUSD
A kickoff event at North Hollywood High School highlighted LA Unified’s participation in Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code as students in the school’s Introduction to Data Science class listened to a number of guest speakers before demonstrating their coding skills. LA Unified board member Tamar Galatzan spoke, as did Microsoft’s Sam Stokes,...
By Craig Clough | December 9, 2014
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UTLA negotiations resume, new charter campus, ‘Grinchmas’
Negotiators for UTLA and LA Unified are meeting for another contact bargaining session today, the first since mid-November. UTLA did not respond when asked what topics might be on the table today, but the previous session saw UTLA adding to its demands to include supports for displaced educators, improved UTLA representation for substitute educators facing...
By Craig Clough | December 4, 2014
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Report: LA Unified near bottom in teacher pay for large districts
* UPDATED There’s a new report that negotiators for United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) might be pulling out at the next round of contract negotiations with LA Unified. A new study by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), finds that LA Unified teachers rank near the bottom of the 113 largest districts in the...
By Craig Clough | December 3, 2014
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Report: Charter enrollment grows significantly in LAUSD, nation
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) issued its annual report today on the growth of charter school enrollment, and the results show another year of significant increases both in LA Unified and across the country. For the 2013-14 school year, charter enrollment in LA Unified jumped 15 percent, giving the district a total...
By Craig Clough | December 2, 2014
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JUST IN: FBI seizes iPad documents from LA Unified offices
Agents with the FBI visited the offices of LA Unified headquarters yesterday and seized files related to the district’s controversial $1.3 billion iPad program, a district spokesman confirmed. The FBI action was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, which said 20 boxes of documents were removed and that the seizure came as a complete...
By Craig Clough | December 2, 2014
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LAUSD students among millions to learn an ‘Hour of Code’
Students at LA Unified will be among millions around the world participating next week in the Hour of Code event, designed to get kids interested in how to build computer codes. After an estimated 15 million students participated last year, the Hour of Code is aiming for 100 million students worldwide to participate during next week’s...
By Craig Clough | December 1, 2014