LA School Report

Los Angeles Gives Students More Control Over School Lunch Many school districts nationwide have stepped up efforts to increase the nutritional value of the food they serve and reduce the consumption of foods that drive a growing childhood obesity epidemic. Los Angeles Unified School District has been at the forefront of this movement. Education News...

Los Angeles-based CItizens of the World charter network has applied to open a school in fast-gentrifying Williamsburg (Brooklyn), and the local NPR affiliate reports that its possible  arrival is creating both hope and concern.  While socioeconomically diverse and progressive charter schools like Citizens are somewhat familiar in Los Angeles, they remain new and unfamiliar on...

In this article, Huffington Post LA editor (and former South Central teacher) Kathleen Miles reminds us that it was the 1989 schoolyard shooting in Stockton that led to an earlier wave of measures to limit the proliferation of assault weapons.

East LA native Monica Garcia only planned on working for LA Unified for three weeks.  That was way back in 2001, when former Board member Jose Huizar asked her to be his first chief of staff. But Garcia, now 44, ended up replacing her boss when he was elected to City Council. The job of...

“There is no reasonable explanation for why firing a teacher in California is such a time-consuming, tortuous and expensive procedure… Appeals often drag on for years — during which the school district must pay the teachers’ salaries and benefits — and almost invariably favor the teachers… The dysfunctional process benefits no one except bad teachers. The...

Former School Board candidate John Fernandez is among a handful of voices urging to teachers to vote against the tentative agreement struck between UTLA and LAUSD regarding teacher evaluations earlier this year. “The big problem is the district and the union have not figured out how much weight they will count for,” said Fernandez, who...

LAPD Has Few Easy Answers on School Safety The dozens of educators packed into a police station meeting room Wednesday had a lot of questions about how to protect their students. But LAPD Capt. Tom Brascia made it clear he didn’t have a lot of answers. LA Daily News, KCET, LAist California Teachers Retirement Fund Threat...

“In many states, perhaps all but I don’t know one way or the other, boards of education have to approve the receipt of all grants.  However, I am not aware of boards being required to approve grant applications,” says Donald McAdams, Center for Reform of School Systems (and 1990-2002 Houston school board member).  “If a superintendent was...

Jeneen Robinson, the would-be school board candidate for the Westside’s District 4, is meeting with the elections division tomorrow to contest her non-qualification for the March ballot, according to her campaign manager, Kevin Durst. “It’s kind of odd,” Durst told LA School Report. “We turned in 1000 names and only 360 were valid, according to the electoral office. We’re...

The New York Times is reporting that Participant Media, the production company behind “Waiting For Superman” as well as several other features and documentaries, is creating a new cable channel of its own to create more do-gooder fare from the likes of Davis Guggenheim, Morgan Spurlock, and others. Maybe they’ll make something out of Stray...