CALIFORNIA BUDGET ANALYST RECOMMENDS RAISING VEHICLE LICENSE FEE

 

Mac Taylor forecasts that the state will need to close a $27.8-billion budget gap in the next 20 months. He calls for a smaller sales tax increase than Gov. Schwarzenegger has suggested.

LAO REPORT: Webcast: Assessment of Special Session Proposals HTML   |  Summary

LAO REPORT: Overview of the 2008 Special Session Proposals November 10, 2008 HTML  |  PDF   |   Summary “We concur with the administration’s assessment that the state’s struggling economy signals a major reduction in expected revenues. Combined with rising state expenses, we project that the state will need $27.8 billion in budget solutions over the next 20 months. The state’s revenue collapse is so dramatic and the underlying economic factors are so weak that we forecast huge budget shortfalls through 2013‑14 absent corrective action. From 2010‑11 through 2013‑14, we project annual shortfalls that are consistently in the range of $22 billion.”

By Jordan Rau – LA Times

 

November 12, 2008 — Reporting from Sacramento — While offering the grimmest forecast yet of California's finances, the Legislature's nonpartisan fiscal analyst recommended Tuesday that lawmakers pare back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 1 1/2 -cent sales tax increase and instead hike fees on cars.

In a new report, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor forecast that the state would need to close a $27.8-billion budget gap during the next 20 months. That projection is more than $3 billion higher than the Schwarzenegger administration has estimated.

"The numbers are just truly awful," Taylor told reporters. "There are no good options left."

The analyst's wider budget gap was influenced by the rapid decline in the state's housing market. He projected that school districts would lose $1.5 billion over the next three years, requiring the state to fill that gap.

The economic downturn also has led to more people on health and social services programs. In addition, firefighting costs are higher than projected.

The governor last week called a special session of the Legislature and proposed deep cuts in services and tax increases to deal with California's collapsing finances.

Though calling the governor's proposal "credible," the analyst said that raising the sales tax would further hurt the economy by discouraging Californians from buying products locally and instead shifting them to Internet purchases that escape the state sales tax.

Schwarzenegger's proposed increase would make California's sales tax, which varies from city to city, the highest in the nation, at an average of about 9.5%, the analyst said.

"That's not something you want to be No. 1 in," he said. Taylor recommended a smaller increase of 1 cent on the dollar.

The analyst favored increasing the annual vehicle license fee, from 0.65% of a car's value to 1%. It is an idea that has traction among Democratic lawmakers, but one that Schwarzenegger has resisted.

His opposition to that fee was a main plank of his 2003 election, and he reduced the fee, then 2%, as one of his first acts in office.

The governor instead has proposed charging people an additional flat fee of $12 more when they register their automobiles each year. That would bring in only about a 10th of the $1.6 billion in revenue that a vehicle license fee increase would net.

The analyst said that without major changes, the state would run shortfalls on the order of $22 billion annually over the next five years even if the economy rebounded.

Taylor offered some variations to the $10.6 billion in cuts to schools, healthcare, welfare and transit that Schwarzenegger has proposed, but he endorsed the governor's view that the severity of the budget gap requires both new revenue and program cuts.

"The magnitude of the problem has now reached such a level that we're not clear how you could do one side or the other," he said.

Shortly after Taylor spoke to reporters, Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks), the ranking Republican on the Assembly budget committee, issued a statement saying, "We strongly disagree with the analyst's call for higher taxes."

Some GOP votes would be needed for the Democrat-led Legislature to pass any tax increase.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) on Tuesday urged the federal government to bail out states as well as banks.

"We think that with the state of California about to go over a cliff, we ought to be part of the bailout as well," she said at a news conference. "Can we have $5 billion or $10 billion?"

The analyst said that although California should press for federal assistance, lawmakers should not count on or wait for such relief, which he estimated would probably not be more than $3 billion.

"If the state has any hope of developing a fiscally responsible 2009-10 budget, it must begin acting now," Taylor wrote in his report.

Forging a Sustainable Future for LAUSD: New Programs, New Funding

Samantha Koos | Green Technology Magazine

November 11 - Expanding its role as a leader in the green schools movement, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is not only saving energy, it is creating energy. LAUSD just weeks ago began construction to install one megawatt of renewable solar power at the Pico Rivera General Stores and Food Warehouse, with expected completion before the end of this year. This project is the first in the District’s program to install as much as 50 MW of renewable energy technology, including solar power, at schools and other facilities.

“We are excited about launching our solar energy program,” LAUSD Chief Facilities Executive Guy Mehula said. “This is the first of many renewable energy projects coming in the next year, as LAUSD has many buildings that have the capability of drawing energy from the perennial Southern California sun.”

The solar project at the Pico Rivera warehouse is significant for many reasons, one being the sheer size of this first-of-its-kind project for the District. The project will incorporate 6,000 solar panels to generate 1 MW of power which will reduce CO₂ emissions by an estimated 1,141 tons, equal to eliminating the consumption of 2,408 barrels of oil or eliminating the annual emissions of 190 cars.

The project will deliver the District immediate savings and provide a long-term hedge against rising peak power prices with no upfront system cost. Through a power purchase agreement, the District will purchase the electricity the solar installation generates from a third party financier. As a further benefit, LAUSD will retain 100 percent ownership of the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) associated with the installation. RECs are certificates that represent the “greenness” of renewable energy, and are a legally recognized measure of an entity’s commitment to green power.

As this first solar project gets off the ground, LAUSD is already evaluating the possibility of moving its facilities toward “grid neutral,” which the California Department of the State Architect (DSA) defines as a facility that generates as much electricity on site as it uses annually. In the meantime, LAUSD is preparing for the installation of another 660 kilowatts in three schools set to start in early December, and more projects are in the queue, with a projected 5.7 Megawatts under contract by the end of 2008.

The District played a key role in developing green school guidelines after 2001 through the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) school building criteria (www.chps.net). These criteria, which have been refined since they were first introduced in 2003, include recycled and low-emitting materials, energy and water efficiencies and daylighting. LAUSD’s CHPS schools also now incorporate solar technology in their designs.

LAUSD views its new sustainable, high performing schools as valuable teaching tools, and is working to ensure that vegetated “green” roofs, which reduce energy costs by insulating buildings, are incorporated into school designs to be safely accessible or in easy view for instructional purposes. Other plans in the works include educational kiosks that are connected to the photovoltaic cells in solar panels to show in real time the energy being produced, as well as utilizing students’ own creativity to help develop ways to communicate a building’s green features effectively.

Given its size, from the number of buildings it operates to the number of students it educates, LAUSD is in a unique position to push the winds of change toward sustainable living. Beyond buildings and renewable energy, opportunities to promote sustainability at LAUSD range from how food is dispensed at school cafeterias to how students are exposed to environmental curriculum in the classroom. With execution of the first solar power agreement, other possibilities for more environmentally responsible operations at LAUSD are emerging.  From solar heated pools to fuel converted from food waste - if it is good for the students and the budget of LAUSD and good for the environment - it is likely under consideration.

To coordinate the wide range of sustainability initiatives in the District, LAUSD has set up a Sustainability Steering Committee, coordinated by LAUSD’s Director of Sustainability Initiatives Randy Britt.

“We are very excited to be a part of a dynamic program that is in a position to make a positive difference in the lives of our students, our faculty, and our community,” Britt said. “We want to lead by a positive example to ensure a sustainable future for our students for generations to come. Our vision is clearly to become the most environmentally friendly large school district in the United States, in all that we do.”

The passage of Measure Q will enable LAUSD to continue greening its campuses for today’s students and for future generations. The $7 billion school repair bond upgrades schools to accommodate modern technology and addresses educational needs, creates capacity to attract, retain and graduate more students through a comprehensive portfolio of small high-quality Pre-K through adult schools, and promotes a healthier environment through green technology.

Efforts to make LAUSD green began nearly a decade ago when LAUSD began its $20.3 Billion New School Construction and Modernization Program. The Program has delivered 76 new schools and more than 17,500 school modernization projects to date.

In recognition of its leadership, LAUSD received Global Green’s California Environmental Leadership Award and is an inductee of Green California Schools Hall of Fame.

For more information on LAUSD’s $20.3 Billion New School Construction and Modernization Program, please visit www.laschools.org.

High Performance Schools:
The New Jewels of Los Angeles
The second largest school district in the United States, the Los Angeles Unified School District has been called a behemoth, top heavy and inefficient, controversial and downright impossible to manage. None of this has prevented the district from launching a green schools initiative of unprecedented scale.

Read the story

 

Under Construction
A look at two of the high performance schools included in LAUSD's $20 billion school construction and renovation program.

