With the March 5 election day now less than a month away, the Coalition for School Reform, the LA County Federation of Labor, and the Local 99 branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have each kicked their LAUSD School Board spending up a notch, but UTLA-PACE — a major player in past elections...

District 6 candidate Antonio Sanchez  is vowing to be a new, different kind of School Board member. In his second interview with LA School Report, Sanchez listed some fairly standard policy priorities — lowering dropout rates and increasing resources – but also emphasized his youth, enthusiasm, and honesty. Sanchez argues that these attributes are among the...

The latest campaign contribution disclosures filed with the City reveal that LAUSD employees are not shy about kicking in money to support their favorite School Board candidates — a practice which is legal as long as the contribution is not solicited: Steve Zimmer, the incumbent running on the Westside for the District 4 seat, has...

In an under-the-radar move last week, the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which is the local arm of the AFL-CIO and represents 300 unions across LA county, officially endorsed three LAUSD Board candidates and has begun spending on candidates’ behalf through its independent expenditure (IE) committee, the Committee on Political Education (COPE). In District 2,...

There were roughly 100 audience members at Thursday night’s School Board candidate forum in District 4, which featured incumbent Steve Zimmer and challenger Kate Anderson. Over all, the event was polite and informative, showing off both candidates’ strengths, stylistic and substantive differences, and their support for Superintendent John Deasy. Anderson, with her twin daughters sitting...

Tomorrow night’s School Board candidate forum for the Westside’s District 4 could be a fascinating event, if for no other reason than it will feature just two candidates — challenger Kate Anderson and incumbent Steve Zimmer — going head to head.  (Jeneen Robinson is registered as a write-in candidate, and was not invited to participate)....

We listed notable contributions to the Garcia campaign yesterday and updated contribution reports are due tomorrow, but while we’re waiting let’s take a look at the contributions to candidates from earlier this month: •District 6 School Board member Steve Zimmer has raised $27,688 from notable donors including former State Assemblymember Betsy Butler (who lost her bid for...

Changed votes by two Board members over the approval of two Aspire charter schools at this week’s Board meeting gave the public a glimpse at a much larger debate over whether charter schools based in Los Angeles should be allowed to operate their special education programs through a partnership with a far-off district that costs...

While an avalanche of charter school approvals and renewals dominated today’s Board meeting, and two controversial resolutions were postponed, the Board did manage to approve a symbolic resolution in support of state lawmakers seeing to speed the removal of teachers accused of predatory sexual behavior, veto (and then approve) the creation of two more Aspire...

Jeneen Robinson, the youth minister who’s running to replace School Board member Steve Zimmer in the Westside’s District 4, has registered as a write-in candidate, according to the City Clerk’s website. Voters can write-in any candidate’s name on their ballot, but in order for that vote to count, the candidate has to be registered as a...