LAUSD TEACHERS TOP NATION IN NUMBER OF NEW NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFIED TEACHERS.

Rose ceremony at UTLA honors the 189 educators achieving the prestigious distinction this year.

From the UTLA United Teacher | http://bit.ly/tURMBw

Dec 16, 2011 :: For the first time, LAUSD teachers have outpaced educators across the nation in the number of candidates achieving National Board certification.

With 189 successful candidates this year, the District topped the number of all schools district nationwide—and even beat most states’ overall totals.

UTLA honored the new NBCTs at our annual Rose Ceremony at LAUSD headquarters on December 8, where teachers celebrated with family and colleagues and reflected back on the many months they spent working on certification.

Calling the process a “roller coaster ride,” Fulbright Elementary teacher Laura Garcia said that the process made her try new teaching styles and think in-depth about how to reach her students.

“Going for certification has always been one of my longtime goals because I wanted to challenge myself as a teacher,” Garcia said. “I consider myself a lifelong learner. Whether I had been successful or not [in achieving certification] it made me a better teacher.” Allesandro Elementary teacher Carolina Romero, who was inspired by colleagues at her school who had gone through certification, said that the intensive National Board process lived up to her expectations.

“It is highly reflective,” Romero said. “You focus on a series of questions that you constantly ask yourself: How will this help my students be successful? How is this relevant? Why are they learning this?” National Board Certification is a voluntary assessment program designed to recognize and reward accomplished teachers. Like board-certified doctors and accountants, teachers who achieve National Board Certification have met rigorous standards through intensive study, expert evaluation, selfassessment, and peer review. The work amounts to 200 to 400 hours on top of an already full teaching load, and many candidates take two to three years to achieve certification.

More than 2,000 teachers have become National Board certified while working in LAUSD—the largest number of any school district in California and one of the highest totals in the nation. LAUSD also has one of the most diverse populations of NBCTs in the country.

To help them through the certification process, many LAUSD candidates join the Support Network, a joint UTLALAUSD program that offers facilitated workshops and peer support. It is the largest union-supported program of its kind in the country.

Susie Chow, who heads the Support Network, is especially gratified that UTLA members continue to lead the way in pursuing certification.

“It’s the most valid, reliable assessment out there because it assess teachers’ pedagogy and content knowledge,” Chow said. “Because it is so reflective, it cannot help but be a model to help us grow in our profession.” In a congressionally mandated study by the National Research Council, National Board Certification was recognized as having a positive impact on student achievement, teacher retention, and professional development. Successful LAUSD candidates receive a 15 percent salary increase (for which they must work an additional 92 hours a year), a benefit negotiated by UTLA to encourage accomplished educators to stay in the classroom.

FEWER CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS KEEP LIBRARIANS ON STAFF + Three research studies

by Eleanor Yang Su | California Watch | http://bit.ly/ts0gw4

¿DATA OR ANECDOTE? “You have to make choices sometimes, and the importance of librarians is a bit less than it used to be. In the elementary grades especially, librarians are essentially teachers' aides, doing a variety of things that have little to do with books or literacy, per se.”	¿MY INFO OR YOUR INFO? “There is a body of research growing every day that if you have a teacher-librarian working with classroom teachers, student achievement is higher. If (school libraries)  evolve, they’ll survive. Some librarians are using every possible technological device with students.These are pretty exciting times in school libraries and public libraries.”
Ze’ev Wurman, a a software developer in the field of programmable logic -- participated in the development of California education standards and served as a policy adviser for the U.S. Department of Education.	Barbara Jeffus, the state Department of Education’s school librarian consultant.

 

December 2, 2011 | Fewer than 1 out of 4 schools in California is staffed with a credentialed librarian, according to the state Department of Education.

Recent figures compiled by the department show there are about 900 school librarians in the state – that’s down from more than 1,100 two years ago.

kali9/istockphoto.com>>

From Los Angeles to San Mateo and Fullerton, school districts have cut librarian positions this year to cope with state budget cuts. Increasing numbers of schools are splitting one librarian between multiple campuses or relying on clerical aids or parent volunteers to keep the doors open.

Library advocates say students are the ones harmed when they don’t have trained librarians who can teach research techniques and turn them on to a love of reading. Others question whether technological advances and the ease of conducting research online have made librarians less essential.

Diane Alexander took early retirement last year because she thought she would have been spread too thin as the sole librarian for three high schools.

“If you have that many students to serve, you’re not really serving them,” said Alexander, who also is president of the California School Library Association. Her district, the Liberty Union High School District in Contra Costa County, cut positions to one librarian and three clerks to manage three high school libraries. “They expected me to be that person, but I didn’t feel like I could do an adequate job. It was so disturbing.”

But in this austere period, some wonder whether schools can afford to retain librarians as teachers and nurses are laid off.

“You have to make choices sometimes, and the importance of librarians is a bit less than it used to be,” said Ze’ev Wurman, a Silicon Valley executive who participated in the development of California education standards and served as a policy adviser for the U.S. Department of Education. “In the elementary grades especially, librarians are essentially teachers' aides, doing a variety of things that have little to do with books or literacy, per se.”

Teachers, not librarians, are the ones who have to respond to research questions that arise in class, Wurman argued in a recent New York Times opinion piece. He believes that access to books is not a problem, citing a 2009 report [PDF] by the U.S. Department of Education that showed schools that received grants for their libraries showed almost no increase in the amount of materials checked out.

In California, school librarians are called teacher-librarians because they must earn both credentials. Alexander said she helped develop lessons with teachers and hosted classes in the library virtually every class period. Sometimes, she’d host two classes at once.

When teaching an English class about research projects, she’d often pull contemporary books with common themes, show students how to use databases, and explain copyright issues and source citing. When she had a spare minute, she would suggest good books to challenge a voracious reader or reach out to a struggling student.

“We’re the ones who know the current books,” Alexander said. “It can make a huge difference if you can hook a kid onto reading.”

The benefits of a trained librarian go beyond helping with reading and research, said Barbara Jeffus, the state Department of Education’s school librarian consultant.

“There is a body of research growing every day that if you have a teacher-librarian working with classroom teachers, student achievement is higher,” she said.

Jeffus pointed to a paper published in 2008 by a University of North Texas researcher (follows) who found a correlation between California schools with devoted librarians and students with higher test scores. The study controlled for some income-related factors, including the level of education of the students’ parents and the proportion of students receiving free and reduced-price lunch. The strongest pattern was found in high school students, where higher test scores correlated with the extent of the library services offered.

Some districts have been able to maintain funding for libraries, typically by passing flat-rate parcel taxes. But as a whole, California ranks last in the country for its student-to-librarian ratio, according to the state Department of Education.

So will it get to the point that California school libraries will shut their doors? Jeffus doesn’t think so.

“If they evolve, they’ll survive,” she said. “Some librarians are using every possible technological device with students. … These are pretty exciting times in school libraries and public libraries.”

