What’s the easiest way for LAUSD to save millions of dollars to help stave off a budget crisis? Keep students in school. More than 80,000 students are chronically absent at LA Unified, and that results in an annual loss of $139 million in revenue, Debra Duardo, executive director of Student Health and Human Services at...

By Louis Freedberg When Michelle King was appointed to head the Los Angeles Unified School District last week, she became the most prominent African-American school superintendent in the state and the nation. But her ascent to the top post is hardly typical of California districts. She is one of only a small number of African-American superintendents...

Los Angeles Unified’s new superintendent, Michelle King, said today the district is working on a response to a review panel‘s examination of district finances, and ideas would go before the school board next month. “It’s a huge concern of mine,” King said today, during a 2 1/2 minute interview with LA School Report. “I have work...

The LA teachers union, UTLA, is planning to take part in a national “walk-in” event on Feb. 17 set to take place at schools in at least 30 cities, including Los Angeles. The walk-in is being organized by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, a national group of parent, youth and community organizations and labor groups whose...

Conserving water and investing in new water stations will save LA Unified money in the long run, according to a report released yesterday. The report, from chief facilities director Mark Hovatter, also said eliminating the flushing just to clear lead from drinking water would save 9,500 gallons of water a day or 2.5 million gallons a...

Declaring that she has no intention of turning LA Unified into an all-charter school district, board member Mónica Ratliff chaired a board committee meeting yesterday that examined just what it is that makes charters different from traditional schools. For one thing, as she learned from a presentation to the committee, charter school teachers don’t have...

By Jane Meredith Adams Vaccination rates increased across the state for kindergartners in 2015-16 as schools reacted to the news that their daily attendance figures would be scrutinized if they had high numbers of students who were only partially vaccinated, according to a summary analysis by the California Department of Public Health, which released its school-by-school immunization data on...

Investigating and analyzing charter schools is becoming a greater burden for LA Unified, and the district isn’t getting any more money to do the work, according to a report presented today. “Charter-related work consumes the most amount of investigative resources due to the time-sensitive nature of the work and the monthly deadlines for board action on...

A majority of LA School Report readers responding to our latest poll voted that Michelle King was the right choice to be LA Unified’s next superintendent. King, a longtime district insider, was announced earlier this month as the next superintendent after a months-long search that included looking at some outside candidates. Fifty-three percent of those...

If members of the LA Unified school board agree on anything, it’s the financial threat posed by declining enrollment. The latest evidence: a 7-0 vote last week to oppose the Great Public Schools Now charter expansion plan. But what to do about enrollment, which is falling about three percent a year, is another matter, the difficulties...