View a slideshow

TODAY @ A State without a Budget/A Government without a Clue…

CALIFORNIA'S CAR TAX MAY BE ON THE ROAD AGAIN: THE VEHICLE LICENSE FEE THAT GOT GRAY DAVIS RECALLED AND ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER ELECTED LOOKS LIKE A GOOD IDEA… AGAIN.

An LA  Times editorial points out that the Car Tax/VLF served California well for 60 years. Undoing it has failed the state for six years. Until last year reimplementing it would have actually balanced (or come close to balancing) the budget. It's not enough anymore, but it's got to be on the table. Along with spitting the rolls on Prop 13 …but one sacred cow/third rail/taboo metaphor at a time.

And as Gordon Gecko said  “Greed is Good!”  Imagine how good it can be when driven by panic: Two LA Times articles describe how Wells Fargo Bank and Goldman Sachs – subsidized by the Feds - appear to be enriching themselves and their clients at California's expense

 

GOLDMAN SACHS URGED BETS AGAINST CALIFORNIA BONDS IT HELPED SELL

The Wall Street titan's activities could have harmed taxpayers, officials say

Goldman, Sachs & Co. urged some of its big clients to place investment bets against California bonds this year despite having collected millions of dollars in fees to help the state sell some of those same bonds.

BUSH'S TAX BREAKS FOR BANKS COULD COST CALIFORNIA $2 BILLION

Wells Fargo is state's chief beneficiary of change that allows banks to write off losses when taking over failing institutions.

Even as California's fiscal woes mount, the state is slated to lose an additional $2 billion in coming years as a result of new tax breaks the Bush administration created for a small group of banks including California-based Wells Fargo.

Apologia (or not!)

Harry Shearer in his syndicated radio program reads corporate apologies weekly, with the Wings song “We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert” playing in the background. 4LAKids isn’t quite that sorry.

Here is an actual facsimile of School Board Member Galatzan’s e-mail newsletter sent to her subscribers last week – and picked up in the Sunday Nov 9 4LAKids:

 

In a message dated 11/10/2008 12:50:14 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, Deborah Ernst Director of Federal and State Education Programs at LAUSD wrote 4LAKids:

Hi Scott,

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to correct misinformation that appears in 4LA Kids.  For the record, there is not a prohibition on using Title I to reduce class size imposed by the District. In fact, Title I Schoolwide Program schools have been able to use Title I resources to reduce class size since 2003.  This information has been made available to schools numerous times in both budget and program communications. Page A-26 of the 2008-09 Program and Budget Handbook for Title I and Economic Aid (EIA) states the following: 

“Title I Schoolwide schools may purchase (using Tile I or EIA funds) the services of a highly qualified, register carrying teacher to reduce class size in literacy, mathematics, science and social studies classes.”

Based on an analysis of student achievement data, schools are asked to identity the grade level or department that would benefit from reorganizing or restructuring utilizing class size reduction.  This need is described in the Single Plan for Student Achievement and approved by the School Site Council.  Attached are the pages that provide direction to schools and the form to be submitted with the budget adjustment request to the local district for this expenditure.

I am sure you agree with me that this flexibility is an example of freedom to be innovative as well as forward thinking on the part of the District.  Thanks in advance for sharing this information with interested groups. 582 of the 615 Title I schools are operating Schoolwide Programs and can choose to fund additional positions to reduce class size.

Sincerely,

Debbie Ernst

Deborah S. Ernst

Director, Federal and State Education Programs

333 S. Beaudry Avenue, 16^th Floor

Los Angeles, CA 90017

 

4LAKids responds:

Dear Debbie:

Thanks for responding to the 4LAKids Newsletter, and I will publish your correction on the 4LAKidsNews Blog.

However I'm gonna respectfully cop a plea here: The information published was verbatum from School Board Member Galatzan's E-newsletter - and she is in turn quoting Senior Deputy Superintendent Ramon Cortines - so the misunderstanding goes far deeper - and further up the food chain - than I!

Onward -

smf

2008 ENVIRONMENTAL YOUTH CONFERENCE :: Sat, Dec 13, 2008

ICEF PUBLIC SCHOOLS RECEIVES $2.1 MILLION TO SUPPORT EFFORT TO PRODUCE 2,000 COLLEGE GRADS FROM SOUTH L.A.

CA Department of Education Grants Will Help ICEF Enroll 1 in 5 South L.A. Students by 2020

ICEF Press Release

Los Angeles, CA – ICEF Public Schools — a charter school organization that serves the predominately African-American community of South Los Angeles —  today announced that it has been awarded $2.1 million to support its effort to produce 2,000 annual college graduates from its “Education Corridor” in South Los Angeles.

The awards, issued by the Public Charter Schools Grant Program of the California Department of Education, will help ICEF scale up its Education Corridor — the 45-square-mile region bound by the four major South Los Angeles freeways — through the creation of 22 new public charter schools.

The grants, including $600,000 each to the Frederick Douglass Academy Elementary and the Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Elementary School, and $450,000 each to the ICEF Vista Middle Academy and ICEF Vista Elementary Academy, will fund opening new public charters and increasing enrollment at ICEF's schools.

"We’re please that the California Department of Education has awarded us these generous grants," said Michael D. Piscal, founder of ICEF Public Schools. "Through the creation of the Education Corridor, ICEF will create as many high-performing public schools as it takes to prepare enough of our youth to compete and succeed at the top 100 colleges and universities in our nation. Our goal is to eventually produce 2,000 college graduates each year from South Los Angeles."

Fewer than 10 percent of all incoming high school freshmen within the Education Corridor receive their college diplomas. The dropout rate for existing public high schools in this region is more than 50 percent, a trend ICEF Public Schools intends to reverse.

ICEF Public Schools in October announced plans to expand from 13 to 35 public charter schools in four years. When fully enrolled, ICEF Public Schools will enroll one in four public school students in South Los Angeles, including more than half of the community’s high school students, and will help produce 2,000 college graduates each year. ICEF’s expansion plans will serve to alleviate its incredible demand: The waitlist to enroll has at times exceeded 6,000 students.

ICEF’s "Education Corridor" plan will uniquely concentrate all its efforts on a defined geographic region that is one of the nation’s most underserved communities. Also, unlike most charter schools, ICEF’s schools, which begin with kindergarten and go up to high school, will focus on educating students beginning with the first day they enroll in school through graduation.

ICEF’s 13 public charter schools, including its three flagship View Park Preparatory charter schools, serve more than 3,000 students. Its track record of success for African-American students includes two graduating classes, with every single graduate accepted to a college or four-year university. None of the students who began their ninth grade with ICEF – which features a rigorous academic program – dropped out of high school. Out of every Los Angeles public high school, View Park Prep most significantly outperforms its nearby high schools serving predominantly African-American students.

###

About ICEF Public Schools
ICEF Public Schools (Pronounced “Eye-ceff,” for the Inner City Education Foundation) was founded in 1994 to transform the Los Angeles community by creating first-rate educational opportunities for its minority youth. ICEF currently operates 13 public charter schools, including four new schools which opened this fall, with the goal of preparing its students to attend and compete academically at the top colleges and universities in the nation. ICEF’s flagship school, View Park Prep, has now graduated two classes, with 100 percent of its graduates accepted to college.

BULLYING+FEAR+LOATHING MEET “FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS” IN EAGLE ROCK

Following are two stories, one of a scientific study of aggression in young men and the other the incomplete story of an unfortunate incident told four times. They are the same story – and before one jumps to the conclusion that’s it’s all football's fault, I refer you to Seventeen Reasons Why Football is Better than High School by Herb Childress.  - smf

 

BULLY’S BRAIN FEELS JOY IN OTHERS PAIN

from Science Briefing in the LA Times

November 8 - Brain scans of teens with a history of aggressive bullying behavior suggest that they may actually get pleasure out of seeing someone else in pain, researchers said Friday.

The researchers compared eight boys ages 16 to 18 with aggressive conduct disorder to a group of eight adolescent boys with no unusual signs, tracking brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

In the aggressive teens, areas of the brain linked with feeling rewarded -- the amygdala and ventral striatum -- became very active when they observed pain being inflicted on others, according to the study in the journal Biological Psychology.

They showed little activity in an area of the brain involved in self-regulation -- the medial prefrontal cortex and the temporoparietal junction -- as was seen in the control group.   -- times staff and wire reports

• NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE: Bullies May Enjoy Seeing Others in Pain: Brain scans show disturbance in normal levels of empathy
• Abstract: “Atypical empathic responses in adolescents with aggressive conduct disorder: A functional MRI investigation” by Jean Decety, Kalina J. Michalska, Yuko Akitsuki, and Benjamin B. Lahey.

