LA School Report

LA Unified took another step today toward completing the roster of parents who will serve on an advisory panel charged with helping set spending goals for new state money coming into the district through the Local Control Funding Formula. In recent days, meetings of parents and guardians at the district’s five Educational Service Center areas...

The teachers union is taking its demands to the school yard. On Feb. 28, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is staging a coordinated leafleting campaign, directed at parents during drop-off, to fight for more pay and increased hiring. Dubbed, “Time for Kids” the campaign is set to take place before the first bell on Friday....

Teachers: LA schools’ arts budget ‘a step in the wrong direction’ A plan by the Los Angeles Unified School District to cut the time elementary school children are taught orchestra in half is angering teachers – many of whom learned about it only after KPCC reported on the arts budget, which was released unexpectedly at...

George McKenna, a former LA Unified administrator, has become the first of thirteen school board candidates vying in the special election for the District 1 seat to submit a nominating petition. The Los Angeles City Clerk’s office requires at least 500 signatures to qualify for a position on the ballot. The filing period, which began...

The LA Unified school board holds a committee meeting today, chaired by LAUSD trustee Monica Ratliff. Among other items, the Curriculum Instruction and Assessment Committee is set to discuss the new ‘smarter balanced‘ assessments which will be administered this year on computers and tablets, taking the place of traditional standardized tests. 1:00 p.m.: Curriculum, Instruction...

LA Unified has released a preliminary list of charter school co-location proposals, showing that the district is offering more traditional school sites for co-locations for 2014-15 than in either of the previous two school years. According to Lorena Padilla-Melendez, director of Community Relations for LAUSD’s Facilities Services Division, 80 traditional school sites were recently approved...

With Vergara v California at the halfway point, and court in recess until next week, it’s a good time to see where things stand and where they might be going, if they’re going anywhere at all. The trial has enormous consequences for the state, and maybe beyond, calling into account five California laws that govern...

New funding law puts focus on translation for non-English speakers School districts with high concentrations of English-learner students are facing a new challenge in ensuring that parents who need language translation are informed of their role under the funding formula for schools. California’s new Local Control Funding Formula emphasizes the importance of parental involvement in...

Home of the National Academic Decathlon champions for 8 of the last 10 years, LAUSD is no stranger to success in the annual academic competition for high school students. And neither is this year’s district winner, John Marshall High School. The Los Feliz school will represent LAUSD at the state level in March alongside a...

Former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has thrown himself into the District 1 special election race by endorsing Genethia Hudley-Hayes, one of 13 candidates running to join the LA Unified School Board. Hudley-Hayes, who served as school board president until she lost her seat to the late Marguerite LaMotte in 2003, released a list of endorsers this...