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LAUSD board has mixed views on foundations’ charters expansion plan
Some think it is a threat to the public education system. Some welcome it. Members of the LA Unified school board have reacted quite differently to the announcement that the Broad, Keck and Walton Family Foundations are planning to expand the number of charter schools in the district to serve well beyond the 101,000 students...
By Mike Szymanski | August 24, 2015
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Garcia: LAUSD families need to feel ‘connected and supported’
As the school year begins next week, Mónica Garcia is celebrating her 10th year on the LA Unified School Board and her 15th year working in District 2, where she served as an academic advisor. A lifelong East L.A. resident, her parents met at Stevenson Middle School in the 1950s and they remember more of...
By Mike Szymanski | August 14, 2015
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Garcia welcomes foundations promoting charter school expansion
LA Unified board member Mónica García, a leading voice for education reform efforts, said she is open to plans by a group of foundations that wants to expand the number of charter schools in the district well beyond the 285 that are now serving district students. “I’m open to any strategy that helps children and families. We...
By Mike Szymanski | August 12, 2015
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Students face LAUSD board, demanding end to military weapons
The LA Unified board endured a long and unusual protest last night as about 50 students demanded specific actions to get military-style weapons out of the hands of district school police. The students, some of them wearing bullet-proof vests, chanted for 20 minutes at the start of a meeting — “Back to school, no weapons”...
By Mike Szymanski | July 31, 2015
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Garcia’s School Climate Committee leads LAUSD’s restorative justice era
Rarely, there’s anything more dry than an LA Unified committee meeting, where the minutia of reports and statistics are vetted before they make their way to the full school board. But as the laboratory for forward-thinking ideas surrounding school discipline, meetings of the Successful School Climate Committee are typically anything but dull. Chaired by board...
By Craig Clough | April 3, 2015
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LA Unified board to consider request to delay computer tests
In its first meeting of 2015, the LA Unified school board tomorrow will debate a range of issues, from students’ eating alone to farm workers’ pay. But it’s the issue of state testing that will have the most immediate and significant impact on more than 300,000 district students. Adding a powerful voice to the growing opposition...
By Vanessa Romo | January 12, 2015
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LAUSD board, unions vow support on Obama’s immigration action
The LA Unified school board and union leaders moved today to help ensure that district schools are “safe havens” in support of President Obama‘s recent executive orders on immigration. The orders, announced last month, potentially give deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants and their children. A resolution introduced by board members Steve Zimmer and Monica...
By Craig Clough | December 9, 2014
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LA Unified officials praise Obama’s immigration order
In a rare sign of unanimity, LA Unified officials and school board member are praising President Obama‘s immigration speech last night. The order relieves the threat of deportation for up to 5 million undocumented immigrants, including parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents. It also expands eligibility for those who were brought...
By Craig Clough | November 21, 2014
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Garcia 2nd board member to endorse — Johnson is her guy
Monica Garcia, who represents LA Unified’s District 2, has become the second district board member to endorse one of the candidates running for the District 1 seat, last held by the late Marguerite LaMotte. Garcia is the “special guest” at fundraiser tonight in Hancock Park for Alex Johnson, the Mark Ridley-Thomas aide who is opposing...
By LA School Report | July 17, 2014
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Vergara ruling gets mixed reaction from school board
Predictably, the historic superior court decision yesterday in the Vergara case elicited mixed reactions from members of the LA Unified school board. The ruling, which found California laws dictating teacher tenure, seniority rights and dismissal practices unconstitutional, is seen as huge blow to teacher unions and a boost to education reformers. Here is what a...
By LA School Report | June 11, 2014