INVOLVED PARENTS, MORE THAN MONEY, WILL MAKE SCHOOLS BETTER

Op-Ed by John R. Smith in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

June 9, 2010 -- The K-12 education system across our country has failed to prepare many students for what they will face in a competitive work world.

But many parents have a track record that is far worse, though few will admit it. The parents' finger of blame rarely is pointed inward. Teachers tell me all the time that parents want to blame everyone but themselves: They accuse the teacher who "doesn't understand" little Johnny, the school board, the superintendent, the Legislature. "I know what's best," says the parent.

But here's the truth: Parents might know what's best for their children in some ways, but when it comes to preparing them to deal with life, many parents are abject failures. And in our region, we are plagued more with inept parents than inept teachers or administrators. Parents are usually well-intentioned. But good intentions alone often don't lead to successful outcomes.

What is it about human nature that makes us forget the lessons of history? I've lived in Palm Beach County through four school superintendents. Historically, our school boards have an erratic record of selecting superintendents. County history shows that when a good superintendent is found, you'd better stick with him/her even if they make occasional mistakes. You don't know what you'll get if you change. The Palm Beach County School Board got it right when they picked Art Johnson.

The teachers' union and some parents who deplore testing are playing with fire in their attempts to oust Johnson. Avoiding emotions, let's step back and consider the facts about what's right and wrong with our local school system.

The first thing that's wrong is those people who think more tax money is going to fix things. , Throwing more money at education is almost never the correct answer. The second thing that's wrong is the finger of blame. Parents are often not very conscientious about what they wish for in matters of education. In this county, a group of defiant parents and some teachers are working themselves into an Internet froth they'd better think twice about.

Here's what's right: The Palm Beach County school district is Florida's only urban district to be A-rated for five consecutive years, and it has a AA credit rating. It has the highest standards in math, reading, writing and science of the seven urban school districts in Florida. It has submitted a balanced budget that "does not affect the classroom," even with an $80 million hole due to the economy. We have good teachers in our system, with only a small fraction who are ineffective. In the last three years, including the recession, $90 million in new money has gone to teachers' salaries.

The job of parents is to motivate their children to learn when they are very young; to send them to school well-fed and rested; to teach children to take responsibility for their "F" score and not blame the teacher who gives them the F; to thank teachers when they discipline their children as opposed to threatening lawsuits; and not to expect teachers to perform miracles with children whose parents have failed them.

When parents as a group live up to their responsibilities and stop trying to make scapegoats of teachers and administrators, then they and the union will have the moral right to squawk about the superintendent. Until then, let Art Johnson do his job, because he's good at it.

• John R. Smith is chairman of Palm Beach County's BizPac and owner of a financial services company. Respond to this column at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

●●smf: I'm not going to argue too vociferously with Mr. Smith – other than to point out that the expectation of miracles is part of the job description of parents. 

I agree with the headline more than the content of Smiths Op-Ed …but parental involvement and the money are not mutually exclusive:  Involved and informed parents, more than  in addition to money, will make schools better still!

Steinberg v. Pérez: LEGISLATIVE LEADERS AT ODDS OVER BUDGET -- Senate president's bipartisan work on earlier budgets has cost him popularity in the Capitol. Labor leaders back freshman Assembly speaker's plan despite its heavy borrowing and questionable legality.

By Evan Halper and Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times | Reporting from Sacramento

June 26, 2010 -- The willingness of Darrell Steinberg, the liberal California state Senate leader, to collaborate across party lines won him a lofty Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston earlier this year.

But back in Sacramento, some of the power brokers who once nurtured Steinberg's career are less enthralled.

Steinberg

Organized-labor leaders, who hold considerable sway over the Legislature, are working to sideline Steinberg (D-Sacramento) in budget negotiations. They complain that his efforts to compromise too often result in capitulation. They question his loyalty. They wonder if his crusade for a lasting solution to the state's accounting mess is just a liability.

They see an alternative in Democrat John A. Pérez, the rookie Assembly speaker from Los Angeles whose spending proposal would generously fund programs these labor leaders value without piling onerous new taxes onto Californians — mostly through massive borrowing of dubious legality. Pérez is approaching the budget as a rigid partisan, vowing to boycott talks with the governor if Democratic demands are not immediately met.

Pérez

Steinberg and Pérez are jockeying for position in negotiations. Steinberg says it is time to make the painful policy moves needed to shed the state's reputation for fiscal incompetence. But he is meeting considerable resistance as Pérez essentially proposes postponing the day of reckoning — perhaps until a Democrat is in the governor's office.

Steinberg — who in his decade in the Legislature has chaired fiscal committees and negotiated through the night on budget packages — says he refuses to fret about the politics.

"People think state government has become a joke. I am trying to make things better," he said.

But Steinberg's experience has become a liability. Few were pleased with the last several budget deals, which included painful reductions in government services to keep the state solvent. The other three legislative leaders honored by the Kennedy Library for their role in brokering the February 2009 bipartisan accord that saved the state from financial ruin are no longer in their posts. Two were ousted by their own caucuses.

The California Teachers Assn. recently posted billboards in Steinberg's district implying that he sold out teachers — and his constituents — in previous budget deals.

Another union spent heavily in a bid to defeat a Senate candidate whom Steinberg backed — a move widely interpreted in the Capitol as an attempt to weaken the Senate leader.

Labor leaders expressed further disappointment in Steinberg in a meeting earlier this month when he told them he would not rule out a budget agreement that rolled back some retirement benefits their members receive.

Steinberg says he is becoming accustomed to the attacks. "I used to see a billboard or newspaper story and be upset for a week," he said. "Now it is 15 minutes, maybe a half-hour."

The most frustrating thing about the criticism, he says, is that he still considers himself a true progressive and argues that his voting record reflects as much.

"I have not changed my values, what I came here for," he said. "But in this position you have to govern."

Meanwhile, a campaign has been launched to boost Pérez's budget plan.

The California Faculty Assn. is running radio ads to champion it. The California Labor Federation has encouraged members to pressure legislators to support it. County supervisors across the state are being lobbied to pass resolutions endorsing the plan.

One such resolution being considered in San Francisco says the Pérez plan would protect 465,000 jobs, prevent slashing the social safety net, jump-start the green tech industry and stop cuts to schools. It does not mention borrowing.

"Someone has got to start thinking outside the box in how best to address this problem," said David Sanchez, president of the teachers union. "We are encouraging our members to call senators and tell them to support the Assembly plan."

Pérez and Steinberg say only nice things about each other, even as Capitol corridors are abuzz with gossip of a rivalry. Comments the two made at a recent roast in Steinberg's honor fueled such talk.

Steinberg joked that Pérez had put a lot more thought into his speech ribbing Steinberg than he had put into his budget plan. Pérez expressed mock alarm that Steinberg was sitting near the governor's chief of staff, suggesting that any time the two are in the same room the Senate leader agrees to dismantle another government program.

Pérez, who calls his plan the Assembly "jobs budget," says it is rooted not in political gamesmanship but in sound fiscal policy. He says continuing to shred the social safety net and underfund schools will do substantially more harm to the economy than would pushing the deficit forward.

"Over the last couple of years we have done a lot of buckling down, some of which was absolutely necessary and some of which was situational and shortsighted," he said. "I am not at all apologetic about the fact that my approach is predicated on the notion that it is important for us to stabilize and protect and grow employment in the state of California."

Some measure of borrowing is typical when there is a deficit, but not to the extent Pérez wants. The last time California borrowed so heavily for the budget was in 2004, and voters amended the Constitution at the time to prohibit it from happening again.

With the clock ticking — the new budget year begins July 1 — the viability of the Pérez plan is in doubt. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown's office sent a letter last week to the governor's legal staff saying the plan appears to run afoul of the borrowing ban. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said the attorney general's finding alone would probably prohibit him from selling the bond at the center of the plan. And a state audit exposed numerous problems with the pot of state money the Assembly plan proposes to borrow against, further undermining the plan.

Pérez says adjustments are being made. But other Democrats question how much flexibility he has left himself — and has left them — to overhaul the proposal now that so many special interests have become so invested his approach.

The unions "have been organizing a campaign around it and [Pérez] has been organizing a campaign," said Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee Chairwoman Denise Ducheny (D- San Diego). "People have to be cautious about something that just may, on a practical level, not be doable."

PARENTS AND ORGANIZED LABOR WORK TOGETHER FOR EDUCATION + A-G (re)considered

Themes in the News for the Week of June 21-25, 2010 By UCLA IDEA Staff

06-25-2010 -- The Los Angeles Unified School District passed a 2010-2011 budget that will lead to layoffs of at least 2,700 office workers, teachers, custodians, and many elementary school plant managers (Los Angeles Daily News|http://bit.ly/dsrsLl).   Unions representing these workers, joined forces with students, parents, and teachers to protest the cuts.  For now, their efforts did not succeed, but all the protesting parties saw promise in this growing coalition. The protesters spoke of how economic threats to families, layoffs of school employees, school program cuts, poor working conditions at insecure and low-paying jobs, and job losses in the community all combine to impact children’s education. 

