By Araceli Morfín and Raúl Ruíz Tomorrow, the LAUSD school board will ratify the 2015-16 budget, along with the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), increasing an investment in restorative justice to $7.2 million from $4.2 million. This increase is timely, as the work of restorative justice has been immensely impactful in our LAUSD schools at...

The LA Unified School Board will approve a final budget for 2015-16 and an accompanying Local Control Accountability Plan that is supposed to outline the district’s goals in spending of nearly $7.1 billion during tomorrow’s last meeting of the school year. It is also the last time with this configuration of the board. Tamar Galatzan...

By Rachel M. Cohen The April sun had not yet risen in Los Angeles when teachers from the city’s largest charter network—the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools—gathered outside for a press conference to discuss their new union drive. Joined by local labor leaders, politicians, student alumni, and parents, the importance of the educators’ effort was not...

Nearly 14 percent of LAUSD students in special education programs Students in LAUSD were more likely to be placed in special education programs than their peers statewide, according to records. Los Angeles Daily News California vocational education in danger Career technical education is once again in peril in California. Fresno Bee The deplorable way LAUSD...

Responding to a wave of media attention this week surrounding the suspension of Hobart Boulevard Elementary teacher Rafe Esquith, LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said today “serious issues” have been raised in the briefings he has seen and that he supported the district’s continued investigation of the case. Esquith, who has received national recognition and is...

Judith Perez‘s 46 years with LA Unified came about through a random encounter in her early 20s. “I was not one of those people who knew at age five I would be a teacher,” she told LA School Report. After moving to Los Angeles in her early 20s and bouncing around a few unsatisfying jobs,...

By Gail Robinson When the 24 third-graders in Morgan Mercaldi’s class arrive at the Jackson Avenue School every morning, they take their iPads out of their backpacks and put them on their desks. The tablets will remain there, or in hands and laps, until the children put them in their packs to take them home....

Woman says dozens of parents sign petition asking for removal of principal The parent of a student at a Maywood school says dozens of parents have signed a petition asking the district to remove the school’s head. CBS Los Angeles Commentary: Why we need to keep iPads out of the classroom People think tech will...

While sitting LA Unified board members are combing through the latest budget proposal and wrapping up other end of the year activities, the newly-elected representatives are busy staffing up and hiring some familiar names. Scott Schmerelson, who replaces Tamar Galatzan as the District 3 representative on July 1, has named Arlene Irlando as his Chief of Staff....