Letters to the Editor of the Daily News: LAUSD PARCEL TAX

Updated: 02/23/2010 09:41:51 AM PST

Re "LAUSD puts parcel tax up for June vote," (Feb. 17):

The correct answer to LAUSD's challenges is not more money. From Belmont to a failed payroll system, billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted, squandered and downright stolen. With skyrocketing unemployment rates and home foreclosures still at epidemic rates, this new parcel tax scheme needs to be defeated. If the challenges can not be fixed by those in charge, then it is time to replace them, not give them more money.

- DAVID HERNANDEZ

Valley Village

At their expense

Re: "LAUSD puts parcel tax up for June vote," (Feb. 17):

I suggest the LAUSD auction off its underperforming school buildings and land. My family is holding on to our home by sheer will. Shame on the LAUSD for always asking for handouts. Time to balance their budget like I do so they can keep their schools. Or they can ask the parents of the illegals to cough up the difference!

- HEIDI PAULSON

Sylmar

First lady has right idea

Re "Fighting fat" (Feb. 15):

Looks like Michelle Obama has got a million-dollar idea. It's about time one of our first ladies addressed the issue that has the highest threat to not only the present, but also the future, children of our nation.

As a server in a local burger restaurant, I am often shocked by the number of overweight children I see coming in with their also overweight parents eating the same high-calorie meals. It's no wonder the children follow in their parents' footsteps. Not only is it going to take some major early educational changes, but some lifestyle changes at home as well. Hopefully the time has finally come to declare war on child obesity.

- KELLY BURNETT

West Hills

BIG TEACHER SEES ALL

by Michael McGough | LA Times Opinion LA Blog

February 23, 2010 |  6:59 am -- One of the most famous -- and most controversial -- lines in a U.S. Supreme Court opinion comes from a 1969 case in which the justices upheld the right of  students to express political opinions at a public school. The money quote from the decision, which involved kids who wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, goes like this: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

The notion that schoolchildren have constitutional rights doesn't sit well with everyone. In a 2007 case, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that society should return to the practice in Colonial days when  public schools "were not places for freewheeling debates or exploration of competing ideas." But even Thomas might have trouble with the alleged practice of a Pennsylvania public school of using webcams on laptop computers to spy on students in their homes.

The family of 15-year-old sophomore Blake Robbins has filed a lawsuit against the Lower Merion School District. The Robbinses claim that a school employee accused Blake of "improper behavior in his home," based on a photo from the laptop issued by the school. The school replies that  the cameras are used only to locate lost or stolen laptops. Time, and perhaps a judge, will decide who's telling the truth, but the Robbinses' allegation makes for (as journalists like to say) a chilling scenario.

Whether or not a student's constitutional rights stop at the schoolhouse gate, they certainly don't stop at his own front door.

• McGough is a member of the LA Times Editorial Board.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES MUST SHARE IN HIGHER EDUCATION RECOVERY

Schwarzenegger's education plan does nothing to help the 110 California community colleges, which provide workforce training and are the practical option for most low-income students.

By Camille Esch and Christopher Cabaldon | LA Times Op-Ed

February 22, 2010 -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to get its priorities straight. Over the last three decades, the state's investment in universities has eroded while prison spending has shot through the roof. It's "out of whack," says Schwarzenegger.

To remedy that, he would guarantee that no less than 10% of the state's general fund budget go to the universities by 2014, a doubling of their current share. He also wants the deal written into the state Constitution -- both to show he's serious and to commit future governors to the plan.

Unfortunately, the governor's higher education recovery plan does nothing to help the 110 California community colleges, which serve nearly 3 million students -- nearly 70% of those in public higher education each year.

They don't get as much attention as the University of California or the California State University systems. But more than half of the graduates from the Cal States and 30% from the UCs start out in community colleges, allowing the four-year institutions to focus more on research and upper-division course work. This saves the state and its students millions of dollars.

The community colleges also are the state's main provider of workforce training, creating pathways into hundreds of occupations that require special training but not necessarily a four-year degree. Community colleges are the only practical option for most low-income young people, not to mention laid-off workers, returning vets and adults who need to work or raise a family while they go to school.

By expanding his higher education plans to include community colleges, Schwarzenegger would help more people expand their job opportunities, ultimately reducing the draw on social services and feeding more tax revenue back into the system.

Investing in community colleges also makes long-term sense. The generation of Californians under 35 is far less well educated than the baby boomers on the brink of retirement. And more and more jobs require degrees. According to a 2009 study, California will need to increase the number of bachelor's degree graduates by 60,000 each year until 2025 to meet workforce demands. Increases of that magnitude can't be achieved without the community colleges.

Yet for years we've been under-investing in them. Community colleges have always operated on a shoestring, getting by on a third of the funding per student of the UC system. The funding mechanism for the colleges puts them in competition with the K-12 system -- always a losing prospect. The colleges also are expected to make up for the shortcomings of the public schools. More than 80% of entering community college students need to take remedial classes.

In the higher education budget crisis, it's the community colleges that have taken the hardest hit financially. And unlike universities, which can manage their enrollment by tightening admission standards, the community colleges have to accept all who want to attend. The colleges currently serve the equivalent of 52,000 full-time students for whom they receive no state funding.

There is a flicker of light on the horizon. President Obama's higher education plan, with a goal of 5 million more community college grads by 2020, calls for an unprecedented $12-billion federal investment in the colleges over 10 years. States will have to compete for much of that money. If California develops a credible plan to improve transfer and graduation rates, it might qualify for some of it. But if California gets those funds, it will still need to increase its share.

Of course, none of our higher education institutions, including the universities, deserves a blank check. The state should expect the community colleges to improve their dismal transfer and graduation rates. Only a quarter to one-third of students who want to get a two-year degree or transfer to a four-year college do. At minimum, we need to double those numbers.

Schwarzenegger -- a former community college student himself -- has vowed not to cut funding for the colleges any further. But that's not enough. We need to put all of our college students on the path to success, not just the 30% at our four-year schools.

Camille Esch is director of the California Education Program at the New America Foundation. Christopher Cabaldon leads the foundation's Blueprint for Community College Student Success Project.

RED SHIRTS + WHITE SHIRTS

Audience members react as the L.A. Unified Board of Education decides how to divvy up 30 campuses Tuesday. The board decided not to turn over schools to three leading charter school operators. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times / February 23, 2010)

NOVEL SCHOOL PLAN UPHELD: Los Angeles' Board of Education voted Tuesday to hand over some of its public schools to charter school operators and teachers groups, part of an unusual experiment.

