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Exclusive: Where have all the middle school students gone? The key battlefield in LAUSD enrollment drop
LA Unified is fighting a costly enrollment slide, and its biggest battleground is middle schools. As the district has lost 133,000 students since 2006, data show the biggest consistent declines in enrollment outside of high school over the past 10 years occur when students enter sixth grade. And the drop has become more pronounced in...
By Sarah Favot | August 15, 2016
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2 more candidates enter LAUSD school board races
Two more people this week entered the March 7 race for LA Unified school board. Gregory Martayan will join Nick Melvoin in challenging board President Steve Zimmer for his District 4 seat. And Joanne Baltierrez-Fernandez joins one other challenger in seeking an open seat in District 6. Martayan and Baltierrez-Fernandez filed with the city Ethics Commission on...
By Sarah Favot | August 12, 2016
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LAUSD’s graduation rate a record 75 percent, Michelle King announces at her first State of the District address
Michelle King announced a record 75 percent graduation rate at her first State of the District address as superintendent of LA Unified, “a district on the move,” she proclaimed Tuesday. King noted that the 75 percent rate is based on “preliminary data” as she addressed 1,500 principals, assistant principals and district administrators at the annual kick-off to the school...
By Mike Szymanski | August 9, 2016
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School board elections heat up with 4 more candidates jumping into race
Four more candidates have entered the race to run for two school board seats in the March 7 election. Three people in the last 10 days have filed with the city Ethics Commission an intent to raise money to challenge Monica Garcia for school board in District 2, and one person has entered the race for...
By Sarah Favot | August 8, 2016
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LA Unified reopens all district libraries — but forgets about the books
For the first time since some school libraries were shuttered during budget cuts in 2008, all of the LA Unified school libraries will be back up and running when school starts again on August 16. But according to the latest district estimates, the majority of students across Los Angeles will still be forced to rely...
By Mike Szymanski | August 4, 2016
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L.A. Unified school board member Monica Garcia dominates fundraising in re-election bid
Seven months out from the primary, L.A. Unified school board member Monica Garcia has already raised nearly 150 times more money than her opponent, including donations from former L.A. Unified Superintendent John Deasy and both charter school and L.A. district employees. Garcia, seeking her third term on the seven-member board, collected $119,858 in donations between...
By Sarah Favot | August 3, 2016
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Challenger Nick Melvoin raises more than incumbent Steve Zimmer early on in school board bid
*UPDATED The candidate challenging LA Unified board President Steve Zimmer for school board has raised more money early on in the March 7 election campaign than the incumbent did in his entire re-election bid three years ago, according to city campaign finance records. Nick Melvoin announced this week that as of the June 30 filing deadline,...
By Sarah Favot | July 26, 2016
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Participants at LA Unified’s summit on best practices suggest an arbiter for co-located schools
At the final panel of the “Promising Practices” forum held all day Saturday, participants called for an arbiter at the district level who could step in to help solve disputes at schools sharing campuses. The panel discussion was titled “Leading the Way with Collaboration and Sharing of Promising Practices: Perspectives from the Field” and included three sets of principals...
By Mike Szymanski | July 25, 2016
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Charter chiefs applaud Zimmer’s summit speech
LA Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer offered a rousing speech at Saturday’s “Promising Practices” forum that was praised by charter leaders because of his inclusiveness. “We understand that a narrative that blames charter schools for all that is wrong in public education may serve short-term organizing goals but is counterproductive and doesn’t help every...
By Mike Szymanski | July 25, 2016
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Sold-out crowd expected at King’s best-practices sharing session on Saturday
A groundbreaking summit that plans to share best practices between LA Unified traditional school and charter school educators is at capacity with more than 350 people signed up for the Saturday event planned by Superintendent Michelle King. From the moment she was appointed to the position in January, King said she planned to find ways to...
By Mike Szymanski | July 20, 2016