What exactly is a good school? California is trying to find out The California State Board of Education on Thursday heard from about 60 people who commented on how to define a good or bad school. Some focused on “school climate,” or how students felt in school, and relationships with teachers. Los Angeles Times, by...

LA Unified is making no bones about wanting to change the chicken industry, and federal officials visiting the district Thursday say they’re on their way to doing it. LA Unified became the first large school district in the nation to contract for antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken and turkey in a vote Tuesday. On Thursday, visiting...

Mikelah Wynn, 11, looked skeptically at the tall man in the suit who sat down with her and her friends as she opened up her breakfast Thursday morning. The man was Kevin Concannon, USDA Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, who came from Washington, D.C., to her fifth-grade class in Winnetka to celebrate the...

    To help a model charter school expand into high school, the LA Unified school board took unprecedented steps Tuesday night to cobble together a plan, concocting at least half a dozen proposals and amendments during a lengthy and at times contentious discussion. District staff had recommended that the board reject the school’s petition. Ultimately, the charter...

LA Unified expects this to be its best budget year in a decade, school officials said Tuesday, but board members urged immediate action to address a deficit in three years that could reach half a billion dollars. “This is the healthiest year in the past decade,” Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly said in a report to...

The LA Unified school board will consider major upgrades at school sites throughout the district at their regular meeting Tuesday. The Facilities Services Division is asking the board to approve district bonds for projects including replacing a half-century-old canopy over a stairwell, replacing 60-year-old bleachers, upgrading walk-in freezers at 305 schools and replacing ovens, ice machines and...

George McKenna doesn’t talk about it much, but Denzel Washington played him in a TV movie called “The George McKenna Story.” Fellow LA Unified school board members may occasionally rib him about it, and on a recent tour of an elementary school, Superintendent Michelle King pointed it out to impress the students. “This man had...

The tag line of the film “The George McKenna Story” (also known as “Hard Lessons”) is a punny George McKenna-ism characteristic of the man it profiled. “He risked it all to make the grade,” is how the movie was advertised. In it, the heroic principal sacrifices relationships, career and safety to do the right thing for...

Filling the gap for unaccompanied children caught in judicial limbo LAUSD and districts like it have been singularly burdened with addressing the extensive needs of unaccompanied immigrant children. The Chronicle of Social Change, by Gabriel Fuentes Free prom dresses, shoes donated to homeless LAUSD girls, KABC Governor appoints 3 SoCal residents to CSU Board of Trustees, City News...