LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King is calling for calm in the face of rumors of impending raids on schools with authorities seeking out undocumented immigrants. “Neither the Los Angeles Unified School District nor the Los Angeles School Police Department is aware of any planned raids or other action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at any...

It’s a such unique moment with the leadership of Sacramento that LAUSD should find a way to take advantage. That was the message from LA Unified board President Steve Zimmer to district staff at a board committee meeting yesterday: figure out how to ask for more money from the state, even more than the district’s fair...

LA Unified receives fewer public records requests per year than other governmental agencies or school districts of similar size, but district staff is now suggesting that the board consider pushing for legislation that would set a fee for complying with some of the requests. The recommendation came from Christine Wood, the assistant general counsel and...

A delegation of educators from Beijing spent much of today visiting an Alliance College-Ready Public School to find out what they could incorporate into their curriculums. Members of the delegation seemed delighted in the idea of having a computer device for every student, which they don’t yet have in China. But, they were perplexed about...

Some of LAUSD’s cafeteria freezers are more than three decades old. Some of the stoves in the kitchens don’t work anymore. The board has approved spending up to $856,635 to survey 477 public school cafeterias to see what needs to be upgraded, fixed or replaced. “Many of our kitchens are aged and have walk-in refrigerators...

A plan to improve Information Technology at LA Unified is close to getting every school wireless internet access and providing every student access to a computer. It’s a slower, more methodical strategy than the approach taken by former Superintendent John Deasy, which led to the botched $1.3 billion iPad program, an FBI investigation, his resignation and an abrupt end to the...

While superintendent searches for large school districts typically end with outsiders getting the job, the president of the firm working with LA Unified said the insider chosen, Michelle King, a district veteran of 30 years, was a commendable match. “We spent more time than usual to come up with a profile of the characteristics that the...

The number of expulsions in LA Unified has decreased drastically over the past two years, with numbers far lower than neighboring school districts. Expulsions have decreased by 31 percent, to 77 in the last school year from 111 in 2012-2013, according to a report presented this week to a district board committee. That compares with...

The latest independent audit of LA Unified shows that through the end of the last fiscal year, on June 30, the district had liabilities that surpassed assets by $4.2 billion. The previous year showed assets over liabilities by $1.7 billion, making for a 12-month swing of $5.9 billion, according to Melba W. Simpson, of Simpson &...

What’s the easiest way for LAUSD to save millions of dollars to help stave off a budget crisis? Keep students in school. More than 80,000 students are chronically absent at LA Unified, and that results in an annual loss of $139 million in revenue, Debra Duardo, executive director of Student Health and Human Services at...