By the time Alvaro Quintero and Jose Rodriguez reached the end of their senior year, they were no longer Alvaro and Jose. “Before we left, we got our names changed to Harvard and Yale, respectively,” Rodriguez recalled. “That is how we were referred to.” At once they had lost their familiar identity in the halls...

LA Unified expects this to be its best budget year in a decade, school officials said Tuesday, but board members urged immediate action to address a deficit in three years that could reach half a billion dollars. “This is the healthiest year in the past decade,” Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly said in a report to...

The LA Unified school board is scheduled to hold an open session meeting today at 1 p.m. Items up for discussion include consideration of major upgrades at school sites throughout the district. Other potential board actions include staff recommendations for the denial of the charter petition for WISH Academy High School and the renewal of the charter for...

LA Unified’s $15 million credit recovery program has already been making a big impact on its projected high school graduation rate this year, and a school-by-school breakdown report released by the district shows that the progress is across the board. The report, which highlights how many students are on track to complete their “A through...

The LA Unified school board will consider major upgrades at school sites throughout the district at their regular meeting Tuesday. The Facilities Services Division is asking the board to approve district bonds for projects including replacing a half-century-old canopy over a stairwell, replacing 60-year-old bleachers, upgrading walk-in freezers at 305 schools and replacing ovens, ice machines and...

George McKenna doesn’t talk about it much, but Denzel Washington played him in a TV movie called “The George McKenna Story.” Fellow LA Unified school board members may occasionally rib him about it, and on a recent tour of an elementary school, Superintendent Michelle King pointed it out to impress the students. “This man had...

The tag line of the film “The George McKenna Story” (also known as “Hard Lessons”) is a punny George McKenna-ism characteristic of the man it profiled. “He risked it all to make the grade,” is how the movie was advertised. In it, the heroic principal sacrifices relationships, career and safety to do the right thing for...

By Nadra Nittle As evidence mounts that punitive discipline makes students more likely to go to prison than to college, school districts in greater Los Angeles, such as Long Beach Unified and Lynwood Unified, are shifting away from suspending students or citing them for truancy. Instead, they’re making greater use of restorative justice programs, as...

Advocates voice ‘grave concern’ over LAUSD’s charter schools review process Charter school leaders are rallying behind applicants who hope to open a new charter high school, intensifying their accusation that Los Angeles Unified School District officials are playing politics with charter applications. KPCC, by Kyle Stokes LA Unified keeps schools open after receiving ‘non-credible’ threat,...

LA Unified Local District Northwest Superintendent Vivian Ekchian faced an angry and skeptical group of West Hills residents Thursday evening as she presented the district’s plan to redevelop a long-shuttered and dilapidated elementary school into a high school serving 500 students. The anger stemmed from the school board’s sudden cancellation last month of a plan that had...