LA School Report

The new members of the LA Unified school board were inducted Thursday, and the board’s first votes — on who would be their leader — broke along expected lines. The pro-reform majority exercised its muscle, voting 4-3 to elect as their president Ref Rodriguez, the co-founder one of LA’s largest charter school organizations. But immediately...

Los Angeles voters and parents overwhelmingly agree that the LA Unified school board should put kids first when it comes to the district’s budget and policies, according to a new poll. And the board will have the chance to signal its commitment to that priority when it votes Thursday on a “kids first” resolution in...

* UPDATED When the new board is inducted on Thursday, it will kick off the longest period of time that all seven board members will be working together — a full three and a half years — in the entire 164-year history of the largest school district in the country that has an elected board. But...

*UPDATED June is graduation and budget season. If you were busy preparing for either of those, here’s a quick look at what happened this month, as reflected in some of our top stories. To make sure you get all the news, sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our website. And don’t forget...

A judge has dismissed more complaints lodged by the local teachers union against Los Angeles’ largest charter school network. In a ruling Tuesday that covered seven allegations that Alliance College-Ready Public Schools was unlawfully preventing United Teachers Los Angeles’ efforts to organize, six were dismissed. The administrative law judge with the Public Employee Relations Board...

Despite a concerted effort to increase student attendance, the number of LA Unified students who missed 16 or more days of school in 2015-16 grew by 1 percent from the previous year, this month’s budget documents show. The increase in the number of students who were chronically absent cost the district $45 million in state...

Latino students from East Los Angeles, community activists, and immigrant youth gathered last weekend at East LA College to discuss topics on immigrant rights and youth empowerment through community news at the “How to Empower Your Community With Mobile Stories” workshop presented by the East Los Angeles College Student Equity Program, the Spanish weekly newspaper...

LA Unified’s charter school oversight division has confirmed it will look into complaints about three independent charter high schools made by a parent whose daughter attends one of the schools and who ran for school board this spring. The charter division confirmed Tuesday that staff is looking into the complaints and will report back to...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed the state budget for the next fiscal year, which includes an additional $3 billion for K-12 education and community colleges, bringing total state spending on education to $74.5 billion for 2017-18. LA Unified is the largest school district in the state. The majority of its budget, as other public...

Even as LA Unified’s enrollment is projected to continue its downward slide next year, which means less money for the district, spending will increase compared to the previous year. The new budget for 2017-18, approved unenthusiastically last Tuesday by the LA Unified school board, includes a 6.7 percent increase in spending from the last school...