LA School Report

Struggling L.A. schools seek larger class sizes Despite an improving economy and robust tax collections, the Los Angeles School District will petition the state to allow larger class sizes in some of its most under-performing schools through 2014-15.The waiver application, which covers more than 70 school sites, would have in the recent past likely been...

Disgruntled parents from Carthay Center Elementary school in LA Unified’s District 1 are holding rallies this week to build support for removing their principal. Their outrage arose after the principal, Crystal Campbell-Shirley, who is completing her first year at the school, told seven teachers on Friday — half the faculty — that they would not be...

UPDATED* A committee launched last year by LA Unified’s Office of Labor Relations to provide public information on labor negotiations is meeting today to discuss the district’s collective bargaining contracts. That the committee even exists has not been reported until now. Called the “Sunshine Committee,” it is intended to bring transparency to the negotiating process. According...

The UTLA election winners are still waiting for the fat lady to sing. Since Alex Caputo-Pearl was declared the winner as president and two other races were clarified though the second round of voting last week, the union’s election committee is now in the midst of hearing 15 challenges from competition for 22 positions. Hearings...

Common Core is latest front in decades-long education wars Commentary: Nearly 20 years ago, after the Clinton administration proposed a program of voluntary national student testing, Chester Finn, then a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, warned that if it failed it would be because “liberals hate the word ‘testing’ and conservatives hate the...

It was “pencils down” day yesterday, for the members of the Parent Advisory Committee, who completed their first opportunity to weigh in on LA Unified’s Local Control and Accountability Plan, the so-called LCAP required of Gov. Jerry Brown‘s new Local Control Funding Formula. The 47 parents and guardians selected to give feedback, have had two...

A bureaucratic mistake at LA Unified has led to a degree of anxiety among affiliated charter schools in the West Valley, which will begin paying for classroom basics they had previously gotten for free from the district. A lack of oversight and confusion among several departments with little experience in understanding how affiliated charter school...

In the face of reports that Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt molested many more children than previously known, according to an LA County Sheriff’s investigation, LA Unified today said it followed prescribed legal regulations in dealing with reports of the allegations. The sheriff’s report included the assertion that the school district in 2008 destroyed...

Third in a series of profiles of candidates for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat. At 73 years old and now retired as an LAUSD administrator and principal, George McKenna shows no signs of slowing down. With more than 35 years under his belt, serving in multiple roles in eight different schools in several...