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Vladovic Defeats Galatzan for Board President
In one of the more dramatic meetings in recent memory, the newly installed 2013-2014 LAUSD School Board selected Dr. Richard Vladovic (standing, left) as its next President by a vote of 5 to 2. Newly sworn-in Board member Monica Ratliff joined Steve Zimmer, Marguerite LaMotte, Bennett Kayser and Vladovic himself in the majority. Outgoing Board...
By Hillel Aron | July 2, 2013
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Deasy Skirmish With Board Members a Long Time Coming
Tensions are still simmering between a group of School Board members and Superintendent John Deasy following comments made by Deasy to LA School Report last week. Three Board members — Bennett Kayser, Steve Zimmer and Dr. Richard Vladovic — sent Deasy a letter asking him to clarify his remarks. The trio — who co-sponsored a resolution to...
By Hillel Aron | June 24, 2013
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Board Members Ask Deasy To Explain Himself
Some members of the School Board have sent Superintendent John Deasy a letter asking him to clarify comments deriding a Board-passed spending resolution and indicating his plans to include a targeted funding resolution that was not passed by the Board. “They can’t stop me from doing it,” Deasy said in comments made to LA School Report earlier this...
By Hillel Aron | June 21, 2013
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School Board’s Strange Parent Trigger About-Face
A couple of odds things happened towards the end of the School Board’s late-night meeting on Tuesday: Around 8:00 pm, as seven weary Board members were debating a proposal put forth by Board member Steve Zimmer calling on the district and state to bring greater transparency to the parent trigger signature-gathering process, Superintendent John Deasy...
By Hillel Aron | June 20, 2013
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Defiant Deasy Says He’ll Push Targeted Spending Plan Anyway
During Tuesday’s seemingly endless meeting, the LAUSD School Board postponed Board member Tamar Galatzan’s resolution to have new State education funds flow to schools with large numbers of low-income and English language learning students and approved Board member Bennett Kayser’s resolution calling for the district to hire more staff across the board. The votes seemed like...
By Hillel Aron | June 20, 2013
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Marathon Board Meeting Signals Changes to Come
As anyone following us on Twitter knows all too well, Tuesday’s School Board meeting was a marathon session that lasted well into the night — much of it accompanied by the sound of protesters drumming on the street outside. Among several key decisions the Board arrived at during the lengthy session were votes to award a...
By Hillel Aron | June 19, 2013
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LA Times: Kayser Resolutions “Silly,” Make “No Sense”
Today’s LA Times editorial page notes that several of the Board member budget resolutions being debated later today aren’t realistic or necessary. While there should be targeted hiring in key areas such as librarians and school counselors, according to the Times, the Bennett Kayser resolution to restore staffing levels across the board “makes no sense.”...
By LA School Report | June 18, 2013
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Update: Controversy Awaits $30 Million iPad Vote
The School Board will face a mini controversy tomorrow when it votes on whether or not to to purchase roughly 31,000 Apple iPad tablets at a cost to LAUSD of $30 million. The appropriation would be the first step in Superintendent John Deasy’s ambitious plan of equipping every student and teacher with a touch-screen tablet...
By Hillel Aron | June 17, 2013
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Teacher Evaluations Still a Work in Progress
Teacher evaluations for the 2012-13 school year were due about a month ago. Even though they included a section for “student achievement,” it’s safe to say that particular section was a work in progress. “There was literally just a few weeks to get it implemented, and we had to implement it according to the courts,”...
By Hillel Aron | June 14, 2013
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More Praise For Gov. Brown’s Funding Formula
Superintendent John Deasy told LA School Report that the passage of Governor Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula was “probably the most important education public policy decision in 40 years.” “This is beyond phenomenal,” he said. “I feel great.” The LA Times editorial page also praised Brown this morning, saying, “with his decisive and, yes, stubborn insistence on fixing what...
By Hillel Aron | June 12, 2013