The release of salary records for all LA Unified employees by the Los Angeles Daily News on Friday produced a list of the district’s highest paid officials in 2014, with one apparent anomaly: an elementary school teacher. While nine of the top ten earners are headquarters administrators, starting with former Superintendent John Deasy, who made $439,998 the year...

Yet again, LA Unified finds itself in the soup because of a computer malfunction. Friends of Stoner, a group fighting to block the co-location of another charter school at Stoner Avenue Elementary in Palms, has met with lawyers to discuss legal options against LA Unified for extending the application deadline by three days. Frustrated Stoner...

LA Unified officials yesterday unveiled results of the Arts Equity Index, the most comprehensive arts inventory the district has ever taken, and the findings show the district has a bad case of “art poverty.” Very few of the district’s 650,000 students have access to robust and uninterrupted arts programs from elementary school through high school,...

LA Unified officials are close to clearing a two-year backlog of assessments aimed at identifying thousands of students who would qualify for the highly-prized Gifted and Talented Education program. Why has it taken so long? For one reason, says the district, parents of many gifted students proved they, too, are gifted — at cheating. For...

Robert Frost Middle School Principal, Francisco Ayala had his choice of iPads, Chromebooks or desktop computers for his students to take the state-mandated computerized Smarter Balanced test. The wireless iPads and Chromebooks represent part of a huge, $500 million technology investment by LA Unified that, just last year, was hailed as a pioneering effort to bridge the...

The food fight over Breakfast in the Classroom rages on as another LA Unified school is attempting to kill the program before it gets started. A group of parents at Paul Revere Charter Middle School in Santa Monica is petitioning the district for a waiver from the morning meal program next year, claiming that it’s...

A meeting yesterday of UTLA’s political action committee, PACE, concluded with no decision to endorse LA Unified School Board President Richard Vladovic or his opponent, Lydia Gutierrez. Vladovic was forced into May runoff against Gutierrez, a veteran educator who is anti-Common Core, pro-Vergara and Republican. It was an unusually close race for Vladovic after serving...

The Los Angeles teachers union, UTLA, has moved one step closer to endorsing Scott Schmerelson, a former LA Unified principal, administrator and a Republican, in the runoff race for Board District 3. Members of the teachers union political action committee, PACE, are recommending to the full committee an endorsement for Schmerelson in his bid to...

The LA Unified school board voted unanimously yesterday to approve a “Fiscal Stabilization Plan” that calls for cuts, layoffs and smarter spending decisions to balance the 2015-2016 budget by June 30. In a separate vote, the board agreed, 5-2, to issue more than 600 teacher layoff notices for the first time in two years. Despite massive...