 

By TAMARA AUDI | Wall Street Journal

FEBRUARY 24, 2010--LOS ANGELES—The city's Board of Education voted Tuesday to hand over some of its public schools to charter school operators and teachers groups, part of an unusual experiment to see whether outsiders will have better luck improving student achievement in the nation's second-largest school district.

Associated Press | Parents, teachers and activists attended a controversial Los Angeles board vote that had pit unions against charter school operators.

But most of the 30 campuses, some with more than one school, were awarded to teachers and administrators employed by the school district. The board awarded four schools to charter groups, and two schools to a group led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The majority of the schools were awarded to teachers' groups. The board's vote was a blow to charter advocates and a boost to teachers in the city's divided education community.

Hundreds of parents, teachers and charter school advocates had gathered outside school board offices all day, and packed the board room during the five-hour meeting.

"We're extremely disappointed in the vote today,'' said Lauren Carter, and administer for ICEF, Inner City Education Foundation, a charter school group that runs 15 schools in Los Angeles and hoped to be awarded a new Los Angeles school Tuesday. Instead, the board voted to give the school to a teachers' group. "We were looking for more bold action from board members to make decisions for what was in the best interests of the kids. It's a sad, sad day for us."

The district's 45,000-member teachers' union saw charter schools as a threat that could hand more power to groups such as charter schools. Charter-school groups had hoped they would be able to expand their operations.

"We think it's a victory for students and the collaboration between teachers and parents and administrators," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers' union. "The world is going to see what we've been saying all along: Give the authority to teachers and we will create quality schools."

Associated Press -- Hundreds of teachers and parents marched Tuesday in the plan's favor.

The Los Angeles city school system, which is second only to New York City's with nearly 700,000 students, is widely considered one of the most troubled big districts in the U.S. According to the district's own report card for 2008-09, 42% of fifth-graders were reading at grade level and 53% could perform at their grade level in math. Some schools fall far below that. Hyde Park Elementary, one of the schools whose management went to a teachers' group, showed only 20% of its fifth-graders reading at grade level and 25% performing at grade level in math.

Under a resolution passed last year, the Los Angeles Board of Education for the first time allowed charter schools and outsiders to bid for the right to operate schools deemed "public school choice" sites.

Last week, Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines recommended awarding 10 of the schools to outside groups. He recommended awarding the remaining 28 schools to groups led by Los Angeles Unified School District teachers.

The board ratified most of Mr. Cortines's recommendations, but reassigned a few schools to teacher groups, instead of the charter groups Mr. Cortines had recommended.

The changes will affect 38,000 students.

Los Angeles already has more charter schools than any other district in the country—an estimated 161, according to district figures. Though charter schools have blossomed in the city, charter advocates complain their growth has been hampered because they haven't been able to gain easy access to space at school buildings.

Charters are part of the public-school system but have more leeway in how to allocate funds, hire teachers and develop curricula. The teachers' union in Los Angeles has typically been opposed to charters because they aren't obligated to hire under union contracts.

Measuring the success of charter schools is complicated, because many of them are new and don't have as much historical data on student achievement as public schools. Charter schools have been popular, in part, because they offer parents greater control over their children's education. Some studies have shown charter students outperforming their public school peers, while other studies show charter schools falling behind in some categories.

THE DENOUEMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: The day that was: Tuesday Feb 23rd as of 8:35 pm

`de·noue·ment

/ˌdeɪ|nuˈmɑ̃/  Show Spelled[dey-noo-mahn]|

–noun

1.the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.

2.the place in the plot at which this occurs.

3.the outcome or resolution of a doubtful series of occurrences.

smf writes for 4lakids:

The board meeting today produced interesting results, some expected – some not. For the most part the superintendent's recommendations were accepted – but there were notable exceptions.

• ICEF, Green Dot and The Alliance for College Ready Schools – powerhouse charter operators with programs recommended for acceptance – were repudiated.

• The Mayor’s Partnership for LA Schools picked up a school that they weren’t recommended for.

• The veracity of evidence and data challenging charter school acceptance of English Language Learners and Special Ed students was intensely questioned – 'good data' supports one's position, 'bad data' is to be denied.

• And though the entire PSC evaluation and review process was supposed to be data driven and evidence based, it t turned out that potential operators were not evaluated on past performance on but on whether they agree to follow the rules in the future.

• The board followed the unwritten 'Don't mess in my bailiwick' rule of following the lead of the member in their district when Boardmember LaMotte offered an amendment that was accepted denying ICEF at Obama Middle School in her district.

• Board President Garcia then violated the same rule on the next vote (denying Green Dot and The Alliance at Estaban Torres High School) by offering an amendment on a school not in her district but in Yolie Flores’. Garcia's amendment carried.

• As Flores is the author of the PSC resolution – and the champion of the superintendent’s recommendations – the tension rose, the board grew more and more divided and the politics got fast and furious.

• Horsetrading happened in the open – and operators denied this time were assured of better treatment next time (unless some wise judge stops them before they choose again!)

• Advance approval was guaranteed of a Pilot School at Gratts Elementary next year even though one wasn't even requested.

Democracy is messy when the sausage is made.

Notable quotes:

NURY MARTINEZ resurrected Connie Rice's metaphor of LAUSD reform as building the aircraft in flight. They have built their plane and it follows the script of Flight of the Phoenix – where it turns out the designer of the plane has only built scale models. Now they have to fly it – and land the puppy!

SUPT. CORTINES: “The Public School Choice process has divided us..... (that's Freudian) ….I mean provided us with an opportunity.....”

STEVE ZIMMER: (On the 'Parent Trigger'): “You can't declare war on people and not expect them to act like combatants.” “The 'red shirts' and the 'white shirts' are not the future. The future is in the plans.”

TAMAR GALATZAN: “Nothing is happening in my district, no Focus Schools, no pilots for individual student funding. You are ignoring half of the valley; successful schools are and need to be part of the wave of the future.”

MARGUERITE LAMOTTE: “It has been said by some that charter schools reestablish segregation; I cannot and will not say to my constituents that the money you gave for the bonds is being given to charter schools.”

RICHARD VLADOVIC: “In the past we have written the best plans in the worlds. We have placed them on the best shelves in the world where they collected the best dust in the world.”

MONICA GARCIA: “No one on this board takes their job lightly; I hope I can say no one in this district takes their job lightly. Tomorrow it takes all of us.”