One rally saw the California School Employees Association (CSEA) the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and the Teamsters join to oppose layoffs and salary cuts.  Another rally brought together students and parents from the Labor and Education Collaborative which includes East Los Angeles’ InnerCity Struggle, South Los Angeles’ Community Coalition, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877, SEIU Security Officers United in Los Angeles, as well as many other labor unions.

The Labor and Education Collaborative staged a protest to demand that the LAUSD board fully implement a 2005 board resolution mandating that district high schools offer more college prep, or “A-G” classes (A-G Resolution|http://bit.ly/aZJnfD).    Many union members have children in LAUSD and think that implementation of the A-G Resolution is essential for their children’s success.  Laura Medina, of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877, said, “It is important for the union to be involved to have better schools for children in our communities.” 

As of the 2008-2009 school year, more than half of LAUSD’s non-charter high schools still did not have enough of these courses (Labor and Education Collaborative|http://bit.ly/cTiMVj).  Dr. Veronica Terriquez, a University of Southern California professor who spoke at the LAUSD board meeting, said that increasing the number of A-G courses will help the children of union members realize their dreams.  Los Angeles union members overwhelmingly expect their children to graduate from college; but often they live in communities where local high schools do not offer enough A-G courses (Labor and Education Collaborative).  High school student Jason Pinzon, a member of InnerCity Struggle, said that A-G coursework “opens the door” to students.  Parent and InnerCity Struggle member Blanca Dueñas said (translated from Spanish), “We are here at LAUSD to demand these A-G courses so that our children have those classes to get to the university.”

The board took no action on the A-G Resolution at the meeting, but parents and students intend to press for  full implementation.   High school student Taylor Griffin, a  Community Coalition member, said, “Five years ago some of my friends were active in passing A-G and I wanted to follow in their footsteps to make sure it is implemented.”

smf re: A-G: There are a couple of factors about The 2005 A-G Resolution that have never been sufficiently – or realistically – addressed by the district.  And I am a member of the A-G Advisory Committee.

• The Resolution calls for successful completion of the A-G coursework – essentially the admission requirements for UC and CSU – as high school graduation requirements in LAUSD.
• The initial challenge was to make these courses available to all students in all LAUSD high schools. This was difficult …but great progress has been made.
• The secondary challenge was to educate students and parents and counselors about these new requirements – and to get students prepared in elementary and middle school for this courseload. There is still work to be done.
• The elephant ignored in the room is this …and the elephant continues to be ignored, big-time!
• THE UC AND CSU ADMISSIONS OFFICES DO NOT CONSIDER A “D”  A PASSING GRADE – they do not recognize  credits for any academic class that a student gets a “D” in.  To them a “D” is the same as a Fail. 
• LAUSD DOES CONSIDER A “D” a PASSING GRADE; LAUSD would theoretically award a high school diploma to a student who scored straight “D”s. Students and parents are not told this.

The grade of “D” becomes a standards-lowering form of social promotion; embracing inadequacy to reach 100% graduation.The promise of college and university access becomes access denied.

John Deasy and Robert Felner: The NEWS ARCHIVES

by smf for 4LAKids

25 June: Much is being made in the blogosphere about the client/vendor – student/mentor relationship between new LAUSD deputy superintendent John Deasy and convicted felon Robert Felner – who defrauded two universities on the east coast.  Suspicion is not indictment or conviction, Dr. Deasy has not been officially accused of anything. Much of this rings of McCarthyesque guilt by association – and the old metaphorical cloud o' suspicion.

One wonders if the executive searchers and the board of ed even knew of the cloud.  What did they know and when did they know it?

I would be much more interested in exposure of Dr. Deasy's educational philosophy – he is a doctor of philosophy - and a public discussion of some of his thinking around subjects like parent and community engagement and whether post-graduate degrees should entitle educators to greater compensation.

 

here is a catalog of news stories tying Deasy and Felner, from the google news archive

Article: Pr. George's Schools Chief's PhD Under Scrutiny - The …

Pay-Per-View - Washington Post - HighBeam Research - Sep 11, 2008
... coverage of a federal investigation centered on Robert Felner the former ... 30 2008 700+ words passion and energy that Dr John Deasy brought to making ...

Related web pages

Felner OK'd ex-client's quick Ph.D. at U of L

Louisville Courier-Journal - Sep 10, 2008
But with Felner as chairman of his dissertation committee, John Deasy, then superintendent of California's Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, ...

PG County Schools Chief Deasy Received Doctorate... - Southern Maryland Online
U of L opens inquiry into speedy Ph.D. - Louisville Courier...
All 6 related - Related web pages

U of L provides investigation updates

Bizjournals.com - Nov 26, 2008
The university also continues to investigate the university's awarding of a Ph.D . to John Deasy, deputy director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ...

U of L updates actions on reforms - Louisville Courier...
All 3 related - Related web pages

School chief linked to Felner will leave for new job

Louisville Courier-Journal - Oct 1, 2008
John Deasy, who got a doctorate from the University of Louisville after being ... the newspaper noted that former U of L education dean Robert Felner, ...

All 10 related - Related web pages

Deasy earned his doctorate, says lawyer for former dean

Business Gazette - Sep 18, 2008
Questions were also raised about Deasy's prior relationship with Robert Felner the dean of the school of education who signed off on Deasy's dissertation ...

Related web pages

Court Filings in Kentucky Give a Vivid Glimpse of a Dean's Interrogati...

chronicle.com - Apr 24, 2009
... Louisville's police department spent more than six hours grilling Robert Felner dean of the university's College of Education and Human Development Four ...

Related web pages

U. of Louisville Says a Controversial Ph.D. Will Stand

chronicle.com - Apr 21, 2009
... center that was run by Robert Felner who was then dean of Louisville's College of Education and Human Development Mr Felner who stepped down last summer ...

Related web pages

U of L suspends education dean search

Louisville Courier-Journal - May 19, 2010
... a permanent leader since former education dean Robert Felner resigned in ... and officials later determined John Deasy who now works for the Bill and ...

Related web pages

School Supervisor Under Investigation Advised Democrats

WLKY Louisville - Sep 12, 2008
AU of L committee is currently investigating whether Dr. John Deasy fraudulently ... Those reports have also tied him to former U of L dean Robert Felner, ...

All 2 related - Related web pages

Deasy accepts position with Gates Foundation

Santa Monica Daily Press - Oct 3, 2008
DOWNTOWN Former Santa Monica-Malibu Superintendent John Deasy on Tuesday was ... The school's dean at the time was Robert Felner, who resigned in June and ...

All 2 related - Related web pages

 

Louisville Says Doctorate Earned in Semester Is Legit

Inside Higher Ed - Apr 22, 2009
... CourierJournal reported The doctorate was awarded to John Deasy in 2004 and ... The former dean Robert Felner was for years popular with administrators ...

Related web pages

Happy New Fiscal Year: TEACHERS IN LA & SF WILL SEE MORE CUTBACKS AND PINK SLIPS IN 2010-2011 + NEW LAUSD DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT COMES WITH MURKY PAST

Teachers in LA and SF will see more cutbacks and pink slips in 2010-2011

Corey G. Johnson | California Watch Blog | http://bit.ly/bp6Xwl

 

Flickr photo by Jason Evans

June 25, 2010 |Amid protest signs and tearful pleas, school boards in San Francisco and Los Angeles approved budgets this week that will result in more furlough days and pink slips.

With operating costs going up, $1,171 less funding per student than in 2008 and an overall shortfall of $113 million, San Francisco Unified's board approved a budget that will reduce summer school, art programs and employees, while forcing all district administrators to take five unpaid days off during the 2010-11 school year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Upwards of 900 teachers could be laid off next year to boot.

Meanwhile, down south, a deficit of some $640 million made the LA Board of Education resolute in approving spending cuts, despite the passionate pleas of teachers and others who decided to protest at the meeting.

While school workers waved hulking placards with "Save Our Schools" painted across the sides, the board voted 6-1 to approve the budget filled with crippling spending reductions.

So starting July 1, between 2,700 to 4,000 LA Unified School District employees could begin to be laid off, according to the LA Daily News. The recent news comes days after the district announced that this year had fewer teacher job losses than originally expected. As one union leader told the Daily News on Tuesday, many LA teachers foresee hard times in the near future:

Susan Gosman, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the California School Employee Association, said her union is expected to lose some 1,500 members while another 1,000 have been placed on a 10-month work calendar, reducing their salaries by about 15 percent.

'We are the infrastructure of this district. We keep student records, track students, administer special education services,' Gosman said.

