CALIFORNIA AWARDED FEDERAL CHARTER SCHOOLS GRANT

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Release: #10-83
July 26, 2010

Contact: Tina Jung
E-mail: communications@cde.ca.gov
Phone: 916-319-0818

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Announces  California Is Awarded Federal Charter Schools Grant

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced the California Department of Education (CDE) was awarded a major federal Charter Schools Program grant through the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement. California had applied for $300 million in federal Charter School start-up grant funds. The U.S. Department of Education has not yet announced the amount California will receive from this competitive grant program.

"High-quality charter schools can spur innovation and provide communities more flexibility to create the kind of learning environment they want for their children," said O'Connell. "This infusion of federal funding will give a boost to communities trying to initiate and share information about a charter school so the organizers can focus their attention on helping students succeed academically."

California's federal charter grant application specifies that the state will use the federal funds to increase the number of high-quality charter schools in the state with stronger fiscal, governance, and academic accountability training and reporting requirements.The funds also are intended to sustain charter schools' capacity to improve the academic achievement of students and support the dissemination of effective practices of high quality charter schools. Preference will be given in the distribution of the funds to assist the development of high-quality charter schools located in high need communities where students attend schools in Program Improvement.

O'Connell has long been a supporter of high-quality charter schools that can serve as laboratories of education innovation. A charter school is a public school that usually is created or organized by a group of teachers, parents, and community leaders or by community-based organizations. A charter school may be sponsored by an existing local public school district governing board or county board of education.

Charter schools are generally exempt from most laws governing school districts, except where noted by law. In exchange for this increased flexibility, charter schools are held accountable for improving student academic achievement. The objective is to replace rules-based governance with performance-based accountability, thereby stimulating the creativity and commitment of teachers, parents, and citizens.

The federal Charter Schools Program funding is designed to help communities in the planning, program design, initial implementation, and dissemination of information on charter schools. As the grantee, the CDE will make the funding available as subgrants on a competitive basis to developers of charter schools who have applied for a charter. Charter schools will be able to apply for the subgrant funding once federal review of several requested waivers is complete, and the Legislature has approved a budget and the disbursement of the funds.

Once an applicant is awarded a subgrant through the CDE, the funding may be used for the planning and design of the education program for a charter school, refining the desired education results, refining methods for measuring progress toward achieving those results, and the initial implementation of the charter school. Implementation may include informing the community about the charter school and acquiring necessary equipment, materials, and supplies.

The CDE may reserve up to 10 percent of the grant for another subgrant to share lessons learned from high-quality charter schools with a demonstrated history of success. The purpose would be to share information about how to create and sustain high-quality, accountable schools with other public schools and charter schools.

Information on the federal Charter Schools Program may be found on the U.S. Department of Education Web site at Charter Schools Program [http://www2.ed.gov/programs/charter/index.html] (Outside Source).

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?

OFFICIAL CHALLENGED AT FORUM OVER PRINCIPAL’S REMOVAL FROM DOWNTOWN L.A. ARTS SCHOOL

by Howard Blume | LA Times LA Now

July 27, 2010 |  1:14 pm -- The sudden removal this month of the principal who headed the downtown Los Angeles arts high school has sparked an outcry, including a recent street protest and a combative forum Monday night attended by about 200 people.

Principal Suzanne Blake learned July 12 of her removal from Central Los Angeles High School No. 9, the $232-million arts campus that enjoyed a largely successful first year after a series of controversies, mostly before the school opened.

Monday's meeting took place in the school’s state-of-the-art auditorium, where local area superintendent Dale Vigil respectfully listened to statements and questions for three hours. His answers appeared to satisfy few.

Vigil repeatedly said that he couldn’t discuss specific reasons for Blake’s transfer because it was a “personnel matter,” and he’s legally required to protect an employee’s privacy.

“I have to go with the information and data that I have that I can’t share with you,” Vigil said.

He conceded that he hasn’t told Blake the reason for her transfer either.

“At this point she does not know,” Vigil said. “But in time she will.”

This response drew both laughter and angry shouts from audience members who protested that Blake and her supporters have been unable to defend her record.

Vigil later offered that he made his decision based on discussions with some staff members and district administrators.

Blake’s supporters have speculated about whether any role was played by school board President Monica Garcia, who criticized the school administration for not ensuring that 70% of students came from the low-income neighborhoods near the school.

Vigil, a former Bay Area superintendent who joined the district in late June, said the decision to remove Blake was his own. In an earlier interview, Vigil said Blake would run a middle school in Glassell Park. L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has since given Blake the option of opening a new middle school.

Blake was not present, but in an earlier interview she said that the 70% enrollment target for neighborhood students has been fully achieved in the incoming ninth-grade class, and that her late hire and the complications of opening the school hampered recruitment in the first year. In addition, the district itself sent over students misclassified as neighborhood residents, she said.

One speaker said Blake made it difficult to receive academic and budget information. Another faulted Blake for not speaking Spanish, but nearly all speakers lauded the principal.

Parent Tamar Rosenthal said Blake made students “feel warm, safe and affirmed” and recounted her tearful daughter saying, “Ms. Blake believes more in us than we believed in ourselves.”

Blake was “kind of the soul and heart of the school,” Rosenthal said.

“We need some reasons,” said 10th-grader Clementine Gamson Levy.

Joining Vigil was newly assigned principal Luis Lopez, who has served as principal at Franklin High in Highland Park for the last five years.

 

Photo: Students on campus on the last day of school, June 18, at Central Los Angeles High School No. 9. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Administrators’ Union asks: WHY WAS THE PRINCIPAL AT ARTS HIGH SCHOOL TRANSFERRED? …AND REQUESTS HER RETURN

FROM ASSOCIATED ADMINISTRATORS OF LOS ANGELES WEEKLY UPDATE

Week of July 26, 2010

When District senior staff decides a principal should be transferred or reassigned, it is usually based upon one of the following reasons:

• A capable and experienced principal has earned a promotional opportunity.

