PLAN B/ROUND 1: The Mayor Has His Way – <cut …I mean> A New Way with LAUSD

By smf for 4LAKids

These WebPages mourn.

We mourn the death Tuesday night of "Liberal Lion" Teddy Kennedy - A champion if not THE champion of public education. As his friend Ramón Cortines said: "He was a friend of public education all the time, every day he was in office."

And we mourn the tragic outcome for public education in the LAUSD boardroom Tuesday afternoon with the passage of Yolie Flores Aguilar's "Public School Choice" Resolution.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Barr …which schools do you choose?

We do not question Yolie's heart or her good intent. Her frustration at the lack of urgency of reform in LAUSD is heartfelt and genuine - but 4LAKids cannot miss the genesis of her plan and respectfully questions the authorship. Mayor Villaraigosa probably over describes his role as it being his "Plan B" - Plan A being his failed attempt at mayoral takeover and control, thrice quashed in the courts. But the fingerprints are there - and the confession: "my plan" - must mean something.

Despite public denial of the 'done deal" by the doers - and anguish and attempts-at-amendment and pretence-at-compromise, the Deal as realized was Done.

It wasn't pretty.

The list of advocate organizations named in whereas #5 grew with each draft as the 'me too's' tasted victory and wanted their logos on the t-shirt. A least one of the alphabet soup sponsors (and the most potentially powerful partner) withdrew their support at the last moment. Ultimately the entire list - the total active membership of which is probably a couple of thousand at most - was amended out.

ON THE DONE DEAL: According a speaker in public comment the mayor at one time claimed to have "six school board votes in his pocket".

All six came through Tuesday.

As Meredith Willson wrote:

Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
Pockets that mark the diff'rence
Between a gentlemen and a bum,
With a capital "B,"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!

Friends, we got trouble right here in (L.A.) River City!

DONE DEAL II: A couple of weekends ago Board President Garcia had a soiree at her house and invited the Board of Ed and the superintendent. Apparently District Counsel Bobbi Fesler gave this get together her blessing - as long as the Boardmembers didn't discuss certain things. Like any pending or potential action before the board.

All well and good - if they didn't discuss those things.  As long as they didn't think about the elephant in the room.

• The Ralph M. Brown Act is an open meeting law - a by-invitation-only-meeting at anyone's house is not an open meeting in my appointment book …even if partners and the kiddies are invited!
• Make no mistake, the invitees were invited in their official capacity; the invitation is addressed  "Dear Board Members" – this was not "Dear Yolie, Tamar, Richard, Steve, Nuri and Marguerite".
• Of course I'm strict constructionist (What part of 'no!' is it you don't understand?) who considers the intent of the law rather than the wiggle room within it.

DONE DEAL III: After the big vote at Tuesday's meeting - but before the meeting was over and adjourned - the Board of Ed had special visitors: Mayor Villaraigosa and entourage! How kewl is that? And did Hizzonner stand in the well of the boardroom and congratulate the Board of Ed? No. He took the superintendent's chair up on the dais and sat therein -- master of all he surveyed. When Superintendent Cortines returned another chair had to be found for him.

• Fifty new schools, financed by $20 billion+ in public financing - schools the taxpayers are about to get higher tax bills for - are to be up for grabs. Charter operators? Mayor's Partnership? Jiffy Lube? C'mon down!*
• As an afterthought - or perhaps a 'leftover' - two hundred existing underperforming schools were added to the mix of schools up for grabs.

It remains to be seen how interested outside operators will be in taking over those "Program Improvement " schools in light of the Mayor's Partnership's record at his ten schools …and that of Green Dot at Locke.

The promise of 'Choice' in the resolution is the resolution is illusory. The charter school model  (parents choose their child's school) is incompatible with the neighborhood school model (all students attend their local school per attendance catchment areas). The lesson of the Belmont Zone of Choice (open enrollment within a greater geographic area) has apparently been lost completely. The YFA resolution commits the District to continue attendance area boundaries - if anything perpetuating lack-of-choice.

The Board of Ed chooses between operators who choose to apply. Yes, the resolution promises to involve parents and teachers and the community in the decision making process - but their role is advisory. The superintendent recommends; the Board of Ed decides. Who's 'Choice' is that?  How many 6 to 1 votes will it take before we realize what's going on?

