Boxes started being packed up the day after teachers left school last week, and by the time principals come back to school on July 21, all four schools should be back to normal after the Porter Ranch methane gas leak disrupted lives over the past year, school officials said Tuesday. “A lot of movement has...

The Ethnic Studies Committee, which LA Unified unceremoniously disbanded last year, has been renewed by the district, and members agreed to meet for up to three more years with a goal toward incorporating ethnic studies as a graduation requirement, according to Derrick Chau, director of secondary instruction at LA Unified. “We are moving ahead with districtwide ethnic...

  After studying technology issues for more than a year, an LA Unified task force this week offered their ideas for the district after the botched iPad debacle that was supposed to result in one computer device in every student’s hands. The price tag would be $311 million for “a 1:1 environment,” providing every student with a tablet...

Sometimes staying late at the LA Unified school board meetings has its benefits. Particularly when quirky things happen in only-in-LA moments. About 8:45 p.m. Tuesday late into the meeting, most of the audience members had cleared out of the school board auditorium and the 200 or so protesters outside were gone. There were almost as many...

The self-described “Doomsday scenario” laid out by LA Unified’s chief financial officer at Tuesday’s school board meeting could have resulted in the loss of 2,000 teacher and administrator jobs by next spring, an increase of up to nine students per classroom, and a halt to saving for teacher retirement benefits. But then, like the cavalry...

All seven of the LA Unified school board members, along with Superintendent Michelle King and Executive Officer Jefferson Crain, read the names of the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting massacre at the opening of the school board meeting Tuesday afternoon before each board member then read part of a resolution re-emphasizing their commitment to...

Before today’s afternoon school board meeting, the union representing teachers assistants, after-school workers and playground supervisors protested outside the LA Unified headquarters asking that the board reconsider health care benefits for 10,264 employees now shut out of those benefits. The union representatives plan to speak at the afternoon session of the school board. The district...

*UPDATED The first class to graduate from an innovative university-based charter school in Los Angeles is sending all 84 grads to four-year colleges, most with scholarships. Valerie Childress watched her quadruplets graduate Saturday evening on the campus of the University of Southern California with tears in her eyes. “I said I wasn’t going to cry, but I have been...

He couldn’t imagine he would ever graduate from high school, or that he’d ever even have a chance. After being released from his second juvenile detention camp, Randy Dwayne May Jr. wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Then came a knock on his door over the summer from Wendy Cholico, a Pupil Services...