• The principal has sought a transfer based upon the desire for a new experience after serving successfully for five or more years at the site.

• The test scores at a school site have failed to reflect improvement over a period of years.

• The principal has made serious errors in judgment, which may have negatively impacted students and or staff.

• The principal has engaged in, supported or ignored behavior, which is ultimately determined to be criminal in nature.

• District leadership has been unable to withstand political pressure from bargaining units or Board members that may reflect exaggerated or fictional concerns.

Here are the facts: Approximately one week ago, Suzanne Blake, Principal of Central Los Angeles High School #9, the School of Visual & Performing Arts, was called to a meeting by recently hired Local District 4Superintendent Dr. Dale Vigil and was told that she was being replaced. Mrs. Blake was given no reason for her transfer.

Prior to the meeting with Dr. Vigil on June 28, 2010, Superintendent Ramon Cortines had advised Mrs. Blake that she would remain at Central Los Angeles High School #9. Mrs. Blake was quoted in The Daily News on Thursday, July 15, 2010, “I have not been told why I am not able to stay.

“This seems to me to be a backroom deal,” she said.

A brief review of Mrs. Blake’s tenure at Central Los Angeles High School #9 includes the following:

• Superintendent Cortines hired her only three months prior to the opening of the new school, a considerably shorter time frame than is normal.

• Central Los Angeles High School #9 students had extraordinarily positive results in CAHSEE Math and English/Language Arts with passing rates of 80% and 90%, respectively.

• Students won numerous awards throughout the school year.

• The school achieved a maximum accreditation for a new site.

• The vast majority of staff, students and parents were extremely supportive of her leadership.

• The school had an outstanding culminating student performance in June 2010.

Since Mrs. Blake completed a very successful opening year as Principal of Central Los Angeles High School #9, one can only wonder why Dr. Vigil and Superintendent Cortines transferred her. In a period of fiscal crisis and an obvious need for stability, the wonderment surrounding this transfer has an unpleasant aroma about it!

While AALA has no proof of any involvement of Board of Education Members in this personnel matter, we are still looking for a sensible rationale. To date there is none to be found.

Has Board Members’ policy-making role blurred into the day-to-day operations of the school district,which is normally the responsibility of the Superintendent and his staff?

AALA strongly recommends the rescinding of Mrs. Blake’s transfer.

Note: While AALA has chosen to severely critique the District’s action in this matter, we are in no way disparaging the assignment of her replacement, who is also a fine professional.

Q&A w/Steve Zimmer: WHY PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEED A BAILOUT

by Liz Dwyer from Good Magazine/Blog

July 20, 2010 at 6:30 am PDT  -- Veteran teacher, counselor, advocate, and community activist Steve Zimmer (PDF) has called Los Angeles home since he arrived in 1992 as a neophyte Teach For America teacher. Eighteen years later, 40 year-old Zimmer is completing his first year as an elected school board member for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest district in the United States. Serving LAUSD’s 680,000 racially, ethnically, and economically diverse students at a time when the Obama administration is raising performance expectations—while more than $1.5 billion’s been cut from the district budget and more than 6,000 positions eliminated—is no easy task. We talked with him about why he still believes in public education despite all the challenges.

GOOD: What kind of grade would you give the Obama Administration and Secretary Duncan on education?

STEVE ZIMMER: I’d give them an A on focusing on the lowest performing schools, but I’d give them a C on approach. I think some inflexibility and overreliance on competition has really hampered their efforts. They’re propelled by the notion that there needs to be a school-based drastic turnaround rather than a community-based turnaround. With the schools that need the most support and collaboration, there seems to be a focus on being punitive and I think that’s flawed.

G: Is the solution to run public education like a corporation?

SZ: The reforms I think will actually work aren’t private sector reforms. When we talk about social capital and community capital and harnessing what could be very effective solutions that are right in the communities where children live—I don’t think those are business models. Those are expanding the scope of what a school does and transforming the definition of what a school is, and from that, you transform who has power in schools.

I’m not opposed to private sector influence, but whether it’s private sector or what I call community sector, human sector or labor sector, whatever it is, here’s my problem with what’s happening right now—all of those things can be tried once we have a base level of funding that stabilizes our schools.

G: Some say there’s enough money but districts waste it.

SZ: I’m not talking about throwing money at a problem. I’m talking about stabilizing situations so that you can address the problems. There’s no debate about funding the war, no debate about funding the Wall Street and housing bailouts, but a tiny fraction of either of those funds would provide a baseline stabilization of our schools.

G: Thirty schools in Detroit closed this year and 275,000 education jobs are projected to be lost. How do we fix these cuts?

SZ: The assumption is that one of the things that your taxes fully fund is public schools. When you have a recession, that’s when you need more resources in schools, not less.

G: What do you say to people who want more police at schools and zero tolerance policies where we expel kids?

SZ: I actually think school police, and I’m being very specific, school police have a potentially powerful role to play. School police are like an intersection between social work and law enforcement, and I’ve had phenomenally positive experiences with that when it works. We’re not going to arrest and expel our way out of the social problems that are a) caused by poverty and b) accentuated by concentrations of poverty.

Until we own the fact that the achievement gap is not some accident—that those who are in power and those who have had access to privilege and all the things that go along with it directly benefit from there being an achievement gap—until we own it, it’s never going to go away. Since the achievement gap is intentional, the efforts to eradicate it need to be just as intentional.

G: With all the problems facing public education, and the challenge of being a board member in such a large district, how do you stay positive?