I suppose operators get to choose whether to honor collective bargaining agreements; under some interpretations of the plan they may get to choose which education standards and provisions of the Ed Code they choose to observe.

Bill Ring, in last week's 4LAKids wrote: "…. true public school choice means I have a choice as a parent as to the school my child will attend."

"Me."

"I choose."

Bill wasn't allowed into the Boardroom Tuesday. There wasn't room for him. Or maybe his radical ideas.

Three speakers spoke extraordinary Truth to Power Tuesday afternoon:

Jackie Goldberg, the liberal lioness of L.A. politics presented the actual bond language of the five school construction bonds to the board. It may be language previous boards wrote but is nonetheless binding on this board because it was enacted overwhelming by the voters. "If this resolution passes," Ms Goldberg warned, "Have no doubt. You will be sued!"

Boardmember La Motte posed a couple of good questions but in the end questioned the Board's authority to give up any schools to anyone, citing the California Constitution, Article IX, §6, ¶3: "No school or college or any other part of the Public School System shall be, directly or indirectly, transferred from the Public School System or placed under the jurisdiction of any authority other than one included within the Public School System."

And Boardmember Zimmer - almost a tragic figure - spoke of his anguish, disputing the process and the outcome - bemoaning the raw politics and threats made against him by both sides. Decrying the fact that the fight was about the fight and the color of the t-shirts - not about the kids. Ultimately Zimmer held his nose and voted yes - in order, he said, to be at the table in the future.

Ms LaMotte retorted that she was not voting for it and she would be at the table too ...because that's what the people elected her to do.

As for Winners and Losers…

The parents in the light blue t-shirts, paid for by the mayor and Green Dot celebrated their victory and filed back onto the buses that bused them in.

As Jackie Goldberg said three years ago in the fight against Plan A, when adults fight with adults over adult issues it is always the kids who lose.

---

* OK, Jiffy Lube, a for-profit corporation is excluded. But the Jiffy Lube Educational Foundation? C'mon down!

A LEADERSHIP CHANGE AT THE LAUSD

 

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC Public Radio

December 31, 2008
Listen

These last days of the year are also the last days on the job for L.A. Unified Superintendent David Brewer. He leaves his position almost two years before his contract is up. Earlier this month, most of the school board voted to buy out the remaining time on his contract. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez examines Brewer's record.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Retired vice admiral David Brewer made his first public appearance as L.A. Unified's new superintendent just over two years ago.

David Brewer: Well good morning. I am glad to be in L.A. I think Los Angeles is a fabulous city. My wife and I spent many, many, many days, weeks in this great city. And I'm looking forward to joining you in educating the children of Los Angeles Unified School District.

Guzman-Lopez: Brewer's predecessor, former Colorado governor Roy Romer, had retired a victorious general. Romer had helped to improve elementary school reading scores and to lead a major school construction program. At Brewer's first official meeting, then-board member David Tokofsky projected even higher expectations.

David Tokofsky: There's so much in our children that can be unleashed into great, imaginative, high levels of success. I know you're the exact person we've been looking for to take that energy from our children and transform this entire district and this entire county into a global moment.

Guzman-Lopez: Brewer, in response, expressed his eagerness to fulfill those hopes.

Brewer: I spent 36 years fighting that foreign enemy. I'm now here to fight that domestic enemy. As crime, ignorance, and poverty, and that's what I'm here for.

Guzman-Lopez: But Brewer remained an outsider to Southland educators and civic leaders. In one of his first acts, Brewer met privately at a Huntington Park Mexican restaurant with the mayors of southeast L.A. County cities served by L.A. Unified. He promised to listen and act on their concerns. Many district students and their parents are Spanish-speakers. Brewer pledged to become one, too.

Brewer: My wife has already told me, "You will learn Spanish, Brewer." I will.

Guzman-Lopez: His most critical meeting followed, with L.A.'s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. For more than a year Villaraigosa had lobbied for an official role in school district administration.

L.A. Unified's board appointed Brewer without the mayor's consultation. Despite that, Brewer predicted both men would join forces for the sake of the schools.

Brewer: What the first thing the mayor's going to find out is that I'm his man in terms of partnering. He's going to find out we have a lot in common. And that means that I am interested in educating these children.

Guzman-Lopez: The two met and praised one another after some very public initial meetings. Then, their talks tapered off. At the time, Villaraigosa was busy moving to unseat board members who'd appointed Brewer.

