LA School Report

Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, a charter group in LA Unified, said today Dan Katzir will join the organization in March as CEO and President. He replaces Alliance’s founding CEO, Judy Burton, a former LA Unified associate superintendent of innovation and instruction, who returned to the district last month to serve as chair of what is...

Hours after criticizing LA Unified School Board Member Bennett Kayser for dropping out of today’s District 5 campaign forum, one of his challengers, Andrew Thomas, announced that he, too, is pulling out. That leaves the stage to the only other candidate in the race, Ref Rodriguez, who is promising to attend. The forum is the...

UTLA, the teachers union, is helping raise money for the family of a 14-year-old boy who was killed outside Griffith Middle School in east LA last week. The family is seeking donations to help pay for his funeral expenses and remains short of the $15,000 needed as of today. Steven Cruz, a student at nearby Garfield High...

  Why did LAUSD board member Bennett Kayser pull out of two debates? The affable, soft-spoken Kayser is the number one ally of the teacher’s union, UTLA, and was the number one critic of Superintendent Deasy. LA Weekly Rural communities struggle to provide after-school programs School officials in rural districts say there is a shortage...

This is the next in a series of profiles on candidates running in the March 3 primary for the LA Unified school board. Today’s focus is Lydia Gutierrez, a candidate for the District 7 seat.  Although she has no major endorsements and little campaign money, Lydia Gutierrez is expecting to make a big splash in LA...

The debating season kicks off tomorrow night with the first of several scheduled candidate forums for those running in the three contested LA United board districts. But it’s starting with a buzzkill. After committing to appear, board member Bennett Kayser has withdrawn from the first of the District 5 debates, scheduled at the Goodwill Community Enrichment...

A new report gives California a “C” grade in the overall health of the state’s teacher pension plan, coming in just slightly ahead of the C- average nationwide. The report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), which has been tracking the health of teacher pension plans in each state and the District of...

California officials preparing for rise in new teacher jobs With the economy now improving, school districts have ramped up hiring and California is poised for a turnabout in teacher credentialing. KPCC Schools encouraging parents to immunize students The largest outbreak of measles in California in years is prompting school officials to redouble their efforts to...

LA Unified has hit yet another snag in its attempt to get laptops into the hands of students as part of the district’s beleaguered computers-for-all plan. More than 19,000 laptops —  part of the newly renamed Instructional Technology Initiative Phase 1L pilot — were scheduled to be delivered to 21 participating high schools by September....

* UPDATED LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines today for the first time publicly inserted himself into the district’s contract negotiations with the teachers union, calling its latest demands “entirely unrealistic” and asserting that they raise “serious ethical and equity issues” for the district. Pointing out that all the district’s other unions have agreed to new contracts...