2011 School Library Impact Study HAVES, HALVES, AND HAVE-NOTS: SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN CALIFORNIA Library of the Future - LAUSD Case Study

L.A. UNIFIED SUES CITY OVER CONTAMINATION AT TAYLOR YARDS HIGH SCHOOL + smf’s 2¢

The district says solvents and other chemicals seeped from city-owned land onto the Taylor Yard campus, which is nearing completion.

L.A. Unified is nearly finished building the 2,295-seat Central Region High School No. 13. It borders the L.A. River in the Taylor Yard area northeast of downtown. (Gary Friedman, Los Angeles Times / April 20, 2011)

By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/jAPE75

  May 1, 2011, 5:14 p.m. - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been a constant salesman on the topic of public schools, pushing for reforms, helping elect new school board members and raising millions of dollars for local campuses.

But those efforts didn't stop school board members, including some who were elected with the mayor's help, from taking City Hall to court over a contaminated campus in Glassell Park.

<<GRAPHIC:  New high school in Glassell Park

The Los Angeles Unified School District filed the federal lawsuit earlier this year, alleging that solvents and other hazardous substances at an empty city-owned lot seeped into the soil at a 2,295-seat high school being built next to the Los Angeles River.

The case presents the latest twist in the history of the $239-million project in the Taylor Yard area northeast of downtown.

In 2005, when school officials were negotiating to buy the property, a real estate developer swooped in and purchased it. That led to a lawsuit that ended when the district paid Meruelo Maddux Properties, headed by developer Richard Meruelo, a settlement of $50 million, considerably more than he had paid for the site.

With the school now only months from opening, the district is calling on the city to hand over $4 million, the amount it spent to remove contaminated soil from the campus.

L.A. Unified lawyer Michelle Meghrouni said the school board voted 5 to 0 to bring the lawsuit, which was designed to get the city's attention after negotiations stalled. "It's in their court now," she said.

Lawyers with City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's office contend that the city has no responsibility for the district's cleanup. Just the fact that the lawsuit was filed drew the ire of City Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents the Glassell Park neighborhood where the school is being built.

Reyes said the two sides should have resolved their issues without having to retain expensive lawyers, some of whom are being paid $330 an hour by the district.

"I'm disappointed because we should be working together. We're serving the same constituents," he said. "I feel like I'm being blindsided."

Villaraigosa, who made his partnership with L.A. Unified the centerpiece of his recent State of the City speech, said he hoped the two sides could resolve the dispute. His spokeswoman, Sarah Hamilton, said the mayor received a memo on the lawsuit in January but would not comment further.

With 85 classrooms, the new school building — known as Central Region High School No. 13 — is going up on a stretch of the L.A. River that, for decades, was lined with rail yards, warehouses and manufacturing plants. Reyes, among others, has been working to replace some of those industrial buildings with playing fields and parkland.

L.A. Unified officials identified the spot for a school in 2004, just as the district was in the throes of a $20-billion construction boom. District officials favored the site, in part because it would keep them from having to force out a large number residents and businesses.

Although L.A. Unified had finalized a purchase agreement to pay the seller more than $27 million, Meruelo tied up the property and bought it for $31.8 million.

Stung by its failure to get the land, the school board filed an eminent domain lawsuit, forcing Meruelo to give up the property and sparking a long back-and-forth over the site's worth.

At that time, Meruelo was known as the largest landowner in downtown Los Angeles, a businessman who had spent nearly $200,000 to help Villaraigosa win the 2005 mayor's race.

Two years later, Villaraigosa succeeded in electing a trio of allies to the school board. In 2008, a majority of that board settled its lawsuit by paying Meruelo $18.3 million more for the site than he had spent on it three years earlier.

The only Villaraigosa ally to oppose the settlement was board member Tamar Galatzan, who won office with $2.2 million in support from the mayor. Galatzan called the purchase "a sweetheart deal for the developer" and said the district should have taken its eminent domain lawsuit to trial.

"I thought we should litigate it and we would win. The price was so far over any estimate for what the property was worth that I thought it was obscene," said Galatzan, who said she is not involved in the latest lawsuit because she works in the city attorney's office.

Even with Meruelo's land, the school site has an odd layout. A privately owned billboard sits in front of the campus on San Fernando Road on property the district didn't buy. Also in front of the campus is a city-owned yard that is used to hold construction equipment during sewer repairs, Reyes said.

In 2009, the same year that Meruelo Maddux filed for bankruptcy protection against its creditors, the district's lawyers found contaminants on one end of the campus. They concluded that the chemicals had come from a site once occupied by the Profile Plastics manufacturing plant. That site was purchased by the city in 2001 and belongs to the Bureau of Sanitation, according to city officials.

William Carter, Trutanich's chief deputy, said the city cleaned up its property in 2005. And he disagreed with the notion that the city has responsibility for the district's remediation work.

"It's obvious that L.A. Unified understood they were purchasing contaminated property — not to say that it was contaminated by our property," he said.

Carter has some familiarity with soil contamination. From 2006 to 2009, he worked for the law firm that helped the district file its case against the city. As a lawyer in that firm, Carter helped L.A. Unified secure compensation from private companies for the cleanup of polluted soil on its newly bought land.

smf: I will write at length about this this weekend.

Suffice it to say the best school board the mayor could buy is now biting the hand of the best mayor Mr, Meruelo could buy. The mayor and Councilman Reyes stood by and let this happen, as city officials and responsible adults they bear some (ir)responsibility. The city may not be right one to bite – and Meruelo’s activity in adding to the toxic contamination of the site is well documented (the site is probably the most environmentally well-documented parcel since the discovery of dirt!). The morally bankrupt Meruelo is now fiscally bankrupt. And any court – whether of public opinion or Federal – where these shenanigans get discussed is the right court.

The people must get their accountability and their accounting where they can find it.

Q&A@HS#9

by smf for 4LAKidsNews

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - Yestereve, at Central Los Angeles High School #9, otherwise known as The High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, there was a Community Forum, sponsored by the school's PTA/PTSA in formation. It was billed as a Meet-and-Greet The New Principal, Luis Lopez - and The New Local District Superintendent, Dr. Dale Vigil - and a Q&A about the recent transfer and replacement of last year's principal, Suzanne Blake. The meeting was chaired pretty darn well by acting PTSA President Judi Bell. There were histrionics and name calling but no furniture or fruit was tossed and the angry multitudes did not resort to barricades.  School Police were not called.

It would be nice to say a fine time was had by all ...and it would be completely untrue. I doubt if anyone had a good time or a a good day - with the possible exceptions of those spectacularly absent.

One can often judge a meeting by those not in attendance. School Board President Mónica García , seen by many as the behind-the-scenes manipulator of the ouster; Superintendent Ramon Garcia - whose promise to Blake and her staff that she would be back next year was reversed. And Principal Blake, the aggrieved party ...unless you count the students, faculty, staff, parents and school community. And believe me, they consider themselves uncounted.