That worked – three school board candidates buoyed by the mayor's endorsements and fundraising power won seats to create a Villaraigosa-endorsed majority at L.A. Unified. Pomona College politics professor David Menefee Libey said the new board clouded Brewer's future prospects.

David Menefee Libey: He was in an impossible situation where he was brought in to be superintendent during, by a board that was in conflict with the mayor and not given a clear set of expectations and standards he could measure his performance by.

Guzman-Lopez: Menefee Libey said Brewer was capable. He continued a push for high school reform and higher graduation rates. L.A. Unified test scores did climb higher than the state average. School district administration has been in a state of crisis for years, Menefee Libey said, and that's led to low public confidence.

Problems with the district's new payroll system sunk that confidence even lower. It took more than six months for the flood of paycheck mistakes to slow to a trickle.

African-American leaders who'd supported Brewer began to express concerns about his effectiveness. This year, a week after Thanksgiving, school board president Monica Garcia moved to oust Brewer. He suggested at first that he'd fight the move – but then he turned an about-face.

Brewer: I am asking the Los Angeles school board to shield our students from this contentious debate and honor the buyout provisions of my contract.

Guzman-Lopez: The board bought out Brewer's contract for about half-a-million dollars – and in his place appointed veteran schools leader and Villaraigosa ally Ramon Cortines to a three-year term.

Board president Garcia suggested that she and her colleagues need to establish clearer expectations for Brewer's replacement.

Monica Garcia: Looking forward, there's absolutely, accountability is with all leadership of the district. And being clear on goals and roles is something that we all have work through. Change is necessary throughout our organization and that includes the board of education.

Guzman-Lopez: That strikes some education observers as the same flowery language of high expectations the board would roll out like a red carpet for any new superintendent. Ramon Cortines will walk that path starting New Year's Day, in the hope that he can transform L.A. Unified.

2 from The Wave: BREWER’S FORCED EXIT STUNS BLACK EDUCATORS + RUSH TO REMOVE: ANOTHER TAKE ON THE BREWER EXIT

 

- Photo by Gary McCarthy

Brewer's forced exit stuns Black educators

The impending departure of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer leaves only 13 Black superintendents in school districts across California, down from 23 in 2007.

Five black supes have lost their jobs in the past eight weeks.

By OLU ALEMORU, Staff Writer  Los Angeles Wave Newspapers

As L.A. school board moves to oust superintendent, African-Americans wonder how big a factor race will play in charting the district's future.

11.DEC.08 -- A group representing Black school superintendents in California has criticized the actions of the Los Angeles Unified School District school board, after it effectively fired Supt. David L. Brewer III on Monday by voting to buy out the remaining two years of his contract.

Dwight Bonds, acting executive director of the California Association of African-American Superintendents, reacted with “disappointment” to the news after a week of heated speculation over Brewer’s future. “We were pleased with the process he was making,” said Bonds, “especially in test scores and other areas of growth — particularly in African-American male improvement.”

In an interview, Bonds also voiced concerns about a recent decline in the number of Black superintendents across the state. He said five have lost their jobs in the past eight weeks, leaving only 13 in place, compared to 23 in 2007.

“So, our challenge and mission,” he said, “is to garner support for our members and make sure we are continued to be represented within the 1,140 school districts within California.”

The LAUSD board met behind closed doors for over two hours before announcing it had voted 5-2 in support of the $500,000 buyout, which included an annual salary of $300,000, $45,000 a year in expenses and a $3,000 a month housing allowance. Board members Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and Julie Korenstein were the dissenting votes.

“I do not believe that a buyout of $500,000 during a budget crisis was appropriate,” said Korenstein in a statement. “We are in the worst possible times, and we’re going to have to cut millions of dollars and positions, and I believe this was a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

LaMotte declined “to comment at this time.”

“I serve at the pleasure of the Los Angeles Board of Education,” Brewer said in a statement after the vote. “I plan to continue my role until Dec. 31. No matter what happens next, I will remain a champion for the children, teachers and staff of the LAUSD.”

The 62-year-old former U.S. Navy vice admiral had vowed last week to stay on the job in the wake of a plan to discuss buying out his contract two weeks ago. However, LaMotte, the only African-American member of the board, forestalled proceedings when she refused to return from a previously scheduled education conference in San Diego.