'Without us, schools will fall apart.'

The goings-on in LA and San Francisco ensure that the state's budget woes will continue to reverberate in Sacramento and in court. At least one columnist has stumbled across a solution to stem the bleeding. In calling for an end to corporate welfare, Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times wrote:

None of this means that business incentives are necessarily bad or that some may not indeed promote job growth. But the budget disaster requires every program to be measured against competing priorities, and corporate welfare hasn't gotten enough scrutiny.

What could we do with all that money? The $100 million spent on Hollywood could maintain any of several Medi-Cal benefits the governor proposes to cut. The $500 million spent on enterprise zones could save half of CalWORKS, and $1 billion from a severance tax could save all of it, benefiting a billion children. Eliminate some of these questionable programs, and more could be spent on the schools and the universities.

We're constantly being told that in these straitened times, we need to make hard choices. So where should our money go – to Warner Bros., to the membership of the Chamber of Commerce, or to the schools, the poor and the sick?

 

New LA deputy superintendent comes with murky past

Corey G. Johnson | California Watch Blog | http://bit.ly/9KxtsM

Flickr photo by Alan Turkus

June 24, 2010 | A top official involved in pushing for new teacher evaluation procedures and other reforms at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was appointed Tuesday as second in command at the Los Angeles Unified School District.

After discussing the appointment in closed session, the LA Board of Education approved John E. Deasy to become Superintendent Ramon Cortines' deputy – thereby filling a post vacant since Cortines ascended to the top position in December 2008.

Deasy is deputy director of education at the Gates Foundation, responsible for overseeing $200 million in education grants, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Deasy was superintendent at Prince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland’s second-largest school system and the nation’s 18th largest district with 134,000 students.

His stint in Maryland became tumultous when allegations surfaced that Deasy may have awarded a $125,000 contract to his academic adviser in exchange for favorable consideration toward his doctorate. The adviser, Robert Felner, former dean of the school of education at the University of Louisville, pleaded guilty to 10 federal charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. Deasy's attorney, Scott Cox, insisted his client was innocent and the victim of Felner's bad publicity:

And Dr. Deasy, as far as we can tell, earned legitimately his Ph.D. And there is so much negative publicity associated with Dr. Felner and anything he's connected with, it really is unfortunate that Dr. Deasy got dragged into this. He didn't do anything wrong except get his Ph.D.

Deasy's appointment could put him next in line to assume LAUSD's top spot, if 77-year-old Cortines decides to step down. It also could signal a more intense focus on reforming the district's policies toward teacher pay, tenure and accountability. Deasy is on record for favoring a different approach, according to an observer's account of one of Deasy's presentations:

For example, Deasy said $8.4 billion nationally goes into compensat(ing) teachers with a master's (MA/MS) degree, yet there is no relationship between a MA degree and increased student achievement. … Deasy said we must completely re-conceptualize tenure with a dramatic change in compensation and accountability.

 

more from corey C. johnson:

What I Am Reading

Attorney: Robert Felner to plead guilty to siphoning millions from Louisville, Rhode Island universities | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal

Related

Complete coverage of the Robert Felner fraud case | www.courier-journal.com

LOCKE HIGH: School Is Turned Around, but $15 Million Cost Gives Pause

By SAM DILLON | New York Times

Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times -- A list of honor roll students posted in the halls Locke High School in Los Angeles in May.

June 24, 2010 -- LOS ANGELES — As recently as 2008, Locke High School here was one of the nation’s worst failing schools, and drew national attention for its hallway beatings, bathroom rapes and rooftop parties held by gangs. For every student who graduated, four others dropped out.

Now, two years after a charter school group took over, gang violence is sharply down, fewer students are dropping out, and test scores have inched upward. Newly planted olive trees in Locke’s central plaza have helped transform the school’s concrete quadrangle into a place where students congregate and do homework.

“It’s changed a lot,” said Leslie Maya, a senior. “Before, kids were ditching school, you’d see constant fights, the lunches were nasty, the garden looked disgusting. Now there’s security, the garden looks prettier, the teachers help us more.”

Locke High represents both the opportunities and challenges of the Obama administration’s $3.5 billion effort, financed largely by the economic stimulus bill, to overhaul thousands of the nation’s failing schools.

The school has become a mecca for reformers, partly because the Department of Education Web site hails it as an exemplary turnaround effort.

But progress is coming at considerable cost: an estimated $15 million over the planned four-year turnaround, largely financed by private foundations. That is more than twice the $6 million in federal turnaround money that the Department of Education has set as a cap for any single school. Skeptics say the Locke experience may be too costly to replicate.

“When people hear we spent $15 million, they say, ‘You’re insane,’ ” said Marco Petruzzi, chief executive of Green Dot Public Schools, the nonprofit charter school group that has remade Locke. “But when you look closely, you see it’s not crazy.”

Locke High, with 3,200 students, sprawls across six city blocks in south-central Los Angeles. The school’s principal in 2007 complained publicly that the Los Angeles Unified School District had made it a dumping ground for problem teachers.

Kevin Rauda, a senior, recalled a teacher who read newspapers in class instead of teaching. In spring 2008, only 15 percent of students passed state math tests.

Green Dot, which operates charter schools in Los Angeles and one in the Bronx, won control of Locke from the district in 2008 and began a turnaround effort.

In August 2008, Kevin King, a retired police lieutenant hired by Green Dot, toured Locke’s campus and found broken windows, smashed lights, and security cameras that did not work. Teachers’ cars were parked helter-skelter, including on some handball courts; gang members were selling drugs on others.

“Kids couldn’t even go to the bathroom without being pocket-checked or hassled,” Mr. King said.

He put together a new security force to expel the gangs. Green Dot fixed the lights and cameras, painted over graffiti, reorganized the parking, and hired bus companies to transport 500 students who previously walked dangerous streets to school.

Green Dot divided Locke into small academies. Several, modeled on the charters it operates elsewhere, opened in fall 2008 with freshman classes of 100 to 150 students and are to reach full enrollment of 500 to 600 students by fall 2011.

Other academies concentrate on remedial classes for older students, including some returning from jail. Another focuses on preparing students for careers in architecture.

Green Dot required Locke’s 120 teachers to reapply for their jobs. It rehired about 40, favoring teachers who showed enthusiasm and a belief that all Locke students could learn. The campus stays open each day until early evening for science tutoring, band and other activities.

Although state test scores administered in spring 2009, just months after the Green Dot makeover began, showed modest gains, Locke remained among California’s lowest-performing schools. Still, a dozen students said in recent interviews that the school was safer and instruction had improved.

Hundreds of school districts across the nation will soon be trying makeovers, prodded by the Obama administration’s push to remake the nation’s 1,000 worst schools, and the availability of $3.5 billion in federal money.

But if they rely on federal money alone, they will have to spend less than Green Dot.

Under rules set by Congress, districts can apply for up to $6 million for each failing school, to be spent over three years.

During a Senate hearing in April, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, congratulated Mr. Petruzzi on the Locke transformation, but also suggested its reliance on philanthropic donations would make it difficult to imitate.

“I’m thinking, how scalable is this?” Mr. Franken said.

In interviews, Mr. Petruzzi and other Green Dot officials offered a budget overview. Before and since Green Dot’s takeover, tax dollars have financed Locke’s annual operating budget of upward of $30 million, which during the four-year turnaround will total about $115 million, he said.

By then, expenditures will have exceeded that four-year, taxpayer-supported budget by about $15 million, with philanthropies making up most of the difference.

Over the four years, Green Dot is set to spend about $2 million on increased security and busing. It spent about $700,000 to create a classroom for a new architecture academy.

Green Dot has also spent several million dollars for additional classroom space because hundreds of students who had cut school or dropped out now show up for class, Mr. Petruzzi said.

Dividing Locke into academies resulted in extra personnel costs, Mr. Petruzzi said, because each academy has its own principal and other staff members.

Another cost: the salaries of two psychologists and two social workers who help students endure hardships like losing a sibling to gang warfare, or being evicted. They have helped prevent several suicides this year, said Zeus Cubias, an assistant principal.

Some new services for students have cost Green Dot nothing. Ms. Maya’s grades have improved since a teacher noticed she could not see the blackboard. Her parents are unemployed, and she had no money for glasses. But she had her eyes tested at a mobile eye clinic that visited Locke in October, where Vision Service Plans, a nonprofit provider, donated eyeglasses to her and 200 other students.

Experts are debating whether Locke is a good model for other turnarounds.

Justin Cohen, a turnaround expert at MassInsight, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization, said most districts could expect to spend $2 million to $3 million over three years to overhaul a failing school. Costs often include teacher training and extending the school day, he said.

“I don’t doubt they’re putting all those resources to good use,” Mr. Cohen said of Locke’s $15 million costs. “But that’s high.”

