Saturday, June 07, 2008

The news that doesn't fit from June 8.

TWO SENIOR LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT MANAGERS WILL RETURN TO WORK + SUPERINTENDENT BREWER’S STATEMENT REGARDING ONGOING ROONEY INVESTIGATION

The Rooney Case.

CONTRERAS POOL TO REMAIN OFF LIMITS TO PUBLIC THIS SUMMER: Facility at $160 Million City West School Will Only Be Open to Students

Teach for America: AUDIT FAULTS AN EDUCATION NONPROFIT

The NY Times reports the group was unable to provide documents to support roughly half its claimed spending in a federal audit.

THE NEW IMPROVED LAUSD ORG CHART, v.2.0  LAUSD Org ChART

A TAXING DILEMMA: PROPOSITION 13 @ 30 - Time for a face lift? Or a haircut?

BUDGET PROTEST TAKES L.A. TEACHERS OUT OF CLASSROOMS: In a one-hour demonstration at the beginning of the day, teachers picket outside schools. Many parents join in. The LAUSD reports no safety problems. REPORT GRIM ON TEENS AFTER FOSTER CARE

Boston is Boston and LA is LA, but anyone who's ever read a paper ...or seen or read "White Oleander"* - knows that Foster Care in California is abysmal. Abysmal before the cuts proposed by the governor in the May Revise - and unopposed by the superminority of republicans in the legislature. Foster children are wards of the state. If their actual parents treated them this poorly the courts would take them away ...but they already have.

MARCHERS IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES CLAIM UNFAIR FUNDING OF CHARTER CAMPUSES: Backers of the schools say the L.A. Unified district must provide space for their classrooms.

HOUSE APPROVES FUNDS FOR 'GREEN' SCHOOLS

The House on Wednesday committed more than $20 billion over the next five years to help states build and renovate schools to make them more energy-efficient and good for the environment.

DENTAL CARE FOR THE DISABLED MAY GROW EVEN SCARCER: Upcoming cuts in a state program and the dwindling number of hospitals offering staff privileges to dentists are two reasons this population, which presents special challenges, is likely to suffer.

More (or less) from the wonderful folks who cut $4 billion from the education budget and called it a $200 million increase …and slashed support for foster children

THE BATTLE OVER SIZE: One Bronx principal and the "small schools" movement.

A long Newsweek Article on Small Schools: - It is 8:45 on a raw spring morning in a hardscrabble section of the Bronx. Principal Charles Osewalt, the head of the Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies (MACS), one of the city's new small high schools, is standing at attention behind his cluttered desk, a telephone clamped to his ear, muttering about a chronically tardy senior. "Is Marcus there?" he says, speaking sweetly. There is a moment of silence, his face turns red, and then Osewalt starts to bellow into the receiver in tropes familiar to any parent of a teen. "Marcus! What are you still doing home? I called you 45 minutes ago and told you to get to school right now! Why are you still there?" There is a brief pause. Osewalt, 53, is accepting no excuses. "Get in here. It's 8:45! That means school starts in 15 minutes." There is another pause. "Marcus, turn off the TV. Stop listening to the radio. Hang up the phone and walk out your door." Pause. "The first stop when you arrive at school is my office." He slams down the phone and sags into his seat. Then he looks up, a smile breaking through his scowl. Another senior, herself struggling with chronic tardiness, has arrived at MACS, notebook in hand, with a full 10 minutes to spare before her first class. Osewalt jumps up. "Great to see you!" he says, pulling her into a bear hug. "Great job!"

Small, intense, academically focused and emotionally connected. It's a new—and exhausting—way of running a high school. But Osewalt, his 29 teachers and the 430 students say they wouldn't have it any other way. They're at the vanguard of the biggest wave of school reform to hit that classic American institution, the comprehensive high school, in 30 years.

EX-LOCKE HIGH PRINCIPAL ACCUSES L.A. DISTRICT OF ILLGALLY FIRING HIM

Frank Wells' lawsuit says he lost his job because of comments he made supporting the transfer of the troubled campus to a charter school operator.

NEWSWEEK'S TOP AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOLS: Several Charter Schools Among the Mix?

It has been roughly two weeks since Newsweek Magazine offered its annual list of the top public high schools in America. As soon as the list was published, charter school proponents began using the compilation as justification for furthering the charter school movement.

It seems that 10 charter schools made the top 100 Newsweek list. With charter schools currently comprising only about 3% of all public schools nationwide, the fact that 10% of the top performers were of that type is indeed statistically significant.

Advocates for the movement were quick to pounce on the Newsweek list. The Alliance for Public Charter Schools President Nelson Smith offered this glowing assessment: “The charter school principles of accountability and innovation are producing remarkable results.”

This writer decided to take a peek at the three top performing charter schools on the list. Such a review revealed a very different story from the high praise being offered by President Smith.

UC GRAD IS SPECIAL - AND VERY ABLE

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - Joel Sidney is graduating from UC Berkeley today with an almost perfect grade-point average, a bachelor's degree in American Studies, an honors thesis on Bay Area bluegrass music and the certainty that having autism is not going to limit his expectations.

ANNE & KIRK DOUGLAS HONORED BY LAUSD AND GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER FOR FUNDING THEIR 400TH SCHOOL PLAYGROUND

Kirk Douglas at Lillian ES Children, school officials and political leaders honored Anne and Kirk Douglas today at Lillian Elementary School, where the 400th playground funded by their foundation was dedicated at an enthusiastic ceremony.

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