Los Angeles Unified’s new superintendent, Michelle King, said today the district is working on a response to a review panel‘s examination of district finances, and ideas would go before the school board next month. “It’s a huge concern of mine,” King said today, during a 2 1/2 minute interview with LA School Report. “I have work...

Conserving water and investing in new water stations will save LA Unified money in the long run, according to a report released yesterday. The report, from chief facilities director Mark Hovatter, also said eliminating the flushing just to clear lead from drinking water would save 9,500 gallons of water a day or 2.5 million gallons a...

Declaring that she has no intention of turning LA Unified into an all-charter school district, board member Mónica Ratliff chaired a board committee meeting yesterday that examined just what it is that makes charters different from traditional schools. For one thing, as she learned from a presentation to the committee, charter school teachers don’t have...

Investigating and analyzing charter schools is becoming a greater burden for LA Unified, and the district isn’t getting any more money to do the work, according to a report presented today. “Charter-related work consumes the most amount of investigative resources due to the time-sensitive nature of the work and the monthly deadlines for board action on...

If you’re at Crenshaw High School, wouldn’t you want to know that baseball legend Darryl Strawberry graduated from there? How about that “Star Wars” composer John Williams went to North Hollywood High, or that Leonardo DiCaprio dropped out of his junior year at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies so he could pursue acting?...

Three LA Unified board committee meetings that were delayed a month by the superintendent search are scheduled back-to-back-to-back tomorrow, all at district headquarters. Some of the issues on the agendas involve the continuing discussion about what it would mean to turn LAUSD into an all-charter school district, early childhood education and new information dealing with...

With middle school principals’ sharing their best practices and dire needs, an LA Unified board committee yesterday set off on a new initiative to improve the academic and social skills of students one principal described as “hormones with arms and legs.” The discussion in the Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Equity Committee came two days after...

At the first LA Unified school board meeting of the year on Tuesday, Leon Popa found himself sitting through a long, grueling ordeal. “Leon Popa has now spent more time at this meeting than he did all day at school,” said school board President Steve Zimmer. And that was only halfway through a meeting that...

The LA Unified school board this week awarded, renewed or revised requests from 10 charter schools, and two applications for new schools were rejected. Some of the approvals came with specific warnings by board members to shape up. The charter approvals came at the same meeting that the board unanimously condemned the Eli Broad-affiliated group,...

The LA Unified school board yesterday became the first elected body to ask government officials to move one of the largest above-ground butane gas facilities in the country. Located in San Pedro, the highly-flammable gas is housed in two storage tanks not far from three LAUSD school sites. School board member Richard Vladovic, who represents...