Tim Cawley, a managing director at the Academy for Urban School Leadership, a nonprofit group leading several turnaround efforts in Chicago, disagreed, arguing that even expenditures surpassing $15 million on a big school could be a smart national investment.

“We’re wasting billions every year by not fixing these schools,” Mr. Cawley said, “because the students they’re not educating end up filling our prisons.”

LIBRARIES FADING AS SCHOOL BUDGET CRISIS DEEPENS

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP (AP) – 1 day ago

24 June 2010 -- BELLEVUE, Wash. — Students who wished their school librarians a nice summer on the last day of school may be surprised this fall when they're no longer around to recommend a good book or help with homework.

As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.

<<<Fourth-graders Nick Phan, left, and Marcus Lee, right, visit in the school library at Kennydale, Elementary School, Tuesday, June 22, 2010, in Renton, Wash. The library will be open as usual next year, but at other schools across the country, administrators have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be cut from school budgets. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

No one will know exactly how many jobs are lost until fall, but the American Association of School Administrators projects 19 percent of the nation's school districts will have fewer librarians next year, based on a survey this spring. Ten percent said they cut library staff for the 2009-2010 school year.

A trip to the school library may be a weekly highlight for children who love to read, but for kids from low-income families, it's more of the necessity than a treat, according to literacy experts and the librarians who help kids struggling in high school without a home computer.

Unlike the overflowing bookshelves of wealthier families, 61 percent of low-income families own no age-appropriate books, according to a 2009 study commissioned by Jumpstart on "America's Early Childhood Literacy Gap." They depend on libraries to keep them from falling behind in school.

While the American Association of School Librarians says some states like California, Michigan and Arizona have been hit especially hard, a map of cutbacks on the organization's website shows jobs are disappearing across the nation.

"We're doing a disservice to our kids, especially those in poverty, if we don't have the resources they need," said association president Cassandra Barnett, who is also the school librarian at the Fayetteville, Ark., High School library.

Since few state or federal laws mandate school libraries or librarians, and their job losses are small compared with classroom teacher layoffs, library layoffs may seem minor to some observers. But librarians say few administrators or parents understand how involved they are in classroom learning and school technology.

"We have really cut off our noses to spite our face because we are denying access to the very resources we say our kids need," Barnett said.

Rosemarie Bernier, president of the California School Library Association, says she doesn't know how students doing complex online research projects could complete their assignments without the guidance they get in school libraries.

"The people who control the purse strings are out of touch. They don't understand what the kids really need," said Bernier, who is the librarian at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles.

She spoke of a student with a first period English class who came to her in tears because she didn't have enough time to transfer and reformat the essay she had written on her cell phone. Since she doesn't have a computer at home, the student's cell phone is her only hope of completing assignments that need to be typed.

The number of California school libraries that won't have teacher librarians next year is changing daily, but she says many students will be surprised next fall when they find their school library closed or staffed by someone who can check out books but not help them with their school work.

Los Angeles eliminated all its elementary school librarians a few years ago and has left next year's staffing of middle school libraries up to the schools. Of 77 middle schools, about 50 have found the money to pay for a teacher librarian, according to Esther Sinofsky, who is in charge of libraries for the district.

Sinofsky, a former school librarian, says Los Angeles Unified School District recognizes the connection between student achievement and school libraries, but the district is also struggling to close a $640 million budget gap for the 2010-2011 school year.

Teacher-librarians have been disappearing from Michigan schools gradually over the past decade, with a drop of nearly 1,500 to not quite 500 since 2000, according to Tim Staal, executive director of the Michigan Association for Media in Education.

Those who remain are doing the jobs done by two or three people a few years ago.

Gigi Lincoln, the librarian at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, Mich., since 1973, was told she would have to leave the library and start teaching French because the district needed to make drastic cuts in the middle of the school year.

Lincoln, who was honored in 2008 by the American Library Association with one of just 10 national "I love my librarian" awards, hasn't taught French since 1972, when she and her husband were living in Australia.

"That was a real wake-up call," said Lincoln, 61, who called the ALA for help and managed to keep her job. Now she's working part-time at two school libraries and says she will do her best to do more than just check out books.

Even wealthy Seattle suburbs have identified the library as a target for budget cuts so they could avoid increases in class sizes.

Sandy Livingston retired this year after the Bellevue School District eliminated all its high school and middle school librarians.

"Information literacy is just so important for kids to be more successful in college," said Livingston, 66, who worked in the Sammamish High School library for about a decade. "The kids are being hurt."

 

●●: There is no more important classroom in the school than the library.  None.

I feel a strange illiberal nostalgia for the George W. Bush administration; Laura Bush was a school librarian 

Where are you now Laura Bush? --  a nation turns its lonely eyes to you   -smf

LAUSD CHIEF: MAJOR CUTS COMING IN NEXT FEW YEARS

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines returns to the Patt Morrison program for 'Big Man on Campus | 'photo: Lauren Osen/KPCC

Patt Morrison & Brittany Knotts | KPCC Radio

Download Audio/Podcast

June 25 -5:53 p.m. --  Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines is constantly faced with a slew of tough decisions and duties. Among those duties is balancing a strained budget while still maintaining an adequate workforce.

Like the entire state of California, LAUSD has faced a major budget crisis for years.

Cortines spoke to Patt Morrison today about juggling so many responsibilities at once and even hinted at his own retirement in the near future.

Right now, Cortines says, the district’s goal is to save jobs.

“We're doing everything possible to save jobs, not just cut. UTLA alone gave $150 million to buy back jobs,” said Cortines, who was himself on a furlough day during the interview. “All but two of the bargaining units now have joined in.”

The superintendent also gave the outlook for the 2011-2012 budget, which he said would start off with a $263 million deficit.

When Morrison asked Cortines about jobs that would be cut, he confirmed that nearly 1,000 jobs would be cut in the coming years.

Cortines said some cuts would come from the administration, where he’s already made many cuts.

“And people say, ‘that’s great you can just cut the central office.’ They provide the services for classrooms, for schools. They make sure the payroll gets done. All of the kinds of things that we just take for granted,” Cortines said. “Just a teacher in a classroom cannot do it. We need a lot of support people.”

LAUSD has recently hired a deputy superintendent, which has left many wondering if that should be taken as a signal for the end of Cortines’ time as superintendent.

“I'm not going to be here forever,” Cortines admitted. “I think we need to face the issue of how do you keep stability, how do you develop continuity, how do you keep people in place that you can transition to if the board chooses that person?”

Morrison asked, “Do you have a date circled in red on your calendar?”

Cortines joked, “In my head I do. It’s today!” But he acknowledged that he would at least stay on board to complete the budget for the next year, which is due in August.

“I'm not just going to run away from the problem,” Cortines said. “I think we've made a lot of progress and we've made a lot of progress under an unbelievable amount of economic strain.”

MAYOR PRESSES LAUSD:He urges school board to take bolder steps to reform new or failing campuses +smf's 2¢

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

Mayor Villaraigosa is pushing for the district to overhaul its School Choice plan that allows nonprofits, teacher groups and charters to bid to run some of the district's newest or lowest-performing schools. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

6/25/2010 -- Dissatisfied with the pace of reform at local schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pleaded directly to Los Angeles Unified school board members Thursday to stop "biting at the edges" of reform and take bolder action.

Villaraigosa is pushing for the district to overhaul its School Choice plan that allows nonprofits, teacher groups and charters to bid to run some of the district's newest or lowest-performing schools.

The mayor, who helped elect a majority of the school board, said he was appealing directly to board members because Superintendent Ramon Cortines had "summarily dismissed" his recommendations.

"I think that, frankly, is just unacceptable," Villaraigosa said in a news conference.

In a letter dated June 8, Villaraigosa asked Cortines for changes to the School Choice plan that he believes would accelerate the pace of reform and potentially allow more outside groups to run district schools.

Among his proposals:

Treat all applicants the same, whether they are district employees or outside groups. Currently, outside groups have to fill out more paperwork to apply.

Place more weight on the academic track record of applicants.

If a school does not have enough adequate bidders, the district should overhaul the campus by firing all employees and forcing them to reapply for their jobs, a process known as reconstitution.

Last year, four schools received only one application each, from the district itself. Three of those were approved but "with reservations."

In a response letter dated June 18, Cortines thanked Villaraigosa for his suggestions but did not agree to make any changes.

On Thursday, Cortines said he felt he had responded adequately to the mayor's recommendations.

"He wrote me a letter and I responded," Cortines said.

"I thought he was trying to be helpful ... I thought this was a partnership ... I don't understand why I wouldn't be notified or invited."

A veteran educator, Cortines was the top education adviser to Villaraigosa before he was hired by the district, first as a senior deputy then as superintendent, with Villaraigosa's backing.

