Many L.A. Unified school libraries, lacking staff, are forced to shut In the sun-filled space at the Roy Romer Middle School library, thousands of books invite students to stimulate their curiosity and let their imaginations soar. There is classic “Tom Sawyer” and popular “Harry Potter,” biographies of Warren Buffett and Tony Blair, illustrated books on...

California senator proposes restoring bilingual education Sixteen years after California voters approved an initiative requiring public school instruction in English, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) introduced a measure Thursday to repeal the requirement of Proposition 227. Lara’s proposal would place an initiative on the ballot that would give parents a choice to have their...

More than 600 L.A. school buildings need quake evaluations, retrofits The Los Angeles Unified School District still has hundreds of school buildings in need of detailed seismic evaluations and strengthening to withstand a major earthquake, according to district data. The Times requested an update of the school district’s inventory of its buildings in need of...

L.A. Unified names caretaker for vacant board seat The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday appointed a former district administrator to oversee the seat left vacant by the death of member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte in December. In a closed-door meeting, the board selected Sylvia Rousseau, a USC professor and former local superintendent in L.A....

After Facebook headlines, LA school board takes on crumbling campuses The staff behind the social media campaign to shame the Los Angeles Unified School District into repairing tattered and infested campuses won a first victory. After every local media outlet – and some national ones – reported on the “repairs not iPads” Facebook group, a...

New professional standards for CA principals approved Setting a clear expectation that schools should be a place of safety and fairness, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing adopted Thursday new standards for school principals that embrace restorative justice practices. SI&A Cabinet Report L.A. Unified had requested guard where woman was killed The Los Angeles Unified School...

California leads nation in new charter schools and students California led the country in opening new charter schools this fiscal year, adding 104 campuses and 48,000 students, according to a report released Wednesday. Data compiled by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools showed that California also led the nation in charter school closures with...

LA school board launches new library task force The Los Angeles Unified school board approved a task force Tuesday to address the hundreds of school libraries that have closed due to a lack of specialized staff. There are only 98 librarians in a district with 768 school libraries. Many elementary schools opt for library aides...

LA schools’ wifi networks to cost about $800 million The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board is scheduled to green light $66 million in wifi upgrades Tuesday, bringing the total reported costs of wifi upgrades need for its iPad proposal to $795 million. With that, iPad and wifi costs together would exceed $1.3 billion if...

LA schools’ drop in arts teachers dragged down county numbers The Los Angeles Unified School District has lost about 200 full-time arts teacher positions since the 2010-2011 school year, according to the most recent data available from the California Department of Education, suggesting the district is responsible for more than half of the loss cited...