SZ: Last Sunday I spent my afternoon at school fairs and my first family fair was at Selma Elementary, right in the heart of Hollywood. It serves homeless families and has a high concentration of poverty. It’s one of the most urban-feeling schools in the city. There’s no grass. It’s surrounded by buildings, but their fair was really great—tons of families and they’d made their own food and their own games, and it was clear that everything had been made by the teachers and parents.

Then I went from Selma to Roscomere, a school in Bel Air. They had huge trailers with 64-inch screens. They brought in one of those rock-climbing things. They spent $250,000 just on the games for their fair.

One of the blessings and challenges of having the district I have is you really see the disparity. The leaders of this school district have to balance the needs of a Roscomere and a Selma. The teachers in both places still are paid, and they work on the same contract and there’s still the same classroom ratio. But there are inequities because of the money Roscomere is able to raise.

It’s the same school system. It’s public education. Somehow, someway, it connects people who wouldn’t be connected otherwise. We just have to figure the rest of it out.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project.

FAMILIES’ HOPES ARE DASHED AS NEW BEVERLY HILLS UNIFIED POLICY OUSTS NONRESIDENT CHILDREN FROM DISTRICT SCHOOLS: Removal of students who live outside the city can be appealed to the L.A. County Board of Education, but more than half the requests have been denied.

Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times

July 25, 2010 -- To Cheryl and Joshua Winiarz, the Los Angeles County Board of Education represented their last hope for keeping their daughter in the school she loved.

The Beverly Hills school system denied Sophie a permit to continue attending Horace Mann Elementary School because she lives outside the city. In June, the Winiarzes appealed the decision to the county board but left in tears after the request was denied.

They are among about 200 families who, under a new policy, were denied permits for their children to continue attending Beverly Hills Unified schools because they live outside of the city. Dozens of families appealed to the county, but many said they believe they did not receive a fair hearing because not all seven members of the panel were present to vote. Four "yes" votes are required to overturn the school district; the Winiarzes received two affirmative votes from the five members present.

Of the 44 appeals heard so far, 30 have been rejected. In 19 of those denied cases, including Sophie's, the county board's hearing consultant recommended that the appeal be granted.

Sophie had been enrolled in the Beverly Hills district since the fourth grade, first at Beverly Vista School and then as an honor student at Horace Mann, less than a mile from the family's home. Her parents argued that she should be allowed to complete seventh and eighth grades at the school.

"It's so unjust," Cheryl Winiarz said. "Sophie was afraid to come to the hearing and now she'll be devastated. They're doing psychological damage to these children."

Parents from the Beverly Hills school district are not the only ones affected by such residency disputes. Many cash-strapped school districts want to keep more of their students — and the state funding they bring. Families of many of these students are filing appeals.

Hearings are punctuated frequently by sobs and sometimes angry outbursts from families struggling with custody and childcare arrangements as well as transportation and health issues.

So many cases are piling up — 30 to 40 are on agendas in coming weeks — that the county board is considering having a separate panel decide some cases.

Board member Leslie K. Gilbert-Lurie wants to revise the four-vote requirement, so that only three votes would be needed to win an appeal if some board members are absent.

"I think our process is fair, but my concern is that different decisions get reached depending on the number of board members present that day," Gilbert-Lurie said. "We're not judging the cases in an identical way."

The appeals have spotlighted the difficult balancing act faced by the county board, which decides cases based on criteria such as the availability of special programs that might benefit some students but aren't offered in their home districts, transportation problems that might create a hardship, and child care.

Board member Maria Elena Yepes argued that educational continuity should take precedence. She has often voted for the families in the Beverly Hills appeals.

"If it's not a natural break in the child's education, they should stay where they are," she said.

County board member Douglas R. Boyd, who has voted against granting the appeals in the majority of Beverly Hills cases, said it is not the job of his panel to "micromanage" that district's decisions.

"I would have drawn the lines differently but I respect their right to make their own policy decisions and I have voted accordingly," Boyd said.

Money was a primary reason why the Beverly Hills Board of Education voted earlier this year to restrict most permits for students who live outside the district's boundaries. The district changed the way it pays for schools, using property tax revenues rather than state student attendance funding. Some officials had argued that Beverly Hills taxpayers should not have to subsidize the education of nonresidents.

Under the new policy, seventh graders living outside of the city will be allowed to graduate next year from middle school in Beverly Hills. And those in high school can continue to graduation. But students in elementary school and eighth grade will not be allowed to return.

In June, Jillian Neal won an appeal for her son Jamison, 11, to stay at Horace Mann, which he has attended since kindergarten. She counts herself lucky but feels badly for other families, many of whom she knows from the PTA. She has pushed for them with county supervisors and legislators. She said she is so disenchanted with the Beverly Hills district that she plans to enroll her son in a Los Angeles charter school.

"I'm dealing with it every day trying to help find recourse," Neal said. "I stay up at night thinking about these kids and how their lives are affected."

Beverly Hills Board of Education President Steven Fenton said restricting permit students will mean more money for his district, which is in a period of transition with a new interim principal at Beverly Hills High School, three new elementary school principals and a new interim superintendent.

Fenton said he has friends who have appeared before the county board and lost. "I haven't taken satisfaction in any of this," he said.

Meanwhile, the Winiarzes, like other families, are unsure where to send their daughter in the fall. Joshua Winiarz said his family is considering moving into an apartment in Beverly Hills to stay in the district.

"There's going to be a financial impact; an impact on where we're going to live," he said. "You do what you have to do to keep giving your child a good education."

STUDENTS PROTEST ARTS SCHOOL PRINCIPAL OUSTER - Now with photographs!