Seeing as García, Cortines and Blake weren’t there there they were subjects of most of the questioning.

There was one recurring question, asked over and over, re-parsed, rephrased - made hypothetical and deconstructed ad infinitum. It is the question posed in this week’s AALA newsletter. It is The Big Question, asked and not answered:

Q:Why was Ms. Blake removed and replaced?

And the answer offered by Dr. Vigil:

A:For personnel reasons that I am not a liberty to disclose to protect District employees.

He himself called it a wall: "I've put up a wall." A wall of silence. Of obfuscation. All in all, just another brick. That wall.

This much was disclosed:

• By personnel he means personnel, not personal.

• Ms. Blake has not been informed of the transgressions, actions or lack thereof  that triggered her ouster; she will be notified in due course.

• Whatever occurred or didn't occur does not approach criminal activity; this removal should not be considered disciplinary. It is administrative. Or perhaps: administrival.

• Superintendent Cortines was not aware of the allegations when he spoke to Blake and her staff, he has since been informed.

• The alleged mistakes/error/procedural missteps were uncovered by Virgil himself in his first few days in the job, based on interviews, staff reports and data he reviewed - all confidential.

• As far as Vigil is concerned his decision is final and irreversible. Blake will not be back at HS#9.No way, no how.

• Because this is a personnel matter the reasons will probably never be disclosed.

As to the protocol of the Pilot School Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - which gives the School Site Council a role in administrator selection, -being violated: Vigil stated that because the SSC never approved their by-laws the issue is moot: HS#9 does not have and never had a functioning SSC!

Of those questioned, new principal Luis Lopez came off best. He defended his tenure at Franklin High School and that school itself and pointed out that he has an arts background in dance - is a credentialed math teacher - and has experience administering at high achieving schools like Bravo Medical Magnet and at schools with challenges: Manual Arts and Franklin.

In fairness, Dr. Vigil acquitted himself admirably - he was constantly under attack from an overwhelmingly hostile audience; made all the more so by their questions being unanswered.

Suzanne Blake was universally praised and praised again, by teachers, by students, by parents. "Ms. Blake believed in us more than we believed in ourselves". "Ms. Blake came down and ate lunch with us" ― the first year was "a raging success".

But that said - there are questions besides the The Big Question - some asked and some not - that deserve an answer.

1. There are allegations of strings being pulled and back room deals being made. What was the role of Board President Mónica García in this matter …and was it appropriate?

2. Ditto for Mayor Tony and Eli Broad – both of whom were instrumental in the MOU.

3. Ms. Blake's transfer out was obviously involuntary; was Mr. Lopez' transfer from Franklin voluntary?

4. Did any of this contribute the Superintendent Cortines decision to retire before his contract is up?

5. If the SSC did not exist what is the legal status of their decision-making over the past year? Isn't the failure to constitute a SSC the responsibility of the LAUSD Parent Community Services Branch? Was last year like that 'Bobby's Dream' season of Dallas?

And finally: When Ms. Blake's' transfer was first announced the reason given was that she lacked High School experience, indeed she was initially reassigned to a Middle School. The rationale now given is this undisclosed/undisclosable personnel matter.

And, gentle readers, if you've read this far let me take you out on an editorial limb - in a direction I feel drawn uncomfortably and inescapably - with two questions and a bit of irony drawn from the McCarthy Era.

• What did Dale Vigil, Ray Cortines, and Mónica García know and do ...and when did they know or do it?

• How exactly is a secret list: "I have here a list of X communists" different from a secret accusation, "I have a personnel matter I cannot disclose"?

• The school play next year at LA Central High School#9, The Visual and Performing Arts High School is Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

So, does Eli Broad save HS#9 with a charter school? ...or do the parents and staff?

YouTube: DOE MEETING WITH PARENTS: A Conversation with Parents about Parental Involvement and Education

Washington DC: May 26, 2010:
"A new era of cooperation with parents, students and families across the nation"

SUPERINTENDENT’S BOARD INFORMATIVE RE LETTERS OF INTENT RE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE - 17 Nov 2009

Psc Letters of Intent Board Informative 11 17 09

RFK SITE TO BECOME SCHOOLS + smf comments

 

By Tony Castro, Staff Writer | LA Newspaper Group (Daily News)

October 11, 2009 -- On the grounds of the old Ambassador Hotel where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, officials Saturday dedicated a site of national tragedy into one of potential local triumph.

Two of Kennedy's grandchildren were among those who witnessed ribbon-cutting ceremonies for a new elementary education facility featuring two pilot schools.

"This is sacred ground," labor leader and Kennedy friend Dolores Huerta told about 500 people who attended the dedication.

The ceremony marked the culmination of a long political battle to raze the famed hotel and convert the 24-acre grounds into an urban school site. In addition to the new elementary schools, a new Robert F. Kennedy High School is scheduled to open in September 2010.

"My father was a champion of those who suffered disadvantages in America," Kennedy's son Maxwell said in a statement released by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"This new K-12 learning center will educate and empower our young people and their parents to fight for economic and social justice. "I know of no better way to advance the living legacy of Robert Kennedy."

When complete, the educational complex will serve 4,400 students in grades K-12 in heavily Latino neighborhood west of downtown.

"My dream has been to make the schools a living memorial to Robert Kennedy," said Paul Schrade, a former senior aide to the late senator and head of the RFK-12 Community Task Force, the local group that worked toward construction of the learning complex.

Among obstacles that had to be overcome were Donald Trump's dream to build five towers at the site, one of them 125 stories tall, plans by Wal-Mart to put a store at the location and a movement by the Los Angeles Conservancy to preserve the landmark.

"Robert Kennedy told us what makes life worthwhile is the health of our children and the quality of their education," said Schrade.

Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel just minutes after winning the Democratic Party's 1968 California primary, an attack in which Schrade was also wounded.

LAUSD school board President Monica Garcia said Kennedy's message is "alive with us as we celebrate the opening of not one, but two exciting new pilot schools."

"We are inspired by the memory of Senator Kennedy who reminds us every day that we each have something to contribute," Garcia said. "And he reminds us every day that we can absolutely do better."

______________________

●● what smf said at the RFK-12 ribboncutting:

The good news is that I'm the last speaker today.

The really good news is that the youngsters behind me haven’t waited for any of us to sit down and shut up to play on the playground equipment behind this stage!

President Obama reminded us yesterday that we rise to meet challenges far more often than we solve them. This city and this school district have risen to meet the challenges of overcrowding and forced busing and the year round calendar; of disrepair and lack of vision. Those will, in time certain, be obstacles in the rear view mirror, thanks to the voters and taxpayers of this city.

Other challenges loom: Class sizes and underinvestment; a misunderstanding of the roles of art and music and physical activity in education and society. You kids must rise and meet the challenge of education and education reform --- you must rise to it, accept it and make the best of it …here in this new school, your new school – and onward – ever onward …into the high school that will be part of this incredible complex – and on to colleges and universities and art schools - to law school and medical school and engineering school; architecture school, trade school and business school.