 

from Google News

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STATE TRIMS DEFICIT, BUT KEY CUTS (Education, Health and Human Services) DELAYED

Wyatt Buchanan, SF Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

(02-23) 04:00 PST Sacramento - --

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 -- The California Legislature began chipping away at the state's $20 billion budget deficit, passing $2.8 billion in cuts, fund shifts and other solutions, though political wrangling held up about an additional proposed $2.2 billion Monday evening.

The Legislature was facing a deadline to respond to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call for midyear budget cuts. He asked for about $8.9 billion in cuts and other changes to the budget over the next 16 months, but the Legislature was considering a package of bills worth about $5 billion. Lawmakers will not take up cuts to education and social services until later in the year.

Some of the most significant changes approved by the Legislature included an $811 million reduction in funding for prisoner medical costs, a 5 percent cut in state employee payroll, saving $182 million by turning over illegal immigrants in state jails to the federal government and $228 million by suspending some mandates for local governments and deferring certain payments to them.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), acknowledged that the Legislature is taking up some of the easier proposals while leaving more painful cuts until later in the year.

"The reason for that is we want to take time with some of these decisions," Bass said. "The idea that we would take this time right now and whack education, health and human services - obviously people were not willing to do that."

The Senate already had passed many of the proposals and the Assembly was the final hurdle for most proposals Monday before they move to Schwarzenegger's desk.

Republicans in the Assembly lambasted the action on Monday.

"Lawmakers should be working together to address California's $20.7 billion budget deficit in a responsible and bipartisan way. Instead, Democrats have bypassed Republicans to push through a package of gimmicks, tax increases and phantom spending reductions that do next to nothing to address our state's fiscal crisis," said Republican Assembly Leader Martin Garrick of Carlsbad (San Diego County).

Several more controversial pieces are to be heard in the coming days, including a complicated change in gas taxes that will free up money for general fund spending and guarantee money for local transit agencies. The Assembly passed that plan, but it has yet to clear the Senate.

Another plan to increase tax enforcement on businesses that sell to Californians from out of state, often called the Amazon.com tax, passed the Senate but not the Assembly. Neither house has heard a proposal to add a surcharge on residential and commercial property insurance policies to fund emergency services.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor believes lawmakers are "clearly focused on solving the deficit." However, he said it would be "very difficult" for Schwarzenegger to approve the gas tax proposal as it includes a continued suspension of tax breaks for some corporations, which McLear called a "job killer."

PSC: THE MORNING OF THE SHOWDOWN

smf: Today’s board meeting -- where the Board will make the the public school “choices” for us is  at 1pm –

Beaudry Boardroom

333 S. Beaudry  | parking

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Agenda | Regular Board Meeting 2-23-10

Start: 02/23/2010 - 1:00pm

Please check for any changes to an Order of Business, Committee Agenda, or meeting materials, made after being placed on the website, but prior to the meeting, at the official posting site in the lobby of the District Headquarters.

Attachment
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Order of Business(Agenda).pdf
75.89 KB

Meeting Material.pdf
565.62 KB

 

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LAUSD Considers School Choice Recommendations

CBS 2 – ‎2/23

The Los Angeles Unified School District board will consider proposals that would give different outside groups control of new and struggling district ...

 

LAUSD leaders consider proposal to give groups control of new, struggling campuses

89.3 KPCC – ‎2/23

The future of more than 30 campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District will be decided today when district leaders consider a proposal to give a ...

T&A in a blog about education! + LAUSD OPENS THE BOOKS FOR ITS EMPLOYEES

by smf for 4lakids

23 Feb 10 -- We have had much talk of “transparency and accountability” from the superintendent and the board of late. The Talk and The Walk are far removed.

Talk about T&A and T&A are not the same. One last-minute poorly-publicized “open the books”/”budget transparency day” is not T&A. 

This new transparency…

• immediately following  public disclosure of the superintendent’s apparent conflict of interest as director of a textbook publisher with whom the district has a mufti-million dollar contract.
• on the eve a a controversial and legally challenged giveaway of schools (new and used) to outside operators – masquerading as “choice”
• in the midst of a financial meltdown.

….is neither accountability nor transparency …any more the PSC is “choice”.  It is all Orwellian Newspeak.*

This is made even worse by some parties complaint that the process was too open and transparent: ”Who invited all these parents?”   One supposes that some will find refuge that complaints about too much transparency balance complaints about not enough.  Goldilocks, meet Pollyanna.

When then Superintendent Brewer sent teams of staff, educators and parents to Houston and Miami-Dade to study how those districts do things we learned that in Houston the school district posts its checkbook online – truly opening the books. We recommended this to Brewer and he said that could and would happen.  CFO Megan Reilly has said it is doable.

We are still waiting.

 

LAUSD OPENS THE BOOKS FOR ITS EMPLOYEES -BUDGET: District officials, facing a $640 million deficit, hope to encourage workers to agree to plans.

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

20 Feb 10 -- Facing a deficit of some $640 million for next year, Los Angeles Unified officials hosted an "open the books" day Friday in an effort to answer questions about the budget and encourage workers to agree on furloughs and other cost-saving plans.

"This meeting is to make sure that we open up our books and that we are being transparent with our information," said LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly.

Requested by district Superintendent Ramon Cortines, the meeting was also designed to face the common complaint from some employee unions that district officials fail to answer their requests for budget information.

The meeting was announced shortly after Cortines proposed to cut the school year by a week - which has to be negotiated with district unions - and less than a month before LAUSD will have to send out layoff notices to thousands of workers unless other concessions are reached.

But what was supposed to open up a path to negotiations seemed instead to stall discussions. Union leaders who had hoped to go through the budget in detail, so they could justify the case for furloughs to their members, were not satisfied with the information they were allowed to see.

"We know there is a budget problem, no one is denying that we are in trouble," said Adriana Salazar, a representative for the Teamsters Union.

"But they told us things we already know. What we need now is to see, line by line, what the budget is so that we can go back to our

members and with confidence tell them that there is nowhere else to cut."

For example, union leaders wanted to know exactly how many jobs they would be able to save if they agreed to the shorter school year - the equivalent of about a 2.5percent pay cut for most workers.

LAUSD labor negotiators, though, stressed that even without detailed information, workers should realize that the district's financial perils are serious.

"This is about survival," said Richard Fisher, an LAUSD labor relations representative.

Some union leaders were also upset that parents and media representatives were allowed to attend a meeting that they had thought would not be public.

The reaction came after one parent in attendance pointed out that the needs of children were not being discussed as district officials and labor leaders addressed potential cuts to programs and personnel.

