Two lingering issues are expected to hold center stage at the LA Unified School Board meeting tomorrow – the vacant District 1 seat and the Phase 2 iPad release. Now that the City Council has approved a June 3 election date to fill the seat left open by the death of Marguerite LaMotte, the board...

David Holmquist essentially agrees with board member Steve Zimmer. It’s just not right, Holmquist said, that existing laws keep the LA Unified District 1 board seat vacant until after a special election in June, denying families equal representation for months. But if Zimmer is expecting Holmquist, LAUSD’s General Counsel, to navigate around the LA City Charter, he is...

The sides are digging in. With the holidays offering no break for the forces pushing to fill the vacant LA Unified school board’s District 1 seat, factions have firmly aligned behind US Representative Maxine Waters, for an appointment, and LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, for an election. Whatever the six board members decide at a...

It’s the other delay yesterday that portends long-term consequences for LA Unified students. In the latest sign of the deep divide on the district school board, the members voted to hold off the next phase of the iPad program, rather than approve a carefully crafted compromise that the board had hammered out, and passed, at...

The LA Unified school board today postponed until next month any consideration of how to fill the board seat left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte, bowing to a wave of pleas from speakers asking the board to wait until after her funeral. A 3-3 vote on a motion to allow discussion to begin...

The LA Unified school board is back together tomorrow, with a long agenda highlighted by several high-stakes and, very likely, contentious issues. Foremost is the discussion and probable vote on how to fill the vacant District 1 seat. Marguerite LaMotte’s death on Dec. 4 has left the board with the options of filling the seat...

The LA Unified board’s recent 5-1 vote on Superintendent John Deasy’s performance evaluation, released by the district on Tuesday after requests from several media outlets, cast a curious light on board member sentiments during a period of enormous challenge and contentiousness. Two of the five votes were entirely expected: Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan are...

A slight plurality of LA Unified teachers said they would favor continuing the iPad program, according to a new UTLA survey that produced mixed results in a district contemplating the next phase of a billion dollar digital device program. The union poll was conducted over a week in late October, with 255 teachers from the...

I want to take a bit of editorial license here – actually, the editor’s license — to call attention to this: Chase Harrison, an 18-year-old senior at Millburn High School in northern New Jersey, won a seat last night for a one-year term on the Millburn Township School Board. He knocked off the board’s vice...