Be safe here, Make lifelong friends. Do good work. Learn from your mistakes. Have fun.

It is a hero's journey: You must go forth …and come back and build the future. That is the dream and the vision and the promise of RFK-12.

Robert Kennedy made Bernard Shaw’s words his own: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not”. Those words, Boys and Girls, must be your words; those dreams must be your dreams. THEN we will be the City of Angeles we aspire to be.

Dare to dream. Ask "Why not?" Re-imagine the American Dream. Your dreams are our future.

Because you, the students, are the magic, and the promise.

YOUNG OAK KIM ACADEMY: LAUSD school relies on treating boys and girls differently + smf remarks at school's dedication

LAUSD school relies on treating boys and girls differently

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

10/6 -- With special math and science programs for girls and "brain breaks" for boys, Los Angeles Unified embarked Monday on an educational experiment as it opened a campus that segregates students by gender.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony formally recognized the opening of Young Oak Kim Academy Middle School in the Pico-Union District, where 750 boys and girls attend academic classes on separate floors and come together only at lunch.

"This is yet another element of reform," school board President Monica Garcia said. "We have to try as many strategies as possible to see what helps our students excel and grow ... We cannot continue to do one-size-fits-all."

Garcia said the single-gender concept could someday be replicated at other district schools.

Studies cited by the National Association for Single Sex Education have shown that students in a single-gender classroom can outperform their counterparts taught in a coed setting.

A three-year study conducted by Stetson University in Florida found that boys in single-sex classes demonstrated a proficiency of 86 percent on standardized tests compared to 37 percent for boys in coed settings.

And students in all-girl classes earned a 75 percent score, compared with 59 percent proficiency among girls in coed classes.

At YOKA, educators have taken the program a step further, creating separate lesson plans for boys and girls.

Because research shows that adolescent girls thrive in groups and learn well in lectures, teachers at YOKA assign the girls a lot of collaborative projects. There's also an emphasis on math, science and technology because girls traditionally do not pursue these fields as aggressively as boys do.

The boys' classes, meanwhile, incorporate "brain breaks" that allow the students time to digest the lesson they've just been taught. There are even amplifiers in the boys' classrooms because studies show that adolescent boys have a less developed sense of hearing than adolescent girls.

Teachers say YOKA provides an opportunity to understand the differences in how boys and girls learn - and experiment with ways to help them achieve.

"You need to think about equity versus equality," art teacher Katherine Harrison.

"`Equity' says everyone has access, `equal' says everyone gets the same thing ... But we are not all exactly the same," she said. "This is about finding individual strengths and using them to overcome weaknesses."

The process of introducing the single-gender campus started in 2004, under the guidance of then-District 4 Superintendent Richard Alonzo, who began recruiting teachers and counselors trained for the alternative environment.

"We didn't just bring children to a new school," Alonzo recalled. "We thought very carefully about what kind of school we wanted."

Advocates for a single-gender school faced an obstacle early on because of federal laws that mandated equal access to programs and services for boys and girls. Changes made in those laws in 2006, coupled with incentives for innovation included in the No Child Left Behind Act, paved the way for YOKA and other single-sex campuses.

Now, more than 500 schools in the country offer single-sex educational programs or classes.

Named for the first Asian-American colonel to lead a U.S. battalion in war, YOKA was built as part of LAUSD's $20 billion construction program. It is designed to relieve overcrowding at Virgil and Berendo middle schools, which still operate on year-round calendars.

For many parents in the Pico-Union community - home to many Latino or Asian immigrants - the single-sex concept is very familiar.

"I was raised the same way in El Salvador," said Lucy Cortes, whose sixth-grade son attends YOKA. "I think it's a great option that allows our kids to focus more in school."

 

smf's Dedication Speech at YOKA

Comments by Bond Oversight Committee Representative Scott Folsom

Good and Glorious Morning. This is a great and glorious day for this Community, for this school district and for the greater community - for the City of Angels we aspire to be.

This community, your community - you kids - is getting a new middle school.

There is no more important or challenging level of education than middle school; it is here - within the walls we dedicate today , that the future will be formed, dreamed and begun …or lost and allowed to get away.

Building schools is the best thing any community does. When we build schools we make positive investments in our future way beyond the news cycle or the election cycle or the demographic projection …we are stretching the blank canvas that will be your masterpiece.

I did my homework for this little speech: I refreshed my memory about Young Oak Kim. How his father ran a grocery at Temple and Figueroa. How he graduated from Belmont High School and attended LACC. How, with war on the horizon he fought for the right to fight for his country. How he said "There is no Japanese nor Korean here. We're all Americans and we're fighting for the same cause."  He fought long and hard and well; he truly served his country, in war and peace; in the military and in civilian life. He won medals and he built museums and monuments, education and cultural and health centers. The headline in his obituary said Young Oak Kim was "a World War Two and Korean War Hero …and a Uniter of LA Asian Communities". A Hero among heroes …and a Uniter. An inspiration and a visionary. It doesn't get any better than that …and we dearly need more Americans like him.

I read in a book once that kids find magic because they look for it …I believe in magic because I believe in kids.

The kids who will go to this school - some of the young faces we see here today - will learn things in their lives that Nobel Prize winners haven't discovered yet. And as they go through life they will discover and learn even newer things …things they will teach their children; things that will win them Nobel Prizes. That is what civilization and the magic of education is all about.

These things are not easy; challenges never are.. They are promises made in one generation and kept by the next - in making the promise and keeping the promise we pass the challenge into the future.

We have made a promise to parents, voters and taxpayers — but mostly to the children; present and future: We promised to build new schools and fix up the old ones when the approved Proposition BB and Measures K, R. Y  and Q.

You don’t need me to tell you, you only have to look around you to see the promise is being kept.

• We are building new schools.
• We are fixing the old schools.
• We are creating and fostering partnerships in the community.
• We are ending Involuntary Busing.
• We have implemented Full Day Kindergarten in every elementary school in this district.
• And we will eliminate the Multi-Track Year-round Calendar, once and for all.

We need it put up our magic tent many more times …and we will.

Kids, Treat this school and the schools you attend today well and learn good things. Treat each other well. Work hard, Play fair and be safe. Make lifelong friends. Do your homework. Earn extra credit. Take every opportunity and make the best of it. Learn from your mistakes. Paint. Sing. Graduate. Win medals, build museums. Unify. Make a little magic every day. Go from here on to high schools, colleges and universities and community colleges and art schools — to law school and medical school and trade schools and – go to teachers colleges. Win medals, build museums, unite communities. And if you go to beauty school become the best beautician in the history of beauty itself!

Parents and teachers, fellow adults: Help them do these things - and then stand back!

Because you kids are magic and you are the future. So let's roll.