Los Angeles Downtown News

photos from the barricades saveblake.com

Friday, July 23, 2010 4:03 PM PDT -- DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - About 60 students, parents and teachers affiliated with Central Los Angeles High School No. 9, otherwise known as the High School for Visual and Performing Arts, gathered on July 19 outside the LAUSD headquarters on Beaudry Street to protest the recent removal of principal Suzanne Blake.

In its debut year, the $232 million school had ups and downs. While highlights included some drama students being invited to perform a play in Scotland next year, the school also initially missed a key accreditation from a state group (it later was accredited). Blake will be replaced by Luis Lopez, a move that parents and some teachers decried as political and unfair. “She’s the best boss I’ve ever had,” said Danny McDermott, who teaches technical theater at the school. McDermott credited Blake with fostering an atmosphere and life at the school that students adored. Blake was “very hands on,” said student Josh Bubar, who will be a senior next year. “She brought a lot of enthusiasm to the table at all times. She supported school spirit and things that are important for a newborn school.”

LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS WIN APPEAL ON CHARTER SCHOOLS

Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - A state appeals court strengthened the authority of local school boards over charter schools Monday by making it harder for California education officials to approve statewide charters with campuses in multiple counties.

Charter schools are publicly funded and tuition-free but operate independently of local school districts and their union contracts, though districts are supposed to monitor their performance. They have been proliferating both in California and nationwide.

State law allows the state Board of Education, appointed by the governor, to let a company establish charter schools in far-flung counties without local approval or monitoring. Groups of school boards, administrators and teachers claimed the board was overstepping its authority, and on Monday, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco agreed.

Under a 2002 state law, the court said, the state board can approve a statewide charter only if it offers benefits to students that would be unavailable from locally approved charter schools. Otherwise, the court said, each new charter must be approved by the school district or county education office.

The law was intended "to promote district-chartered schools and local oversight," said Justice Maria Rivera in the 3-0 ruling, which overturned an Alameda County judge's decision.

The effect will be to limit multi-county or statewide charter schools to those offering special programs that appeal to students from a wide area, like magnet schools or military academies, said Deborah Caplan, lawyer for associations of school boards and administrators that sued the state board. The California Teachers Association also sued.

Caplan said the ruling would help to make charter schools "accountable to local needs and to the local student population." She said one purpose of the 2002 law was to protect students at so-called satellite campuses who had been left in the lurch when a charter headquartered in another county ran into financial trouble.

Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Riley, who represented the state Board of Education, said the board was evaluating its options, which include an appeal to the state Supreme Court. Lawyers for Aspire Public Schools, the charter involved in the case, were unavailable for comment.

Aspire, a nonprofit based in Oakland, was operating 17 schools in California, all with local approval, when it applied to the state board in 2005 for a statewide charter that would allow it to open new campuses in additional counties.

The board granted the charter in 2007, finding that Aspire would offer statewide educational benefits but declining to consider whether locally approved charters would accomplish the same purpose. The company then opened schools in Los Angeles and Stockton.

The court said Monday that the board had used the wrong standard, a ruling that would allow board members to reconsider Aspire's application or to require the company to seek local approval.

COURT OF APPEALS REVERSES TRIAL COURT, SENDS CASE BACK TO COURT IN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION v. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION (ASPIRE CHARTER SCHOOLS CASE)

from Leagle.com | Associate Justice Maria P. Rivera writing the opinion

Edited   | [entire opinion]

Filed July 26, 2010. Certified for Publication

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION et al., Petitioners and Appellants,
v.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Respondent;
ASPIRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, INC., Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

No. A122485.

Court of Appeals of California, First District, Division Four.

Charter schools are public schools that operate independently from, but with oversight by, the school districts or county boards of education that approve their charters. Before 2002, charter schools operated without geographic restrictions; a school chartered in Los Angeles could operate "satellite" campuses as far away as Palo Alto or Mendocino.^{[ 1 ]} In 2002, after it came to light that a school chartered in Fresno but operating satellites in far-flung locations had accumulated $1.3 million in debt and was involved in other irregularities,^{[ 2 ]} the Legislature amended the Charter Schools Act of 1992 (Ed. Code,^{[ 3 ]} § 47600 et seq.) (CSA) to require that charter schools be located within the districts or counties where they are chartered (see, e.g., §§ 47605, subd. (a)(1), 47605.1). The Legislature also added section 47605.8. Subdivision (a) authorized the State Board of Education (the State Board) to approve statewide charters that would allow a school to operate without the geographic restrictions. Subdivision (b), however, provided that the State Board could not approve a statewide charter unless it first made a finding that "the proposed state charter school will provide instructional services of statewide benefit that cannot be provided by a charter school operating in only one school district, or only in one county."

• In 2007 the State Board approved a statewide charter for Aspire Public Schools, Inc. (Aspire).
• The California School Boards Association (CSBA) and others filed an action challenging this approval, contending that the State Board failed to determine and make a finding that Aspire's instructional services of a statewide benefit could not be provided through individual charters from local school districts.
• The State Board and Aspire demurred. They contended, and the trial court ruled, that section 47605.8, subdivision (b) requires the State Board to find the proposed charter school will provide "instructional services of statewide benefit," but does not require the Board to find, in addition, that the statewide benefit could not be provided through locally approved charters.
• We conclude that such a finding is required and, accordingly, we reverse.
• The petition and complaint contains two other causes of action seeking mandamus. Petitioners allege:
• (1) the State Board has failed and refused to enforce the conditions of approval imposed on Aspire's charter and should be compelled to do so; and
• (2) the State Board used policies and procedures in connection with its consideration of statewide charter petitions that have not been adopted in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (Gov. Code, § 11340 et seq.) (APA) and, therefore, the State Board should be compelled to set aside its approval of Aspire's charter.
• The trial court sustained demurrers to these causes of action. We reverse as to these claims as well.

