John Deasy‘s tenure as superintendent of LA Unified School District is continuing as the school board today gave him a “satisfactory” performance evaluation and extended his contract to June, 30, 2016. The announcement, after nearly five hours of a closed door meeting at the district’s downtown headquarters, ended five frenetic days of uncertainty that began with...

In anticipation of what’s sure to be a long and dramatic school board meeting tomorrow, LA Unified board member Steve Zimmer says he’s optimistic that the board can convince Superintendent John Deasy not to resign as head of the nation’s second largest school district. “What I know is that I want to continue to work...

Over the past week Cynthia Van Houten, principal at Granada Elementary Charter Community, has been scrambling to get students in the right classrooms. Tomorrow is the deadline for principals and teachers throughout LA Unified to comply with a district policy that mandates all English learners be grouped by fluency, above all other criteria. Van Houten...

Let’s say an alien spaceship somehow descended on yesterday’s two LA Unified meetings concerning the district’s iPad program. It is entirely possible the ETs would end up with the impression that the district was months, perhaps even a year away from launching one of the most expensive and high profile projects the school board has...

An expert in school board governance says that a censure vote is rare and has the potential to fracture a board even beyond its existing rifts. Christopher Maricle, a policy program officer and governance consultant for the California School Board Association, says the effort to publicly condemn a school district president could be an extremely divisive...

Eight weeks ago Mayor Eric Garcetti named his new education deputy, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana. In that time, only a few people have any idea who she is what she does or how she’s going to do it. She has met with various board members and some community groups in her official capacity as...

Governor Jerry Brown is facing rising opposition to a bill designed to make it easier to fire teachers accused of abusing students. Critics say it doesn’t, and that could make it harder for him to justify signing it into law. The deadline for consideration is Sunday. Over the last few weeks, school district superintendents, education groups...