 

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EAGLE ROCK COACH HIT WITH HELMET, ALLEGEDLY BY EX-PLAYER, GAME AT BELMONT CANCELLED

By Gerry Gittelson, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

Article Last Updated: 11/07/2008 11:14:13 PM PST

Eagle Rock High School football coach Johnny Lopez, seen in this 2008 file photo, began his tenure in the job in a difficult situation: The players remained loyal to their former coach, who left Eagle Rock under bad terms, as reported in an Oct. 25, 2008 Daily News story. On Thursday, Nov. 6, an ex-player allegedly struck Lopez in the head with a football helmet, and the team canceled its Friday, Nov. 7 game with Belmont. (Hans Gutknecht/Daily News)

Nov. 8 -  - Eagle Rock canceled its game Friday at Belmont of Los Angeles after Eagles coach Johnny Lopez was allegedly assaulted by a former player Thursday on the school's practice field.

According to reports, the unidentified player speared Lopez with a helmet in the back, then jumped the fence as Eagle Rock players looked on.

"Someone hit him with a helmet, a (graduated) defensive lineman who was hanging out with us," said senior lineman Nick Obregon, who witnessed the event but declined to reveal the ex-player's name. "Everyone was antagonizing (the former player), saying he wasn't down to do it, and that they would pay him five bucks to hit (Lopez) with his helmet. Coach (Lopez) went down for about 10 seconds. He didn't even chase

RELATED STORY:
Johnny Lopez's difficult road
at Eagle Rock (10/24/08)

him, just reached for his radio."

Sources said Lopez was taken to the hospital.

Practice had just been canceled Thursday because not enough players dressed.

Eagle Rock principal Salvador Velasco announced that Friday's game was canceled "due to not enough practice," said Mike McKay, an Eagle Rock teacher and former football assistant.

Lopez and Velasco did not return phone calls Friday.

"The kids were upset when they heard the announcement," McKay said. "If I was Belmont, I would be ticked off. There's a lot of frustration, and people have done some dumb things."

Belmont head coach Robert Levy was not available for comment. Belmont assistant John Cunino said: "I'd rather not comment. It's not my place."

---

FOOTBALL GAME CANCELLED AFTER UNNECESSARY ROUGHNESS

Eagle Rock High school nixes game with Belmont High

By Keith Esparros | KNBC News

Updated 4:39 PM PST, Fri, Nov 7, 2008

It was one hit that in part caused the cancellation of tonight's football game between Belmont High and Eagle Rock High, and that blow was delivered a day before the game was to take place.

According to Eagle Rock principal Salvador Velasco, a former player attacked head football coach Johnny Lopez with a blindside tackle.  The hit was enough to send Lopez to the hospital, to get checked out, and is the latest spark in a rocky relationship among Lopez, his players, the school, and a former coach.  Yesterday's practice had been canceled because not enough players showed up, and Velasco says it was that lack of practice that led him to cancel tonight's game.

He says Lopez's trip to the hospital was purely precautionary, and that Lopez was expected back to work Friday afternoon.

Lopez took over the football program this year, replacing Jerry Chou.  According to an article in The Daily news, Chou was well-liked, and had led the Eagles to four divisional titles.  Depending on to whom you speak, Chou either resigned, or was essentially fired by Velasco.  Either way, all sides indicate the present players have issues with Lopez. Up until now, those players expressed their displeasure with verbal criticisms and by refusing to attend some practices.

The Daily News reported about the team's frustration in its October 25 edition.

"At first, we were very rebellious against him," senior running back Andrew Trejo told the paper. "But we did give him a shot. It was, `This is what we got, let's make the best of it.' Now, the only reason we haven't quit is because it's more like, `If you quit, I'll quit.' If one of us quits, 11 of us leave. Everyone's just kind of waiting for one to go."

Lopez doesn't want that to happen. He told The Daily News it pains him to be coaching players who, quite frankly, don't want to be coached by him. He sees it, he feels the glare. He knows where the loyalty lies.

Now the dispute has been elevated to a new and troubling level.  Officers with the LAUSD school police are investigating the incident.

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EAGLE ROCK HIGH SCHOOL COACH IS ASSAULTED

He is struck from behind during practice, allegedly by a disgruntled former player apparently upset about the firing of the previous head coach. Friday's game is canceled.

By Corina Knoll and Eric Sondheimer | LA Times Staff Writers

November 8, 2008 -- An Eagle Rock High School football coach allegedly was assaulted by a disgruntled former player who graduated last year, officials said Friday.

It was the latest episode in a series of conflicts related to the firing of the previous head coach.

Coach Johnny Lopez was bending down to pick up a ball when a young man struck him from behind during practice Thursday afternoon, witnesses told school Principal Salvador Velasco.

Lopez, who used his walkie-talkie to alert school officials, suffered minor injuries, Velasco said.

The school canceled Friday's game against Belmont High School, mainly because officials said too few students had practiced.

Velasco did not reveal the name of the alleged attacker, but said he believed him to be a former student who had played football for the Eagles.

"This person came into one of our offices [Thursday afternoon] upset about his former coach. He was . . . told to leave the campus," Velasco said.

Reached Friday, Lopez said: "I'm kinda like on pain pills. I really don't want to talk to anybody."

The incident appeared to be related to a controversy that erupted earlier this year when hundreds of students circulated a petition and held a protest in response to the firing of former football coach Jerry Chou.

Velasco has maintained that Chou wanted to resign but changed his mind a few days later when it was too late. Since then, Chou's supporters have been outspoken about their dislike of Lopez, and some players refused to participate in practice.

Chou, who remains at the school as a physical education teacher, said he does not condone the students' actions.

"It's sad, but kids make bad decisions," he said. "I think there's a lot of frustration and anger still going on at this school."

Velasco said the decision to forfeit Friday's football game against Belmont High was not because of the assault. "Half of the team being on the bleachers instead of practicing made it clear to me it wasn't safe for them to play," he said.

Belmont football coach Rob Levy said he was disappointed.

"It was our last home game," he said. "You don't want to win a game on forfeit."

---

ASSAULT ON COACH SHOWS CRACKS AT EAGLE ROCK

By Vincent Bonsignore, Staff Writer |  Bonsignore is an assistant sports editor in charge of local content at the Daily News.

Nov. 9 -- The call arrived at 8 a.m. Friday morning, the male voice on the other end saying: "You're not going to believe what happened with the Eagle Rock football team."

The caller then proceeded to explain how a former Eagle Rock player allegedly assaulted first-year coach Johnny Lopez at practice Thursday by attacking him from behind while wearing a helmet, apparently sending Lopez to the hospital and forcing the cancellation of the Eagles' game at Belmont on Friday.

With just one game remaining, it wouldn't be a surprise if they just canceled the rest of the season.

Reportedly, the player was egged on - perhaps even paid - by current players on the team to carry out the cowardly act.

It was a shocking story, but the saddest part is that I wasn't surprised it happened.

If you've paid any attention to what has happened at Eagle Rock over the past year or so - and the Daily News has reported on it every step of the way - you understand a terrible disservice has been done to the kids on the football team by most of the adult figures in their lives.

It goes back to Eagle Rock principal Salvador Velasco's decision to get rid of coach Jerry Chou after last season. Chou had submitted a letter of resignation during the season in protest of Velasco's handling of some coaching matters at Eagle Rock. But Chou was under the impression his differences with the principal were resolved when he reached an accord with Velasco and coached the final few games of 2007.

Chou was shocked when Velasco informed him he'd have to re-apply for his job if he wished to coach the football team again.

Insulted, Chou declined to re-apply and ultimately moved to Glendale High as an assistant while remaining at Eagle Rock as a teacher.

The parents and players were enraged, pleading with Velasco to reconsider through protests, phone calls, letters and meetings.

Velasco held firm.

In came Lopez, the innocent victim in all this, blindly walking into an impossible situation. The players, out of loyalty to Chou, never gave Lopez a fair chance, disliking him for the sole reason he was replacing the coach they adored.

Whether Lopez is a good coach or not - some around the program argue he's in over his head - is irrelevant. He's the coach. Period. And the players and parents at Eagle Rock should respect that.

The players' initial disappointment is understandable, but that it was allowed to fester shows they didn't receive the proper guidance, which would have allowed them to move on and accept the new coach as their leader.

When that disappointment turned into unchecked hate, an event like the one that happened Thursday became possible.

Neither Chou nor Velasco is above blame for their original disagreement, and we'd like to think both would handle certain things differently if given the chance.

But what happened happened. Life goes on.

The real damage is what transpired in the aftermath of Chou's dismissal and the chaos that has ensued since Lopez was hired to replace him.

