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Marshall and others carry on LAUSD’s decathlon tradition

Home of the National Academic Decathlon champions for 8 of the last 10 years, LAUSD is no stranger to success in the annual academic competition for high school students. And neither is this year’s district winner, John Marshall High School. The Los Feliz school will represent LAUSD at the state level in March alongside a...
By Chase Niesner | February 24, 2014
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Villaraigosa endorses Hudley-Hayes for open board seat

Former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has thrown himself into the District 1 special election race by endorsing Genethia Hudley-Hayes, one of 13 candidates running to join the LA Unified School Board. Hudley-Hayes, who served as school board president until she lost her seat to the late Marguerite LaMotte in 2003, released a list of endorsers this...
By Vanessa Romo | February 24, 2014
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You think you know what teachers do, right? Wrong

Via the Washington Post | By Sarah Blaine Commentary: We all know what teachers do, right? After all, we were all students. Each one of us, each product of public education, we each sat through class after class for thirteen years. We encountered dozens of teachers. We had our kindergarten teachers and our first grade...
By LA School Report | February 24, 2014
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UTLA candidates hit YouTube with stump speeches

With ballots going in the mail next week, Los Angeles area teachers will start a long, internal election process that could have a big impact on the future of the teachers union (UTLA), one of the most powerful in the country. The competition for the top job of UTLA president, which pays north of $100,000...
By Chase Niesner | February 21, 2014
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At UTLA forum, a few issues break out within the mudslinging

The third UTLA presidential forum held at union headquarters last night was the most well attended — about 70 members made it for the two hour question and answer session — and it also proved to be the most contentious and mud-slingingest. For any given question, only a handful of the 10 candidates managed to...
By Vanessa Romo | February 21, 2014
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No easy fix for California’s teacher pension crisis

Via the Los Angeles Times | By Chris Megerian WEST SACRAMENTO — When the glass-sheathed headquarters of the California teachers’ pension fund opened five years ago, it was supposed to help anchor developments along the blighted riverfront on the capital’s outskirts. But as Jack Ehnes, the fund’s chief executive, looked out from a top-floor conference...
By LA School Report | February 21, 2014
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Vergara defense lawyers preview their case — if they need it

As defendants in the Vergara trial were asking the court to dismiss the case, attorneys for the state’s two biggest teachers union met with reporters outside the courthouse to offer a preview of arguments they intend to make if the judge denies their request, and the trial resumes next month with witnesses for the defense....
By Vanessa Romo | February 20, 2014
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Vergara defense team: plaintiffs failed to reach the bar

At 10:25 this morning, after they got their final documents entered into evidence, the plaintiffs in Vergara vs. California rested. That was the signal to Susan Carson, a lawyer for the state, to inform Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu that the state and teachers’ unions would file papers later in the day, asking him to...
By Mark Harris | February 20, 2014
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LAUSD opens more fingerprint centers for volunteers

LAUSD parents looking to volunteer at their child’s school no longer have to brave the LA freeways to get fingerprinted at the district’s downtown headquarters. Thanks to a recently passed resolution sponsored by board members Tamar Galatzan, Steve Zimmer and Monica Garcia, parents can have their fingerprints processed at local Educational Service Centers, a change to...
By Chase Niesner | February 20, 2014
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‘Repairs Not iPads’ Facebook group moves into the open

The Facebook group, “Repairs Not iPads,” whose pictures of deteriorating LAUSD facilities have gone viral, took on a real-world turn yesterday afternoon when the group gathered at Esperanza Elementary for its first press conference. Matthew Kogan, who anonymously launched the Facebook effort in December, told LA School Report that the event was intended to introduce some of the...
By Chase Niesner | February 20, 2014