Heard on the radio: PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENT INVOLVEMENT GROWS

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC

Sept. 30, 2009 | A Southland state legislator leads a hearing Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. in Los Angeles to encourage more parent participation in public education. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has the story.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: State Senator Gloria Romero says parents these days are more likely to organize protests against cuts in the education budget than bake sales. Still, she adds, some parents still feel unwelcome at their childrens’ schools.

Gloria Romero: Schools need to invite parents and encourage parents and make it a warm atmosphere for parents to exercise their rights.

Guzman-Lopez: She wants to involve more parents – not because she wants to start a parent revolution.

Romero: We know from the research, from academic research, when parents get involved that student outcomes are better, we know that there’s increased student achievement, better school attendance, higher graduation rates.

Guzman-Lopez: She’s invited PTA members and parent leadership trainers to discuss the growth and challenges of parent involvement.

Note: Romero’s hearing is scheduled to start at Rosemont Elementary School in Echo Park, Wednesday night at 6.

L.A. UNIFIED TAKES HAMMER TO ITS BUILDING UNIT:The loss of the head of the LAUSD's construction division could be the beginning of waste, cost overruns, political contracts and worse.

 

Opinion By Constance L. Rice | LA Times

4:21 PM PDT, September 28, 2009 -- The construction unit of the Los Angeles Unified School District has successfully and cost-effectively built 80 new schools and won scores of awards. So how has Supt. Ray Cortines rewarded this efficient unit? By driving out its superb leadership.

Guy Mehula, the talented head of the construction division, resigned Monday after LAUSD leaders made clear their intention of dragging Mehula's quasi-independent team back under the tight control of the district.

Taking away the unit's autonomy would be a huge mistake. The district has tried micromanaging the construction of schools, and it failed miserably. If you need convincing, just think about the disastrous cost overruns and construction errors of the Belmont Learning Complex.

For those who don't remember the horrific details, the district began construction at Belmont (or the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, as it was finally called) without required environmental reviews or professional managers, ultimately building a $160-million high school that the state declared unusable for children. A scathing audit of the debacle concluded that the project had violated environmental and public safety laws, and that the uninformed district had "tolerated a culture remarkably indifferent" to standards or accountability. The audit referred several of its findings to the district attorney for criminal investigation.

With a pressing need for new schools, then-Supt. Roy Romer and a newly elected board of education were determined to avoid more Belmonts, so they established a facilities division that was independent, expertly run and free of the district's torpid bureaucracy. The new unit was staffed by construction professionals and experienced Navy engineers who were insulated from political and union pressures. Schools were built by carefully selected contractors who were closely monitored by an expert staff of auditors and managers.

The new division, charged with managing a $20-billion construction effort, quickly established a system of value-based contracting that permitted necessary -- but not political -- changes to contracts. And Romer was true to his word: The school board set policy and acquired land for schools, but otherwise stayed out of the way.

Now Cortines has rescinded key provisions that helped shield the facilities division from unwarranted interference. He proposes to remove the unit's specially assigned and quasi-independent lawyers and limit the hiring of contractors to 10-month periods -- something few competent construction professionals would agree to. Cortines and the board also want to set salary limits that are not competitive. Mehula resigned because these and other proposals would end the independence that has made the school construction unit a success.

Cortines' actions come as the construction program is also facing other threats.

Some school board members, in actions reminiscent of the group that brought us Belmont, have started pushing for expensive and wasteful changes to building contracts. They have tried to use bond funds for things that are prohibited by the bond measure. And they have increasingly questioned contract awards and dismissed the judgment of facilities professionals. Most discouraging, I have heard two school board members suggest that the facilities division needs to "look more like Los Angeles." Although diversity is important, it cannot be allowed to trump the expertise needed to manage a massive school construction program.

With Mehula's resignation, bondholders, taxpayers and contractors should be very worried. If his expert management team leaves, the successful phase of school construction is almost certain to end -- and bond money will once again be wasted.

It is time to consider creating an independent construction authority for building schools. Doctors don't build hospitals, and lawyers don't build courthouses. Why should educators who can barely manage the mission of education build schools?

Constance L. Rice is a civil rights attorney and a member of the School Construction Bond Oversight Committee.

GARFIELD HIGH IS ELIGIBLE FOR TAKEOVER: Control of the East L.A. school, setting for 'Stand and Deliver,' could shift because of its low academic standing [+ more]

By Howard Blume | LA Times

September 26, 2009 -- Garfield High, which became nationally known as the real-life setting for the film "Stand and Deliver," will be among the initial 12 local campuses, including six high schools, eligible for takeover because of persistent academic failure, officials announced Friday.

The nation's second-largest school system will invite bidders from inside and outside the district to run these schools next year through a proposal process that is still being developed.

The Los Angeles Board of Education authorized this school-control plan in August; it applies to low-achieving existing schools and to 51 new campuses set to open over the next four years in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Garfield, which for decades has served a largely immigrant Latino population in East Los Angeles, reached a high-water mark in the 1980s, when math teacher Jaime Escalante built his famed calculus program.

Under his leadership, dozens of students passed the Advanced Placement calculus test every year, a rare feat even at the nation's elite schools.

Last year, only 5% of Garfield students tested as "proficient" in any math class.

"All these schools need the attention that this will focus on them," said board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, author of the policy.

Other schools include:

* Maywood Academy in the southeast Los Angeles County city of Maywood. The school opened four years ago. Maywood city officials are interested in obtaining substantial control over the school, said City Councilman Felipe Aguirre.

* Jefferson High in Central-Alameda. District officials successfully opposed a previous charter conversion attempt by Steve Barr and his Green Dot Public Schools. Barr later engineered a takeover of Locke High.

* Lincoln High in Lincoln Heights. Teachers helped staff a volunteer summer school after budget cuts slashed district offerings. One potential course that failed to attract sufficient enrollment was an activism seminar with the proposed class project of recalling Flores Aguilar because she voted for budget cuts that resulted in layoffs.

* Burbank Middle School in Highland Park, where parents have long worried about gang influence on campus. The school also has two new magnet schools that, some argue, already are the basis of a promising reform.

* San Fernando Middle School, the only Valley campus.

The other schools are Gardena High, San Pedro High, Carver Middle School in South Park, Griffith Joyner Elementary in Watts, Hillcrest Elementary in Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw, and Hyde Park Elementary in Hyde Park.

L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said that being on the list "should not be viewed as a negative" and that "this process is about providing our schools with the appropriate supports."

More than 250 schools are eligible under the board resolution, which applies to schools that consistently failed to meet federal benchmarks for at least three years.

Cortines refined the formula as recently as midweek, finally deciding that the "focus" schools, as he called them, would meet additional criteria: fewer than 21% of students proficient in math or English and no school-wide improvement on the state's Academic Performance Index, which is largely based on standardized test scores.

In addition, high schools would have a dropout rate greater than 10%.

Garfield qualified easily.

The school also owns the lowest rank, 1 of 10, when compared with schools statewide. But that does not make Garfield's selection incontestable.