CONCLUSION AND DISPOSITION

The demurrers to the first three causes of action should not have been sustained. Accordingly, we reverse as to those causes of action and also as to the fourth and fifth causes of action seeking injunctive and declaratory relief predicated on the same allegations.

The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded.

[entire opinion]

CORTINES PICKS “EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATOR” TO HEAD LOCAL DISTRICT 8

MY TURN by Diana L. Chapman | CityWatch | Vol 8 Issue 58

July 23, 2010 -- Caught by surprise that he was about to be promoted as the southern regional superintendent for Los Angeles schools, Michael Romero said he humbly accepted the new job  in June assuming one of the top administrative posts in LAUSD.  He will oversee large portions of South Los Angeles, called District Eight, which includes a giant chunk of the Harbor area and a region that houses 95 schools. Romero was originally slated to take over as the superintendent of instruction for kindergarten through eighth grade when the 22-year LAUSD veteran said he received a call from Los Angeles Unified School Superintendent Ramon Cortines asking  him to visit.

“I wasn’t sure what it was about,” Romero explained during an interview. “When I sat there, it was a bit of surprise when (the superintendent) said: “I’m assigning you as the Local District Eight Superintendent.

“I said:’ “I’m honored to continue supporting the families of District Eight (where he currently worked).’”

The Harbor City resident replaces Linda Del Cueto, who headed the region which stretches from northern Los Angeles above Gardena and stems all the way south to the cliffs of San Pedro; it encompasses  Wilmington, Carson, Rancho Palos Verdes, Harbor City and Lomita.

“Michael Romero is the ideal leader to oversee Local District 8,” Cortines said.  “First, he is an exceptional educator from this community, he believes in this community, and he has set high expectations for the students, teachers, administrators and staff at all of his schools.

“And lastly, Mr. Romero’s positive relationship with members of the local communities and individual cities that are served by Local District 8 will go a long way towards ensuring his success, as well as the academic success of his students.”

Already visiting schools – in particular San Pedro High during the summer – Romero said he’s now working across the board to raise students understanding in math from as young as pre-kindergarten to their senior years --in Algebra in particular.

Due to the low proficiency in an area that should have scored much higher, Romero said he spent a good portion of his time this summer at San Pedro High where only 13 percent of the students currently are proficient in math.

The struggling school, expected to gain enormous ground under the supervision of new and popular principal, Jeanette Stevens, suffered from overcrowding, entrenched teachers, revolving top leadership, low test scores and a poor accreditation rating that forced the campus into “the public school choice,” option.

This meant outside operators could pursue the campus, including charter agencies. Although none applied, the school has already showed signs of significant turnaround and received another year in accreditation until spring 2011.

Under Steven’s leadership, Romero said, he’s fully confident the school will  improve dramatically and added he’s so impressed with Steven’s collaborative skills that he will seek out future principals with her abilities.

“They are on the right path,” Romero explained of San Pedro High, “and I am confident about her work with the teachers and administrators. The public school choice provided them options to reflect on what they were all about. What Jeanette does well is that she has positive, constructive conversations (with her staff). We all need to grow in our practices and it’s done in a constructive manner.”

Three of Romero’s top priorities include:

•   Math: All his schools will review how they teach math and go far beyond offering programs to students. He expects that math teachers not just present the material, but now break it down and put it to practical use having students divide into small groups and discussing what they’ve learned. In addition, teachers are expected to promote how these equations can be applied in the real world, not just the classroom.

•   Truancies:  Schools will be asked to focus on students who are missing several months of school and become more aggressive at contacting parents, making home visits and encouraging parents to reduce the number of days a student misses. Once a student is gone for more than ten days, the schools “procedures and routines,” will now include successfully interacting with families to bring children back. When he did this as a principal, he said, absences went down dramatically. “It’s not a real scientific thing,” he explained. “Every school should do this,” adding it provides the student with much more instructional input and increases the students chances to learn.

•   Suspensions: Romero wants to reduce the number of suspensions and plans to have district officials work with school campuses on finding ways to reinforce positive behavior in an effort to reduce the number of students removed from schools. Again, taking students out of school mars their learning capabilities dramatically, he said. 

Over the next several years, Romero will also oversee the building of the controversial High School 15 – an annex of San Pedro High School at Angel’s Gate – which is slated to open in 2012, along with the openings of several new facilities: Carson High School to open in 2011, Harry Bridges Span School  in Wilmington -- a kindergarten through eighth grade program scheduled for completion in 2012 -- and the $20 million building of the first permanent Harbor Teacher’s Prep School, which is now on bungalows at Harbor Community College. It will remain there as a new facility.

Romero came to the superintendent post with a wealth of experience, starting out as a teacher at Ninth Street Elementary. Beginning in 1988, he taught third  through 6th grade for nearly five years. After that, he moved into several administrative jobs before becoming a principal at Fletcher Drive Elementary in 1999 and Gardena Elementary in 2001.

In 2005, he took a leap into administering all of LAUSD’s reading programs – before becoming a support services director in 2006 for District Eight.

Diana Chapman has been a writer/journalist for nearly thirty years. She has written for magazines, newspapers and the best-seller series, Chicken Soup for the Soul. -cw

Study: EFFECTIVE PRINCIPALS EMBRACE COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP

By Christina A. Samuels - Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org | Vol. 29, Issue 37

July 23, 2010 -- An expansive study devoted to examining the traits of effective school principals has found that high student achievement is linked to “collective leadership”: the combined influence of educators, parents, and others on school decisions.

Effective principals encourage others to join in the decision-making process in their schools, said the study, which was commissioned by the New York-based Wallace Foundation and produced by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, in St. Paul, and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

Successfully done, the study suggested, such power sharing does not mean a principal loses clout.

