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Michelle King on charters: ‘It’s not us versus them’
At her first community town hall as LA Unified’s superintendent, Michelle King received the most applause when she called for a healing between charter and district school factions. Seven weeks into her job, she met Tuesday morning with more than 700 parents, teachers, principals and local residents in a relatively low-income area in the north San Fernando Valley...
By Mike Szymanski | March 2, 2016
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Progress made in LA school buildings, but they need $60 billion more
School overcrowding is down and buildings are safer and updated. But according to a recent report, there’s still $60 billion worth of work needed on LA Unified schools. Since 1997 an unprecedented series of bonds approved specifically for school buildings to ease overcrowding has provided the district with $19.5 billion. While the district has completed 20,000 modernization...
By Mike Szymanski | March 1, 2016
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You can graduate, but LAUSD doesn’t want to settle for D grades
Although LA Unified stands to potentially have its highest graduation rate ever this year, the district doesn’t want students to settle for D grades. In fact, the percentage of students maintaining a C or better in college prep or A-G classes has more than doubled in 10 years, according to the latest LA Unified statistics. In a...
By Mike Szymanski | February 24, 2016
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What does it mean that LAUSD is a ‘safe zone’ from immigration officials?
The second largest school district in the nation went on record last week saying it won’t allow law enforcement agents looking to deport those without documentation into any of its 1,274 schools without a review process. The LA Unified School Board voted unanimously to make the district a “safe zone.” The district is not the first. Across the nation...
By Mike Szymanski | February 18, 2016
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School board’s high-drama discussion: Are we fair to charters?
If anything, it was good television. LA Unified school board members confronted each other headlong in a dramatic discussion Tuesday night over whether charter schools were being treated fairly by the district. The discussion opened calls for a deep dive into how district staff comes up with its recommendations for denials or approvals of charter schools....
By Mike Szymanski | February 10, 2016
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Parent leaders trying to engage with LAUSD meet with frustration
Parents representing some of the most important advisory committees to the LA Unified school board lodged a litany of complaints this week about a lack of connection with the district. Long distances to meetings, inconvenient times, police intimidation near meeting sites and a lack of consideration of the parents’ advice were some of the complaints brought...
By Mike Szymanski | February 5, 2016
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LA Unified survey finds cafeteria equipment more than 3 decades old
Some of LAUSD’s cafeteria freezers are more than three decades old. Some of the stoves in the kitchens don’t work anymore. The board has approved spending up to $856,635 to survey 477 public school cafeterias to see what needs to be upgraded, fixed or replaced. “Many of our kitchens are aged and have walk-in refrigerators...
By Mike Szymanski | January 25, 2016
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LAUSD audit shows district debt outstrips assets by $4.2 billion
The latest independent audit of LA Unified shows that through the end of the last fiscal year, on June 30, the district had liabilities that surpassed assets by $4.2 billion. The previous year showed assets over liabilities by $1.7 billion, making for a 12-month swing of $5.9 billion, according to Melba W. Simpson, of Simpson &...
By Mike Szymanski | January 21, 2016
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LAUSD going all charter? No, says Ratliff, just looking for information
Declaring that she has no intention of turning LA Unified into an all-charter school district, board member Mónica Ratliff chaired a board committee meeting yesterday that examined just what it is that makes charters different from traditional schools. For one thing, as she learned from a presentation to the committee, charter school teachers don’t have...
By Mike Szymanski | January 20, 2016
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LAUSD charter investigations increase but funding doesn’t
Investigating and analyzing charter schools is becoming a greater burden for LA Unified, and the district isn’t getting any more money to do the work, according to a report presented today. “Charter-related work consumes the most amount of investigative resources due to the time-sensitive nature of the work and the monthly deadlines for board action on...
By Mike Szymanski | January 19, 2016