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LAUSD board votes to shut 2 Valley schools because of gas leak

Citing an “abundance of caution” for children the second time this week, the LA Unified school board voted today to move two Valley schools to another location until June because of toxic fumes from a leaking gas storage facility. The unanimous vote by the seven-member board cleared the way to move 1,870 students in the...
By Mike Szymanski | December 17, 2015
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AmeriCorps saved from federal cuts, keeps 309 mentors in LAUSD

Congressional agreement on a omnibus spending package will include $1.1 billion for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that administers service programs, including AmeriCorps. That will save the proposed cutting of 20,000 AmeriCorps positions that provide help to schools in unprivileged communities. City Year, which has 309 AmeriCorps members in Los Angeles, says that Christmas came early...
By Mike Szymanski | December 17, 2015
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JUST IN: LAUSD opens door to ‘acting/interim’ superintendent

The LA Unified school board is meeting later today in open and closed sessions, and one of the items on the agenda appears to suggest that the members may appoint a temporary superintendent until they decide on a permanent successor to Ramon Cortines. The closed session agenda includes “Unrepresented Employee: Superintendent or Acting/Interim Superintendent of...
By LA School Report | December 17, 2015
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Here’s the entire email that closed down all LAUSD schools

The 362-word email that prompted Superintendent Ramon Cortines to close down every school in the district on Tuesday has been obtained and released by ABC7. Rep. Brad Sherman and other leaders in California and New York were among those who analyzed the contents and pointed out numerous passages indicating that the author’s threats were not credible....
By LA School Report | December 17, 2015
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JUST IN: LA police say Esquith could face one juvenile crime charge

The Los Angeles police department is moving toward charging celebrated teacher Rafe Esquith with one count of inappropriate touching of a juvenile, LA School Report has learned. The single charge could come within a few weeks after being reviewed by the city attorney and U.S. district attorney’s offices, said LAPD Captain Julian Melendez, head of the...
By Mike Szymanski | December 17, 2015
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ISIS supporters online cheer LAUSD bomb scare closures

By James King and Gilad Shiloach ISIS supporters took to social media to gloat about the disruption caused by “credible” bomb threats made against the Los Angeles school system on Tuesday. The threats closed more than 900 schools across the city, abruptly sending hundreds of thousands of students home and throwing the city into disarray. Within minutes...
By LA School Report | December 17, 2015
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LAUSD board meeting to discuss gas leak, new superintendent

The LA Unified school board is drawing closer to the end of the search for a new with another closed door meeting scheduled for tomorrow, just after a special open session to discuss the on-going gas leak affecting two nearby schools in the Valley. The board is considering a move to declare emergency conditions at Porter Ranch Community...
By Mike Szymanski | December 16, 2015
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Rep. Sherman: Parts of email suggested threat was not credible

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Los Angeles) issued a statement today that released more details from the email threat that closed all of LA Unified schools yesterday. He also explained why authorities in Los Angeles and New York ultimately reached the same conclusion, that the threat was not credible. The full wording of the email has not yet...
By Craig Clough | December 16, 2015
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LAUSD returns to as close to normal as possible after one-day scare

UPDATED After a long tense day that resulted in all LA Unified schools being closed due to a bomb and weapons threat, normal routines came back to schools across the district this morning. “Things have gone extraordinarily smoothly,” board President Steve Zimmer told LA School Report. “It’s as close to normal as possible. Even so,...
By Mike Szymanski | December 16, 2015
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Which was the right call? NY laughs at threat while LA panics

By Adam Nagourney, Richard Pérez-Peña and J. David Goodman The nation’s two largest school systems confronted threats of a terrorist attack on Tuesday and reacted in sharply different ways: New York City reviewed the warning and dismissed it as a hoax, but officials here abruptly shut down all public schools, upending the lives of parents, students...
By LA School Report | December 16, 2015