"All I hear is your concern about positions," said Maria Ortiz, a parent representative.

"Well how many of you are concerned about the kids of this district?"

Union representatives explained that in a district where 85percent of the budget goes to personnel, it is difficult to separate jobs and the needs of kids.

"If we lose positions, we lose the people who care for your kids," said Susan Gosman, a spokesman for the California School Employees Association.

 

*aka Doublespeak.  Doublespeak has a multiplier effect: Doublespeak “downsizing” for ”layoffs” [itself a euphemism for firing] has become “rightsizing”,  made all the more current, palatable and ambiguous by the acronym RIF.

LAUSD CHARTER SCHOOLS FAIL TO MAKE THE GRADE IN AREA OF DISABILITIES

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News [from the Contra Costa Times online]

23 Feb 2009 | None of the 29 Los Angeles Unified charter schools examined in a study released Monday met state and federal standards aimed at making campuses accessible to disabled students, and some even lacked wheelchair-friendly bathrooms and walkways.

The study by a federally appointed independent monitor also revealed that the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, which determines whether schools are compliant with these laws, is not making proper inspections.

An independent monitor was appointed in 2003 to oversee a federal consent decree imposed on the school district to improve special education services. An earlier report by the monitor also blasted LAUSD charter schools for enrolling fewer disabled students overall and fewer with severe disabilities than traditional schools.

"This is part of a larger issue ... and that is whether charter schools, which are a growing proportion of schools in LAUSD, welcome and are accessible to students with disabilities," said Independent Monitor Fred Weintraub.

"Our studies have shown that is not currently the case and we're looking to the district to improve the situation."

Charter schools, which are publicly funded but operate independently from the district, are an increasingly popular option for parents of L.A. Unified students. Currently, LAUSD has 151 charter schools within its attendance boundaries - more than any other school district in the country - and it could see more than a dozen new campuses open next year.

Chime Charter School, which is an elementary and middle school developed in partnership with California State University, Northridge, was the only San Fernando Valley school examined in the study and only its middle school was inspected.

Charter school operators and supporters were quick to question the findings of the report and denied that charter schools on the whole were not accessible to students with disabilities.

"As far as making sure all children have access to charter school facilities there is no entity more committed to that than the charter community itself," said Jed Wallace, president of California Charter Schools Association.

"We are not complacent on this, and if there is an instance or two where something has to be addressed we will help schools."

But Wallace said he did not believe that all 29 schools were out of compliance.

Wallace also stressed that if charter schools were going to be criticized for not meeting accessibility requirements, LAUSD officials should also be chided for failing to provide charters with access to facilities, as required by state law.

"It is challenging for the charter community to hear these issues when the findings fail to take into account that the district is obligated to provide facilities to charters and has been either unwilling or unable to provide these facilities," Wallace said.

While Weintraub's report questions the accuracy of some of the Building and Safety clearances, charter advocates believe the clearances serve as proof of their compliance.

"There is a difference of opinion here between two agencies. We believe the Department of Building and Safety makes their recommendations on compliance issues and we will continue to work with them," Wallace said.

A Building and Safety spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

The independent monitor's report also found safety hazards and security concerns at the 29 charter schools. Because the report was limited to special education issues, it urged district and city officials to look into these safety concerns.

Jose Cole-Gutierrez, LAUSD's director of charter schools, said that his office will be immediately following up with all the schools mentioned in the report.

"Safety and access for all children at whatever school they attend is a priority, and it is obvious that these findings raise concerns in terms of that fundamental tenet," Cole-Gutierrez said.

"Now that we've found these issues we will be working together to see how we correct them."

If a charter is located on LAUSD-owned or leased land, repairs will be covered by the district. But charters that lease or own their own land would have to cover the cost of repairs themselves, he said.

Julie Fabrocini, executive director of Chime Charter Middle School in Chatsworth, said that she questioned the expertise of the people who conducted the inspections on her campus.

"I have been a special education teacher for over 20 years, I have a master's degree in working with severely disabled children, and I am a part-time faculty member at Cal State University Northridge and I don't consider myself qualified to evaluate (compliance issues), so I want to know about the expertise of the person who made these findings," Fabrocini said.

Chime Charter School was created with a full inclusion model designed to have students with special needs and general education students take classes together.

At both campuses, 15 percent to 20percent of students have special needs, and Faborcini said a large proportion of them are severely disabled. Yet she has never dealt with any complaints from parents about accessibility.

"Our parents are our partners in problem-solving accessibility issues," Fabrocini said. "Is everything perfect? ... No ... but accessibility is a continuum that is constantly changing ... the fact is we have kids with significant physical disabilities, in wheelchairs and walkers and with multiple disabilities who fully access our campus."

The report raised concerns among some school board members, who said questions needed to be answered before more charters are launched.

"This disturbing evidence in combination with some of the other statistics we are getting paint a very disturbing picture and raise questions on whether public charters really serve all children," said LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer.

"If charter school operators do not show that they are willing and able to make this a priority, I don't think we should charter any other school."

For the Independent Monitor's complete report, visit www.oimla.com.

SNATCHING OUTRAGE FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY

 

Charles Kerchner - Research Professor of Education at Claremont Graduate University -  in The Huffington Post

February 22, 2010 06:45 PM -- Superintendent Ramon Cortines has made everyone angry. His recommendation for who should run 30 Los Angeles schools gave each of the competing organizations a little, but everyone has a grievance. Demonstrations are planned before, during, and after the Los Angeles Unified School District board meets on Tuesday.

Expect a battle of tee-shirted warriors. Wearing red, United Teachers Los Angeles plans a pre-dawn vigil in front of the school district headquarters, and its members are urged to pack the board meeting. Charter school supporters, wearing white, also have demonstration plans but they haven't telegraphed their punches.

So, what's the fuss about? In August, the Los Angeles Unified School District board passed a resolution known as Public School Choice. It subjected 18 new schools and 12 chronically underperforming ones to a request-for-proposal process. Some of the school buildings, such as the new Esteban Torres complex on the Eastside, were divided into smaller semi-autonomous Small Learning Communities, so, in total, proposals were received for 41 different schools. Reviews by educational experts and a public advisory vote followed. Results were posted on the District's web site.

UTLA argues that Public School Choice amounts to a giveaway. Every good socialist knows that government-run means public employees delivering public services. Except that it doesn't. Over the last 40 years both conservative governments and social democracies have increasingly thought of public services being delivered using a mixture of tools: direct provision, contracting out, mandates, and incentives for people to behave in socially conscious ways.

