LA School Report

Charter school administrators, alumni and parents appeared today at a morning meeting of the LA Unified school to oppose a resolution that will ask the board to condemn any threat to the school system through a proliferation of charter schools. “Resolutions like this distract us and are perpetuating harmful myths in the community,” Rachel Hazlehurst,...

* UPDATED The LA Unified school board’s selection of Michelle King as the district’s new superintendent has elicited widespread praise from city and community leaders. If there are any leaders angered or disappointed in the choice, they are so far keeping to themselves. As a longtime employee of the district, King was most often cited...

I’ve never met Michelle King, but I’ve read enough about her and listened to enough people discussing her that one thing makes perfect sense to me: She’s the ideal superintendent for LA Unified. For right now. After all the time and expense — especially the time — district officials spent searching for a successor to...

The LA Unified school board is holding several open session meetings today, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., with a closed session in-between. Items up for discussion include an exploration of why certain charter schools operate on split campuses and a vote on the future of the closed Highlander campus in the San Fernando Valley,...

The LA Unified school district is analyzing why certain charter schools operate on split campuses. In a report being presented to the school board at a meeting today, the staff found 24 charters using shared facilities on two traditional school sites, and one-third of them are divided among three sites. Representatives of LA Unified charters...

By John Fensterwald  Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices were what news reports called hostile in their questioning of union lawyers Monday during arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that could undercut the financial stability and the political clout of public employee unions in California and nearly two dozen states Ten teachers in...

Who is new LA Unified Supt. Michelle King? If King has had nonconformist ideas about how to run the behemoth system or turn around lagging student achievement, she’s never made them widely known. Los Angeles Times, by Howard Blume Brown says it’s time to abandon API to judge schools’ performance Brown said the new federal...

* UPDATED After a three-month nationwide search, the LA Unified school board today kept it all in the family, naming Michelle King, a district teacher and administrator for nearly 30 years, to serve as its new superintendent. She succeeds Ramon Cortines whom she served as chief deputy until he stepped down last month. The 54-year-old...

Michelle King, the new LA Unified superintendent, is a district “lifer,” having worked all of her professional career in the district as a teacher, principal, magnet coordinator and top administrator. She also is a product of LA Unified, having attended Palisades High School. King, 54, served as senior deputy superintendent of school operations under former...