While discussing cost-saving measures and reducing waste in LA Unified food services, some school board members said they wanted to bring back flavored milk. Superintendent John Deasy banned chocolate and strawberry milk from the school menu five years ago after the school board voted it was too sugary for students. But now LA Unified School Board President Steve...

*UPDATED The lockdown of two LA Unified elementary schools and a middle school near the UCLA campus following a shooting there has been lifted and classes are resuming, school police reported. Warner Avenue Elementary School, Fairburn Avenue Elementary School and Emerson Middle School had been put on lockdown “as a precaution,” said Ellen Morgan, of the...

CA lawmakers consider summer benefits for school classified workers A bill that would allow classified workers to collect unemployment insurance even though their school expects them back to work in the fall is expected to come to a vote Wednesday. It would cost the state $90 million the first year and $360 million the fourth. In...

LA Unified has so many different kinds of schools it’s hard to keep them all straight. With such varied terms as affiliated charter, independent charter, magnet school, pilot school, continuation school, option school and others, it can be a challenge to understand what they are, what they offer and how they differ. This is the...

As charters grow, public schools see sharp enrollment drop In financially struggling urban districts from LA to Philadelphia — and most notoriously, Detroit — the increasing popularity of charter schools, combined with family flight to the suburbs and declining birth rates, have caused enrollment to plummet. By Christine Armario, Associated Press Special ed tutor accused...

Students who depend on eating at school for their one — and sometimes only — meal of the day will be able to more easily find a location for free meals during the summer. The expansion of the federal Summer Food Service Program will provide more meals to children and teens 18 years and younger...

A small after-school program, branded i.am College Track in homage to founding partner musician will.i.am and his i.am angel foundation, launched in Boyle Heights four years ago with 45 students. Last week it graduated all 45 of them. At a ceremony and reception hosted by College Track Los Angeles’ Advisory Board last Thursday, local leaders Los...

  As Michelle King wrapped up her “listen and learn” tour in her first semester as LA Unified superintendent, she said she still has more listening to do before announcing her priorities, a strategy that some experts said could make her more successful than her predecessors. Many people have been asking her about her plans, but “It’s...

A vocal and sometimes disruptive group of mostly student activists declared victory this week over federal weaponry being used by LA Unified police. The group received letters of explanation and apologies from two board members and the school police chief. The Labor/Community Strategy Center’s Fight for the Soul of the Cities, a nonprofit civil rights...