It's an injustice so truculent it has created a poisonous culture in which high school football players actually think it's OK to express themselves through physical intimidation. All because of a lack of perspective and guidance - by adults.

The line of guilt is long and clear.

There is Velasco, the principal who completely misread the situation, then bungled any chance of reconciliation out of arrogance. All Velasco had to do was understand where Chou was coming from when he first submitted his resignation, then tear it up after the two reached an accord.

Instead, he embarrassed the popular coach by making him beg for his job. In the process, he turned his back on the people he's paid to serve - the parents and students at Eagle Rock - by disregarding their support for a coach they loved.

This was a successful coach who guided the Eagles to four straight league titles and two consecutive City Invitational championships.

Chou deserved better, but when players and parents tried to convince Velasco he was making a grave mistake by getting rid of him, Velasco turned a deaf ear.

But Velasco isn't the only one to blame.

Chou, the ex-coach, is apparently too proud to sit his former players down and explain the importance of getting over their disappointment and moving forward in a positive direction, rather than linger on in rage.

I'd like to think Chou pulled his former players aside and told them he appreciates their support and devotion, but it's time to move on and fully support the new coach.

I'd like to believe that, but in light of what happened Thursday, how can anyone be sure?

If he has, clearly he wasn't forceful enough. Chou is probably the one person who can quell the discontent, but the fact the outrage continues tells plenty.

And let's not forget some of the parents, so emotionally tied to the program and former coach that they either stoke the flames of outrage or do nothing to extinguish it.

Either way, they've allowed a fury within their sons to burn so intense that at least some players appear to believe physically assaulting the new coach is acceptable behavior.

Is there anyone at Eagle Rock capable of teaching these kids right from wrong? Is there anyone willing to step up and tell the players life doesn't always work out in your favor, but you can't resort to breaking the law as an outlet for your disappointment?

The kids deserve blame, too. No doubt they were hurt by Velasco's decision to let Chou go, but after expressing their displeasure and voicing their feelings, Velasco stuck to his decision.

It might not seem fair, but that's the way life is sometimes, and it's high time the players at Eagle Rock understand that. You can either accept it and support the new coach or move on. But to resort to physical violence is unacceptable.

An innocent man was assaulted on a football field Thursday, and his only transgression was replacing a popular high school football coach.

It should never have happened. But the actions of the adults at Eagle Rock High allowed it to.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

The news that didn’t fit from Nov. 9th

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

From the Associated Administrators Los Angeles Weekly Update of October 27, 2008

4LAKids doesn't necessarily agree with all the points below - but agrees wholeheartedly that LAUSD had a great tendency to leave business unfinished, responding to crises and not following through on the business at hand.

This is a failure of the Superintendent, The Board Of Education, District Staff - and because it's ingrained in the culture - of administrators and even the employee unions. If

We the District actually stayed the course and followed through on the reforms and initiatives we started out on we'd be farther along! – smf

AALA, in its continuing effort to keep LAUSD on track, is publishing this list of unfinished business facing the Superintendent and Board of Education.

· High Priority Schools Initiative

· Promising Practices

· Foster Care Initiative

· Senior Staff Development Program.

· Performing Arts High School

· Support For Principals

· Health Benefits

ARTS EDUCATION NEWS: CALIFORNIA BUDGET UPDATE

The Legislature is scheduled to convene a special session in the coming days to deal with the deficit in the state budget that has emerged since the budget was signed in September. Further cuts in state services, including education, will certainly be discussed, along with proposals to raise revenues.

ALLOW OUR SCHOOLS FREEDOM TO INNOVATE

by School Boardmember Tamar Galatzan in her Galatzan Gazette newsletter

At a meeting of the Governance Committee last week, Senior Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines mentioned something very interesting that I’ve been thinking about ever since.

When addressing ways the District can support school-led innovation, he used Title I funding as an example.He said that many people wrongly believe that federal law prevents the use of Title I dollars for class-size reduction.This prohibition is actually imposed by the District.

STATE ALLOCATION BOARD DIVVIES UP $225 MILLION AMONG SCHOOLS

Thursday, November 06, 2008 -- The State Allocation Board, the state office that decides how state funds are disbursed for the construction and renovation of public schools, has approved payments totaling $225 million for some 310 public schools, or an average of nearly $726,000 per school. The board, in the state government flow chart, is linked to the Office of Public School Construction and the Department of General Services.

LOCAL ELECTIONS/NATIONAL TRENDS - VOTERS PASS ALL 23 L.A. COUNTY SCHOOL BOND MEASURES:

Fifteen receive more than a two-thirds majority, including LAUSD’s $7-billion Measure Q and LACCD's $3.5-billion Measure J + 82% OF BONDS PASS NATIONALLY

It wasn't Los Angeles County's 23 school bonds that drove people to the polls Tuesday, but voters willingly added all of them to the Barack Obama victory parade.

Despite a long ballot, national economic duress and competing tax measures, most of the bonds easily cruised to victory, including the largest ever for a California school district: the $7-billion Measure Q for Los Angeles Unified. It won support from 68.9% of voters.

3 FROM THE HOMEROOM: ROONEY REDUX

• LAWSUIT ALLEGES SCHOOL OFFICIALS KNEW ABOUT SUSPECTED MOLESTER
• OUTSIDE REVIEW ON MOLESTATION EPISODE GETS BAD MARKS
• L.A. UNIFIED'S NEW MEASURES TO PROTECT STUDENTS

LA UNIFIED SEEKS TO BUILD APARTMENTS ON ITS SURPLUS LAND

The district says the low-cost units could house teachers, helping to reduce the attrition rate. Families of students could live there as well, facilitating house calls by teachers.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is looking to develop low-cost apartments on as many as 12 campuses in an effort to help teachers find less expensive housing and live closer to their jobs.

District officials have begun asking real estate developers to submit housing proposals on school campuses in Hollywood and Harbor Gateway and are reviewing other campuses where apartments could be built on surplus land.

GROWING PAINS AND GREAT EXPECTATIONS

The premise of this series of blogs in the NYTimes is “How would you rebuild it if a hurricane came through and blew your school district away?”  Unfortunately it isn’t a hypothetical.

As part of our professional development sessions at the start of this school year, the faculty at my school participated in a team-building exercise to learn more about our leadership styles. Each corner of the room was labeled for one of the four compass points, and included a brief description of a guiding personality style — action, care, detail, and, the corner I chose, speculation: “likes to look at the big picture before acting.”

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

 

From the Associated Administrators Los Angeles Weekly Update of October 27, 2008

4LAKids doesn't necessarily agree with all the points below - but agrees wholeheartedly that LAUSD had a great tendency to leave business unfinished, responding to crises and not following through on the business at hand.

This is a failure of the Superintendent, The Board Of Education, District Staff - and because it's ingrained in the culture - of administrators and even the employee unions. If

We the District actually stayed the course and followed through on the reforms and initiatives we started out on we'd be farther along!  – smf

AALA, in its continuing effort to keep LAUSD on track, is publishing this list of unfinished business facing the Superintendent and Board of Education.

HIGH PRIORITY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE – It has been almost two years since this initiative was begun, and, toour knowledge, the identified schools are still waiting for their promised support. In addition, WASC accreditation was built into the accountability for the initiative, but instead, the District is embarking on another "school report card." Formal accreditation is the most creditable form of accountability for schools at any level, and it is already in place …so why reinvent the wheel?

PROMISING PRACTICES – For over two years, the Superintendent has stressed the need to share promising practices exemplified in schools with demonstrated success. While we have seen glimpses of these practices mainly when they are highlighted in the newspapers or on television, no organized or concerted effort has been made within the District to share these successes in a collegial manner. Rather, we have seen outside consultants hired to tell us what we are doing wrong and what we should be doing differently. AALA has always contended that our greatest professional development asset is the collective educational wisdom of District personnel. AALA is still requesting a structured District system for sharing this wisdom.

FOSTER CARE INITIATIVE – The needs of foster care children has been an area of concern for many years. To date, apparently no effort has been made to bring the District and the County of Los Angeles together in a true partnership to assist the neediest of our students. Social workers assigned to foster children could be assigned to schools where they could monitor the care for significant groups of foster children and truly serve as guardians as the Courts decree. Again, AALA is looking for the Superintendent and the Board of Education to provide the leadership to address this societal need.

SENIOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM – For over two years, AALA members have been promised a senior staff development program so that qualified LAUSD individuals could have a transparent pathway for administrative leadership and promotional advancement. The Superintendent has acknowledged the talent within the District; however, no system for administrative development has been put into place. Instead, the District still seems to place a greater value on individuals from outside the District. The paraeducator career ladder, teachers academy, and principals academy are examples of what could be done with coaching and mentoring for the highest administrative levels. Again, actions speak louder than words.