“Influence in schools is not a fixed sum or a zero-sum game,” the report said. (The Wallace Foundation underwrites coverage of leadership, human capital development, expanded learning, and other topics, in Education Week.)

The long-awaited study, published this week, is the largest to date to focus on the principalship, its authors say. It attempts to get beyond the broad statement that school leadership is important and digs into just what types of leadership appear to make the most difference when it comes to improving schools. In order to answer that question, the foundation devoted $3.5 million and six years to surveying more than 8,400 teachers and 470 school administrators. Additional interviews were conducted with more than 1,000 educators at the school, district, and state levels. In addition, researchers observed 310 classrooms. The study also tied the data to student test scores in mathematics and English.

Leading in Reform

Edward Pauly, the director of research and evaluation for the Wallace Foundation, said that when the study was commissioned in 2003, few people understood the importance and key activities of effective school leaders.

“Some research had been done, but the studies were small, fragmentary, and they did not connect to student achievement and were not relevant to school improvement efforts,” Mr. Pauly said. A lot of attention was paid to teacher effectiveness.

This study “makes it completely plain all of these school improvement efforts have to have a focus on the leadership of the school,” he said. “You just can’t get away from that.”

Principals and teachers who were surveyed agreed on the role that principals play as instructional leaders. But that doesn’t mean that principals must be the ones directly demonstrating educational techniques to teachers, said Kyla L. Wahlstrom, the director of the University of Minnesota’s educational research center and the lead author of the report. Successful principals “were setting the conditions that enabled the teachers to be better instructors,” she said.

Elementary school principals demonstrated more of these instructional leadership behaviors than their peers at secondary schools, Mr. Pauly said. Secondary school principals said that they delegated instructional leadership to department chairs, but in interviews conducted for the study, the researchers did not find evidence those teachers were providing it, the report said.

“It is not the case that the principal is the only person who can lead a school to higher achievement,” Mr. Pauly said. “If nobody in a school, or few people in a school, see it as their priority, then that school has a big problem.”

The study also noted how important it is for principals to stay in one school in order to build those effective partnerships among teachers and parents. Some district policies intentionally rotate principals into new buildings every three to five years out of a belief that frequent moves eliminate complacency, Ms. Wahlstrom said. “To move them around just to move them around is probably not a good idea,” she said. By the same token, district leaders should think carefully before moving “star” principals into struggling schools—a strategy also emphasized in the U.S. Department of Education’s initiative for turning around failing schools—because the schools left behind may have problems.

Data Use a Challenge

Professional development for principals is fragmented, the study said. “The whole notion is, you need to have professional development as you do for teachers—it’s ongoing and it’s iterative,” Ms. Wahlstrom said. Day-long seminars are not the answer, she said. Principals are finding professional development through associations and other sources, but “the districts themselves don’t have any coordinated plans to assess where principals are and to meet their needs.”

The study also said that “data-driven decision-making” was a buzzword, but that relatively few of the people interviewed could describe a situation in which they had a discussion based on data that was then used to make a good decision. “Most people had very few examples of where they used data well,” Ms. Wahlstrom said.

However, the most effective principals were the ones who were able to use data and show teachers how to use the information, too. The study said principals “can play a key role in establishing the purposes and expectations for data use. They can provide structured opportunities (collegial groups and time for data use), sessions for data-use training and assistance, access to expertise, and follow-up actions. Where principals do not make data use a priority—where they do not mobilize expertise to support data use and create working conditions to facilitate data use in instructional decision making—teachers are not likely to do it on their own.”

Turnover ‘Top of List’

Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va., said that the study reinforces many of the priorities of his organization. “We’ve known for a long time that stability in leadership is important. We see it at the highest level. Districts that have a revolving door for the superintendent tend to be dysfunctional districts. The same thing is true at the building level,” he said.

He also said he appreciated the study’s promotion of collective leadership among principals, teachers, and parents. “In the best performing districts, all of those elements have a voice in the decision making process,” he said.

Gail Connelly, the executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, in Alexandria, Va., said the study “really reinforces the need for comprehensive professional development, and also targeted professional development in areas that are new and emerging, such as how to best utilize data to inform decision making.” Her association has been working to create professional development opportunities for its members, she said.

“Principals, to their credit, are finding ways to access resources,” she said.

Mr. Pauly, from the Wallace Foundation, said that the results of the study bring up new issues for the organization while reinforcing existing priorities. The study noted that principals turn over at schools every three to four years, which has a “moderately negative” effect on school culture. “The topic of principal turnover was not on Wallace’s radar,” Mr. Pauly said. But “based on this study, this has to be on the top of the list for everybody.” The study’s demonstration of the importance of principal development reinforces work that the foundation has been doing already, Mr. Pauly said.

Audit: SLOPPY BOOKKEEPING COST LAUSD SCHOOLS $10M

by The Associated Press on KNX1070.com

smf notes: As a classically educated scholar and a member of the Hollywood High School Latin Club c.MCMLXIII I feel it incumbent to correct an error in the Roman numerology. $10M is $10,000. Ten million dollars would be $10MM.

Monday, 26 July 2010 9:03AM --  LOS ANGELES (AP)  -- An audit says stolen textbooks and unnecessary book purchases have cost the Los Angeles Unified School District nearly $10 million.

The June 30, report randomly sampled 21 high schools, concluding that the nation's second-largest school system has an outdated and substandard textbook inventory system. Its elementary schools have no system at all.

The inspector general's office audit covered a period from 2008 to this February. In one case, auditors found that $500,000 worth of textbooks sat for years in a district warehouse.

The district, which has more than 1,000 schools, says a new tracking system will be ready in another several months.

The district spent more than $83 million on textbooks last year. It postponed $60 million in purchases this year as it struggles with budget cuts.

THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS ARE WRITTEN ON THE SUBWAY WALLS: Feedback to 4LAKids about the replacement of the Principal @ HS#9, The High School for the Visual and Performing Arts.

A Beaudry Insider writes:

"Cortines talks about transparency.... I guess we got it here.  It is transparent that the powers don't care what the kids, parents, staff or community have to say   ...let's just move along shall we?"

A Parent Activist writes:

Here’s some info I dug up on Dale Vigil.  He’s the one who Superintendent Cortines allowed to make the final decision on replacing Mrs. Blake.  It seems Vigil has a history of these tactics.  He was also forced out, or paid off, to leave twice before.

The comments below are from the blog: HAYWARD EDUCATORS TOGETHER | http://bit.ly/bx7pKV

and from: BOARD FORCES VIGIL TO QUIT SR SCHOOLS CHIEF SAYS `NO LONGER A MATCH' by Robert Digitale in the Santa Rosa The Press Democrat/ Page 1 (February 24, 2000)

"Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Dale Vigil, a man credited with developing rigorous academic standards but criticized for lack of ``managerial focus,'' resigned Wednesday at the request of the Board of Education.  The board unanimously accepted Vigil's resignation at a special meeting Wednesday morning -the end of negotiations that the elected officials had kept a closely guarded secret. Vigil had been superintendent less than two years.  But they also have expressed frustration with him for his controversial removal of principals last year and, more recently, for killing a student testing program involving neighboring school districts around the city.

On Wednesday, the board directed administrators to try to revive that testing program. Some board members acknowledged Vigil's attempt to end it without their approval was a factor -- although not a decisive one, they insisted -in their decision to ask for his resignation."

The first expression of frustration by board members came a year ago when Vigil publicly fired two principals rather than allow them to quietly resign as typically occurred. His action, along with the proposed transfer of Fremont School's principal, set off angry protests against the school board at three different schools.

"Another sign of dissatisfaction occurred this past spring when board members and a facilitator met twice with Vigil behind closed doors to discuss his job performance. Only Pugh would comment, saying there were “significant issues'' between the board and Vigil."

"Vigil also worked at as an administrator at Los Angeles Unified School District for about five years.  His four-year stint as superintendent at the Hayward Unified School District was controversial and ended with the school board buying out his contract about six months early in December. The Santa Rosa school board also bought out his contract two years into his three-year contract in 2000."

"A bitter teachers strike occurred on Vigil's watch in Hayward, and the Hayward teachers union on Thursday issued a scathing statement criticizing his leadership and abilities. The union also lashed out at his decision to take a vacation to Mexico during the strike."

""Dr. Vigil, while a nice person, lacked the leadership skills necessary to improve the Hayward Unified School district, as well as exhibiting little interest in getting things done," the statement read, "He enjoyed talking about curriculum, but when it came time to implement policies the job seemed too big for him."

 

a teacher and long-time UTLA chapter chair writes:

I interacted with Dale Vigil when he was the Local District Supt. In the South Gate area. I can’t stand him. He hates teachers and wants nothing from them, other than to do what they are told. He made it very clear, and verbally expressed his opinion, that teacher union contracts are worthless. He knows what is best. Period. He is a bully.

And he didn’t think much of parents......

I know one of the people who interviewed for the job of principal at the new Waterslide High School. He was recruited to come. He decided that there was far too much probable interference and a complete lack of clarity as to the chain of command with who would ultimately be held responsible for the school – Would it be the principal, or would it be Eli Broad’s handpicked Public Relations/Fund Raiser ? He thought it over – and decided there was no way in he.... he wanted to leave a great magnet performing arts high school for the chaos and stupidity in LAUSD. Obviously a very smart fellow.

NYT: OAKLAND SCHOOLS STRUGGLE, BUT EMERYVILLE MAY POINT A WAY UP

By GERRY SHIH | New York Times

July 22, 2010 - In his five-year plan to turn around the lowest-performing schools in the Oakland Unified School District, Superintendent Tony Smith does not mention teachers, textbooks or test scores.

Instead, Mr. Smith said his students most urgently needed social and health services, engaged parents and activities outside the classroom.

Whether Mr. Smith can overhaul the schools in Oakland is a subject of intense interest among Bay Area educators. Oakland Unified has lost $122 million in financing in the latest cuts to California’s embattled public schools. The city’s endemic problems, particularly poverty and crime, have had a dramatic effect in the classroom.

But Mr. Smith has a record of reform: As a young superintendent in Emeryville in the early 2000s, he enlisted social workers from California State University and nurses from the Wright Institute in Berkeley. Students interned at Pixar and made street projects with Seyed Alavi, the conceptual artist.

Soon, test scores districtwide began to improve.

Some educators question whether Mr. Smith’s ambitious agenda is realistic.

“It’s awfully hard to establish that kind of support and sustain it over time when we’re simply unable to even fill the classrooms with teachers,” said David N. Plank, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education, a nonpartisan research center. “The fact that it doesn’t happen very often isn’t because people haven’t realized it. It’s because it’s awfully hard to pull off.”

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen - College-student aides and high school students administer a cyanide test to water samples at a science program in Emeryville.

Mr. Smith, 43, said that he understood the need for quick results, but that reform was imperative if the city was to break the cycle of underachievement for its most disadvantaged students.

“It’s a big, crazy, intense idea that we would do this citywide,” Mr. Smith said in a recent interview. “Yet the pattern we see now is unacceptable, and unless we do something significantly different, we’re not going to get a different outcome.”

Mr. Smith, a former captain of the Cal football team, came to Oakland a year ago as a self-described education wonk. Lisa Villarreal, an education specialist at the San Francisco Foundation, a philanthropic organization, said Mr. Smith was already known as a rising young administrator who was “very, very taken” with concepts that had been tested for decades in New York — by Geoffrey Canada, an educator, in his Harlem Children’s Zone, and by Richard Murphy of the Beacon Schools.