The mayor also supported a majority of the current school board members as part of a "reform" slate he pushed after his takeover of the school district was declared unconstitutional by the courts.

The School Choice plan pushed by school board members last year was supposed to represent a clear example of the district's new push to overhaul failing schools.

More than 200 applications were received for 12 existing campuses and 24 new schools during the plan's first round.

Villaraigosa advocated in favor of the plan - but it was met with resistance by district employee unions - and a group he created successfully obtained control over three schools.

But most schools remained under control of the school district and teacher collectives, while four campuses were awarded to charter school operators.

The final results of the process have led many to criticize the district and the board.

"When this vote came down ... it did not grant operation to nationally recognized school operators," said Steve Barr, founder of charter-school operator Green Dot, which was not approved for its bid under School Choice.

"Instead, it gave schools back to the teachers union because they have a great track record of running successful schools," he added sarcastically.

School board members who were reached Thursday said they were not contacted by Villaraigosa directly to discuss some of his suggested changes, but most said they appreciated his feedback.

"We welcome today's call by Mayor Villaraigosa and representatives of the charter and higher education communities to continually strive for reform, innovation, and excellence," said LAUSD school board President Monica Garcia in a written statement.

"But Public School Choice is a brand new effort, and after a strong start I expect it to continue to improve every year. We know there is much more work to be done."

Board member Steve Zimmer said he also valued the mayor's feedback but stressed that it was not the board's job to make decisions on process, but rather on policy.

Zimmer also said he did not agree with all of the mayor's suggestions.

"Just because we don't reconstitute or hand over a school to a charter doesn't mean we are accepting the status quo, and that is something I take offense to," Zimmer said.

Cortines also stressed that it was his job - and not the school board's - to decide how to implement its policy efforts.

The application process for the School Choice plan has already been opened up to applicants, who have until June 30 to submit letters of intent.

Still, the schools chief said he was still willing to hear suggestions from the board, if it was inclined to heed the mayor's pleas.

"I am just the CEO of this district, and if the board does not like the way I am operating things ... well, they have a choice," he said.

‘The mayor, who helped elect a majority of the school board, said he was appealing directly to board members because Superintendent Ramon Cortines had "summarily dismissed" his recommendations. ‘

●● smf's 2¢: My memory of the events and Mayor Tony’s differ.

• The superintendent – Mayor Tony’s guy – made recommendations based on lots of community input, his professional expertise and the democratic process.
• The Board of Ed – Tony’s hand selected board - democratically embraced some and rejected some. There were votes at schoolsites by stakeholders.

It was an ugly little process …but it was democracy in action.

What it wasn't was Tony’s will be done.

Coincidentally: This article on the Daily News website was accompanied by a link-to web ad for “Buying Tickets for Events”. What a concept!

MAYOR WANTS TO CHANGE HOW LAUSD CHOOSES OUTSIDE OPERATORS + VILLARAIGOSA BACKS CHARTER SCHOOL BIDS, RIPS CORTINES + ●● smf's 2¢

Mayor wants to change how LAUSD chooses outside operators

Daily News Wire Services

06/25/2010 -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants Los Angeles Unified to change how it chooses organizations to put in charge of new schools and troubled campuses, but his recommendations weren't embraced by the superintendent.

Under the district's Public School Choice program, groups of teachers and administrators, charter operators and a nonprofit organization controlled by the mayor can compete against each other for a chance to run schools within the LAUSD.

Villaraigosa said the current selection process is "not good enough" and called for several changes, such as giving more weight to an applicant's track record and requiring innovative governance structures as part of the reform strategy.

In a letter to Superintendent Ramon Cortines dated June 9, Villaraigosa submitted a list of recommendations, the first being: "If there is no satisfactory application for a focus school, then reconstitution of the school should be the default action."

Cortines deflected each of the recommendations. In his reply, dated June 18, he said, "I believe that reconstitution or restructuring should be the last resort, not the default. Our goal is to support our schools so that they may improve the outcomes for our students. I will use all available options to improve a school under No Child Left Behind, if necessary."

Still, Cortines added, "We agree ... there are areas of the Public School Choice process that could be strengthened; with this in mind, staff has worked and continues to work diligently to ensure that all issue raised and others that might be raised are addressed so that this round of the process is far more effective than the previous."

In February, when LAUSD decided to turn over control of 18 new schools and 12 troubled ones to outside operators, the teacher-administrator groups backed by United Teachers Los Angeles claimed the vast majority of them.

Charter operators were awarded four of the schools, while Villaraigosa's nonprofit ended up with one.

The mayor said the selection process "doesn't stand the test of transparency, accountability, commonality of standards, the governance models, a track record that demonstrates a plan is more than just a piece of paper."

Cortines' decision to "summarily dismiss" his recommendations was "frankly, just unacceptable," Villaraigosa said, and called for changes before another set of schools is turned over.

When asked whether he would withdraw support for LAUSD officials who rejected his recommendations, Villaraigosa said, "I'm absolutely committed to seeing this process through, and I won't let anyone who opposes transformative reform get in the way."

LAUSD board President Monica Garcia said: "We welcome today's call by Mayor Villaraigosa and representatives of the charter and higher education communities to continually strive for reform, innovation and excellence."

"We appreciate the feedback we received today, and we invite all community members and stakeholders to partner with us to do more, better, and faster," she said.

Letters of intent to participate in the Public School Choice program are due Wednesday. Full applications are due in December.

 

---

Villaraigosa backs charter school bids, rips Cortines

The mayor says L.A. Unified didn't give charters a fair chance in an earlier bid for control of new and low-performing campuses.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

June 25, 2010 -- The mayor of Los Angeles sided publicly with local charter schools Thursday in their latest bid to take over new and low-performing campuses, while sharply criticizing the L.A. schools superintendent, his onetime deputy.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke one week before a deadline for applicants to submit bids for nine new campuses and eight low-performing ones in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In the first round of the groundbreaking competition, groups of teachers in February defied early expectations to claim the vast majority of campuses. Charters, which are independently run and exempt from some rules that govern traditional schools, emerged with only four successful bids.

Villaraigosa castigated L.A. Unified for giving schools to groups from the very campuses that were up for bid because of poor performance. This time, he said, an organization's track record should be paramount.

"You can write a great plan, but if you don't have a history ... of proven results, that plan is just a piece of paper," Villaraigosa said.

The teacher groups, which had only weeks to put together proposals, received logistical support both from the district and United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union. The union then rallied local support behind teacher-led plans to dominate nonbinding community balloting over rival plans.

Villaraigosa said outside groups never had a fair shot at access to resources and parents.

In February, the mayor lobbied vigorously only for bids submitted by the nonprofit group that runs schools on his behalf, district officials told The Times. In its final decision, the school board majority he helped to elect gave him most of what he wanted, but favored even fewer charters than Supt. Ramon C. Cortines.

At the mayor's side Thursday were representatives from charter groups knocked out in the earlier round: one from ICEF Public Schools and three with ties to Green Dot Public Schools. Shane Martin, dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Education, chairs the Green Dot board; Ben Austin heads a charter-allied parents organization spun off from Green Dot; and Steve Barr started Green Dot and headed it for years.

For schools with inadequate reform plans — and no competing outside bids — Villaraigosa called for reconstitution, a process in which all members of the staff are replaced or must reapply for their jobs.

Cortines called reconstitution a last resort rather than a default option. This year, he required staff at Fremont High School in South Los Angeles to reinterview, but he said such efforts fail unless handled with persistence and care. The example of Fremont, he said, was enough to move other schools into reform mode.

The teachers union has vigorously opposed the Fremont initiative, calling it unfair and unsupported by research.

Villaraigosa accused Cortines, a former deputy mayor and top education advisor, of dismissing his suggestions and straying from their shared reform fervor.

"Frankly, that's unacceptable," the mayor said. "We've got to stop biting around the edges.... We've got to be transformative."

Cortines said he found the mayor's suggestions, which Villaraigosa outlined in a June 9 letter, helpful, but added, "I don't think we would have given the mayor additional schools based on a track record."

"I looked at this process as an incentive to motivate and challenge and raise the bar for teachers and parents and administrators in this district, and they stepped up to the plate," Cortines said.

---

●● smf's 2¢: Mayor Tony is entitled to his opinion. But the courts  - the Superior Court, the Court of Appeal and the California State Supreme Court – ruled in Mendoza v. California /aka/ LAUSD v. Villaraigosa that he is not entitled to run the schools. Unconstitutional they said.

• The best board of education (his) money could buy has given him some schools to run anyway,   And he has …poorly.
• The same board has given him the superintendent of his choosing; who is now dismissive of Mayor Tony’s suggestions and questioning of his track record. 

Somehow this experience  and investment and fervor has made him an expert and an authority

   …or maybe picking on the schools might take the public’s attention off the fact that he’s gone to all those sporting events, concerts and award shows without paying for the tickets. Ya think?