But Monday, he announced that even though things had improved under his leadership, he would accept a buyout in order to avoid a racially charged confrontation with the school board, whose president — one of his most vocal detractors — is Latina. Some have speculated that racial considerations were key to the board’s desire to fire Brewer and replace him, at least temporarily, with Deputy Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

“We have a lot of work to do,” said board President Monica Garcia, who had also thanked Brewer for his hard work and dedication. “The district is facing the worst financial outlook in 20 years.”

In a Tuesday morning television interview on KTLA, a defiant Brewer described the buyout as “an ouster” and admonished “the press to do your job.”

“Student achievement went up dramatically,” he said.

Second District County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who sat on a special selection committee that helped choose Brewer for the job in 2006, said he took “ownership” of that decision but wouldn’t draw any racial implications.

“It wasn’t working out, and they mutually agreed that severance was appropriate,” he said. “It’s back to the drawing board and they need to open up another search and try to get it right. LAUSD needs a leader of credibility to bring the enterprise of public education to the L.A. region in a significant way.”

 

Rush to Remove: Another Take on the Brewer Exit

By BETTY PLEASANT, Contributing Editor the WAVE Newspapers. 11.DEC.08Soulvine  Betty Pleasant writes Soulvine for THEWAVE

11 Dec 2008 — What happened to LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer wasn’t so much racist as it was a naked power play on the part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who never liked Brewer from jump street.

He never liked him because he wasn’t his.

This wasn’t the first time an ambitious Los Angeles mayor orchestrated the ouster of the superintendent of schools: Mayor Richard Riordan commanded then-school board President Genethia Hayes to get rid of Superintendent Ruben Zacarias in 1999 and now nine years later, Villaraigosa’s handmaiden, school board President Monica Garcia, carried out her assignment to do the same to Brewer, with Villaraigosa’s toxic water-carrier, former Councilman Richard Alatorre, aiding and abetting the whole mess. (Remember the firing of Franklin White as the CEO of the M TA in 1995? Remind you of anything you see today?)

The school board names have changed, but the purported issues remain the same — “the need to improve the quality of education dispensed by the Los Angeles Unified School District.” That’s what Riordan, Hayes, et al. said then, and that’s what Villaraigosa, Garcia, Alatorre, et al. are saying now.

But the real issue is power. Brewer had the misfortune of being hired by a school board which was in a bitter fight with Villaraigosa over who would run the school district — the board or the mayor — so the mayor did what politicians do best: He politicized the school district, bought himself a school board and assumed the power over everyone except Brewer. Villaraigosa wanted very much to oust Brewer, but he couldn’t.

Until recently, the mayor had a potential formidable rival to his bid for re-election in the form of former Police Commission President Rick Caruso. Villaraigosa had to have known that if he caused Brewer’s removal, he would trigger an instant replay of what happened to former Mayor James Hahn when he fired then-Police Chief Bernard Parks. Black people would elect Caruso, just like Black people elected Villaraigosa.

But, Caruso decided not to run for mayor, thus freeing Villaraigosa to rid himself of Brewer with little concern about a racial backlash, since he has no viable competition in his re-election race. Well, absent a nice big backlash, the only thing for those of us to do who are uncomfortable about what happened this week is to vigorous repudiate assertions that Brewer hasn’t done anything during his two years as school superintendent, as the data begs to differ.

According to LAUSD’s own reports, the academic performance of the district’s elementary school pupils was noticeably improving during the six years Roy Romer served as superintendent, but middle and high school students struggled. That is where Brewer put his emphasis and it showed, as API scores rose 74 points in the middle schools and 62 points in the high schools under Brewer. Nearly 70 elementary schools made gains of 40 or more points on the API last year, with 122nd Street School making the greatest progress — 70 points.

Jefferson High School made the greatest improvement among high schools with a 60-point gain, and Dorsey also showed strong improvement with a 30-point increase. Standardized test scores went up in the double digits at every level last year, as the district’s overall progress outpaced every other public school district in California.

Brewer’s detractors admit these successes, but they say Brewer had nothing to do with them. Nonsense! He’s the head of the joint! It’s his tenure, his leadership and all that that entails. That’s like saying when the nation’s economy starts to improve, President Barack Obama will have had nothing to do with it!