PERFORMING ARTS HIGH SCHOOL – AALA is still waiting for the donations from Eli Broad and his colleagues in the Grand Avenue Partners to pay for the enhanced cost of the "waterslide" high school at 450 N. Grand Avenue. The cost escalated from 78 million to 230 million based on an agreement (can you say arrangement?) with Broad and his shadowy associates. We are still waiting for the money, which could be used to refurbish older schools and pay for any maintenance costs currently coming out of the general fund budget. And, AALA is still waiting for the transparency that this “verbal” agreement deserves.

SUPPORT FOR PRINCIPALS – AALA continues to address instances of inappropriate interference in school activities by a small number of Local District and Central office administrators, who appear to have lost sight of their primary purpose-to assist and support rather than meddle. Mr. Superintendent, please reinforce your statements at your opening administrative meeting where you stressed the need for local school initiative and the rendering of support for principals.

HEALTH BENEFITS – When will District leadership recognize that health benefits are an inalienable right of all eligible employees? Employees are overly stressed with the lack of good faith bargaining and the seemingly unwillingness of District leadership to support an agreement so carefully initiated by former District Superintendent William J. Johnston and supported by all subsequent superintendents through good times and bad.

Arts Education News: CALIFORNIA BUDGET UPDATE

from the ArtsEdMail e-newsletter connecting the Arts Education community in California.

November 5 , 2008-- There is a blessing in Jewish custom, known as the "Shehecheyanu", intended to encourage the offering of thanks for new and unusual experiences, typically recited at the beginning of holidays and to celebrate special occasions. Although the purpose of ArtsEdMail is to provide you with the up-to-the-minute information you need to advocate for arts education, we must take a moment to share with our readers this remarkable, new, and unusual moment in our country's history.

And lest we forget what lies ahead in our own state, the Legislature is scheduled to convene a special session in the coming days to deal with the deficit in the state budget that has emerged since the budget was signed in September. Further cuts in state services, including education, will certainly be discussed, along with proposals to raise revenues.

The Governor has indicated he is thinking about both increasing revenues and mid-year cuts. Whatever actions may be taken must occur before the end of November, when this legislative session ends. December 1 marks the beginning of a new session, with the inclusion of 40 newly elected legislators.

From this vantage point, it is difficult to assess what the impact of these anticipated cuts may be for arts education. We expect to share in the burden, and to protect our fair share of the funding we have worked so hard to achieve. As we learn more about where this discussion is going, we will let you know. If you have questions or would like to share stories of what is happening in your school district, please contact California Alliance for Arts Education Executive Director Laurie Schell or Policy Director Joe Landon at caae@artsed411.org or joe@artsed411.org.

California Arts Council Gives Over $1 Million to State Arts OrganizationsThe California Arts Council is pleased to announce approved funding for 130 arts organizations for the agency's "Artists in Schools" program, a grant program designed to support artists in residency activities that take place in the classroom and in after-school settings. For a list of funded organizations, click here.

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National News

Illinois Releases Comprehensive Arts Education Guidebook
Illinois Arts Alliance released Committing to Quality in Education: Arts at the Core, the first arts education guidebook specifically designed for Illinois teachers, principals, superintendents, parents, and community partners. Arts at the Core offers direction and tools to assist stakeholders in strengthening arts education. For more infomation, click here.

Fine Arts in the Classroom Develops Leaders in the Workplace
"Strengthening arts education in Milwaukee schools will produce creative, entrepreneurial graduates who can help transform Wisconsin's economy," local educators and artists said Tuesday. They offered testimony at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center during the last of nine public forums hosted around the state by the Wisconsin Task Force on Arts and Creativity in Education. Click here for more information.

New Parent Handbook from Pennsylvania
A new parent handbook has been endorsed by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; the Pennsylvania PTA; and the Division of Standards and Curriculum, Bureau of Teaching and Learning Support of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the handbook includes information about how parents can support, improve, and advocate for arts programs in the schools. Click here.

Ohio Critical Links Project
The Ohio Critical Links Project, a two-year program promoting localized learning communities of arts educators, has completed its first year of classroom inquiry work. Co-sponsored by the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) and the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), project participants include ten Ohio teachers from throughout the state. The Ohio Arts Council is providing additional support. The project is based on Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, an arts education research compendium published in 2002. The project's goal is the creation of a network of theatre educator learning communities and a Web-based index of best teaching practices based on the classroom research work of the participating teachers. For more information, click here.

Museums Bring Education Efforts to Scale
A report by the New Media Consortium says that museums are working in partnership with educators to expand arts education in schools. An interesting experiment has been unfolding in Texas that looks at arts education problems with novel solutions. Since October 2005, the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation has been working with the New Media Consortium (NMC) to help museums across Texas learn to scale their education efforts. Click here.


Staten Island Schools Finding Ways to Offer More Art Programs
Despite an increased focus on test scores, Staten Island schools have been finding ways to offer more art programs to students by connecting with cultural organizations in their neighborhoods. According to a report released yesterday by the city Department of Education, 84 percent of Staten Island schools teach their students about the arts through partnerships with local groups. Click here to read article.


Merrifield "Neglecting the arts hurts our children"
Colorado Rep. Michael Merrifield defends against criticism of the recent study of arts in schools, saying that the findings are indeed valid, and pleas for giving "the next generation the gift of creativity and collaboration, abstraction and the arts." Click here to read more.

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Announcements

New CA PTA Website
Check out the redesigned SMARTS webpage on the CA PTA website. SMARTS is California State PTA's program to encourage arts education. To view, click here.

CCA Teaching Institute
The CCA Teaching Institute (TI) seeks to transform the culture of teaching and empower learning through professional development in the arts. TI pioneers contemporary pedagogies and proven programs, training educators and teaching artists to be leaders in arts instruction at the pre-K The first of its kind in the Unites States, TI's Arts Learning Specialist Certificate provides a meaningful opportunity for pre-K through 12th grade educators and teaching artists to advance professionally. A model for contemporary arts education excellence nationwide, this certificate program was developed by CCA Center for Art and Public Life in partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education. For more information visit CCA TI on the web by clicking here.

Summer Music Institute
The Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute is a 4-week summer music program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for student instrumentalists. This program is open, by recorded audition, to students who are seriously considering orchestral music as a career, and are in grades 9 through 12 or are a college freshman or sophomore. Nominations are due to California Alliance for Arts Education by January 20, 2009. To view the 2009 Summer Music Institute application, click here.

Call For Nominations: 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards
The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards recognize individual leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues in California. Award recipients will each receive $125,000 to support their work to benefit the people of California. The award also includes communications activities, undertaken together by award recipients and the Foundation, to educate policymakers and practitioners about the solutions they have implemented. Nominations can be submitted online by clicking here. Nominations are due by January 16, 2009, and awards will be announced in the summer of 2009.

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Conferences, Professional Development

So Cal Museum Educators Offers Evaluation Workshop
The Museum Educators of Southern California (MESC) is sponsoring a workshop series that focuses on the essentials of evaluating public programs on Monday, November 10, 2008 9:00 AM-12:00PM. The MESC ESSENTIALS series offers museum educators basic tools and strategies for success in the field. Participants will leave with tools and information they can put to use immediately. The cost is $15 Non-members/ $10 Members. For more information or to register, visit the MESC website at http://www.mesconline.org.

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Resources, Funding Opportunities

Music Matters Grants for 2009
Music Matters offers grants that will focus on educational reform in school music programs and independent music programs. Grants will be awarded in April 2009 to schools and music programs throughout the United States. Grant amounts for this cycle are between $1,000-$12,000 each and are made on an annual one-time basis. Click here for more information.

VSA Arts Guide to Evaluation
VSA arts has released The Contours of Inclusion: Frameworks and Tools for Evaluating Arts in Education. This practical guide features essays that provide examples of the design and use of evaluation for arts education in inclusive settings can be found here.

Spotlight Awards Student Scholarships
The Music Center Spotlight Awards is a nationally-recognized scholarship and arts training program for Southern California high school students in the performing and visual arts. Open to all students who attend high school in Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. The deadline for Visual Arts is December 1, 2008. For more information, visit Spotlight online by clicking here.

Nathan Cummings Foundation Grants
Nathan Cummings Foundation offers funding towards projects in the arts, the environment, health, and Jewish life. Arts funding supports education and advocacy with a focus on underserved communities and efforts to make existing institutions more accessible to disadvantaged groups. Open to nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education. The first step in the application process is a 1-2 page letter of inquiry to the foundation.To apply, click here.

