LA School Report

Teachers Endorse Zimmer The union on Wednesday also endorsed candidates for the three school board elections scheduled for March. LA Times 15 Candidates File to Run for LAUSD School Board Seats Officials have 10 days to verify whether each has the signatures of at least 500 registered voters from the candidate’s district. LA Daily News LAUSD...

SEIU Local 99 has endorsed Antonio Sanchez for school board in District 6, which covers the East San Fernando Valley, according to a longtime politico. The endorsement isn’t a huge surprise since Sanchez, a former employee of the LA County Federation of Labor, was always expected to be a union-friendly candidate. In addition to Sanchez, the...

There are lots of charter schools in LA, including some great ones and some not-so-great ones, but don’t think that LA has “more” of them than has become common in big cities around the country. As this new map from a national charter school association shows, lots of other cities have proportionately lots more charters...

As the 2013 race for three LAUSD School Board seats heats up, so will the political fundraising that pays for the candidates’ campaigns. Just as they have in recent elections, independent expenditure (IE) committees are again likely to eclipse direct donations to candidates’ campaigns. At least one IE committee is ahead of the game: UTLA-PACE,...

It was announced last week that Russlynn Ali, the Obama civil rights head within the US Department of Education, was leaving the administration after four years. Longtime LAUSD observers may recall Ali as head of the Education Trust – West and her work on efforts to expand AP access across the district. See EdWeek, Center for Public...

L.A. Unified Says Deal on Evaluations Meets Court Order The Los Angeles Unified School District filed court papers Tuesday asserting that a new tentative agreement with the teachers union has satisfied judicial orders to use state standardized test scores in instructor evaluations. LA Times LAUSD Board OKs Deal With Teachers Union on Performance Evaluations The...

The 50-member UTLA Board of Directors [BOD] has recommended to the union’s House of Representatives that they endorse school board member Steve Zimmer, according to a teacher speaking to LA School Report on condition of anonymity, and it has also recommended that the House of Representatives endorse a handful of acceptable candidates in Districts 2 (Central and East Los...

According to multiple sources familiar with the fast-approaching LAUSD school board race, the competition for District 2, currently held by School Board President Monica Garcia, is likely to attract the most energetic attention from UTLA, the powerful teachers union. The candidate who may be the biggest challenge to Garcia is Annamarie Montañez.  The cousin of former...

Tomorrow, December 5,  is the deadline for LAUSD Board candidates to submit nominating petitions with at least 500 signatures to the City Clerk’s office in order to qualify for the March 2013 elections. There are 22 candidates who have declared their intent to run for a seat on the board. But as of this morning,...

“Auditors reviewed 61 settlements with LAUSD teachers – including 47 involving misconduct with a student – and found that more than $2 million in payouts had been made… Officials said Monday that 299 teachers are now being “housed” at district offices after being accused of misconduct. Each case takes an average of six months to investigate...