Medicare, for example, is a government sponsored service with mandated participation but delivered by employees of private but highly regulated organizations. California often uses private contractors instead of state workers to build our roads, but public employees police them. Public employees administer state parks, but private contractors operate the lodges and restaurants in them. It controls air pollution partly by regulation and partly with incentives. Deciding on the boundary line is a substantive matter, but it's not a new one.

Los Angeles Unified has been making these decisions for years. It contracts out some special education services. It provides direct public-employee-delivered services to some private schools. Most importantly, it relies almost exclusively on private firms for the design of its curriculum. In essence, it outsourced its intellectual core.

This boundary line changed slowly over decades. In the 1920s-1950s, hundreds of LAUSD employees designed and wrote the curriculum. Now, it purchases whole instructional packages from outside firms: not just the textbooks but also the plans for implementation and sometimes oversight consultation. Tens of millions of dollars are involved. (Hence, the flap last week over Superintendent Cortines' board membership on one of these firms.)

But Public School Choice signals a new and important moving of the boundary between public and private. It signals a breakdown in the old hierarchy and the establishment of a "portfolio of schools" model of organization. Under this notion of public service, the job of the district is to assemble the best collection of schools it can. It will run some of them itself, contract out others, shut down the ones that don't work well, encourage promising startups. This is a radical change from the traditional civil service model that not only establishes a greater relationship with charters and external operators, but also increases the public scrutiny of their results.

Departure from the old hierarchy deeply challenges the public employee unions, including UTLA. The most immediate threat is that Public School Choice will take some teaching jobs out of the bargaining unit because teachers in charter schools are either non-union or belong to a different union. More fundamentally, the whole logic of industrial unionism is built around a single employer and an identified set of jobs with attached wages and work rules. It signals a huge necessary transition for teacher unions.

But UTLA has lost very little under Public School Choice, and it may have gained a lot. Of the 18 newly constructed schools, Cortines' recommendation favored arrangements staffed by teachers in the existing bargaining unit in 13 schools. He also recommended a hybrid operation in two schools, where some of the teachers would be represented by UTLA. Only two sites would be run entirely by charter management organizations: Aspire and Camino Nuevo.

Of the 12 underperforming schools, called Focus Schools by the District, only Carver Middle School would be turned over to an outside administration: the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools founded by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Which brings us to the fate of charter operators generally in this competition. Looking at the numbers, they fared badly. Cortines recommended only seven of the 39 proposals by charter schools or charter management organizations. Reaction in the charter community ranges from outrage to mild optimism. "We are pleased that some of the strongest of the charter organizations were chosen. We've also taken some lessons from the process. We will be back," said Myrna Castrejón, senior vice president of the California Charter Schools Association.

In the contest with the charters, though, UTLA and the school district provided vivid proof that they could compete with the best of them. The school designs they proposed were not radical, but they were interesting and coherent.

In addition, UTLA strongly advanced the idea of Pilot Schools, which are essentially in-district charter schools with a strong dose of teacher self-governance. It's this latter characteristic that may transform school operations. Recasting teachers' jobs as members of a producer's cooperative is radically different than seeing them as industrial workers at the low end of a hierarchy.

All in all, UTLA ought to be holding a victory dance rather than a vigil.

MR. CORTINES, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!

SICK  AND  TIRED By Ken Alpern | LA City Watch |Vol 8 Issue 15

Pub: Feb 23, 2010 -- Just because the old Soviet Union is now confined to the history books, it doesn’t mean we don’t have any “Evil Empires” right here at home that victimize us on a daily basis.  I’d say that the public unions, the LAUSD, and their enabling elected politicians just as effectively keep us “Comrades” suppressed, with our taxes misspent and any dissenting voices stifled. As the debate goes on whether to lay off good, hard-working City workers and good, hard-working LAUSD teachers, I remind you all that it’s just a simple matter of math:  we either make a pay cut for City workers (ditto for the LAUSD, county, state and federal work forces) or we have to make layoffs.

As the proud son of a Los Angeles civil servant and of a teacher, I very much prefer the former, and NOT the latter, with a broadening of options for motivated public sector individuals to work more than a single job to make more money and help balance the City and LAUSD budgets.

I’ve been through rounds of pay cuts, and I now work six days a week and volunteer countless unpaid hours in my neighborhood council and in grassroots organizations (as do many of you reading this), so I think I’ve earned the right to ask the public unions and elected officials to Do The Obvious and agree to pay cuts…especially because these pay cuts reverse years of salary and pension pay hikes that never, ever EVER could have fit into any reasonable City or LAUSD budget.

Furthermore, I’m sick and tired of walking past fenced-off schools and seeing my children and their friends robbed of the same easily accessible, taxpayer-funded and public school playgrounds and fields that I once enjoyed daily usage when I was a child. 

I’m sick and tired of public libraries and parks having to have budgets, staff and hours trimmed while other “Sacred Cows” such as Police and Fire declare themselves off limits to any cuts...while hinting they might not protect us, and guilting/bullying us into submission by suggesting we don’t appreciate their services, if we don’t give them more money.

I’m sick and tired of a LAUSD bureaucracy and the endless whining of the bullies and thugs at the teachers unions tell the taxpayers they have to pay MORE while we get less for our hard-earned dollars.  Ditto for the LADWP.

What kind of socialist, statist hell have we gotten ourselves into?

But enough about whining—we need to have ideas, and the discussion needs to have occurred years ago, but to start NOW is better late than never:

1) While a few departments and positions can be streamlined, combined or eliminated, layoffs can be avoided--however, the public sector union leadership needs to have its collective shirt grabbed by the lapel and "get it" that a 5% pay reduction can keep all necessary City, LAUSD and LADWP workers on board and make Los Angeles a great place to live.

2) It's my contention that parks, libraries and neighborhood councils do better with their limited budgets than most of City Hall and other departments do with theirs—cuts have to be across the board, but nailing a few departments because they’re easy targets won’t get the job done

3) Library and parks hours and services need to be extended.  With a shortage of open space and educational opportunities, the time is truly ripe for the LAUSD to do a much better job of partnering with the City and County of Los Angeles to fund and provide educational and recreational services.

4) There are too many turf wars between the LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles, and now more than ever we need to have schools and parks and libraries work together to support each other, and not rival each other with duplicated services and facilities.

