Leaders of the nine unions that represent teaches, administrators and other staffers at LAUSD stood before the district board today to express a united front against the Broad foundation plan to create more charter schools in the district. Flanked at the podium by the union leaders, Juan Flecha, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA), told the...

For Ivey Steinberg, the last straw occurred when her son, Jack, who uses a wheelchair, was left on the second floor during a fire drill at a public school. She needed to find a school that treated her son like all the others, and she found WISH (Westside Innovative School House) Charter. Then, she helped create...

* UPDATED The LA Unified school board continued its search for a new superintendent early this morning, moving into another closed session after a one minute open meeting that might have been the shortest in district history. Joining the seven board members in the private session were Hank Gmitro and Darline Robles of the search...

Parents and students at Playa Vista Elementary staged a protest today over an unexpected change in the district’s Westside expansion efforts that directly affect Playa students. Some families held a “sit out” and kept their kids out of school. The LA Unified school board is scheduled to vote tomorrow on an expansion plan for Playa that also involves...

* UPDATED Applications for six new charter schools will come before the LA Unified school board at its meeting tomorrow, the biggest wave of requests since the Broad Foundation proposed a plan to expand the number of charter schools in LAUSD. In addition, eight other charters are seeking renewals. While the board will not vote on...

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction yesterday against Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the latest development in the effort by the LA teachers union, UTLA, to unionize Alliance teachers. The injunction, which was sought by the California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), follows a temporary restraining order the judge issued in late October when...

In a recorded robo-call sent out to teachers last night, seven UTLA leaders encouraged them to attend the LA Unified board meeting next week and relate positive things that are going on in their schools. The union leaders, led by president Alex Caputo-Pearl, took turns encouraging teachers to remind the board that great things are...

The LA Unified school board said today it will begin the first round of interviews of candidates for superintendent at 8:30 Sunday morning. It’s the start of the endgame for the seven board members, who are seeking to find a successor to Ramon Cortines before he steps down at the end of the year. In...

* UPDATED As LA Unified studies several academic calendar options while also reaching out for public input, a group of parents has started an online petition, asking the district not to consider the “extreme” option of shortening summer break to five weeks while extending winter break to seven. An advisory panel is currently studying six...

A new report from the American Institutes of Research shows that young children have up to five months of learning advantage compared with children who don’t get an extra year of kindergarten. But the report — Impact of California’s Transitional Kindergarten Program, 2013-14 — also points out that there’s a long way to go in funding the pre-school program...