As we told you yesterday, the quarterly fundraising reports for city elections including LAUSD board members just came in. Monica Garcia, the sitting Board president, raised just over $75,000 in the last three months, bringing her fundraising total to $174,288. Of that, she’s spent $43,959, over half of which went to her campaign consultant, Charlotte Dobbs....

Today is the latest deadline for Board candidates to file campaign finance documents with the City Ethics Commission.  The quarterly reports will tell us how much money candidates for city offices raised between July 1 and September 30. As you may recall, there are three spots being contested — currently held by Board members Steve...

It was a slightly less crowded, slightly less emotionally charged LAUSD school board meeting Tuesday — at least compared to the last few, thanks largely to board member Steve Zimmer’s postponed resolutions rejecting the use of student achievement in teacher evaluations and scaling back charter school growth. That didn’t stop the meeting from lasting more...

Late Monday afternoon, LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer announced an updated, much-softened charter school oversight proposal. It replaces the previous moratorium on new charter schools with a request for charters to “voluntarily delay requesting action on new charter applications” until a new oversight scheme can be developed. The new version also asks the Superintendent to...

When the Board meeting agenda came out last week, it initially included Board member Zimmer’s resolution regarding use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers (see PDF here).The Zimmer resolution sought to block LAUSD from using a new student achievement measurement called Academic Growth Over Time (AGT) when evaluating teachers – even in combination with other...

You may already have heard that LAUSD Board member Nury Martinez will introduce a motion at the Tuesday October 9 monthly school board meeting to make arts a “core subject” (KPCC: LAUSD considers making arts education a ‘core subject’). And we’ve already told you that Board member Steve Zimmer is holding off on offering a revised...

School board member Tamar Galatzan (pictured) is quite possibly the busiest elected official in the city. One of two board members who has chosen to serve part-time (along with Nury Martinez), Galatzan also has a full-time job at the City Attorney’s office, and is the mother of two boys in elementary school. (She’s the only board...

Most Angelenos don’t realize it, but the local primary election is just five months away. Even fewer know that in addition the Mayor and City Council, the March 5 ballot will include three school board seats. Three, count ’em, three (out of seven). But why should anyone be paying attention? There aren’t even any candidates...

Just about everyone who watches LAUSD is scratching their heads wondering just what board member Steve Zimmer is doing — lately more than ever. He’s introduced two incredibly polarizing motions recently– one to reject the use of Academic Growth Over Time in teacher evaluations, and one to provide greater oversight for charter schools and, more...

Want to know who’s filed to run for LAUSD board member next year, and how much cash they’ve gathered for their campaigns?  Click over to the LA City Ethics Commission’s website: 2013 Municipal and LAUSD Election. Below is a snapshot from yesterday evening showing the three LAUSD races for 2013 (towards the bottom). District 2 is the...