5) Most importantly, the need to open more evening and weekend hours for schools, with their publicly-funded green spaces and playgrounds, is paramount to restoring the quality of life, trust and connection of taxpayers to the schools they’ve shelled out billions for over the past decade

Whether it’s with a fee and a legal waiver to allow kids and their parents to enjoy these facilities, and to pay for supervisors and security guards to make sure that all legal and security issues are addressed, it’s time to open up the wonderful facilities to the taxpayers who paid for them. 

I’ve heard the arguments against this idea, and I’ve also heard the arguments against better coordination and joint funding between City and LAUSD park and library services, and I reject them all—as do, probably, most taxpaying parents who have to put up with this inefficient, taxpayer-hostile way of doing things.

LAUSD Superintendent Ray Cortines is, in my opinion, one of the good guys—and I think that his relationship with Mayor Villaraigosa is one that bodes well for better coordination between the City and the LAUSD.  I also think that Mayor Villaraigosa’s idea of a joint LAUSD/City of Los Angeles relationship to improve the education and quality of life for children and their families was, is and will always be an idea that merits a great deal of attention and discussion.

More than ever, we need leaders who are brave and are willing to break the boxes around which we’ve walled ourselves and different layers of government into.  We need the decency to tear down the barriers between LAUSD facilities in a park-poor City of Los Angeles, and we need the wisdom to tear down the blockades between rival City and LAUSD departments who provide the same services, and we need the courage to tear down the stifling obstruction between the public sector unions and the taxpayers who provide their salaries.

Mr. Cortines, please tear down this wall!

(Ken Alpern is a Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) and is both co-chair of the MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee and past co-chair of the MVCC Planning/Land Use Management Committee.  He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and also chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition.

Using one-time-money to to pay for ongoing programs: SACRAMENTO SCHOOL DISTRICTS USED STIMULUS FUNDS TO PAY TEACHERS

 

By Diana Lambert | The Sacramento Bee

 

Monday, Feb. 22, 2010 - 6:56 am | Kwame Dwumfuoh started classes at Elk Grove Unified School District's new Eagle Academy in August in silence. The 7-year-old didn't talk or socialize with his classmates, and he didn't eat most foods.

Now Kwame speaks and plays with his friends, and he has a newfound affinity for tortilla chips, cereal and the occasional chicken burger.

He is flourishing in a school for students with autism spectrum disorders that Elk Grove Unified started with $1.8 million in federal stimulus dollars. The money also paid for programs for emotionally disturbed students at three other campuses.

Nearly $300 million has poured into five Sacramento-area districts since President Barack Obama authorized $100 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the nation's schools last year.

Federal officials knew that districts strapped for funds because of declining state aid would use some of the stimulus money to plug budget gaps. But they'd hoped the money also would be used to start new programs – like Eagle Academy – that are innovative and reform education.

While Eagle Academy stands out as a new program that is drawing kids previously sent to schools outside the district back into Elk Grove Unified, it is a rarity among local districts.

• 

  Autumn Cruz / acruz@sacbee.com

  AUTUMN CRUZ acruz@sacbee.com Kwame Dwumfuoh, 7, gives his Eagle Academy instructor Frankie Morales a big smile and hug during a lesson at Sierra Enterprise Elementary School. Elk Grove Unified School District used federal stimulus funds to start the Eagle Academy program last year to help students with autism disorders – and save school staff jobs.

 

A Bee analysis finds that most local districts used their federal stimulus money to pay for keeping teachers and basic programs.

Now, as the federal bailout is ending, school districts are warning teachers unions to prepare to make concessions to avoid massive layoffs.

"I think it (stimulus funds) was useful in saving jobs while it lasted," said David Gordon, Sacramento County superintendent of schools. "The money is now going away, so it's going to be very difficult to make that up because of all the additional cuts from the state.

"This is really, really bad," Gordon said. "It's as bad as I've ever seen it in 36 or 37 years."

Even with the federal money, school boards in the past two years have had to shutter schools, cut programs, lay off teachers, increase class size and eliminate summer school and sports programs to make up for reduced state aid.

The budgets of California schools were cut by $18 billion in that period, state schools chief Jack O'Connell said in his recent State of Education Address. He expects the governor's budget proposal to cut K-12 education by another $2.4 billion.

Understandably, the federal stimulus money was a godsend to the districts. Elk Grove Unified – the area's largest district – used $26 million of its $39.5 million in stimulus funds to save the jobs of teachers, counselors, library technicians, vice principals and administrative assistants.

Officials from Sacramento City Unified spent about half of the district's $43.3 million share to save jobs. The district spent another $1.5 million to keep Mark Hopkins Elementary open for another year and nearly the entire balance to offset other budget reductions.

Twin Rivers Unified School District reported saving 109 teaching jobs with some of its $19 million in stimulus funds. San Juan Unified School District spent at least $19 million of its $34.5 million to retain positions.

School districts still have some relief coming. There is another round of stimulus funding for programs for disabled students (IDEA) and low-income schools (Title I), as well as a small amount of available state stabilization funds, said Carol Bingham, director of fiscal policy for the California Department of Education.

"Schools have been hit with pretty big budget cuts, but the Title I money and IDEA money are dedicated for particular purposes, so it's difficult for them to use it for specific budget cuts," Bingham said.

She said $351 million in school improvement grants and $72 million in education technology money still are to be distributed to state schools.

Also up for grabs are $4.35 billion in Race to the Top competitive grants being offered to the nation's schools.

Gordon said few of the county's school districts were able to save the stimulus funds. "They said, 'Spend it, spend it. Spend it,' " Gordon said. "But some managed to hold onto it."

Elk Grove Unified plans to use $5 million in stimulus funds it kept to help save more jobs next year.

Besides helping students like Kwame Dwumfuoh, Elk Grove's new programs for students with special needs have added benefits for the school district.

Before the new programs began this year, 332 of the district's students with autism, mental retardation or emotional problems had to be sent to non-public schools as far away as El Dorado County, said district officials. The new programs have brought 72 of those students back into the district.

District officials expect to save $1 million annually by opening the Eagle Academy and the programs for emotionally disturbed students. The district will use the money to maintain the special education programs and to start others, with a goal of eventually bringing 200 special education students back into the district.

The more students the district is able to bring back, the more money will be saved, said Bill Tollestrup, director of special education.

"It's an investment into something that brings money into the district," said Brooke Warren, program specialist. "It's a win-win."

LAUSD BOARD TO DECIDE ON OUTSIDE GROUPS TO RUN SCHOOLS

 Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC

Monday Feb. 22nd |6:00 a.m. | The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education plans a vote at its regular meeting tomorrow that some observers say will do more to reform the school district than other recent efforts.