In Brewer’s two years on the job, he has dealt with round after round of devastating budget cuts, which caused LAUSD to lose $800 million this year, a total that would easily result in school closures in other districts. Yet, no LAUSD school has closed; no teachers have been sent home, no children have been put on the street. The district eliminated 650 positions at its Beaudry headquarters and managed to keep the cuts out of the classroom. When it comes to leadership, this ought to count for something.

But I reiterate, Brewer’s ouster is not about his job performance, his management style or the academic performance of the students. It’s about that old bugaboo: political power.

Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree with Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s proposal to seek a change in the City Charter allowing the superintendent of schools to be elected by the people rather than being hired by the board of education and manipulated by the mayor.  

This article also appeared in LA CityWatch Dec 12

Steve Lopez: MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA, RECESS IS OVER ON L.A. SCHOOLS REFORM.

 

 

Steve Lopez: Points West | Los Angeles Times

December 10, 2008 -- Back when he was running for mayor of Los Angeles and calling education the No. 1 issue in the city, Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign put out a news release chiding his opponent for not being more involved with the schools.

The headline was:

"Jimmy Hahn, Please Report to the Principal's Office."

No one can dispute that Villaraigosa has been more involved in the schools, but somebody needs to call Tony V. into the principal's office too.

If I were to fill out Villaraigosa's report card on his role in education, I'm not sure whether I'd give him a C, a D-plus, or an Incomplete.

On the up side, the mayor had his fingerprints all over the ouster this week of slow-moving Supt. David L. Brewer, a retired Navy vice admiral, so we owe him a debt of gratitude. It seems a little sneaky that he left the dirty work to Monica Garcia, the school board president he helped get into office, but I guess you can understand why he didn't want to rile black voters who supported Brewer.

The bigger question, though, is this: How did we get stuck with Brewer in the first place, and end up giving him an early Christmas present -- a minimum $517,500 an buyout?

In part, because of Villaraigosa's clumsy politics.

Back in 2005 and 2006, Mr. Smooth got out a megaphone and screamed that L.A. Unified was failing miserably, despite improvements under then-Supt. Roy Romer. For the sake of the children, Villaraigosa blared, he had no choice but to take over the district. Not that he had any jurisdiction or experience, but that's a crumb of a concern for a man of Villaraigosa's appetites, especially with the usual heavyweight suspects -- Eli Broad and Dick Riordan -- cheering him on.

And so Tonio rammed a piece of sloppy legislation through Sacramento, giving him extraordinary new powers. A judge eventually tossed out the legislation. But the school board didn't wait for the ruling.

Racing to beat the mayor's possible takeover, the board quickly named a surprise-pick superintendent. In a neat trick, the announcement came just as Villaraigosa hit the ground in Asia on a trade mission.

Operating behind a news blackout over at the Beaudry Avenue Kremlin, our heroes had gone with a recommendation from former state senator and current county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, among others.

Welcome to Los Angeles, retired Vice Adm. Brewer.

No education experience?

No problem. Glad to have you aboard.

And now, two years later, Brewer walks the plank after barely getting the ship out of the docks.

Before I move on, though, let's look back on a great moment from the conspiracy to dump the vice admiral.

I'm talking about the day when Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, was chasing fellow board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte to Union Station, where the latter was boarding a train for a meeting in San Diego.

Garcia had realized it might look bad to dump Brewer while LaMotte, the one black board member, was absent. So she sped over to the train station along with a trusty aide, hoping to stop LaMotte before the train whistle blew. The aide was apparently the quicker of the two, even in high heels. She valiantly gave chase but reached the platform just as the doors of the train were closing. I have only one complaint. At a time when everything's captured on video and ends up on YouTube, why not this? So here's where we stand:

Villaraigosa ally and capable Senior Deputy Supt. Ray Cortines appears ready to take the helm, at least on an interim basis. And for the time being, Villaraigosa still pulls strings on the board. (Although he appears to have lost one potential ally on Tuesday. In a perfectly bizarro twist, his presumed candidate for one open seat, the reform-minded Ben Austin, didn't qualify for the ballot because -- are you ready for this one? -- his signature-collection company gathered its John Hancocks in the wrong neighborhood.)

As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, now is the time for Villaraigosa to come out from behind the curtain and show us what he had in mind when he insisted three years ago that he could do a better job running the schools.