When compared with schools that serve similar students, Garfield rates a 6 of 10, which puts it in the upper half of state schools.

And although Garfield dropped three points on this year's Academic Performance Index, it had improved by 44 and 25 points the previous two years, among L.A. Unified's better gains.

Garfield's uncertain future has engendered fear and anger among the faculty, said social studies teacher Brian Fritch.

"We have a lot of teachers confused about what the next step will be," he said. "People don't feel included in the process and feel rushed."

Fritch is hustling to organize an internal reform proposal.

Junior Karen Flores, 16, said she and her classmates are worried about the loss of cherished Garfield traditions and a disrupted senior year, with the potential to affect classes and college applications.

"It feels like people are giving up on us," she said.

Garfield became a reform battleground as a target of the Parent Revolution, which emerged out of Green Dot.

Its organizers have asserted that they have signatures from dissatisfied community parents equal in number to more than half the Garfield student body and that the district must either improve Garfield or face competition from start-up charter schools that would surround it.

Green Dot has agreed to step aside and let another charter group, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, manage new charters near Garfield.

Alliance chief executive Judy Burton said she's interested in submitting a proposal both for Garfield and for a new high school, under construction, that will relieve Garfield's overcrowding.

more:

Valley middle school on list for takeover

Los Angeles Daily News - Connie Llanos -

The district selected 36 schools - 24 new campuses and 12 underperforming sites - to ensure that every "focus" school, as LAUSD Superintendent Ramon ...

Gardena and San Pedro schools are high on takeover list

Daily Breeze - Connie Llanos, Melissa Pamer -

... schools in the South Bay - could be taken over by independent operators next year under a Los Angeles Unified reform plan, district officials said ...

$1.5 BILLION UP FOR GRABS

…but it's not about the money! a 4LAKids Spreadsheet 24 NEW SCHOOLS SUBJECT TO PSC RFP
School	Students	Co$t
Gratts PC	400	$66,877,385
Valley Region ES #6	950	$59,861,759
Valley Region ES #7	800	$62,224,883
Valley Region ES #8	725	$48,567,191
Valley Region ES #9	800	$57,818,486
Valley Region ES #10	650	$36,548,280
Central Region ES #13	875	$75,512,417
Central Region ES #15	575	$70,931,735
Central Region ES #16	675	$66,748,089
Central Region ES #17	725	$64,486,404
Central Region ES #18	575	$54,465,009
South Region ES #1	1,050	$85,379,327
South Region ES #2	1,050	$97,156,182
South Region ES #3	775	$81,238,658
South Region ES #4	775	$86,419,831
South Region MS # 2A	1,404	$127,675,163
South Region MS # 2B	inc	inc
South Region MS # 2C	inc	inc
South Region MS #6	1,404	$136,636,484
Esteban E. Torres HS #1	2,322	$206,707,370
Esteban E. Torres HS #2	inc	inc
Esteban E. Torres HS #3	inc	inc
Esteban E. Torres HS #4	inc	inc
Esteban E. Torres HS #5	inc	inc
TOTAL	16530	$1,485,254,653

Cortines: LET PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS DECIDE ON OBAMA’S SPEECH. 89 of the district's more than 800 schools will be in session Tuesday; the rest begin the school year Wednesday.

By WIRE SERVICES from The Los Angeles Independent

Sep 5, 2009 at 4:59 PM PDT l Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines told principals and teachers at Los Angeles Unified School District schools to consider having students watch President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech aimed at them.

The idea of the speech, described as a back-to-school pep talk, has drawn criticism from conservatives.

"The students of LAUSD have been provided with an extraordinary
opportunity to engage in a teachable moment by watching President Obama speak to our youth about the value of education,'' Cortines wrote to the district's principals.

"I believe this is a worthy event for our students to view so I am asking each principal and teacher to consider whether your students will watch the broadcast from your school site. This opportunity is strictly voluntary and
non-political.''

The vast majority of the district's students -- and their parents -- will decide whether to watch the speech. Only 89 of the district's more than 800 schools will be in session Tuesday, according to district spokeswoman Susan Cox. The rest -- those on the traditional calendar -- will begin the school year Wednesday.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell believes the speech is "a good opportunity for students,'' but the decision about whether it should be shown in classrooms should be made at the local level, an aide told City News Service.

A variety of conservative talk show hosts and activists along with Republican elected and party officials have accused Obama of using the speech to indoctrinate the nation's youths into supporting him and his policies.

They pointed to a U.S. Department of Education list of suggested activities related to the speech that included having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.''

That suggestion was later replaced by having students "write letters to
themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term
education goals.''

Critics have asked school officials not to allow the speech to be shown in classrooms and called for parents to keep their children at home Tuesday.

"Make Sept. 8 parentally approved skip day,'' Los Angeles-based syndicated talk show host Tammy Bruce wrote on her Twitter page. "You are your child's moral tutor, not that shady lawyer from Chicago.''

The possibility of objections from parents prompted Cortines to write principals "I would also strongly urge you to make arrangements to accommodate any students whose parents indicate that they prefer their children not participate.''

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I think we've reached a
little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids to study hard and stay in school. I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success.''

The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it.

The speech will be the first nationally televised address by a president aimed at students since 1991. Democrats then called the speech by George H.W. Bush a waste of taxpayer funds.

LAUSD’s NEXT STEP/PRÓXIMO PASO DEL LAUSD

LAUSD’s next step Editorial| La Opinión 2009-08-30  -- The Board of Education of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) approved a measure this week to open up 250 schools to private operators in an attempt to improve student achievement. The action is one positive response to the frustration expressed by parents, but it is just the beginning of a direction that will need to be carefully monitored by school authorities. It should be apparent to all that simply shifting a school to a charter system doesn’t guarantee success as a site of excellence in teaching and learning. While some studies have shown better results than from public schools, other studies have shown no improvement. The LAUSD has as much responsibility in the selection of a school operator as it does in its oversight. Selecting new management will be the key for low-performing schools. The goal is to stimulate innovation with rigorous and creative curriculum as well as with the provision of extra-curricular activities and an environment conducive to learning. In this respect, LAUSD needs to correct current problems with the division that addresses charter schools. Some administrators of smaller charter schools have complained that they do not receive the same treatment as larger operators, charging that they are measured by different standards and that the LAUSD guidelines lack consistency. On the other hand, the position of the teacher’s union to oppose change at all costs is disappointing. We believe that it would be far better for educators to search for the way to be part of this new initiative. Teachers like parents share the same goal —that children learn. Our support for the Board’s decision isn’t an ideological stance against public education at all; on the contrary, it is the search for alternatives given a dismal situation in which there are few options. It is now time for LAUSD and the Board to address the issues in the Charter Schools Division so that the new schools can be successful. It would be a huge mistake to believe that it is enough to simply hand over the schools to new management without making changes in the system’s administration and oversight.

