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Board Preview: Budget, Parent Trigger, iPads

The headline act for Tuesday’s Board meeting — the last substantive meeting of seven-member LAUSD oversight body until late August — will be the debate and voting on Superintendent John Deasy’s proposed budget. Next week’s agenda also includes a number of controversial items such as the proposed purchase of electronic tablets for Phase I of LAUSD’s technology...
By Hillel Aron | June 14, 2013
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Mayor-Elect Responds to Online Education Question
Last night, Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti went online for an hour-long “AMA” on Reddit. Reddit is popular website and its “Ask Me Anything” sessions have become popular for politicians, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. Garcetti had already done one AMA as a mayoral candidate. Last night — wedged in between a plethora of questions about public transportation and...
By Hillel Aron | June 14, 2013
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Ratliff Supports Proposal Linking Teacher Pay to Test Scores

At a news conference later today, Educators 4 Excellence-Los Angeles (E4E) is unveiling a set of recommendations aimed at tying teacher’s raises and bonuses to student test scores, as well as other new strategies to keep effective teachers in the classroom. The proposals were first reported this morning by the LA Times‘ Howard Blume, who described E4E...
By Brianna Sacks | June 13, 2013
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Transgendered Student Policy Gains Committee Approval

Districts are increasingly being asked to consider transgendered students’ academic and emotional needs, according to a New Yorker article published earlier this year (About A Boy). LAUSD has already begun to address the needs of transgendered students with its own student participation policy, and now there’s a proposed state law (AB 1266) that would call on every district...
By Alexander Russo | June 13, 2013
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Events: Board Agenda Includes Charters & Budget
Next Tuesday’s Board meeting, rescheduled from June 11, will tackle a few overdue issues in the Charter School Division as well as the Superintendent’s final budget proposal. Scroll down to scan the agenda or you can read the entire Board’s order of business here.
By Brianna Sacks | June 13, 2013
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Union President Likely Faces 2014 Challengers

Warren Fletcher’s three-year term as UTLA President is heading into its last year, and while the teachers union election is a long way off it seems likely that he will face a challenger or two. One of the potential challengers is a teacher activist from Crenshaw High school. The other is a current UTLA Vice...
By Hillel Aron | June 13, 2013
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LAUSD Proposal Includes Truancy in School Ratings
Truancy would be a key factor in the new school rating system that’s being proposed by a consortium of California districts including LAUSD, according to a new EdSource Today article. Chronic absenteeism would be one of the criteria of the group’s proposed new “School Quality Improvement Index,” which is part of a so-called waiver of the...
By Brianna Sacks | June 13, 2013
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People: Behind the Scenes with David Tokofsky

Jowled and affable, David Tokofsky is the kind of guy who can’t get in the door of Camilo’s California Bistro before being recognized and greeted by other patrons and distributing handshakes to the waitstaff. Officially, the 53 year-old Eagle Rock resident is a part-time consultant for the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA), the school...
By Ruth Welte | June 13, 2013
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Watch: School Uniform Protest/Celebration
“A bunch of grade school kids in Minneapolis, MN, decided to make a [suspiciously polished] rap song that makes their decidedly uncool uniforms look cool.” (Chris Hayes All In)
By Alexander Russo | June 12, 2013
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California Awaits Obama’s Pre-K Funding Specifics
California is slated to receive the most funding of any state in the country under President Obama’s “Preschool For All” proposal — about $334 million for the first year. However, early education centers in Los Angeles worry that pre-schoolers who need subsidized full-day programs the most may still miss out on a quality early education....
By Brianna Sacks | June 12, 2013