He doesn't have the direct control enjoyed by the mayors of New York and Chicago, but with Cortines in charge and the board on his side -- at least for now -- he's running out of people to blame for anything less than dramatic reforms and improvements.

So what should he do?

"The advantage the mayor has is a really good bully pulpit," said Charles Kerchner, who wrote a book called "Learning From L.A., Institutional Change in American Public Education."

Kerchner said the district needs to move toward a collection of mini-districts with many different teaching models available to parents and their children. His co-author, David J. Menefee-Libey, said funding shortages and Sacramento-based control of schools are daunting challenges, along with the vast number of poor and language-deficient L.A. students.

But if Villaraigosa has a strength, it's his ability to bring different parties to the problem-solving table, including legislators, parents, administrators, the teachers union and the business community.

"If anybody could pull a civic association together, he would be the guy to do it," Menefee-Libey said.

I stopped by Roosevelt High School on Tuesday morning to see how things were going on one of the 10 campuses Villaraigosa took control of earlier this year in a deal with the district. Too early to tell, I was told by the principal and teachers. But they also told me there's plenty of frustration, and some flagging faith, over the slow rate of change.

Slow change is unacceptable from a guy who talked such a big game.

Get moving, Tony V., or prepare to report to the principal's office.

COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER OUSTED + LOS ANGELES COUNTY JUVENILE PROBATION CAMPS MAY TRY CHARTER SCHOOLS

 

STOP PRESS: The following email is from former LA County Board of Education Member Sophia Waugh, who was presumably ousted last Tuesday as part of what appears to be the attempted charter takeover of County Juvenile Court Schools.

November 24th, 2008

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This letter is sent with sad news and deep disappointment that my 14 ½ years on the L.A County Board of Education came to an abrupt end by action taken in closed session last Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

This action was brought forward by Supervisor Antonovich (who appointed me).

Unfortunately, Supervisor Antonovich never gave me the opportunity to speak with him about his concerns despite my requests to do so or to the Board of Supervisors. Needless to say, I felt this was unfair, shocking and very hurtful after serving as his appointee for 14 ½ years.

Whatever the issues were I wanted to resolve them with him personally.

There are few things that I particularly want my friends and colleagues to know how proud I am for the things I have accomplished the past 14 1/2 years.

First, I have served on state-wide leadership positions with California County Boards of Education(CCBE)and California School Boards Association(CSBA). I have effectively networked linking LACOE with school district board members.

My tireless efforts encouraging collaboration between parents, principals, administration and probation has been successful. I have made myself available to all our LACOE staff, understanding our resources and programs, attended many meetings, visiting our community schools, special education schools, camps and halls often as possible.

I am proud of the role I played in the chartering of PTA models in our community schools, camps and halls.

We used the most successful avenue to connect our parents back to their children education and school.

My commitment to our Head Start parents has been to empower them to be a voice for their children, to ensure a strong Head Start program and to a successful transition for their children into K-12 education. I have encouraged Head Start parents to further their education so they can be self-sufficient and a model for their children.

Most important of all, I am thankful having had the opportunity to work with each of you. As two of my colleagues said to me; “as one door closes, another is waiting for me to open”. I am sure there are other greater challenges awaiting me and I look at this as another opportunity to serve.

My tenure on the LACOE Board has been exemplary and gratifying.

To each and everyone, thank you so much for your friendship, you will always be remembered.

 

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY JUVENILE PROBATION CAMPS MAY TRY CHARTER SCHOOLS

Dissatisfied with the students' performance, county supervisors vote to create three charters within the system. Camp teachers question whether the shift would bring improvement in students' skills.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske | LA Times Staff Writer

November 24, 2008  - Students held at Camp Joseph Scott, one of 19 juvenile probation camps in Los Angeles County, are some of the toughest to teach.
Locked in classrooms behind 12-foot fences topped with razor wire, many of the girls sport tattoos with the emblems of some of the region's most infamous gangs. Although most are high-school students, on average they read at a fourth-grade level and have fifth-grade math skills.

Photos: Camp school

 

Karen Berns has taught math there for 15 years. Over time, she learned to be vigilant. At the end of each class, Berns collects the girls' pencils. Otherwise, they might use them as weapons.

"I got my experience from years of teaching with these kids," said Berns, 55, who is known as "Granny" to her students. "It takes a long time to get that."