Próximo paso del LAUSD Opinión | La Opinión 2009-08-30  -- La Junta Educativa del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles (LAUSD) votó esta semana en favor de abrir 250 escuelas a operadores privados en un intento de mejorar el aprendizaje de los alumnos. La acción es una respuesta positiva a la frustración de los padres, pero apenas es el comienzo de un camino que debe ser seguido de cerca por las autoridades escolares. Debe quedar en claro que por el sólo hecho que una escuela pase a ser administrada bajo el sistema charter no tiene garantizada su éxito como sitio de enseñanza. Hay estudios realizados que muestran mejores resultados que sus similares públicas y a otros que no indican mejoría alguna. En este aspecto el LAUSD tiene una responsabilidad en el otorgamiento de la escuela, como en su monitoreo. El proceso de selección de nuevos administradores será clave para las escuelas de bajo rendimiento. El propósito es alentar la innovación con un currículo exigente y creativo, al igual que proveer el ambiente necesario para el aprendizaje y las actividades extraescolares. El LAUSD en ese aspecto debe corregir problemas actuales dentro de su división que atiende las escuelas charter. Algunos administradores de estas escuelas se han quejado de no recibir el mismo trato que los operadores grandes, de ser perjudicados por que se los mide con varas diferentes y han denunciado una falta de consistencia general de parte de las guías del LAUSD. La misma queja ha surgido de integrantes de la Junta Educativa, que un día reciben reportes internos malos sobre una escuela para posteriormente recibir una buena recomendación y viceversa. Al mismo tiempo, desilusiona la actitud asumida por el sindicato de maestros quien ha recurrido a los tribunal para detener el cambio a toda costa. Creemos que sería mejor que los educadores buscarán la manera de ser parte de esta nueva iniciativa. Tanto padres como maestros tiene la misma meta de que los niños aprendan. Nuestro respaldo a la decisión de la Junta Educativa no es ideológico en contra de la educación pública, por el contrario es la búsqueda de alternativas ante un presente insostenible cuyos resultados no deja muchas opciones. Ahora es el turno de la Junta de hacer correcciones en la División de Escuelas Charter para que las nuevas escuelas puedan tener éxito. Sería un gran error creer que basta con entregar la dirección de las escuelas sin hacer cambios en la administración y supervisión de las mismas.

ROONEY GOES TO PRISON: Ex-LAUSD administrator pleads out in molestation case

By Daily News wire services

08/27/2009 11:55:05 AM PDT - A former Los Angeles school administrator pleaded no contest today to felony unlawful sex and lewd act counts involving four teenage girls from two schools where he worked.

<PHOTO: LAPD

Steve Thomas Rooney, 40, entered his plea to three counts of lewd acts with a child and one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.

He was was taken into custody without bail after the hearing. He is expected to receive an eight-year prison term when he is sentenced Sept. 15.

Rooney is also expected to be ordered to submit to AIDS testing and to register as a sex offender for life, officials said.

The charges involved two girls he met at Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles, where Rooney initially worked as a teacher and later became the dean of students; and two other girls he met at Markham Middle School, where he worked as an assistant principal.

Rooney was initially charged with 13 felony counts involving three teenage girls, including a former Foshay Learning Center student who testified at a May 2008 hearing that she began dating him in 2005, when she was 15, and had a relationship with him that lasted about 1 1/2 years and included a pregnancy that ended with a miscarriage.

At the hearing in which Rooney was ordered to stand trial, the other two girls testified that they met Rooney while he was working as an assistant principal at Markham Middle School in early 2008.

One of the girls, who was 13, testified that Rooney repeatedly told her that he loved her, took her on a motorcycle to his apartment and ignored her protests that she didn't want to have sex.

The other girl, a 15-year-old, testified that Rooney had grabbed her buttocks in his office on one occasion and her breasts on another occasion, and kissed her breasts in another instance.

In June, Rooney was ordered to stand trial on five more felony counts involving a fourth teenage girl, who is now 19.

The girl testified that she and Rooney kissed twice at Foshay Learning Center - including once in an office that didn't belong to Rooney - and that he picked her up by her house on one occasion and they went to a park where they "started making out."

She said "everything was consensual," and that she wasn't sure how old she was at the time, although the criminal complaint alleged the conduct occurred between June 2004 and June 2006, beginning when she was 14 years old. She said the two didn't have sex.

The girl acknowledged that she initially told a police investigator that nothing happened, and that she only spoke up after being contacted by an attorney. But she said she did not want to be a plaintiff in any lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

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!

THE RESOLUTION AS AMENDED, HOT OF THE PRESS: Public School Choice: A New Way at LAUSD, v.2.0

When you strike out 'not adults' as in  'what is best for children – not adults' does that not open up the slippery slope to the adult menace?

Ms. Flores Aguilar, Dr. Vladovic, Ms. García - Public School Choice: A New Way at LAUSD

(Notice July 1, 2009) No earlier than 2 p.m.

Whereas, The Governing Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District is responsible for ensuring that the District provides all students a high quality education, which enables them to graduate college-prepared and career-ready;

Whereas, The Board must do everything it can to enhance the educational opportunities provided to students attending District schools;

Whereas, School transformation efforts are needed to address the longstanding opportunity gap in academic performance in schools across District;

Whereas, While there are indications of growth in LAUSD schools, Ggiven the chronic academic underperformance of a significant number majority of public schools in the District, parents and communities have expressed a strong interest in playing a more active role in ensuring that students have more choice and access to high quality instructional programs;

Whereas, There has been a recent movement of parents, and communities, and labor partners throughout the entire district demanding better schools, with groups such as Alliance for a Better Community, Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative, East LA Education Collaborative, Families That Can, Inner City Struggle, The Parent Revolution, and the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition expressing a desire to play a more active role in shaping and expanding the educational options provided in their communities;

Whereas, The District is committed to engaging parents and the community in the quest to create diverse options for high quality educational environments, with excellent teaching and learning, for students’ academic success;

Whereas, The District has many outstanding schools that are setting a gold standard for

excellence (traditional schools, pilot schools, iDesign schools, charter schools, small schools, magnet schools and others); schools whose high quality academic, collaborative, inclusive, and innovative practices should be replicated at other schools to improve educational outcomes and allow more students and families to benefit;

Whereas, The Belmont Zone of Choice and its pilot schools model provides an example of what can be achieved with strong internal support and planning within teacher and administrator teams, and with robust collaboration with external partners, incorporating alternative collective bargaining agreements and other innovative collaborations;

Whereas, Developing an open process congruent with the ideas present in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for school communities and internal and external stakeholders to submit

plans to operate new schools and Program Improvement 3+ (as authorized by NCLB), as well as a transparent and consistent process for selecting the plan that best meets the needs of students and families, supports the replication of successful schools and District transformation;

Whereas, the Board of Education respects the importance of employee rights and protections and expects that any plan proposed by the Superintendent will continue to protect workers' rights to freely organize into collective bargaining units;

