Among the 43 people identified by the Los Angeles Times this week as potential candidates for LA Unified superintendent were nearly a dozen with a background in charter schools or the reform movement. One of them was Caprice Young, a former president of the district school board, as well as a founder of charter schools, the former president of the California...

In a new video on the LA Unified website, Board President Steve Zimmer  provides the latest count of how many people offered opinions on the superintendent search and what the next steps are in the process. Zimmer said 13,500 people went to the website to read about the superintendent search, more than 8,000 filled out the...

The Los Angeles Times today listed former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as having a “medium chance” of becoming a finalist for the job of next superintendent of LA Unified. As the district’s search moves into a phase for identifying potential finalists, the story features a list of 43 possible candidates, based on what it called “interviews...

Where’s Zimmo? Dressed as the popular “Where’s Waldo” red-and-white-striped children’s book character, LA Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer took to the Vine Street Elementary School twice today to encourage parents and teachers to get involved in the superintendent’s search. He used his appearances to say he is extending the deadline for people to complete...

LA Unified board President Steve Zimmer has announced he will be wearing a Halloween costume tomorrow when he visits schools. Oh, it’s not to join festivities planned for many of the LA Unified schools. Rather, he wants to give one last-ditch effort to push people to provide input into the superintendent search by filling out a...

Sure, they can go to any of the community meetings. Sure, they can fill out a survey online. But, ultimately, outside groups say they want a seat at the table when deciding the next LA Unified school superintendent. At a special session after a closed session on Tuesday, the school board voted against a proposal...

The effort to find a consensus candidate to follow Ramon Cortines into the superintendent’s office is playing out as difficult issues sometimes do in LA Unified, with good intentions undermined by political pandering and a bit of disingenuousness. While Steve Zimmer, the board president, has set in motion a thoughtful and reasonable approach to the...

As LA Unified school board president Steve Zimmer pleads for more involvement with the public for the superintendent search, the board voted down yet another effort to give the community greater influence in the selection process. It was the latest example of how the district is urging the public to play a role in the...

At 8:30 a.m. today in Granada Hills, a dozen parents met to offer input at one of the two dozen community meetings held for the LAUSD school superintendent search. This was the earliest and most northwest of all the community meetings planned in the large LA Unified district. It was held at the Valley Academy...

In a room set to accommodate 300, fewer than 50 signed in at the Roybal Learning Center auditorium last night to give their input into what they want to see in LA Unified’s next superintendent. “We are just beginning,”  said Hank Gmitro, president of the firm conducting the search, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. “We provide...