LA School Report

After the sudden death of LA Unified school board member Marguerite LaMotte nearly six months ago, her District 1 constituents have rallied inside and outside district headquarters, demanding representation on the board. Some wanted an immediate appointment to fill her seat. Others called for a special election. The latter group won out and tomorrow, residents...

An open letter to the Los Angeles Unified school board from five district students: Dear board members: We are students who live in South Los Angeles and attend South L.A. High Schools. One of us wakes up early every morning to take two buses to attend Hamilton High School in West L.A. so that she...

L.A. Unified suspension rates fall but some question accuracy In the heart of Watts, where violence in nearby housing projects can spill over onto campuses, two of the city’s toughest middle schools have long dealt with fights, drugs and even weapons. Administrators typically have handled these problems by suspending students. But this year Markham and...

Tonight is the final disclosure deadline for candidates running in the June 3 special election, to fill LA Unified’s District 1 board seat. “There should be updated numbers by midnight from all the candidates,” said a staff member at the City Ethics Commission. Most candidates are filing their required disclosure forms online, which will be available on...

With the the LA Unified school board special election only four days away, Alex Johnson is the only candidate of seven whose campaign is supported by independent expenditure committees, also known as super-PACS. So far, groups are spending more than $52,000 to get him elected, according to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. These groups...

With seven candidates vying for the vacant LAUSD school board seat in South LA, what would it take to pull ahead of the pack and head off a costly stand-alone runoff? Coinciding with the California statewide primary on June 3, the special election was called to fill the District 1 board seat, left vacant by death last...

Teachers at John Kennedy High School in Granada Hills are speaking out against the principal, Suzanne Blake, over what they perceive as an autocratic management style that fractures faculty unity. While Blake has supporters among Kennedy’s 90-plus teachers and staff, the willingness of some teachers to complain suggests that she remains a polarizing figure within...

* UPDATED As lawyers figure out where Citizens of the World Mar Vista decides will call home in the 2014-2015 school year, LA Unified board member Steve Zimmer says the charter is likely to encounter the same friction it endured as a co-located school this year at Stoner Elementary if it remains on LA’s west...