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LIVESTREAM coverage of today’s LA Unified school board meeting

The LA Unified school board is scheduled to meet today at 1 p.m. Among the items up for discussion is an analysis of a district finances conducted by non-district analysts and a number of proposals involving charter schools. Before a closed session scheduled to start at 10 a.m., the board will receive a detailed report on community input for the superintendent search. Click...
By LA School Report | November 10, 2015
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Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears ‘unlawful’

LA Unified school board member Scott Schmerelson is bringing a resolution before the board today, asking it to go on record opposing a plan by the Broad Foundation to add 260 new charter schools to the district over the next eight years. The plan has drawn rebuke from other board members and the LA teachers union,...
By Craig Clough | November 10, 2015
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Commentary: Restorative justice is just a slogan at LAUSD

By Sandy Banks Restorative justice is a wonderful concept; a way to make student discipline less punitive and more productive. But in Los Angeles Unified, it’s little more than a slogan, generally misunderstood and rarely applied. The district did a lot of chest thumping two years ago, when it became the first in the nation to...
By LA School Report | November 10, 2015
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Search firm creates the profile for LAUSD’s next superintendent

It doesn’t matter if the next superintendent is a he or she, but it does matter if the he or she is bilingual. The person should be good at communicating and love Los Angeles. And, the candidate should have been a teacher at one point in his or her career. Those are some of the...
By Mike Szymanski | November 9, 2015
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Big agenda for LAUSD board: search process, finances, charters

In what looks to be a marathon LAUSD school board meeting tomorrow, members are scheduled to hear a detailed report on community input for the superintendent search, an analysis of a district finances conducted by non-district analysts and a number of proposals involving charter schools. At the open session at 10 a.m., the board will hear...
By Mike Szymanski | November 9, 2015
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Analysis: Six months later, financial warning to LA Unified unchanged

It’s one thing when LA Unified’s Chief Financial Officer appears before the school board and warns of budgetary troubles ahead, based on current projections and obligations. That’s her job. It’s quite another when a panel of outsiders, brought in to take a fresh look, reaches the same conclusions and expresses them in a hair-raising way...
By Michael Janofsky | November 9, 2015
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‘A lot of frustration’ at LAUSD over restorative justice approach

By Teresa Watanabe and Howard Blume In a South Los Angeles classroom, a boy hassles a girl. The teacher moves him to the back of the room, where he scowls, makes a paper airplane and repeatedly throws it against the wall. Two other boys wander around the class and then nearly come to blows. “Don’t you talk...
By LA School Report | November 9, 2015
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Young: Don’t rule out reform supporters for superintendent

Among the 43 people identified by the Los Angeles Times this week as potential candidates for LA Unified superintendent were nearly a dozen with a background in charter schools or the reform movement. One of them was Caprice Young, a former president of the district school board, as well as a founder of charter schools, the former president of the California...
By Craig Clough | November 6, 2015
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Zimmer provides updates on participation in superintendent search

In a new video on the LA Unified website, Board President Steve Zimmer provides the latest count of how many people offered opinions on the superintendent search and what the next steps are in the process. Zimmer said 13,500 people went to the website to read about the superintendent search, more than 8,000 filled out the...
By Mike Szymanski | November 6, 2015
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Outside panel says LAUSD needs to act quickly to remain solvent

LA Unified is on the brink of a severe financial crisis and if officials don’t act now, the whole district could go bankrupt. That’s the overall conclusion of a report by an outside panel asked to look at the financial situation of LAUSD. Its findings are scheduled to be presented at the regular school board meeting...
By Mike Szymanski | November 6, 2015