At its core, the plan is to let groups that don’t answer to the district run public schools. The school district superintendent has sent the board a list of three dozen groups he’s recommending to handle curricula and budgeting for 12 low-performing and 24 new campuses.

The superintendent said he picked those groups based on proposals that have worked elsewhere, included collaboration with outside agencies, and emphasized strong research and data-based models.

Charter school operators, the L.A. Mayor’s education nonprofit, and other outside groups got the nod to run more than half a dozen schools. Now it’s up to the school board to give the final approval.

United Teachers Los Angeles calls the policy a giveaway of public schools. The union has helped teachers submit reform plans at the same time that it filed a lawsuit to stop the process.

HAMILTON HIGH STUDENTS RALLY AROUND A BELOVED OFFICE WORKER: They saved her job for a while. Now they are trying again.

By Amina Khan | LA Times

February 21, 2010 | Miss G has been officially booted from Hamilton High.

The beloved office worker, who inspired a 500-strong protest in the fall when she was first laid off, had been reinstated as a substitute. But last month Christina Gutierrez was quietly removed from her position at Hamilton High School's humanities magnet.

The news came as a blow to senior Jimmy Biblarz, who with friends Noemi "Mimi" Rodriguez, Maya Festinger and David Kamins had organized a school-wide sit-in, made a plea in front of the Los Angeles Unified school board and attracted the personal attention of Supt. Ramon C. Cortines.

The foursome presented a proposal to the board in November suggesting that Miss G swap jobs with another worker at Hamilton. Impressed by the students, district officials instead bent the rules and allowed Gutierrez to return on a temporary basis. Students and staff celebrated with balloons and a cake.

There were no promises, however, that she could stay past the round of cuts expected in early 2010, officials warned.

And when she got the letter saying her last day at Hamilton would be Jan. 29, Gutierrez kept it quiet.

"I said if it's meant to be, it's meant to be," Gutierrez said. "But I miss Hamilton, I really do. Those are all my kids. That's my home."

The students say the constant reshuffling of staff has clearly affected the school.

"You come in and see a new face every day; you just have no idea who to talk to," Jimmy said.

Magnet coordinator Francis Rose called the situation absurd. "It's like living in a Kafkaesque world," he said.

District officials said the situation was dictated by the financial crisis and union rules, and thus was out of their control.

"There needs to be some new thinking about who we move and how we move them," said Douglas Waybright, director of secondary schools for local District 3. "I bet you a dollar to a doughnut a lot of people would love to have her. Because if she has that kind of impact on students, who wouldn't want to have her?"

Gutierrez is now working on a temporary project at district headquarters downtown, managing a team sorting through attendance discrepancies for elementary schools.

"I'm not giving up; I'm sticking with LAUSD," Gutierrez said. "Even if I'm at the main headquarters, I'm still helping the kids in a weird way."

Her last day at Hamilton was a quiet affair.

"I bought her another cake and instead of saying goodbye I put au revoir, 'until we meet again,' " Rose said.

The students are not giving up. They've drafted a letter and hope to devise a solution, as they did in the fall.

"She doesn't belong in a stuffy office with no student interaction," Jimmy said. "We want her back at Hamilton, and if the solution doesn't involve a permanent position, that would work -- for now."

INVITING TROUBLE: City Hall, LAUSD officials can seem blind to potential conflicts of interest

LA Daily News Editorial

20 Feb 2010 -- AMAZINGLY, despite the enormity of the task of managing the Los Angeles Unified School District, Superintendent Ramon Cortines still found time to do some moonlighting for Scholastic, Inc., one of the nation's top publishers of school textbooks.

Cortines stepped down from the position Thursday after he came under fire, but only after he defended his position. It wasn't a big commitment, he said, serving on the corporation's board for the past 15 years. He put in a few hours here and there at the end of the day, or on weekends, and attended a handful of meetings in New York each year - for which he drew a handsome salary of $150,000.

Nice work if you can get it.

Now, there's no denying that Cortines is an experienced educator, one who knows a lot about instruction, and who would have much valuable input to give a publisher of school texts. But it's obviously inappropriate for the chief of the second-largest school district in the nation, which just so happens to have done $16 million worth of business with Scholastic over the last five years, to continue to sit on the board of a vendor and receive a six-figure salary.

Cortines did the right thing by stepping down. Too bad it was for the wrong reasons. A superintendent who is both savvy and ethical would have recognized long before getting outed in the media that such an arrangement had potential danger in his current position, and have nothing to do with it. But not Cortines. Nor, for that matter, the school board, which failed to investigate Cortines' outside employment before promoting him to the district's top job, and then shrugged off his relationship with Scholastic.

Sadly, LAUSD top brass are not alone in lacking savvy or ethics.

Over in City Hall, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has been shamed into scuttling a deal in which she would have played arbitrator between Gambol Industries and the city-owned Port of Los Angeles over a proposed, $50 million shipyard on Terminal Island.

The problem? Gambol has poured $12,000 into Hahn's officeholder account and her campaign for lieutenant governor.

Unbelievably, Hahn did not seem to realize that this was a cause for concern. Even now, after pulling out of the plan, she maintains it was essentially harmless.

To be clear, no one is suggesting that either Cortines or Hahn has engaged in corruption. But the point of avoiding conflicts of interest is to steer clear of even the appearance of corruption. In healthy political and business climates, such arrangements are forbidden, lest anyone's good name be sullied by the mere hint of shady dealing.

But in the LAUSD and in City Hall, such conduct apparently raises few objections. And that's a big part of why neither institution can earn the public's trust.

Duffy: LAUSD MUST RESPECT VOTE OF THE PUBLIC

By A.J. Duffy - Op-ed in the la dAILY nEwS  ::  A.J. Duffy is president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

2/19/2010 -- THIS week has been filled with news about our schools and our school administrators, from a proposed parcel tax to a shortened school year.

But one vital topic has been missed: The vote by thousands of parents, students, teachers and community members across the city to determine whether 30 Los Angeles public schools will be turned over to outside companies to be run as charters, or instead embrace the personalized reform plans created by existing teachers, parents and stakeholders.

Some media outlets covered the vote, but did not cover the results and have taken great pains to characterize the results as "meaningless." Because this was an advisory vote, the results are not binding on either Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines or the L.A. Unified Board of Education, despite the fact that, overall, 87 percent of parents voted for reform plans created by teachers. Charter plans did not win parent, teacher or student votes at a single one of the campuses in question.