VSA Arts and MetLife Foundation Invite Proposals
Nonprofit 501(c)(3) performing and/or exhibiting arts organizations who are creating or have an established educational program are eligible to apply. A maximum of 10 awards of up to $15,000 will be awarded. For information on eligibility and to download the application, click here.

Identifying the Right Grant-Makers for Your Program
Identifying the right grant-maker for any program or project is a straightforward, step-by-step process that can greatly increase your organization's chances of securing grant funding. Click here to learn more.

ALLOW OUR SCHOOLS FREEDOM TO INNOVATE

by School Boardmember Tamar Galatzan in her Galatzan Gazette newsletter

7 November - At a meeting of the Governance Committee last week, Senior Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines mentioned something very interesting that I’ve been thinking about ever since.

When addressing ways the District can support school-led innovation, he used Title I funding as an example.He said that many people wrongly believe that federal law prevents the use of Title I dollars for class-size reduction.

This prohibition is actually imposed by the District.

I’ve been wondering ever since how many other rules and restrictions the District
created for the ease of recordkeeping or other suspicious reasons?

With LAUSD facing both a budget crisis of epic proportions and a steady exodus of dynamic schools from the District and into the charter community, we must allow our schools the freedom to innovate.

I am not talking about tinkering-at-the-edges,but an every-thing-is-on-the-table
brainstorming session.

Schools are being asked to do more with less; let’s allow them to decide how and when to spend the dollars. The District should stand aside and free schools from bureaucratically-imposed-burdens.

Instead we must work with parents, teachers, administrators, staff, and students to spend money in a way that most benefits the kids.

 

●●smf’s 2¢: 4LAKids hopes that the boardmember is doing more than “thinking about ever since” and “wondering ever since how many other rules and restrictions the District created for the ease of recordkeeping or other suspicious reasons?”  

These are questions that should challenge sleep at night.

As a public trustee she needs to be demanding the answers and transparency she seeks – and sharing what she finds with the rest of us.

Go for it Tamar. You are not alone at that table with everything on it  – we have our sleeves rolled up and our edge-tinkering tools stowed away.

We have your back!

Q, RATED: Why the LAUSD bond passed, and big

Measure Q is 70 pages in length and the detail on proposed spending seems infinite. But there are also long passages where it gets vague and speculative.

Less like a hard business plan, you might say, and more like a prophecy of Nostradamus.

 

 

 

 

Central High School #9: The High School for the Fine and Performing Arts.

By Marc B. Haefele | LA CityBeat

November 6, 2008 -- In the end, it was more about school bucks than school books.

The folks who most actively backed Prop. Q – the $7 billion educational bond measure that passed Tuesday with almost 70 percent – were not the 45,000 teachers and the 700,000 pupils in the LAUSD. Sure, the district itself dropped 20 grand on Prop. Q “informational” materials. This was reported by the Times as undue influence, but didn’t matter a bit in the end.

What was really at issue was voter confidence in the LAUSD itself. The passage means it’s somehow still there.

The truly big spenders behind the proposition were actually the region’s biggest contractors and building-trade unions: They collectively socked in most of the $700,000 funding for Yes on Q, which was on your ballot if you lived in the 710-square-mile school district that includes Los Angeles, unincorporated East L.A., and eight entire L.A. County cities. There was a terrific reason for this support in the form of thousands of potential new construction jobs in a time and place where such jobs are getting scarce.

The $7 billion will build, complete, or renovate hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schools in the 878-school LAUSD. If the idea sounds overfamiliar, that’s because this was the fifth multi-billion-dollar LAUSD bond measure proposed since 1997. Q’s better-publicized predecessors were BB, K, R, and Y. Their passage provided $19 billion in school construction funds. The results were a rare and widely proclaimed LAUSD success story. In the late ’90s, the much-maligned LAUSD was running year-round multi-tracked class schedules in 227 schools, seriously blunting teaching quality, such as it then was. Now the facilities, at least, are a lot better. All that handsome new school construction you see all over town has made the big difference, with lots of shiny new classrooms and about half as many year-round multi-track schools.

As the LAUSD tells it:

“Since 2002, the District has completed 72 new K-12 schools and 30 early education centers and expansions, built 59 additions to existing schools, and added approximately 75,000 new K-12 classroom seats. There is progress being made at older schools too. More than 17,110 repair and upgrade projects and approximately 1,200 technology projects have been completed at schools throughout the District.”

Not bad for starters. But there’re still 200,000 kids in temp classrooms, the average school is 45 years old, and the average class is still supersized. Also, those prior spending measures did nothing for the aspiring, burgeoning charter schools outside the LAUSD’s official Big Top, and they want help too.

Enter Q. It is 70 pages in length and the detail on proposed spending seems infinite. But there are also long passages where it gets vague and speculative. Less like a hard business plan, you might say, and more like a prophecy of Nostradamus. These waffley fringes occasioned the Times’s and the Daily News’s editorial opposition. On the other hand, while there was a well-bankrolled “Yes on Q” organization, there was no corresponding “no” group. LAUSD’s long-serving hordes of angry critics seemed to be sitting this one out.

Not all critics did. Now is a good time, if you are in the pundit biz, to talk tough about slashing public spending, particularly if you subscribe to the century-old economics dicta recently embraced so passionately by Sen. John McCain. Otherwise you might, like the contractors and building trades unions, support the idea of $7 billion creating new jobs and thus trickling back into the increasingly parched local economy. On the other hand, servicing the bonded debt is to cost district homeowners an additional $60 per $100k in assessed valuations – something like an average extra $250 a year (in addition to the $123 per $100k already being assessed). That’s the kind of wealth redistribution many recessioning property owners might not be expected to embrace.

Another possible negative was the fact that the LAUSD (which has had nearly $5 billion in assistance from the state in recent years) was taking a likely $440 million lop in anticipated state operating funding this year and might best concentrate on dealing with that rather than building more schools. Nor has Superintendent David Brewer III earned the public confidence inspired by his dynamic predecessor, Roy Romer. There’s less accountability, as the Monday Times story about former Assistant Principal Steve Thomas Rooney suggests. After this alleged pistol-wielding child molester was transferred around the system instead of being fired, the only disclosed result was an orgy of fingerpointing. This is irresponsibility of the kind one associates with the LAUSD of the ’90s. To an uncertain extent, the voter approval of Q suggests that despite increasing problems, the recent eight-year era of voter confidence in the district’s self improvement may not yet have ebbed.

What of the long fruitless war between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the LAUSD? As we all know, despite certain campaign promises, the mayor still isn’t running the L.A. schools the way mayors do in Chicago and Washington DC. But he’s taken charge of a handful of bad schools and embedded his capable education sidekick, Ramon Cortines, as Brewer’s deputy. Now peace reigns between City Hall and the district, relatively speaking – yet even this comity somehow affected Q. The story goes that the district originally wanted just $4 billion in new bonds. The mayor’s polling found public support for $7 billion. Was this “what the public will bear” approach the right way to assess the actual need, in tough times, for a school spending package equaling roughly half the LAUSD’s entire $14 billion annual budget?

Apparently it was.

Rooney Redux: “WHAT PART OF ‘UNLAWFUL SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH A MINOR’ IS IT THAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND?”

opinion by smf | 4lakids

In the PILLSBURY REPORT LAUSD’s hired gun/outside counsel $209,000. investigation of the Rooney Matter – blame is assigned to Dan Issacs, then the District’s former Chief Operating Officer for the memo he sent out following Rooney’s initial arrest.

The report finds that Isaacs did not make clear the allegation that Rooney was a suspected child molester.

 

Here’s the memo:

 

The ‘smoking gun’ part of the Isaacs Memo says:  “Mr. Rooney was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon in an incident that occurred on January 1, 2007. LAPD is also investigating allegations that he had an unlawful sexual relationship with a minor.”

Any and everyone on the distribution of the memo who read those words and didn’t immediately understand the allegations wasn’t paying attention.

LAUSD is governed by memos and bulletins;  informatives, resolutions and policy.

The skill set required of a leader in such an environment is separating the important from the trivial; failure is defined in the inability to do so.  The EdSpeak word for this is “Decoding”.  We expect it of the beginners and we must expect it of the experts.

As memos go, that one was as clear as they come.

The Pillsbury report faults Isaacs in that he did not spell out that the person Rooney allegedly assaulted with a deadly weapon was the stepfather of the girl he was suspected of having an unlawful sexual relationship with.

• Please… Mr Rooney was (and continues to be) an alleged perpetrator, innocent until proven guilty. He continued to be a District employee, albeit one under suspicion of two very serious offences.
• The alleged assault-with-a-deadly-weapon victim and the alleged sexual abuse victim – a minor – are entitled to a certain amount of privacy; the young girl an extraordinary amount of it.