Now, the veteran teacher's future at the camp is uncertain. Earlier this month, Los Angeles County supervisors -- dissatisfied with teacher performance at the camps -- voted to create charter schools at Camp Scott, which houses about 100 girls, and nearby Camp Kenyon Scudder, which houses about 60.

Supervisors also approved a charter for boys, possibly at Camp Glenn Rockey in San Dimas, which houses about 80.

"All of these kids who are in camp now get the same model of education: the cookie-cutter model," Robert Taylor, Los Angeles County probation chief, told supervisors when he presented them with a 35-point plan to improve education at the camps last month.

But there are many unanswered questions -- including how much the charters will cost to operate and how they will be authorized and staffed. Among the options under consideration for operating the charters: Green Dot, a private company that runs several charters in Los Angeles, and Bonita Unified School District in San Dimas.

The charters would be the first in the county camp system. Education at the camps is supervised by the county Board of Education and managed by the state-funded Los Angeles County Office of Education. The office employs about 240 teachers, who average about 19 years of experience, according to state records.

Many teachers at the camps oppose the change, arguing that the switch to charters is an excuse for the county to hire cheaper, less-experienced, nonunion staff.

"I am proud of the instruction provided," said Darline P. Robles, superintendent of the county education office. "At the heart of these programs is a corps of teachers who are dedicated to making a difference with an incredibly challenging group of students in perhaps the most difficult of learning environments."

By law, school boards, not county governments, are responsible for authorizing charters. Once a charter is designed, including a proposed budget and staff, by law the board is required to get the signatures of at least half the number of teachers needed to staff the charter. If not enough teachers sign on, the board or county could petition the state for a waiver to start the charter, a move the county probation chief and supervisors are already exploring.

Supervisor Don Knabe, who backs bringing charter schools to the camps, says administrators and teachers with the county education office have been underperforming for years and need to be challenged.

"You need to have multiple educational opportunities for these kids," Knabe said.

On state tests, students scored below those in county-run probation schools in nearby counties. Last year, 21% passed a state high school exit exam in math, compared with 35% in Riverside County and 25% in San Bernardino County. In English exit exams last year, 24% passed, compared with 34% in Riverside and 28% in San Bernardino.

The most recent state assessment of the L.A. County-run schools, conducted in 2006-07, showed students completed about 5.2 credits a month, which is considered less than sufficient.

The push to improve education in the camps comes as the county juvenile detention system also faces increased pressure by federal Justice Department officials to improve safety. A scathing report on safety conditions by federal investigators, and a threat by the Justice Department to sue if the county failed to act, spurred the Board of Supervisors last week to announce plans to hire a team of independent monitors for the camps.

A committee made up of probation and county education office officials is reviewing charter plans this month, starting with the girls school, which could open within six months, Taylor said. The boys charter is not expected to open for a year, he said. Taylor is to report back to the board with a more detailed plan by Dec. 14.

Although many charter schools teach at-risk and violent youths, few instruct youths who are in detention, according to the California Charter Schools Assn. One that does is Five Keys Charter School, which the San Francisco Sheriff's Department started six years ago. The school says students enrolled there for at least a month increase academic levels by about two grades.

Some veteran teachers at Los Angeles probation camps say that if a charter school can demonstrate results, they would be willing to make the shift. But they question whether that would happen.

"We're dealing with a whole new breed of kids. These are gang kids. Tough kids," said Roger Gitlin, a union representative at Camp Scudder who has taught probationers for 18 years and opposes the charters. "Many of them have never even gone to school, kids who are born into a tough situation, and we are supposed to provide some sort of miracle formula."

Still, Gitlin said: "I understand Mr. Knabe's frustration. He wants results."

 

●●smf’s 2¢: embarrassingly. the overwhelming majority of LA County court school students are from LAUSD. 4LAKids is confused by what authority the Board of Supervisors creates these charter schools – that authority resides in the county and state Boards of Education exclusively. This action seems to violate the same constitutional provision violated in LAUSD v. Villaraigosa over AB1381 [STATE CONSTITUTION ARTICLE IX, SECTIONS 5, 6 AND 8 – dealing with the separation of municipal government from school governance.]   

And who is the charter petitioner?  The parents of the “new” charter schools? …or the teachers at the existing schools?