On Tuesday, Cortines will present his own recommendations on the fate of these schools, and the board will vote on the final outcome.

However, this vote is meaningful only if Cortines and the board choose to respect the opinions of the parents and students they claim to serve. With money and powerful forces on the side of the charter plans, that may not occur.

Over the next few days, Los Angeles teachers and this union are going to fight hard to make sure this mandate from parents and students is not ignored. We believe Cortines and the board have an obligation to listen to the will of the families who will be affected by reforms.

The collectives of teachers, parents and administrators who have developed these customized reform plans have put in hundreds of hours and personal resources to create visions of the future that serve and include all children. This process has allowed them to break out of the district's business-as-usual bureaucracy and create innovative, bottom-up, collaborative plans that work, based on years of their professional expertise as educators.

And unlike charter schools which have a history of cherry-picking high-performing students while shunning special needs and struggling kids, the plans put forth by teachers uphold the promise of public education - that every child will be welcomed and educated.

Clearly parents and students understand the value of that promise, as this vote shows. They also trust that the teachers at their local schools have the knowledge, passion and drive to help create successful schools.

One thing I know for certain is the dedicated teachers who have helped to craft these plans over the past months represent the best and brightest of our profession. They are engaged in a labor of love working with the families they serve to build schools that reflect the complex needs of Los Angeles' kids. The insight they bring from working every day in classrooms cannot be replaced by theories and unproven models put forth by corporate interlopers.

When making the final decision on who will run these schools, Cortines and the school board must listen to the parents and respect their choice, regardless of political pressure from outside operators. If they don't, then this democratic vote will indeed be meaningless, and the parents, students and teachers of Los Angeles will learn a disheartening lesson about power and politics.

 

MORE FROM UTLA:

TAKE ACTION! Tuesday, February 23rd

School Choice "Decision Day" at the School Board

On Tuesday, the School Board will make the final decision on whether to give away our schools to outsiders or to respect the voice of parents, staff, and students. We need to hold the School Board accountable by taking part in the following actions throughout the day.

ACTION 1: Pre-dawn Candlelight Vigil
ACTION 2: Pack the Board
ACTION 3: Rally After School
(Read more for details of these "Decision Day" Actions)

LAUSD PSC: IS ANY OF THIS NONSENSE ABOUT THE CHILDREN?

from California’s Children

2/19/2010 --4LAKids has the original memo and the supporting new stories on the decisions made by LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines regarding Public School Choice: who will be allowed to run public schools in the district. The voting held in late January and early February by the community, which was announced in advance to be "advisory" only, tilted heavily in favor of the school district maintaining control over a majority of the schools, and that is exactly what Cortines will recommend to his board: of the 36 new and underperforming schools in the district, outside groups will be allowed to operate 10.

Unsurprisingly, no one is happy: Ben Austin of the pro-charter school group, Parent Revolution, said "This certainly isn't revolutionary change." A.J. Duffy of the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, huffed a "wait and see" -- the teachers were not in favor of losing even 28%. None of the applicants who were turned down to operate schools are pleased; parents are divided. Yolie Flores, a member of the LAUSD school board who was the author of the Public School Choice proposal, put on a cheerful face and said that at least the subject was on the table and people were talking about it.

The "advisory vote," the reform proposal, the final recommendations ... to an outsider, it all has a curiously Kremlin tone ... we're going to change, tell us how to change, thank you for telling us, and goodbye. Next year, we'll look up on the parapets and see whose face has been deleted.

THE CALPADS SHUTDOWN: This just in - CALPADS accepting data + Consultant calls for shutdown of state education database

from The Educated Guess| Posted in CALPADS

School districts can continue to upload data to CALPADS, the beleaguered student longitudinal data system.

That’s the word from the Department of Education, which says CALPADS will continue to accept information during the next two months, when the system is being overhauled and fixed.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell took the unusual step earlier this month of calling in a technical team to find defects in the system that have caused outages, errors and slowness in the system since CALPADS started up in October. As I reported on Friday, a consultant warned of system failure unless comprehensive fixes were made.

Districts have been uploading enrollment and dropout information, known as Fall 1 data. Recognizing that districts have faced headaches with CALPADS, O’Connell has extended the submission deadline indefinitely at this point. And he has said districts should not upload other types of information required under the Fall 2 and  Spring 1 submissions via CALPADS this year.

By John Fensterwald on February 20th, 2010

Consultant: shut down CALPADS now

Posted in CALPADS

CALPADS, the new comprehensive student data system on which huge hopes for school and student improvement are riding, is hobbled by serious problems.

Acting on a consultant’s report bluntly critical of state managers and of IBM, the system vendor, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has shut CALPADS down for two months and ordered all efforts focused on fixing it. The hiatus will put data collection from the state’s 1,000 districts months, if not a year, behind schedule. (See correction: CALPADS is continuing to accept some data — dropouts, enrollments — while system is being overhauled.)

O’Connell had little choice but to act quickly. After studying the system for a month, Sabot Technologies of Folsom predicted a  “high probability of system failure should the project continue on the current path”  as a result of  “anomalies, errors and defects throughout” the system.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 18th, 2010

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS REPORT ON THE PSC ELECTIONS

from the Los Angeles LWV Yahoogroup

As most of you know, the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles (with the
added volunteer support of the Santa Monica, Torrance, Whittier, and Beach
Area Leagues) administered an election involving 275,000 eligible voters in
the Los Angeles Unified School District. The advisory vote election was
part of an education reform initiative called Public School Choice (PSC).
Thirty-six schools were selected as PSC schools. Voting took place at 30
locations throughout the Los Angeles region.

Last Monday, the Los Angeles League's report to the superintendent was made
public. To review the report - and related site-by-site analysis - copy and
paste the following URL into your browser.
http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/url/ITEM/7DFF81D21F7C2018E0430A0002102018

Over 400 volunteers were required for this one-of-kind effort. Over 44,000
ballots were counted in one afternoon. Special recognition is due to Nancy
Arnheim, Ruth Logan, Erin Holmquist, Silvia Cruz, Loretta Adikhai, Robyn
Ybarra and the office's interns Gabriel Gallegos and Jacquelyn Juetlen who
represented the backbone of this massive operation.

The League of Women Voters clearly made a difference in the success of this
election. For some, it was the first time they had participated in an
election. The board of education will be meeting on Tuesday to review the
report along with the superintendent's recommendations on which applicant(s)
should be considered as the new administrators of each of participating
school.

Thank you to all who helped with this election.