Process for firing Centinela Superintendent could take a month Although the Centinela Valley school board has voted to fire Superintendent Jose Fernandez following an investigation into his excessive pay, the process of terminating the embattled leader could take another month. LA Daily News California’s top political watchdog agency looking into Inglewood school spending California’s Fair...

Centinela Valley school board fires embattled Superintendent Jose Fernandez The Centinela Valley school board Tuesday night voted to fire Superintendent Jose Fernandez, ending a five-month chapter that began with revelations that the leader of the tiny school district might have been among the nation’s best-compensated public servants. The Daily Breeze Arts education in schools could...

By Raul Meza | Via: Thinking L.A., a partnership of UCLA and Zócalo Public Square The Worst Thing About My Job as a School Custodian Has Always Been the Pay. Now I’m Imagining What a Difference $15 Per Hour Will Make. Monday through Friday, my full-time job is cleaning restrooms at Van Nuys High School....

School funding reforms spur decisions at local level California’s new school funding system is driving districts in diverse regions of the state to shift their resources to achieve one of the key goals laid out in the sweeping financial reform effort – graduating students so they are ready for college or careers. EdSource Schools expanding...

Stating that “teachers and principals are not the problem,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took to the podium at the White House today to unveil a national initiative aimed at addressing “systematic inequities” that shortchange some schools and disproportionately affect students in high-poverty, high-minority areas. While Duncan called teachers and principals “absolutely essential elements of...

For Vergara ruling on teachers, big questions loom Among the lingering questions: Will the ruling, at a slim 16 pages, hold up on appeal? Will California’s notoriously polarized legislature, fearful of additional litigation and bad press, consider changing the statutes at issue on its own? And finally, will similar lawsuits elsewhere—one is already primed for...

Challenger to CA schools chief blasts handling of Inglewood Unified takeover Marshall Tuck, the man who hopes to unseat Tom Torlakson as state superintendent of public instruction on Wednesday decried a legislative committee’s failure to authorize an audit of the state takeover of the troubled Inglewood Unified School District. Daily News Lawsuit Challenges New York’s...

Members of the school service workers union, SEIU Local 99, have ratified their three-year contract agreement with LA Unified, raising the wage of nearly 20,000 workers to $15 an hour by July 1, 2016. The union said in a statement early this morning that 82 percent of the members approved the contract after three days...

Changes coming to school report cards As with most other elements of the public education system, the state’s School Accountability Report Card is set to undergo fairly significant revisions as a result of the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the Local Control Funding Formula. S&I Cabinet Report Middle school key to college,...

The stage was set with the two public education luminaries, ready to square off on such lightning rod issues as tenure and teacher dismissal laws in the wake of last month’s Vergara trial: Randi Weingarten, leader of the nation’s second largest teachers organization, AFT, and Superintendent John Deasy, leader of the second largest school district in the...