* UPDATED As promised, LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines has completed the reorganization of the district’s MiSiS leadership team, promoting a few employees and setting up a new chain of command with himself and Chief Deputy Superintendent Michelle King at the top. In the new hierarchy of the Information Technology Division (ITD), Cortines has named...

* UPDATED The MiSiS cash register is starting to ring. Ever since the bungled launch of the student data system, the district has been throwing heaps of money at software problems to get the system functioning properly to meet district, state and federal mandated deadlines. “More than anybody, I want to know how much money...

*UPDATE The first civil trial against LA Unified over the sex abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary School is headed to court later this week but first, a County Superior Court judge has ordered the two sides to meet for a last ditch effort to settle the case. Judge John Shepard Wiley has ordered the district to...

Ron Chandler, LA Unified’s Chief Information Officer and the public face of the district’s two biggest technology programs, iPads and the new student-tracking system, resigned today in a shuffling of the district’s Information Technology Department. The move is the latest and most decisive change during Ramon Cortines‘s first two weeks as superintendent, and it comes as...

After the downpour of bad news coming out of the district here’s a ray of sunshine: Graduation rates for all race and ethnic groups in LA Unified were up by double-digit margins last year. Across the board graduation rates for the class of 2013-14 rose by 12 percent over the previous year, the highest increase...

A consultant to the committee that oversees how LA Unified spends taxpayer bond dollars today recommended a complete overhaul of the district’s Information Technology operations, suggesting the district might consider outsourcing the entire department. Tom Rubin delivered the report to the Bond Oversight Committee, blasting the IT department and asserting that the recent bungled rollout...

Superintendent Ramon Cortines has suspended all out-of-town travel and off-campus meetings for LA Unified’s teachers, administrators and classified staff, calling the time away from the classroom “unacceptable.” Cortines, who has wasted no time issuing new directives to the staff that he inherited this month from John Deasy, relayed the decision today in a letter to employees,...

Governor Jerry Brown today dropped by John Marshall High School to talk about energy efficiency and the millions of dollars LA Unified schools can expect to receive from the state as a result of Proposition 39. The governor, who’s up for re-election next week, was on the Los Feliz campus with Tom Steyer, the Democratic...