* UPDATED Concerned by a slew of problems with the district’s new student management computer system, board member Tamar Galatzan said today she is asking the district’s Inspector General to conduct an audit of the defective rollout. “I demand to know what happened and how this got so messed up,” she told LA School Report. “Because until it...

* UPDATED Parent Revolution, an organization that helps parents petition for change at poor-performing schools, is disputing an LA Unified legal opinion that says the state law that gives parents that right is invalid this year. The conflict came to light in an LA Times story this morning, citing an opinion from a district lawyer...

Days before Marguerite LaMotte died last December at the age of 80, Daymond Johnson, a school safety officer and consultant, filed papers with the City Ethics Commission to run for her LA Unified District 1 board seat when her term expired in 2015. Whether she intended to seek reelection or not, his rationale was to...

As the new school year gets underway, so does a campaign to increase student safety at LA Unified elementary schools. District officials, including board member Bennett Kayser, and members of the  FixLA coalition gathered at City Hall this week to express their concern over a shortage of crossing guards at more than 100 LA Unified...

Via Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume At the low-slung bungalow west of downtown, a youngster screams from a vaccination and a nurse records the height and weight of an older boy. Academic counselors stand by, because it is here that many children who recently crossed the southern border enroll in the Los Angeles...

The morning after his defeat to George McKenna by seven points in the race for a seat on the LA Unified School Board of Education, Alex Johnson congratulated his opponent and said, “I wish him well as he prepares to assume his new responsibilities.” He added, “I’m proud of my campaign for school board and equally proud...

*UPDATED George McKenna’s victory over Alex Johnson last night would appear to return control of the seven member LA Unified school board to teachers union-backed members. McKenna’s win shifts the balance of the board to a majority owing their seats, in large part, to financial support by UTLA and its ability to mobilize members to get...

Fun with numbers: By the LA City Clerk’s unofficial results from last night, George McKenna won with 14,940 votes to 13,153 for Alex Johnson. That translates to $6.79 the McKenna campaign spent for each vote, $101,479 overall, compared with $10.22 that the Johnson campaign paid for each vote, $134,470 overall. Among the independent groups who spent...

Amid a deep split in the black community in south Los Angeles, retired administrator George Mckenna won a seat on the LA Unified school board, fighting back substantial gains made by Alex Johnson a young education aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, in a special election runoff yesterday. Marked by voter low-turnout, the unofficial final...

George McKenna, a lifelong educator as a teacher, principal, superintendent and administrator, won the runoff election tonight, defeating Alex Johnson to claim the District 1 seat on the LA Unified school board. As the leading vote-getter in the June primary, McKenna, 74, campaigned on his decades of service and with all 324 precincts and mail-in...