Mr Issacs is also faulted because he did not circulate this memo to the Employee Relations Office and the Staff Relations Office (two silos in the Beaudry bureaucracy) — although it was circulated in a timely manner to those two offices by others on the circulation list.

 

We must stop the blame game and the witch hunt because there is plenty of blame  to go around …and no witches!  There is however darkness and evil. There is black and white and infinite shades of grey.

And though the word has descended into overuse and discredit — there are evildoers preying on children.  —smf

 

THE PILLSBURY REPORT on the LA Times Website, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request.  Also known as The Markham Middle School Report or Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman final report re: The Markham Investigation, dated June 2, 2008  -- plus Board Resolutions and Policy bulletins.

STATE ALLOCATION BOARD DIVVIES UP $225 MILLION AMONG SCHOOLS

By Capitol Weekly Staff

Thursday, November 06, 2008 -- The State Allocation Board, the state office that decides how state funds are disbursed for the construction and renovation of public schools, has approved payments totaling $225 million for some 310 public schools, or an average of nearly $726,000 per school. The board, in the state government flow chart, is linked to the Office of Public School Construction and the Department of General Services.

The disbursement, announced by the governor’s office, includes more than $192 million in grants from voter-approved Proposition 1D, which will be used to pay for new construction and modernization projects at 46 schools throughout the state.  Proposition 1D also funds projects that allow public school campuses to incorporate more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features into their designs.

Of the $192 million in Proposition 1D funds, the board allocated $480,000 of the “green schools” funding to two schools – Valley View Elementary in El Dorado County and McElhinney Middle School in Riverside County.

Proposition 1D was part of the $10 billion voter-approved bond measure supported by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of his Strategic Growth Plan in 2006.  Since 2007, more than $2.8 billion of Proposition 1D funds have been issued to school districts statewide.

In addition, the board awarded $16 million from Propositions 47 and 55 – which were approved by voters in 2002 – to fund construction projects at two schools. Across the state, 269 other schools will also receive more than $16 million from the state general fund to make emergency repairs.

In 2006, California voters approved borrowing some $42 billion to pay for improvements and expansion of the state’s infrastructure. The borrowing was pushed by Schwarzenegger.

“Since then, the governor has facilitated and expedited the allocation of billions of dollars from the 2006 infrastructure bonds to launch key projects, create jobs and stimulate California’s economy,” the governor’s press office said.

According to the administration, the governor has announced a series of public spending decisions. Those include:

• $624.6 million in Proposition 1C and Proposition 46 in housing bond funding.
• About $136 million in Proposition 1B funds for 99 transit projects statewide.
• An allocation of $2 billion since 2007 in Proposition 1D funds for new construction and modernization projects for schools statewide, including construction and modernization of 29 charter schools.
• About $382 million in Proposition 1B funds for transportation projects across the state.
• $3.5 billion in Proposition 1B bond funds for transportation and goods movement projects across the state.
• $394 million in Proposition 1B bond funding for 106 transit projects statewide.
• $40 million for port security from Proposition 1B funds.
• $73 million for affordable housing projects in Proposition 1C and Proposition 46 funds to help more than 1,600 California families rent or purchase affordable housing.
• $211 million for expedited implementation in Proposition 1E funds to four critical levee improvement projects in Northern California.  
• $69.5 million in permanent low-interest loans from the Proposition 1C housing bonds to jump-start 14 affordable multifamily projects up and down the state, helping more than 1,000 California families and individuals realize the dream of an affordable rental home.

LOCAL ELECTIONS/NATIONAL TRENDS - VOTERS PASS ALL 23 L.A. COUNTY SCHOOL BOND MEASURES: Fifteen receive more than a two-thirds majority, including LAUSD’s $7-billion Measure Q and LACCD's $3.5-billion Measure J + 82% OF BONDS PASS NATIONALLY

 

By Howard Blume and Jason Song From the Los Angeles Times

November 6, 2008 - It wasn't Los Angeles County's 23 school bonds that drove people to the polls Tuesday, but voters willingly added all of them to the Barack Obama victory parade.

Despite a long ballot, national economic duress and competing tax measures, most of the bonds easily cruised to victory, including the largest ever for a California school district: the $7-billion Measure Q for Los Angeles Unified. It won support from 68.9% of voters. (The bonds needed 55% to pass.)

Similar good fortune befell the $3.5-billion Measure J, placed on the ballot by the Los Angeles Community College District and approved by a nearly 70% margin.

"We knew the kind of voters Obama would attract to polls included young voters, immigrant voters and other people who historically have put a lot of faith in the education system or investing in the future through education," said Measure J campaign consultant Richard Katz, a former state legislator.

Katz's worry, however, was that a first-time voter would wait in a long line, "do the Obama thing" and leave without making it through the rest of the ballot.

His campaign therefore upended conventional wisdom by targeting low-propensity voters. Mailers emphasized the role of community colleges in job training and also re-training people who suddenly need or seek new careers.

That theme, Katz said, resonated helpfully with the foreboding economic news -- even though bonds result in property tax increases.

Voters already are paying off a total of $2.2 billion from college district bonds approved in 2001 and 2003.

The existing bill is even steeper at L.A. Unified, the nation's second-largest school system. Voters already had approved $13.6 billion through four local bonds since 1997 to fuel the nation's largest school construction and modernization program.

L.A. schools Supt. David L. Brewer dismissed the burden of new taxes as secondary to the benefit of additional construction jobs. "This is the best economic stimulus package we could have," Brewer said Wednesday.

Going to the well again, however, angered some civic leaders after the bond package doubled in size at the last moment.

But steadfast proponents included Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had agreed with expanding the bond after polling suggested voters would support it.

Villaraigosa appeared on campaign mailers, as did Police Chief William J. Bratton, a mayoral ally. The larger bond also resulted in more money promised for facilities for charter schools, which maintained a neutral position in the campaign.

That $1-million effort included seven mailers, which especially targeted Republican women, a group identified as persuadable, said Measure Q campaign consultant Steve Barkan. L.A. Unified produced three "informational" mailers of its own.

"I heard about the reasons to vote for it, but I never heard reasons to vote against it," said Lizeth Robles, 18, a South Los Angeles resident who attends UCLA. On Tuesday night, she voted for it, as did her Spanish-speaking father, who presses clothes for a dry cleaner.

Edwin Morales, 26, said he also had no hesitation voting for both the college and K-12 bonds because he personally remembered conditions at Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights and at East Los Angeles Community College, from which he graduated in 2006. He is working his way toward a political science degree at Cal State L.A. with a job as a valet.

The most dominant school bond victory belonged to Alhambra Unified, which claimed 74.8% of votes for its $50-million measure. Fifteen of the 23 bonds got more than a two-thirds majority, which had been required before California lowered the threshold to 55% in 2000.

The $13-million bond for Acton-Agua Dulce Unified, in north L.A. County, prevailed in a squeaker, with 55.5%. No other bond received less than 60% support.

Long Beach Unified Supt. Christopher Steinhauser said he was never in doubt about his district's $1.2-billion Measure K: "People are very supportive of schools because they can see an immediate result in their community."

_____________________________

●●smf’s 2¢ – Nationwide, 82% General Obligation Bonds were approved by voters – 82% of bonds on the ballot were approved …not necessarily with a pass rate of 82%!

The Bond Buyer – a trade online daily newspaper reports that nationwide k-12 school improvement bonds had a success rate of 87.3%.

Voters approved $54 Billion of $67 billion of bond measures on the ballot, $34 billion of $40 billion on K-12 school improvement bonds. 

This is impressive – but a very small number – with a huge amount of potential impact – when compared to numbers being bandied about in the current bailout of the financial and credit markets – the rock bottom beginning price of which is $700 billion. 

Enough with the bailout, how about some investment in the future?  The time is right for the federal government to assume payment of interest of K-12 (or P-14  - including pre-school and community college/workforce development) school facilities construction and improvement bonds – a way to plug immediate investment dollars into school modernization and improvement ….and the economy and the future. Let the local voters vote for the bonds  and the local taxpayers pay the costs – with the Feds paying the interest – for school construction and modernization general obligation bonds.

 

Chart from The. Bond Buyer

3 from the Homeroom: ROONEY REDUX

 

•  Lawsuit alleges school officials knew about suspected molester

• Outside review on molestation episode gets bad marks

• L.A. Unified's new measures to protect students

all by Howard Blume, Times Staff Writer

 

Lawsuit alleges school officials knew about suspected molester

08:57 AM PT, Nov 3 2008 - A recently filed lawsuit claims that senior Los Angeles school officials knew that an assistant principal remained a molestation suspect when they assigned him to a Watts middle school last year.

