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LAUSD sports education teacher named among California’s Teachers of the Year
Kirsten Farrell, who teaches life-saving techniques as a medical technology teacher at Venice Senior High School, has been named one five California Teachers of the Year for 2018. Three of the five winners are in the Greater Los Angeles area, and all five are in Southern California. A teacher for 21 years, Farrell created one...
By Mike Szymanski | October 12, 2017
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LA district schools lost 13,100 students this year — here’s what they plan to do about it
When board members heard Tuesday that the number of students who have left LA Unified schools was even worse than they’d been told, they wanted to know what was being done. Here’s what they heard: • launching the unified enrollment system • offering a broader range of school options • reducing absences. And here...
By Mike Szymanski | October 12, 2017
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LAUSD needs to meet now with labor groups to ‘save the district,’ board member says
LA Unified urgently needs a sit-down with union representatives to make sure everyone is on the same page about the budget before the district falls off a fiscal “cliff,” longtime school board member Richard Vladovic said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “Our labor partners see the budget differently from the way we do, and I would...
By Mike Szymanski | October 12, 2017
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Tempers flare at LAUSD school board — ‘I feel disenfranchised,’ one board member says
It was college appreciation day Tuesday at the LA Unified school board, so all the board members wore their school shirts. But they may as well have worn their football jerseys because it erupted into a verbal brawl. In a few seemingly innocuous votes involving committee meetings, two board members not part of the new...
By Mike Szymanski | October 10, 2017
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Fewer kids than expected are in LAUSD schools this year – that means $17M less in the budget
LA Unified’s enrollment is dropping even faster than the district projected. There are 12,604 fewer students than last year, a 2.51 percent decline, last month’s official head count showed. The district had anticipated only a 2.1 percent drop. The difference means there will be $17 million less in the 2018-19 budget, and an additional $18...
By Mike Szymanski | October 9, 2017
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Black students and families need more support — and they need it now. An unprecedented coalition dives in with a new LAUSD task force.
An unprecedented coalition of community members, educators, parents, and students at LA Unified have convened a new task force to urgently address why African-American youth continue to have the lowest test scores and why black students and families continue to feel ignored by the education system. Black students persist in having LA Unified’s highest rates...
By Mike Szymanski | October 9, 2017
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New data: Where are the charter schools in LAUSD?
LA Unified has more charter schools than any other school district in the nation, and an internal report presented this week had some interesting facts, including where most of them are located. Although common thought among some parents is that independent charter schools are located in wealthier communities, the statistics show that more than half...
By Mike Szymanski | October 5, 2017
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LAUSD school police join this week’s Coffee with a Cop
The LA Unified school police this week will join the national Coffee with a Cop movement, holding their first two community meet-ups on Wednesday and Thursday in the West Los Angeles area. The new community outreach plan uses social media to get the word out about the events starting Wednesday. The unique idea of police officers sitting down with...
By Mike Szymanski | October 2, 2017
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Once considered failing, 20th Street Elementary tops district in improvement of math scores
Just two years ago, 20th Street Elementary was considered such a failing school that the parents moved to take it over from LA Unified using a state law. But Wednesday’s release of state test scores shows the elementary school had the highest math gains of any traditional school in the district. “We have seen a...
By Mike Szymanski | September 27, 2017
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More LAUSD seniors are on track to graduate
More high school seniors are on track to graduate so far this year than in any of the past dozen years, according to an LA Unified report released last week. “We are seeing numbers higher than last year and the year before, and the expectations are increasing,” Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson said. “We are...
By Mike Szymanski | September 27, 2017