LA school board launches new library task force The Los Angeles Unified school board approved a task force Tuesday to address the hundreds of school libraries that have closed due to a lack of specialized staff. There are only 98 librarians in a district with 768 school libraries. Many elementary schools opt for library aides...

A heavy agenda for today’s LA Unified School Board meeting. Expected to get some attention is a report by board member Steve Zimmer on the role of a ‘caretaker’ appointee to temporarily take the seat recently vacated by the unexpected death of Marguerite LaMotte late last year. LA School Report, is there live NOW. Check...

LA schools’ wifi networks to cost about $800 million The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board is scheduled to green light $66 million in wifi upgrades Tuesday, bringing the total reported costs of wifi upgrades need for its iPad proposal to $795 million. With that, iPad and wifi costs together would exceed $1.3 billion if...

The LA Unified school board has an unusually long agenda for its monthly meeting on Tuesday, 39 items plus a handful of reports and updates. Each has consequences but few of them carry the import and emotional impact of Steve Zimmer‘s proposal to fill the vacant seat for District 1 on a temporary basis until...

LA schools’ drop in arts teachers dragged down county numbers The Los Angeles Unified School District has lost about 200 full-time arts teacher positions since the 2010-2011 school year, according to the most recent data available from the California Department of Education, suggesting the district is responsible for more than half of the loss cited...

The LA Unified school board on Tuesday is expected to approve a list of proposed responsibilities and job qualifications for a temporary, non-voting board member to fill the seat of Marguerite LaMotte, who died in December. The recommendations grew out of a meeting this week chaired by Steve Zimmer, the most vocal school board member to support installing an interim...

L.A. school officials barred from access to curriculum for iPads Los Angeles school officials have failed for now in their efforts to get full access to a digital curriculum that the school system purchased in June. The curriculum, developed by Pearson for use on district iPads, is off-limits because Pearson is likely to bid on...

The latest IRS tax filing for UTLA, the nation’s second largest teachers union, was made public this week on its website, providing a look into the financial health of the powerful union. For the year ending August, 2012 (the most recent available), the union reported a 2.5 percent drop in total revenue, and a 4...