PARENTS IN ACTON: Engaging parents in local schools student wellness policies

from California Project Lean | www.californiaprojectlean.org

24 June 2010 --California Project LEAN (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition) (CPL), a joint program of the California Department of Public Health and the Public Health Institute, focuses on y outh and parent empowerment, policy and environmental change strategies, and community-based solutions. CPL’s mission is to increase healthy eating and physical activity to reduce the prevalence of obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, osteoporosis, and diabetes.

CPL works with state and local physical activity and nutrition leaders, and key school and community organizations, to conduct programs in communities throughout California. Through an infrastructure of regional coordinators, CPL implements local interventions that increase opportunities for Californians to eat healthfully and be physically active.

For a tool kit on engaging parents in school wellness policies, check out Parents in Action: A Guide to Engaging Parents in Local School Wellness Policy. Available in English http://bit.ly/dA78FLand Spanish. http://bit.ly/bXiLOy

CONTROVERSIES SURROUND LAUSD’S NEW HIRE JOHN DEASY + DID DEASY TAKE IT EASY? + ROBERT FELNER GOES TO PRISON

By Patrick Range McDonald,  LA Weekly

Wednesday, Jun. 23 2010 -- Board members of the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to hire John Deasy as deputy superintendent yesterday, which will make him a major player in the operation of the nation's second largest public school system, and a possible successor to Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

John Deasy>>

While the Los Angeles Times touts Deasy's previous jobs with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Prince George's Public County Schools in Maryland, and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the Griffith Park Wayist [ follows] reports that the new deputy superintendent found himself in the middle of two major controversies only a few years ago.

The blog writes that, in 2008, Capital News Service found "two anomalies" in Deasy's resume. One involved stating the wrong date he received a master's degree, and the other was about the listing of a faculty position in the doctoral program of Educational Leadership and Social Justice at Loyola Marymount University from 2003 to present.

According to Capital News Service, Loyola's human resources department could not find Deasy listed as a current or past faculty member.

The Griffith Park Wayist also offers up a Baltimore Sun article that goes into how Deasy was caught in another controversy in 2008: He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Louisville after completing only nine credits.

But among LAUSD board members, who are led by president Monica Garcia*, it appears Deasy's completely off the hook for whatever sins he may have previously committed -- with the L.A. Times completely ignoring the controversies in its coverage over the past two days.

The L.A. Times does report that the LAUSD board gave Deasy an annual salary of $275,000 -- $25,000 more than his boss, Ramon Cortines.

The newspaper also makes the point that Deasy appears to be a strong contender to succeed Cortines when he is expected to retire sometime in the next two years.

_________

* known for the quote: "I don't know what is interesting here" re: Superintendent Cortines outside employment as a Director of textbook publisher/LAUSD contractor-supplier Scholastic Corporation at the same time he was LAUSD Superintendent. | http://bit.ly/dy2oCo

 

DID LAUSD’S DEASY TAKE IT EASY?

Posted by mulholland terrace to the  Griffith Park Wayist blog at 6/22/2010 01:29:00 PM

Ramon C. Cortines has just announced that the LAUSD has hired the Gates Foundation's John Deasy to the post of Deputy Superintendent of the District.
Deasy's name appeared in the news in Maryland in 2008 when the question of whether or not he had falsified his resume came up. The prospective falsifications involve a Social Justice program at Loyola Marymount.

Deasy is already under scrutiny for receiving a doctorate from the University of Louisville with only nine credit hours. He was awarded his doctorate two years after giving the research company owned by his adviser, Robert Felner, a three-year, $375,000 contract. Felner is under federal investigation for misappropriation of funds.**
Deasy listed a faculty position in the doctoral program of Educational Leadership and Social Justice at Loyola Marymount University, Calif., from 2003 to present. The university's human resources department could not find him listed as a current or former faculty member.
There also was a date discrepancy on the resume he had on file in the Prince George's Schools office of the superintendent.

The Baltimore Sun speculated whether Deasy's move to the Gates Foundation was precipitated by the resume problems.

Last month, the Courier-Journal in Louisville reported that Deasy had been awarded a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Lousville in 2004 although he had only completed nine credits, or about a semester, there. He had completed more than 70 credits at other universities, according to published reports.

Typically, a doctoral candidate would have to be at Louisville for one year and complete twice as many credits while in residence there to get a degree.

Deasy's academic advisor at the university was the dean of education, Robert Felner, who is now under a federal investigation, the paper reported, for his possible misuse of federal funds.

____

** PageOneKentucky reports that Felner went to one of those federal ‘country club'’ prisons today: 24 June 2010! - Robert Felner Goes to Prison Update | http://bit.ly/dc92iV

more from PageOneKentucky:

Robert Felner Goes To Prison Update

June 24th, 2010 · 4 Comments

It’s true. Robert Felner is headed to prison:

The Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama, located on Maxwell Air Force Base.
Here’s hoping he’ll put us on his visitor list. It’d do him swell to, you know, give me a tell-all interview. Could go a long way toward restoring his reputation for when he’s [...]

Rumor: Robert Felner Surrendering Tomorrow

June 22nd, 2010 · 10 Comments

Could it be?
I hear through the grape vine that Robert Felner is allegedly surrendering tomorrow and will begin his sentence at a federal prison in Alabama.

[Read more →]

Tags: Corruption · Education · Robert Felner · UofL

Remember John Deasy, Of Robert Felner Infamy?

June 21st, 2010 · 2 Comments

Here he is in the Winter 2009 issue of Philanthropy:
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Need more of a refresher? Here:

Explosive New Robert Felner Scandal Brewing [September 8, 2008]
Update On the Deasy Shenanigans at UofL [September 10, 2008]
Breaking Deasy Update: Ramsey Appoints Review Committee [September 10, 2008]
The Robert Felner Story Hits the WaPo [September 11, 2008]
Felner-Deasy Update — [...]

[Read more →]

SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES BACKS COMMUNITY PLAN TO IMPROVE TROUBLED FREMONT HIGH: “It was really good of him to agree to our demands…”

David Doye (far left), who gave an impassioned speech to Fremont High stakeholders, is pictured with godson, Dimitri Herron, Dimitri's friend Tina Harris and the Coalition's Tonna Onyendu. (Photo by Olu Alemoru)

By OLU ALEMORU, Staff Writer | Los Angeles Wave

June 24 -- Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines this week threw his support behind community-backed reforms to enhance a plan to restructure South Los Angeles’ chronically underperforming Fremont High School.

Cortines addressed a packed room of Fremont students and parents Monday at the headquarters of the Community Coalition, where they, along with community activists, presented him with a reform program aimed at closing the achievement gap, improving test scores and cutting the area’s high dropout rates.

The meeting was called in the wake of Cortines’ December announcement that called for radical changes to improve the school’s academic performance.

These proposed changes included establishing smaller, academic learning programs similar to successful programs at Locke High School, but the plan also controversially called for the entire teaching staff to re-apply for their jobs.

In recent years, Fremont — which along with Locke was ranked two of the lowest-performing schools in the LAUSD before Locke was turned around — has been at the center of the public school education crisis in the massive school district.

While designed to hold a mere 1,500 students, Fremont’s 4,500 students are crammed into its classrooms where in 2007/08 only 45 tested proficient and two tested advanced in math within a pool over 3,500. In addition, less than 500 students graduated out of a freshman class of 2,000, with the remainder classified as unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, the coalition has been working behind the scenes with students and parents over the last few months to help reduce the dropout rate and boost academic achievement and success.

The recommendations they presented to Cortines include establishing an on-campus comprehensive mental wellness center, a career health academy and a targeted drop out intervention and prevention program.

“The answer is emphatically, yes,” said Cortines in his address to the audience. “This is all in line with what we want to do and takes it up a notch. That means in these economic times we will have to find some money, but with the community and the school district coming together, Fremont will look very different a year from now.”

He added: “Dropouts don’t just start at Fremont. I’ve visited all the schools that feed into Fremont, I’ve talked to faculty members and parents and sent letters to all of the [local] elementary schools. [The problem] starts in preschool and kindergarten.”

Cortines also heard from Fremont students, parents, community activists and coalition staff, who will be working with district officials to try and make the proposals a reality.

“I’m here to talk about the comprehensive wellness program at Fremont,” said 17-year-old student leader Paolo Lopez. “Why is it important? I have ups and downs with my mom and we argue. It impacts me and I carry it with me throughout the day. I know a lot of kids argue with their parents in Beverly Hills, but they don’t have to worry about losing their home or whether they have enough food to eat.

“And when we get to school we’re expected to pretend none of it ever happened, that everything is okay. But because of a lack of support students start ditching classes, turning to drugs and gangs or become sexually active at a young age.”

David Doye, an ex-convict, who currently has a godson at Freemont and a goddaughter starting there this fall, made an emotional speech to the crowd.