UPDATE: THE APPEAL ON AB 1381 MENDOZA v. STATE OF CALIFORNIA

The hearing in the court of appeal is scheduled for Monday, April 2, at 9:30 a.m.
The court of appeal is located in the Ronald Reagan State Office Building on the third floor, at 300 S. Spring Street in LA. [MAP]

The appeal will be heard by a three-judge panel.

This time the mayor's (Appellant's) side will get to go first and last; the Respondents go in the middle. It will be similar to the trial court hearing, although somewhat more formal. This is the only action on the court's calendar, it will probably start right away.

The plaintiffs believe we have the facts and the law on our side - we are confident that the action was decided correctly in the Superior Court and in the strengths of our argument and our legal team. We understand that the law is a surprising thing and that our adversaries are strong and capable of the unexpected.

The issues haven't changed much since the trial court, but we'll just have to see how it goes. - smf

Links and more:

Case Summary Docket Scheduled Actions Briefs
Disposition Parties and Attorneys Trial Court

Case Summary

rial Court Case:	BS105481
Court of Appeal Case:	B195835		Supreme Court Case: S149380
Division:	3
Case Caption:	Los Angeles Unified School District et al. v. Hon. Antonio Villaraigosa et al.
Case Type:	Civil
Filing Date:	12/22/2006
Oral Argument Date/Time:	04/02/2007 09:30 AM

Click here to request automatic e-mail notifications about this case.

CA Supreme Court says "No thanks" on AB 1381

Feb 7 - 4LAKidsNews - The Supreme Court denied the Mayor's Petition to Transfer today - apparently they don't think the case is as important or urgent as we all do!

This means that the case continues on an expedited schedule in the Court of Appeal; the case will be heard there on April 2^nd.

According to a one line posting in the Supreme Court of California Conference Results for 2/7/2007, posted on the Supreme Court website (www.courtinfo.ca.gov) on 2/7/2007: The petition to transfer (to skip the court of appeal and have the case heard directly by the Supreme Court on an expedited basis) in MENDOZA, ET AL v. STATE OF CALIFORNIA – where the Superior Court threw out AB 1381 giving the Mayor of Los Angeles governance authority over LAUSD [case # S149380 CA# B195835] is DENIED. - smf

UPDATE: High court denies quick ruling on L.A. Unified takeover

By Maura Dolan, LA Times Staff Writer

February 8, 2007 - The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to immediately review a ruling that has prevented Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa from taking partial control of the Los Angeles school district.

The state high court's decision means the school district's challenge of mayoral control will remain before the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. That court will hear arguments in early April and probably decide the case 30 to 60 days later.

Villaraigosa had sought to bypass the appeals court in hopes of expediting the case and winning a ruling that would uphold a state law giving him significant authority over schools. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs struck down the law in December.

The state high court rarely takes cases until they have been argued before an intermediate appeals court.

Fred Woocher, a lawyer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the district did not oppose state high court review but was "definitely not upset" about the delay. The eventual ruling by the appeals court is expected to be challenged, and the Supreme Court will have to decide once again whether to review the case.

PLAINTIFFS JOIN REQUEST TO HAVE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT HEAR APPEAL OF AB 1381

January 18, 2007

NEWS RELEASE
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone: (213) 241-6387
FAX: (213) 241-8453
www.lausd.net

PLAINTIFFS JOIN REQUEST TO HAVE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT
HEAR APPEAL OF AB 1381

LOS ANGELES – The coalition of plaintiffs, which includes parents, teachers, organizations and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other defendants in requesting the California Supreme Court to hear the appeal of Assembly Bill 1381 and bypass the lower appeals court.

“Having the California Supreme Court make the final determination on AB 1381 will allow everyone to focus on the real and important work of improving outcomes for LAUSD students," said Marlene Canter, President of LAUSD’s Board of Education. She continued, “Our students and parents are the ones who are harmed by the uncertainty in resolving this dispute. They deserve to have final resolution of these issues.”

Kevin Reed, LAUSD’s General Counsel, noted that “while the winning party in the trial court often seeks to delay the appeal process, we are confident that the Supreme Court -- which is the court with the ultimately authority in this dispute -- will agree with the trial court and so we are urging them to take the case now, rather than to await an intermediate appellate court decision.”

AB 1381 was set to go into effect January 1, 2007 until it was ruled unconstitutional in December 2006 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra I. Janavs. Last week, Janavs denied Villaraigosa's request to implement portions of the legislation while the case goes through the appeals process.

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