LA School Report

Updated: Feb. 19, 2014 Thirteen candidates — two of whom signed up within minutes of the 5 p.m. City Clerk deadline yesterday — have declared their intention to run for LA Unified School Board in June’s special election, in what appears to be the most crowded race in recent school board election history. The District...

Presidential candidates in the race to lead the United Teachers of Los Angeles faced tough questions and a rowdy audience last night, in the second forum of the campaign season. It was the first time all 10 candidates — Alex Caputo-Pearl, the incumbent Warren Fletcher, Bill Gaffney, David Garcia, Saul Lankster, Kevin Mottus, Marcos Ortega II, Innocent Osunwa, Leonard Segal and Gregg Solkovitz...

L.A. Unified names caretaker for vacant board seat The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday appointed a former district administrator to oversee the seat left vacant by the death of member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte in December. In a closed-door meeting, the board selected Sylvia Rousseau, a USC professor and former local superintendent in L.A....

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging state laws that govern teacher employment put their case on pause today, allowing the defense team to call one of its key experts to the witness stand. But it turned out far more challenging than Dr. Susan Moore Johnson, a respected Harvard professor, and the former dean of the Harvard...

The Los Angeles Unified Board voted 6-0 today to appoint Vivian Ekchian to the newly created position of chief labor negotiator. The district’s chief human resources officer since 2007, she will be responsible for negotiating agreements with all labor unions that hold contracts with the District. She begins her new job immediately. “I congratulate Vivian...

A series of meetings are scheduled to help LA Unified parents and other community members learn about the new Local Control Funding Formula, the state’s new funding stream. A coalition of advocacy groups known as CLASS, as well as LAUSD board members are holding community meetings to help the public understand the changes. Below is...

He was beefy and laconic, rumored to be gang-affiliated. Kids whispered that he stood outside of school in the early mornings selling weed, though we could never catch him at it. He was also brilliant. If you define “intellectual” as a person who takes delight in the process of abstract thinking, Xavier was one of...

Bringing unusual visibility to the upcoming LA Unified school board special election, Omarosa Manigault, a TV personality best known for contentious her role on The Apprentice, has told LA School Report she is entering the race. She filed papers with the City Clerk on Friday to run for the vacant seat in District 1. The...