A kickoff event at North Hollywood High School highlighted LA Unified’s participation in Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code as students in the school’s Introduction to Data Science class listened to a number of guest speakers before demonstrating their coding skills. LA Unified board member Tamar Galatzan spoke, as did Microsoft’s Sam Stokes,...

Today, available by LIVESTREAM, the seven members of the LA Unified school board meet at 10 a.m. Topics on the agenda include a request from the district for $11 million to help fix MiSiS, two resolutions to improve school safety, and board member Steve Zimmer’s “Good Food” measure. Click here to learn more about the issues the board will be...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said today the district is hiring outside lawyers to assist in any matter that might arise out of the grand jury investigation of the district’s procurement of digital devices. Cortines said the lawyers would provide legal advice should the authorities seek to interview or subpoena district officials as part of...

* UPDATED There’s another LA Unified School Board meeting tomorrow, which means there’s another round of requests for boat loads of money. The board will consider a a $12.1 million MiSiS bailout to pay for overtime costs, additional training and staffing, third party oversight and general customer support. The money will be siphoned from bond construction...

If the LA Unified School Board tomorrow approves another $13 million in bond money for digital devices for Smarter Balanced exams next spring, school principals are likely to get a choice of Apple iPads or Google Chromebooks. Chromebooks are about $100 cheaper, and some principals may prefer them. But there’s one problem: Even as Superintendent Ramon...

Back to the drawing board. Following the most recent bargaining session last Thursday, the teachers’ union, UTLA, has reportedly rejected a pay increase offer from LA Unified negotiators that fell short its goal of a 10 percent salary increase. The latest district offer included a 2 percent salary increase retroactive to July 1, a 2 percent...

In a story last week, LA School Report erred in repeating an assertion without a confirmation. The story quoted Adrian Dove, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality of California, saying he knew of a letter George Buzzetti wrote to LA Police Chief Charlie Beck, in which Buzzetti characterized Beck as a “bigot.” LA School Report...

LA Unified’s latest offer to the teachers union, UTLA, represents either a hint of progress in negotiations for the teachers’ first contract in more than seven years or fertile ground for moving toward a strike. Here’s why the uncertainty: The 6 percent package includes the same salary increase that the district has offered all its...

* UPDATED Now that the list of eligible candidates for the LA Unified School Board’s four open seats in 2015 is finalizing, the district’s powerful unions are starting to choose which ones they’ll back and throw their considerable resources behind. The first endorsement came today: The union representing school cafeteria workers, custodians, special education assistants, and...

Today, on the one-year anniversary of her death, LA Unified today named a school after Marguerite LaMotte, a decade-long member of the school board. The district held a celebration event at what is now known as Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte Elementary School at 4410 Orchard Ave. in South LA that was hosted by George McKenna, who won LaMotte’s...