LA School Report

Huge settlement in sex abuse case has LAUSD rethinking reforms The district approved paying the staggering sum of more than $139 million to alleged victims of former Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt. Los Angeles Times Ryan Smith: Organizing for equity Smith, 33, arrived at Ed Trust-West after directing education programs and policy for the United...

Let the iPads roll. Again. LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines today approved moving ahead with the next phase of the district’s iPad program, officially known as Phase 2B of the Common Core Technology Project. It’s actually, iPads et. al. The goal with this action is to complete the second round of buying digital devices by...

Administrators from Pacific Palisades Charter High School were on pins and needles earlier this week as the LA Unified school board considered its renewal application. But the board’s approval on Nov. 18 was hardly the end of the story. At a meeting at the beachside high school last night, about 15 neighborhood residents showed up to complain...

The message was clear from United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl as he spoke to hundreds of energetic, amped-up supporters yesterday: If teachers are going to get the raise and other concessions they are demanding from LA Unified in a new contract, it is going to be a fight. “Now folks, we’ve got...

LA Unified has reached a settlement worth almost $140 million with 81 victims and their families from the sex abuse scandal involving former teacher Mark Berndt at Miramonte Elementary School. The exact amount, $139,250,000, is the largest settlement involving LA Unified and possibly of any school district in the country. “This puts to rest all...

The Los Angeles Unified School District has just announced a settlement today in civil cases stemming from the actions of a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School. The school district resolved the remaining Miramonte litigation at issue for a total of $139,250,000. “There is nothing more important to us than the safety of the students...

Coalition submits application for South L.A ‘Promise Zone’ designation A coalition led by Los Angeles Trade-Technical College finalized an application Thursday seeking to make South Los Angeles a “Promise Zone.” City News Service Chino Valley Unified target of suit over prayer at board meetings A local school district is the target of a lawsuit that...

The LA Unified Bond Oversight Committee today agreed to approve another $25 million in bond fund spending to help the district fix MiSiS problems and equip schools with computers for standardized testing in the Spring. A team of district officials, including Superintendent Ramon Cortines, made lengthy presentations to the nine member committee, insisting that in...

* UPDATED If you are required to do it, is it still “volunteering”? That is the question at the heart of a report issued yesterday by Public Advocates, which researched 555 charter schools in California and found that 30 percent of them require parents to do work at the school for a set quota of...