Although he’s currently the recipient of campaign cash in what may be the most expensive school board race ever, LA Unified board President Steve Zimmer pushed through a “Clean Money” resolution on Tuesday but said it is not about him. Zimmer convinced his often disparate group of colleagues on the school board to unanimously approve the...

Last year LA Unified board members were shocked to learn that higher utility rates could jack up the district’s utility bill by $24 million. So they swung into action with energy-saving measures. But on Tuesday they learned they could be facing even steeper increases — up to 50 percent more. Even with a 13 percent...

The only pre-arrest juvenile diversion program in California is seeking nearly $1 million to expand into the San Fernando Valley, so its leaders came Tuesday to the cash-strapped LA Unified to ask for about half of it. Although four of the seven school board members at the budget committee meeting spoke positively about the program, they...

  About two dozen pilot programs throughout LA Unified are helping prepare the entire district for new, more comprehensive state science tests that fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders will start taking in 2019. The new California Science Test (CAST) will replace the California Standards Test (CST). It will be taken on computers rather than on paper and...

Charter schools were mostly approved on consent agendas at the LA Unified school board over the past two meetings. Some charters that were rejected by LA Unified ended up being approved on appeal by the county. In one case this month — as has happened in the past — a school recommended for denial by the...

He doesn’t have all the answers, but Richard Vladovic, fondly referred to as “Dr. V,” said he believes he has some of the answers. This month Vladovic celebrates 50 years in education, serving as a teacher, many times as principal, a superintendent and now as an LA Unified school board member since 2007. He says...

Richard Vladovic remembers the days when he was juggling his military career with teaching. “I would leave on Friday after staying to watch a school football game, jump on a plane and go to Fort Lewis, Washington, and do maneuvers in a Jeep all weekend and then come back to school by 7 in the...

The number of charter schools that will be located on multiple campuses in LA Unified next year will be down from 24 to 22, and the number of schools located on three different campuses will go from eight to four. But that’s not enough and co-located campuses continue to be disruptive to the communities and the...

After flip-flopping on the school calendar a few times to try to start the school year closer to Labor Day, the LA Unified school board voted Tuesday to solidify their school calendar for at least one more year. But they’ll wait for data to approve a calendar for more years. Next year, school will start in mid-August, there’s...

A telephone opinion survey being conducted in LA Unified’s School Board District 4 that repeatedly links child molestation and sexual abuse cases in the district with incumbent Steve Zimmer is being roundly criticized by Zimmer and contender Nick Melvoin. Presented as a nonpartisan and unbiased poll, the survey focuses almost exclusively on Zimmer and Melvoin,...