“I still have problems with my reading and vocabulary,” he said. “I dropped out of school to take care of my brothers and sisters and no one cared or invested the time in me to find out why. Now I live a less than perfect life to say the least … jobs are hard to come by when you have a record.

“That’s why I’m standing here in support today. I don’t want the same for my god children and I want to make sure all our children succeed. We can save the dolphins, why can’t we save our own kids.”

Dimitri Herron, Doye’s 17-year-old godson, agreed. “It was really good of him [Cortines] to agree to our demands,” he said, “so we can go to work on the next stage and increase our graduation rates.”

EDITH SHAIN, RETIRED LAUSD KINDERGARTEN & FIRST GRADE TEACHER DIES AT 91; She was the nurse in iconic Times Square V-J Day kissing photo

She was a married, part-time nurse when she joined the jubilant crowd celebrating V-J Day and was kissed by a young sailor. The photo by Life magazine's Alfred Eisenstaedt was seen by millions.

Edith Shain, seen at home in 2005, sits next to an enlarged photograph of her being kissed by a sailor in Times Square on V-J Day. It was not until 1980 that she identified herself as the nurse, saying, " I was the one." (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / July 26, 2005)

By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

June 24, 2010 -- It's one of the most iconic images to emerge from World War II.

Life  magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt's photograph of an anonymous young sailor in a dark-blue uniform dipping a white-uniformed nurse backward while giving her a long kiss in the middle of Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945, symbolized the euphoria surrounding the news that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was finally over.

Edith Shain, a retired Los Angeles elementary school teacher who claimed to be the mystery nurse in the photo seen by millions around the world, died of cancer Sunday at her home in Los Angeles, said her son, Michael. She was 91.

Shain was a married, 27-year-old part-time nurse at Doctors Hospital in Manhattan when she joined the jubilant crowd in Times Square celebrating V-J Day.

"You can imagine how people felt. They were just elated," Shain said in a 2005 interview with The Times. "Someone grabbed me and kissed me, and I let him because he fought for his country. I closed my eyes when I kissed him. I never saw him."

When Eisenstaedt's photo ran in Life magazine the following week — he had neglected to get the names of his subjects, whose faces are obscured in the picture — Shain recognized herself but was too embarrassed to tell anyone it was her.

"But I knew it was me," she said. "I was wearing the same kind of shoes, and I had the same kind of seams in my stockings. And a little bit of my slip was showing."

Immediately after the sailor kissed her, Shain said, she encountered a soldier who also wanted a kiss. But that was enough for her, and she and the friend she was with left Times Square.

Shain later moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a nurse before becoming a longtime kindergarten and first-grade teacher at Hancock Park Elementary School. She was married and divorced three times and had three sons.

In 1980, no longer embarrassed by her Times Square encounter with the anonymous sailor and wanting a copy of the famous photo, Shain wrote to Life magazine and identified herself as the nurse.

Eisenstaedt himself flew out to meet her.

"He looked at my legs and said I was the one," Shain recalled.

Eisenstaedt gave Shain a copy of the photo and, according to The Times article, Life flew her to New York for a luncheon.

In one of his books that he later inscribed for her, Eisenstaedt wrote that she was "the one and only nurse" whom he had photographed in Times Square.

But Bobbi Baker Burrows, a Life editor familiar with the subject, told the Associated Press in 2008 that Eisenstaedt, who died in 1995, was never sure that Shain was the nurse in the photo.

Burrows recalled that when interest in the photo was renewed, Life ran an article saying, "If you are the sailor or the nurse in the picture, please step forward."

"We received claims from a few nurses and dozens of sailors, but we could never prove that any of them were the actual people, and Eisenstaedt himself just said he didn't know," she said.

Carl Muscarello, a former New York City police detective, was one of the men who have claimed to be the sailor in the photo.

"Everything points to him," Shain told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel in 1995. "He was tall enough that he could execute that form."

During the 60th anniversary of V-J Day in 2005, Shain and Muscarello appeared together in Times Square, where they exchanged a kiss for photographers and a large crowd.

Shain, however, was still not convinced that Muscarello was the sailor who had bussed her.

"I can't say he isn't," she said. "I just can't say he is. There is no way to tell."

Born July 29, 1918, in Tarrytown, N.Y., Shain graduated from a nursing school in New York and earned a bachelor's degree in education at New York University. She retired from teaching in 1985.

"The famed kissing nurse," as the New York Daily News once called her, often served as honorary grand marshal of Veterans Day and Memorial Day parades and spoke to World War II veterans' groups.

She was scheduled to appear in Times Square in August for a V-J Day celebration.

She also had been serving as national spokesperson for a grassroots initiative to establish a permanent national day of remembrance on the second Sunday of every August to honor the men and women of the World War II generation.

"She used to call herself an accidental celebrity, and she felt she should use that celebrity for the common men and women of the World War II generation," said Warren Hegg, national supervisor of the Keep the Spirit of '45 Alive initiative.

In addition to her son Michael, Shain is survived by her sons Justin and Robert; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED CHOOSES KOWBA, A RETIRED NAVY ADMIRAL AND INSIDER, AS SUPERINTENDENT

Howard Blume | LA Times

June 23, 2010 |  A retired Navy officer, William A. Kowba, will become the next superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, the state’s second-largest school system with 131,500 students.

That scenario might sound familiar: In late 2006, the Los Angeles Unified School District tapped retired Adm. David L. Brewer as its leader. Support for Brewer faded quickly with the election of a new school board majority and with critics asserting that he was hamstrung by a lack of relevant experience. The Board of Education bought out the final two years of Brewer's four-year contract.

Kowba, 58, has reportedly never taught a class, but he does have some advantages that Brewer lacked. For one thing, he’s familiar with the local school system. He started with the district in 2006 as chief financial officer. Since then, he’s served successively as interim chief administrative officer, interim superintendent, chief logistics officer and chief special projects officer. The former one-star Supply Corps admiral began his second stint as interim superintendent in September.

Along the way, Kowba has been in and out of favor under successive superintendents, insiders said, but consistently won praise for integrity and straight dealing.

"I'm certainly honored that the board has had the confidence in me to go forward in this process," Kowba said in a district release. Kowba and the San Diego Unified Board of Education still have to negotiate a contract.

In an unusually open process that included a public interview, Kowba competed with two other finalists: Debbra A. Lindo, chief executive of College Track, an Oakland-based pre-college program for students in the Bay Area and New Orleans; and Dale W. Vigil, former superintendent of the Hayward Unified School District.

San Diego Unified has been pulled in sharply different directions in recent years under three superintendents while the teachers union and business groups have battled to have their allies in control of the board.

BOARD OKs LAUSD BUDGET WITH THOUSANDS OF LAYOFFS

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

LA Unified School District contract workers picket in front of LAUSD headquarters before the school board approved a new budget cutting workers, Tuesday, June 22, 2010. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

06/23/2010  -- Despite the pleas and protests of hundreds of employees, Los Angeles Unified officials Tuesday approved a 2010-11 budget that includes thousands of layoffs of teachers, custodians, office workers and other staff.

The school board also approved hiring John Deasy as the district's new deputy superintendent, seen as a potential successor to Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who is rumored to be eyeing early retirement. For now, Deasy, currently a deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would advise Cortines and stand in for him in his absence.

LAUSD faced a deficit of some $640 million for the 2010-11 school year and officials had initially looked at raising class sizes at grade levels through middle school and cutting some 6,300 jobs.

Tuesday, district officials said that attendance increases, spending cuts and some additional state funding helped save some district jobs and programs.

District officials estimate about 2,700 employees are expected to be laid off starting July 1.

However, some district employee unions dispute that figure and estimate that the final layoff figure will be closer to 4,000.

Many of the employees who in March had been notified they would lose their jobs were later saved under a deal with the local teachers and administrators unions that reduced the school calendar by 12 days over the next two years through furloughs by teachers and administrators.

During a protest before the school board meeting, hundreds of district employees who expect to lose their jobs marched and chanted "enough is enough" as they hoisted signs that read "save our schools."

Susan Gosman, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the California School Employee Association, said her union is expected to lose some 1,500 members while another 1,000 have been placed on a 10-month work calendar, reducing their salaries by about 15 percent.

"We are the infrastructure of this district. We keep student records, track students, administer special education services," Gosman said.

"Without us, schools will fall apart."

'A lot of pain in this room'

While many school board members expressed their sympathy for school workers who said they could lose their cars and homes if they lost their jobs, the board voted 6-1 to approve the final budget, with board member Marguerite LaMotte voting no.

"There is a lot of pain in this room, I want to acknowledge that," said LAUSD board president Monica Garcia.

"I can understand the anger and despair ... this is not fun for anyone."

