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District Urges Board to Dismiss Union’s Unfair Practice Charge
LA Unified is urging the Public Employment Relations Board to dismiss the teacher’s union’s unfair labor practice charge, filed in June. The nine-page district response, dated August 15 and posted today by the LA Daily News, outlines a series of reasons that the district says shows that the charges are without merit. The issue at hand is over...
By Hillel Aron | August 23, 2013
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UTLA Files Action Against District Over Teacher Evaluations*
The teachers union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against LA Unified over the new teacher evaluations. The union took the complaint to the Public Employment Relations Board, or PERB, a quasi-judicicial state agency that hears public employee disputes. In addition to the legal action, the union has distributed letters for teachers to give to their...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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Joe Nunez, CTA Head, No. 2 Again in ‘Capitol Weekly’ 100
Capitol Weekly’s annual Top 100 list — what it calls a “subjective ranking of unelected political players” — is out, and for the second year in a row, Joe Nunez, the head of the California Teachers Association, is #2, just behind Ann Gust, who is Governor Jerry Brown‘s wife. The paper called the 325,000 member...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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Marshall Tuck to Oppose Torlakson for State Superintendent
Marshall Tuck, the former president of Green Dot Public Schools and former CEO of Partnership for LA Schools, has announced his candidacy for State Superintendent of Public Education. Tuck, 40, resigned from the Partnership schools in June, shortly before the Partnership’s founder, Mayor Antonio Villaraigiosa, left office. Tuck was said to be considering a run for...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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School Board Meeting Wrap Up: More Discussion Than Votes*
What began as a breezy LA Unified School Board meeting on Tuesday turned, not surprisingly, into a long, tedious, sometimes rancorous session, with a host of issues discussed but rarely resolved. A number of key votes were postponed, and Superintendent John Deasy’s highly anticipated budget presentation was postponed until the Sept. 10 board meeting so it could...
By Hillel Aron | August 20, 2013
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Vladovic Adds Committees, Doles Out Assignments
School Board President Richard Vladovic, leading his first full meeting on Tuesday, created a slew of new “ad hoc” committees, naming as chairs each of his colleagues — with the exception of his predecessor as president, Monica Garcia. Vladovic asked Board member Marguerite LaMotte to continue in her role as chair of the Curriculum, Instruction...
By Hillel Aron | August 20, 2013
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Melendez to Be Hired Under Unusual Salary Arrangement
Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana will be hired as Mayor Eric Garcetti’s director of education and workforce development, pending confirmation by the LA Unified School Board at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. “First and foremost, Mayor Garcetti wants to make LA students more career and college ready,” said Garcetti spokesman Yusef Robb. “That will require...
By Hillel Aron | August 19, 2013
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Deasy to Board: Your Wish List Could Cost $1.4 Billion
LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy will tell the LAUSD School Board on Tuesday that its wish list for new hires and other programs will cost the district up to $1.4 billion at a time the district is still facing a deficit of $350 million. The board asked Deasy in June to develop spending proposals that...
By Hillel Aron | August 19, 2013
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Latest UTLA Survey Takes Aim at Common Core Readiness*
The teachers union is asking members to take yet another online survey — this one focusing on efforts by LA Unified to acclimate teachers to the challenges of the new Common Core curriculum. The introduction to the survey appears to reflect skepticism by union leadership about how the district is going about it, questioning why...
By Hillel Aron | August 16, 2013
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Board Preview: Deasy Will Present Hiring Options and Their Cost
When the LA Unified Board of Education meets on Tuesday, the first gathering time since the summer break, Superintendent John Deasy and his staff will present options for hiring more teachers, counselors and other employees — complete with price tags. “We will present for the board’s information the cost, for the year, of the some...
By Hillel Aron | August 16, 2013