Whereas, New schools provide a unique opportunity to establish a school’s culture and lay the groundwork for students’ academic success;

Whereas, Program Improvement 3+ schools require immediate attention and creative reform efforts, under strategies identified and authorized in NCLB, in order to provide an improved foundation for students’ academic success;

Whereas, More than fifty new schools will open in the District in the next three years, with twenty scheduled to open in the 2010-11 school year; and, more than 200 schools are in Program Improvement 3+ status;

Whereas, These new schools are intended to relieve overcrowding at existing schools, thereby enabling the existing schools to return to a traditional school year; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That through the Innovation and Charter Schools Division Superintendent, the Los Angeles Unified School District will invite operational and instructional plans from internal and external stakeholders, such as school planning teams, local communities, pilot school operators, labor partners, charters, and others who are interested in collaborating with the District or operatingto operate the District’s new schools and PI 3+ schools (as identified by the Superintendent and authorized under NCLB, beginning with PI 5+), in an effort to create more schools of choice and educational options for the District’s students and families;

Resolved further, That the Superintendent shall develop a plan to ensure existing internal stakeholder teams are positioned and supported to develop and put forth viable designs for new and existing schools identified;

Resolved further, That all providers who submit plans must be non-profit, public organizations open to all students;

Resolved further, That any plan submitted must guarantee that the new school will enroll the requisite number of students from the impacted campuses that the new school is intended to relieve, and that students coming from the attendance areas of the designated, overcrowded schools will be served first and foremost;

Resolved further, That the student composition at each new school must be reflective of the student composition at the schools it is intended to relieve (in terms of demographics, including but not limited to race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, English Learners, Standard English Learners, Special Education, foster care placement), with ongoing review mechanisms in place to ensure retention and student composition at each school continues to reflect that of the overall school community;

Resolved further, That any plan submitted must address how the identified new or existing school will improve retention, graduation, and college-going rates among the student population identified above, by articulating evidence-based strategies for student retention and dropout prevention (including but not limited to early and comprehensive identification of student needs; academic intervention for struggling, English Language Learner, Standard English Learner and Special Education students; a personalized learning environment; positive behavior support and other student-centered school discipline frameworks; shared decision-making and inclusive governance; college and career preparation and entry); and parent and community engagement and participation- including proposals to coordinate with existing local parent and community organizations;

Resolved further, That the Superintendent secure local foundation funding to hire a lead person to assist with the implementation of this effort, so that General Fund resources are not used;

Resolved further, That the Board directs the Superintendent leader of this effort to work collaboratively with appropriate stakeholder and community over the next 90 30 days to report back to the Superintendent with recommendations regarding the following:

• Review and analyze research on new school instructional plans, and identify best practices Identify existing reform models and/or innovations that could be implemented at new schools and PI 3+ schools (as identified by the Superintendent and authorized under NCLB) beginning with the 2010-11 school year, as well as previous impediments to implementation within LAUSD and strategies for overcoming these obstacles
• Identify alternative governance and contract options within LAUSD for PI 3+ and new schools based on models from pilot schools, Expanded School-Based Management schools, and other successful national models
• Develop a template and process for submitting plans to operate PI 3+ schools (as identified by the Superintendent) and new schools, which include sustainable and scalable financial plans
• Develop criteria and accountability metrics for evaluating the plans submitted, including feedback from the appropriate local jurisdiction; criteria should include metrics for educational vision and leadership, instruction and curriculum (including how the school will serve all student populations, such as English Learners and Standard English Learners, and students with disabilities, including students with moderate to severe disabilities), staffing requirements, wrap-around services, community and parent engagement, prior experience and success, and others as appropriate
• Collect community feedback on the template, process, and evaluation criteria for the operational plans of new schools
• Develop an outreach strategy to educate and inform parents and communities, and sponsor forums that would allow for information, dialogue and engagement regarding: reform models, school governance options, and labor issues
• Develop a process – including, for each local district, committees composed of representatives of local parents, teachers, students, staff, administrators and community members – for school communities and stakeholders to evaluate the plans submitted and provide a recommendation to the Superintendent. The Superintendent will review all feedback and will make a recommendation that includes a summary of community input to the Board for their final approval. on their preferred partner in the operation of the school; such a The process must be objective, transparent, fair, and ensure no conflicts of interest
• Develop a process to engage all LAUSD bargaining unit employees to discuss the expansion of current reform efforts and development of new in-District school performance initiatives
• Develop a reauthorization process for operators of new and existing schools that is based on regular performance evaluations that include, but are not necessarily limited to, the criteria and metrics listed above
• Develop a process whereby parents, communities, and educators within a given attendance zone of any school that is in Program Improvement 3+ can work with the Superintendent to initiate reforms for the school

• Develop a facility use agreement for selected school operators – if outside the District – similar to those used for Proposition 39 co-locations, including requirements for maintenance and operations, and common areas such as green space, libraries, playgrounds, cafeterias, etc.

Resolved further, That if sufficient progress is not made in a timely manner, and/or if the work stalls due to an unwillingness of stakeholders to collaborate or move the work forward, the Superintendent be is directed to independently continue this team effort to ensure the work is completed;

Resolved further, That the Board directs the Superintendent to develop a plan to maintain continuity, quality, and consistency of support services to all LAUSD schools, including those operated by external partners, by requiring that all external partners submitting school plans under the process described in this Resolution enter into a facilities use agreement. The facilities use agreement must include a commitment to contract with LAUSD as the default provider of outsourced school facility support services, such as cafeteria, custodial, maintenance, security, supplies, and transportation services. The use agreement would further specify that LAUSD must meet agreed-upon performance standards for competitive contracted services. These standards must be met within an agreed-upon time frame. If the District fails to meet these standards within this timeframe, and a timely discussion (between the external partners, LAUSD, and classified labor partners) does not resolve the identified issues, then external partners may then contract with non-LAUSD providers for specified support services;

Resolved further, that all partners will agree to enter into discussion regarding the viability of master service agreements;

Resolved further, That the Superintendent report to the Board by September 30, 2009, with a transparent process for plans to be submitted, reviewed, and evaluated by internal staff and external stakeholders;

Resolved further, That the Superintendent will work with the Office of General Counsel to ensure compliance with state and federal laws and regulations, comprehensive labor agreements, the Modified Consent Decree and other court orders, and that innovation, reorganization and restructuring of schools must be accomplished in accordance with these mandates;

Resolved further, That every decision must be about student achievement and what is best for children – not adults – and how to provide all students them with the education they need and the future they deserve;

Resolved further, That by December 30 January 15, 20092010, the Superintendent will submit to the Board internal staff and external stakeholder’s recommendations for plans that should be approved by the Board for each new school opening during the Fall of 2010 and any PI3+ school designated by the Superintendent; and be it finally

Resolved, That the Superintendent report to the Board on a monthly basis to share progress made in accomplishing the specifics of this resolution.