The lawsuit contradicts assertions by senior LAUSD administrators. They have denied knowing that police believed that Steve Thomas Rooney, 40, posed a risk to other girls. These administrators have contended that they thought Rooney had been cleared by police and by the central district offices.

Rooney quickly got into trouble after arriving at Markham Middle School in September 2007; he faces molestation-related charges involving two students from that school and two from a previous assignment. He has denied wrongdoing.

The new litigation, filed by Michael Hopwood -- a district employee who is also a former elected member of the Compton school board -- calls into question an internal report on the Rooney episode commissioned by the school district. The report, by the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman,  is examined in today’s Times.

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(see: Report cites mistakes in L.A. Unified's handling of suspected child molester, following)

also:

• Markham Middle School report (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman final report re: The Markham Investigation, dated June 2, 2008 plus Board Resolutions and Policy bulletins.)

• Dan Isaacs memo

• Discipline policy

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The report by the law firm has been used by Supt. David L. Brewer to assert that no current district employee is directly to blame for sending Rooney to Markham. In particular, Brewer defended Carol Truscott, who heads one of the district's eight geographic areas.

In preparing the report, the law firm interviewed 28 people, but missed  Hopwood, an operations coordinator under Truscott who has now come forward with explosive allegations in a lawsuit filed last month.

In his lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hopwood alleges job discrimination and retaliation for, among other things, protesting Truscott's decision to return Rooney to a school site.

Hopwood, an elected member of the Compton school board in the 1990s, contends that he met with Truscott and Anthony Armendariz, another operations coordinator, in the summer of 2007 to discuss the handling of Rooney. At the time, Rooney, an assistant principal at Fremont High in South Los Angeles, had been removed from contact with students because police were investigating both a gun-brandishing charge and possible sexual improprieties. But no sex charge was filed, and the gun charge was dropped because the girl at the center of the case wouldn’t testify against Rooney.

In the lawsuit, Hopwood alleges that he urged Truscott not to return Rooney to a campus, but that Truscott responded that “she would not have a ‘non-productive’ administrator.” Hopwood also charges that after police arrested Rooney for allegedly molesting two girls at Markham, Hopwood claims that Truscott warned him “that he must be loyal to her in the Rooney matter.”

Truscott could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, but in the law firm’s report she denied knowing that police investigators continued to suspect that Rooney was a sexual predator. And in a statement to The Times, she said that “had the full law-enforcement details been shared with me, I would have acted differently. Anyone who knowingly puts children in danger should be fired.”

Hopwood and Armendariz declined to be interviewed.

-- Howard Blume

 

Outside review on molestation episode gets bad marks

08:55 AM PT, Nov 3 2008 -- A report into how a man suspected of sexual misconduct was returned to contact with students received mostly poor grades from those who reviewed it at The Times' request.

Former assistant principal Steve Thomas Rooney, 40, faces molestation-related charges involving four students — two from Markham Middle School in Watts and two from Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles, where Rooney had previously worked. He has denied wrongdoing.

After Rooney’s March arrest, the LAUSD hired an outside law firm -- Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman -- to review Rooney’s path to Markham.

The report has been used as the basis for imposing no apparent substantial discipline on any current district employee. But the report has obvious shortcomings, said district and law enforcement sources. Some of these issues are outlined in a today's L.A. Times article, but there are others.

One is the range of interviews conducted by the law firm.

As an example, the law firm accepted the contention by members of the Employee Relations and the Staff Relations departments that they did not know Rooney was suspected of sexual misconduct. They said they knew only of a gun charge against Rooney and insisted that their contacts with police never mentioned anything else.

The law firm never verified the accounts of these departments with police, according to the list of interviews conducted.

Employee Relations was responsible for tracking criminal cases involving district employees. Staff Relations was responsible for advising officials regarding these employees once an investigation had concluded. Neither department raised concerns about Rooney being returned to contact with students.

In fact, if these L.A. Unified employees had contacted detectives or reviewed documentation related to the investigation, they could not have missed that the inquiry was primarily a sexual-misconduct investigation, law enforcement sources said.

Almost all sources spoke on the condition that their names would not be used. The district employees noted that they were unauthorized to speak. Some law enforcement sources also were not authorized, and they emphasized the importance of maintaining a good personal and departmental working relationship with the school system.

One person who commented was A.J. Duffy, head of United Teachers Los Angeles. He questioned why the gun charge by itself didn’t warrant an internal review. Rooney was originally arrested in February 2007 for allegedly brandishing a gun at the stepfather of a student.

“That’s an issue that should be taken with the greatest degree of seriousness,” Duffy said. “If they didn’t, that shows how bad they are at doing their jobs.”

Moreover, at least two Fremont teachers had complained about alleged outbursts of anger from Rooney on the job.

Others took issue with the report’s focus on former district Chief Operating Officer Dan Isaacs. The report criticized Isaacs for not telling everything he knew about the police investigation of Rooney in a brief memo Isaacs sent to the Board of Education, L.A. schools Supt. David L. Brewer and 11 other top officials.

Isaacs sent out the memo at the time of Rooney’s February 2007 arrest, and about five months before his own retirement. At that point, Rooney’s job status remained in limbo; he was being kept out of contact with students in a desk job at the local district office.

In a recent interview, Brewer named only Isaacs as a person deserving blame for the Rooney episode.

“You cannot lead and manage by memo,” said Brewer, who had a cool relationship with Isaacs. “The chief operating officer walks out of the door, and it was a single point of failure. He had the information and nobody else had it.”

One on-the-record defense of Isaacs and his memo came from Michael O’Sullivan, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents L.A. Unified administrators.

“The content of that memo was extraordinarily well done,” said O’Sullivan, who has hired Isaacs to work part-time for the association. “It does not give unnecessary information. It simply states the facts. It was the typical heads-up memo. And it went to everyone who should have it.”

Another matter that drew critical response was the report's handling of who, if anyone, was responsible for making sure Rooney was fit to return to a campus. The report ultimately faults no one directly, although it acknowledges district policy stipulating that the local district superintendent (Carol Truscott) and an employee's immediate supervisor were responsible for a follow-up probe. In this context, Truscott's underling Greg Braxton supervised Rooney after he was pulled from Fremont High in South Los Angeles. (Braxton has since become the principal at the new Roybal Learning Center.)

The relevant policy is laid out in Bulletin 3357, adopted in October 2006. It states that an employee’s administrator and the local district superintendent should conduct an internal investigation once a law enforcement inquiry or trial has ended with no conviction. That’s because such an employee may still deserve to be fired, face other discipline or pose a threat of some sort.

As described briefly in today’s Times article, the law firm’s report accepted Truscott’s and Braxton’s contention that they never saw the 2006 policy.

A couple of district sources, who were not directly involved in the Rooney case, insisted that they too were unaware of the 2006 policy. Others found that contention difficult to believe.

Still, administrators aren’t supposed to conduct probes that parallel or precede police investigations, because that can undermine police work, said former district general counsel Kevin Reed.

The problem, he added, was that some administrators took the admonition not to interfere with police matters too far. To clarify matters, the district adopted a sexual harassment policy in 2004.

Sexual harassment, as defined, includes inappropriate “conduct of a sexual nature.” And the policy stipulates that “as soon as the law-enforcement agency completes its investigation,” administrators are responsible for “conducting a prompt investigation into whether sexual harassment had occurred.”
Thus, anyone who missed the 2006 policy should at least have been aware of the 2004 sexual harassment policy.

Twice a year, administrators must certify in writing that they have reviewed the sexual harassment policy as well as rules pertaining to the reporting of child abuse.

One reason for the 2004 policy — and its repeated review — was to instill the notion that all employees must take personal responsibility for the safety of children. No one should assume that keeping children away from harm is someone else’s job.

But even with the 2004 policy, not everyone seemed to be getting the message. The 2006 policy was necessary, Reed said, because there was “an incomplete understanding” that once a criminal prosecution ceased, administrators must ensure that it’s appropriate to return an employee to contact with students.

In other words, Truscott and Braxton were perhaps far from alone in their mistaken understanding of how they should proceed.

In the wake of the Rooney incident, Brewer has centralized the management of employees under a cloud, an adjustment that Braxton commended.

“I am glad the district has instituted a policy for returning people to schools that involves a series of checks and screenings at the central district level,” Braxton wrote in an e-mail to The Times. “This is where many of us had always understood it to be.”

Similarly, Truscott noted: “As tragic as this is, it has resulted in stronger protections for the children.”

The new system may be improved as far as tracking and managing these cases, but it moves in a different direction than insisting on individual responsibility at all levels, which Reed was trying to accomplish.

-- Howard Blume