Board member Steve Zimmer said he expects to support the resolution at tomorrow’s board meeting that would subject any LAUSD grant application over $750,000 to school board approval (see: Board Members Aim to ‘Cuff Supt?) —  although he said he’s not “100 percent” certain. “My general feeling is that the Board of Education are the policy...

A group of Los Angeles-based Service Employees International Union locals have endorsed incumbents Monica Garcia and Steve Zimmer, as well as Antonio Sanchez, in their races for school board. “These candidates demonstrate a real appreciation for the role that student services workers play in a child’s learning,” said Courtni Pugh, Executive Director of SEIU Local...

SEIU Local 99 has endorsed Antonio Sanchez for school board in District 6, which covers the East San Fernando Valley, according to a longtime politico. The endorsement isn’t a huge surprise since Sanchez, a former employee of the LA County Federation of Labor, was always expected to be a union-friendly candidate. In addition to Sanchez, the...

The 50-member UTLA Board of Directors [BOD] has recommended to the union’s House of Representatives that they endorse school board member Steve Zimmer, according to a teacher speaking to LA School Report on condition of anonymity, and it has also recommended that the House of Representatives endorse a handful of acceptable candidates in Districts 2 (Central and East Los...

According to multiple sources familiar with the fast-approaching LAUSD school board race, the competition for District 2, currently held by School Board President Monica Garcia, is likely to attract the most energetic attention from UTLA, the powerful teachers union. The candidate who may be the biggest challenge to Garcia is Annamarie Montañez.  The cousin of former...

On Friday, LAUSD and UTLA finally came to tentative agreement on a new way to evaluate teachers, just days before the court-imposed December 4 deadline in Doe v. Deasy. The initial responses were generally positive, including from the plaintiffs. “Assuming that everyone behaves in good faith, I think we’ve achieved what we’ve set out to...

Superintendent John Deasy explained to LA School Report why the tentative agreement reached between LAUSD and UTLA on teacher performance was so historic: “You don’t do this stuff in California – this has never been done. People were very very conscious and concerned, people were very worried about the precedent it would set.” UTLA President Warren Fletcher’s...

Superintendent John Deasy said this morning that he expects a tentative agreement with UTLA over a new system of teacher evaluations, as mandated by the court in Doe v. Deasy, at some point in the next four days — just before the deadline set by the judge. “I’m not a betting or predictive kind of guy,...

The deadline set by Judge Chalfant for LAUSD and UTLA to agree on a teacher evaluation system that satisfies the requirements of the Stull Act is December 4 — less than a week away. Neither side is saying how the negotiations are going – other than, well, “they’re going.” That sounds good, but the district and...

So far, just three school board candidates have turned in their signatures for review and approval: sitting school board President Monica Garcia in District 2, Kate Anderson in District 4, and Maria Cano in District 6. (See: City Clerk filing status list) Pictured above on the left, the 42 year-old Cano is running for District...