District officials are also ignoring state law, which requires school districts to file balanced budgets for three years, and instead are only submitting a one-year budget. It remains uncertain whether the district would face any consequences.

District officials said the district still faces a deficit of at least $260 million for the 2011-12 school year.

Deasy's hiring approved

Deasy was hired Tuesday under a 5-0 vote during closed session, with board member Tamar Galatzan absent and Yolie Flores abstaining. He was given an 11-month contract starting Aug. 1, and at $25,000 per month will make more than Cortines' annual salary of $250,000.

Deasy said he was "honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve the youth of Los Angeles, this school board and Ray Cortines."

"I want to help build on the work launched by this board and I want to advance that work very rapidly," he added.

The re-opening of the deputy superintendent position comes amid rumors that Cortines could leave the district before his contract expires Jan. 1, 2012.

Cortines himself was the last person to hold the deputy superintendent position, months before becoming superintendent after former schools chief David Brewer was offered a buyout.

Deasy said he is looking forward to working as Cortines' right-hand man, but is not looking beyond that post.

"It is important that we provide a seamless leadership team for stability, but I am focused on the work at hand. ... I want to get to that work right away," he said.

Part of that work will likely include juggling more difficult budget decisions, possibly cutting more jobs and eliminating more programs, as the district continues to face declining enrollment and shrinking state funding.

In+Out/Coming+Going: A GOLDEN APPLE AND A PINK SLIP + L.A. UNIFIED HIRES GATES FOUNDATION OFFICIAL AS DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT

A golden apple and a pink slip Alhambra High's employee of the year, a popular library worker, finds himself unemployed.	L.A. Unified hires Gates Foundation official as deputy superintendent The appointment raises speculation that John Deasy could replace Supt. Ramon C. Cortines within two years.
by Steve Lopez, LA Times columnist	By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
Employee of the Year: Terry Cannon with his employee award from Alhambra High. (Richard Amromin)	John Deasy has been hired as deputy superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School DIstrict. (Linda Davidson / Washington Post)
June 23, 2010 -- Last Wednesday, Alhambra High School library technician Terry Cannon rose to a standing ovation from his peers as he was named the school's employee of the year. Two days later, the employee of the year got laid off. And so it goes in California, home of the never-ending school budget cuts. Happy summer to all. Cannon's work was outstanding, said Alhambra Valley Unified Supt. Donna Perez, who called budget-driven layoffs "heart wrenching." He taught kids research skills, introduced them to great literature, catalogued books — anything that was needed. Cannon was given the ax along with 17 other library technicians, health assistants and custodians — layoffs that were almost certain to be made official at Tuesday night's Alhambra Unified board meeting. In addition, 17 bus drivers have been told they'll lose a month's pay. Perez said she has whacked a total of $45 million out of her budget over the last three years and could lose 80 teachers next year, when it looks like she'll have to squeeze out an additional $9 million. "I've come to terms with the loss of the job," Cannon told me Tuesday afternoon in his living room, saying he was primarily upset about the way it was handled. He was fired on the last day of school after the students had left, so he didn't get to tell them he wouldn't be there in the fall when they return. "I guess they're afraid you'll go postal, or steal library books, or, God forbid, lower morale," said Cannon, 56. "Although, I've never seen morale as low as it is." As we spoke, Cannon went to a living room cabinet and brought out his award — a shiny golden apple. He told me that in preparation for Tuesday's board meeting, he'd spent the morning at his computer, next to a Tommy Lasorda bobble head, writing the speech he intended to read to the board that night. "My name is Terry Cannon, and you don't know me," begins the speech. "But within the hour you will rubber stamp the superintendent's recommendation to eliminate my position as library technical assistant at Alhambra High." He intended to ruffle some feathers and accuse the board members of being all about numbers rather than people, with no personal knowledge of what those people do. "I'm going to share an inscription written in my 2010 yearbook by a student," he said. "Hi, Mr. Cannon," it read. "You are one of the nicest people I've met at AHS. I love how I could always just walk into the library and talk to you about anything. You are so dedicated to your work and you obviously love working with students." It doesn't matter, Christine. He's gone (unless, after my deadline, the official termination was delayed by the board). Alhambra High is a big school, with 3,000 students and a library collection Cannon pegged at about 50,000 books. Running that library will be a one-person job after Cannon's departure, and that won't be easy, admitted Supt. Perez. Cannon said he decided to work in public service because he was inspired by his wife, an Alhambra High teacher. Five years ago, when he quit work as an editor in the publishing industry and applied for the library tech job, his interviewer asked him how he thought he'd like working with high school students. "I have no idea," he answered back then. But, he told me, he ultimately found the answer. "I loved the kids. It hadn't been a cool thing for them to go to the library, so I wanted to make it a fun place where they could go to study or just hang out." He put together cultural displays, exhibited the work of artist friends and tried to motivate students to shoot for college. "I think 50% of our kids qualify for school lunches," said Cannon, who believes the advantage gaps grow wider with each round of cuts. "In college, they'll need to do high-level academic research — not Internet searches, but reference-based research in scholarly journals — and they're not going to know how to do that. "And that's our future. If we don't build a decent education for them, how do we get out of the morass we're in? We'll have huge unemployment and welfare and end up paying in a much greater way." Well said. Not many days go by without me hearing from desperate and angry parents, teachers and administrators struggling with cuts. We all know the state's got a huge budget deficit and some hard choices to make because nobody wants cuts to their pet programs and nobody wants to pay higher taxes. What frosts me is that in the midst of a crisis and in the heat of a campaign for governor, conventional wisdom says a candidate can't risk telling us how they'd get us out of this mess and what the state's priorities should be. It's the only thing I want to hear them talk about. I don't care if Meg Whitman shoved a former colleague at EBay or Jerry Brown had a mixed record as governor 30 years ago. I want to know what they want to do, how they intend to do it, and whether they think Alhambra High School's employee of the year ought to be on the job in the library, or queuing up in the unemployment line with his resume and shiny golden apple.	June 23, 2010 -- A top official with the influential Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was chosen Tuesday as second in command in the Los Angeles Unified School District, raising speculation that he would be a top candidate for superintendent within two years. The Board of Education hired John Deasy as deputy superintendent in a 6-0 vote in closed session. Board vice president Yolie Flores abstained because she has accepted a job funded by the Seattle-based Gates Foundation. Deasy, 49, has deep experience in local and large school systems and, more recently, worked in the forefront of the foundation's nationwide efforts to change the way teachers are evaluated. "I firmly believe Los Angeles is going to be the center of education reform in the next five years," Deasy said. "I believe deeply in what can happen and what is poised to happen for the youth here." Deasy's contract calls for an annual salary of $275,000 — $25,000 more than Supt. Ramon C. Cortines — with an 11-month term, starting in August. Like other employees, he'll be docked for seven unpaid furlough days next year. His appointment was approved the same day the district formally approved a budget that will result in several thousand layoffs. At Gates, Deasy was deputy director for effective teaching, one of several deputies under the foundation's top education administrator. Deasy managed the process through which school districts and charter schools apply for grants to develop new teacher-evaluation methods that include linking instructors to their students' test scores. He also recommended which school systems should receive the handful of grants. A group of five Los Angeles charter school management companies won $60 million last November. In other places, the foundation gave the money to the local school district. But L.A. Unified was too large, Deasy said, for the available funding and, at the time, California laws gave charters — and not school districts — the needed flexibility to pursue teacher evaluation reforms. Over the years, the Gates Foundation has provided minimal funding to L.A. Unified compared to other school systems. Some observers have characterized the district as resistant, or simply in disagreement with, the sort of reforms that many private foundations are supporting. But that view of L.A. Unified is changing under Cortines, Deasy said in an interview Tuesday. Cortines, 77, is expected to retire within two years. Efforts to link teacher evaluations to test scores — often coupled with discussions of limiting seniority protections — have met with opposition from United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union. Deasy said no new system can be successful without teacher support: "Unless it's owned deeply by the people closest to the youth, it's not likely to stay." Deasy added that he played no role in the foundation's decision to hire school board member Flores to head a nonprofit focused on teacher effectiveness. Flores revealed the new post this month, while announcing that she would not seek a second four-year term. During her final year in office, she will work part-time for the as-yet unnamed entity at a salary of $144,000. From 2006 to 2008, Deasy was superintendent of Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, the nation's 18th largest district with 134,000 students. Before that, he headed the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for five years. Earlier in his career, he taught high school biology, chemistry, calculus and English and coached high school sports. In Maryland, he collaborated with the teachers union to develop a pay-for-performance system that gradually went into use. In the Santa Monica district, one of his initiatives was to require schools in wealthy areas to share a percentage of their local fundraising with those in less prosperous neighborhoods. Deasy declined to speculate on his future in the district, but that didn't stop others, including Judith Perez, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. "It appears he is standing in the wings," Perez said.