In 2004, when Mr. Smith took over in Emeryville, the school district was still reeling from a 2001 bankruptcy. It is tiny compared with Oakland, having just two schools and 780 students, about 84 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

Mr. Smith’s approach was to enlist the entire community — including businesses — to improve the schools. The partnerships led to support and new opportunities not only for students but also for their parents. Emery Unified has since formed alliances with the Y.M.C.A. in nearby Albany and the Berkeley library system. A Center for Community Life is in the works to provide health services for the elderly, crime prevention initiatives and a project to curtail teenage pregnancy.

Mr. Smith left Emery Unified in 2007. This year, the school district boasted the highest gains in test scores of any district in Alameda County. And while districts elsewhere are suffering under steep budget cuts, support from local businesses and foundations has helped cushion Emery.

Education researchers from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, who have studied Emery Unified say it is difficult to quantify the effects of Mr. Smith’s program on student performance. But in the hallways, people are sold.

“This is a district that has risen from the ashes,” said John Sugiyama, who succeeded Mr. Smith as Emery Unified superintendent. “All these ideas that we’re talking about right now, a lot of that goes back to Tony.”

Mr. Smith said he believed that his approach would work well in Oakland, because the schools could serve as a bubble to fend off social problems that he believes are at the root of academic underachievement.

“Children in affluent families are provided a certain environment that plays a powerful role,” Mr. Smith said. “Those opportunities don’t always exist for our children.”

In some ways, the timing is ideal, with everyone from the Obama administration to local politicians pushing for dramatic change in the way public schools are run. In June, Mr. Smith packaged his ideas into a five-year strategic plan, which the Oakland school board’s seven members unanimously approved. Last month, Oakland was among several Bay Area cities to submit a preliminary proposal for a Promise Neighborhood grant, a community schools initiative financed with $10 million by the Department of Education.

The proposal identified “hub schools” in four Oakland neighborhoods: Garfield Elementary School in Lower San Antonio, West Oakland Middle School, Roots International Academy in Havenscourt and East Oakland School of the Arts in Castlemont.

Each school would partner with a neighborhood organization to provide an array of social services. For years, a number of Oakland nonprofits have pushed for such a strategy, said Junious Williams, chief executive of the Urban Strategies Council, a community development organization. But, before Mr. Smith, they never had a superintendent who championed the idea.

“There was finally a real alignment,” Mr. Williams said.

But many still question whether the Emery model can be used. In Emeryville, with its robust business tax base, Mr. Smith forged a strong alliance with a group of business people behind the Emery Education Fund.

Researchers say a parcel tax pushed through with strong business support in 2003 was the crucial factor in the district’s sustained success. An extension of the tax passed easily in 2007. John Gooding, an Emeryville consultant and president of the fund, said real estate developers and large local corporations like Novartis and Pixar had donated millions to the school district in the past decade.

Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, a Berkeley education professor who supports Mr. Smith’s plan, said the financial support was essential.

“We have lots of great foundations here in the Bay,” she said, “but it’s not clear whether they’re going to rally around the Lower San Antonio in Oakland.”

There are also questions of execution. The Oakland initiative would ultimately include dozens of disparate organizations, raising questions of how to manage such a sprawling and complex bureaucracy while maintaining accountability over public money.

But Mr. Smith’s supporters said that was where his experience could be most useful.

“He certainly understands that getting organizations interested to work together when they traditionally haven’t done so is difficult,” said Hayin Kim, the director of community and youth engagement at Emery Unified. “If anything, what Tony certainly understands is politics.”

Mr. Smith said companies like Kaiser and Clorox had already signaled their willingness to play a role in the Oakland project. The most influential Bay Area philanthropic groups, like the San Francisco Foundation and the California Endowment, are Mr. Smith’s most enthusiastic supporters.

But his most reliable cheering section may be the small city just north of Oakland, where Mr. Smith’s reforms continue.

Mr. Sugiyama, the Emery Unified superintendent, said he was most proud that beginning later this summer, parents would be able to attend low-cost night classes offered by Berkeley City College at Emeryville High School. The program is designed to lead to an associate degree after two years of continuous enrollment.

Next to Mr. Smith’s desk at the Oakland Unified offices is a daily reminder of his work at Emery Unified: a three-foot-long, yellow and black painting that Emeryville students made in a summer program with local artists.

“This is a dialogue I’ve been having for 10 years,” Mr. Smith said. “People are ready.”

 

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org.

Schools Stacking the Deck? SHORTER SCHOOL YEAR ADDS TO CONCERN

:42 PM PDT on Sunday, July 25, 2010

By LOUIS FREEDBERG | California Watch in the Riverside Press-Enterprise

Interactive: California's school year falls short compared with rest of world

Monday, July 26, 2010 - Just as education experts are encouraging more classroom time to improve student grades and test scores, many California districts are moving in the opposite direction by shortening their school year amid a sustained and draining budget crisis.

Of the state's 30 largest school districts, 16 are reducing the number of days in the academic year, according to a survey by California Watch.

Five Inland districts rank in the top 30: San Bernardino City, Corona-Norco, Riverside, Moreno Valley and Fontana.

Corona-Norco, Riverside and Fontana, with more than 136,000 students combined, have cut the school year.

Educators said a shorter year is better than larger class sizes and cuts to other programs.

Moreno Valley has discussed a shorter school year but is still negotiating with teachers.

"Obviously, we would want students in school and for a longer period of time," Corona-Norco Superintendent Kent Bechler said.

But with the school funding shortfalls in California, district officials had to make a painful choice: Cut the school year or cut more teachers and programs such as fine arts, electives and some counseling services.

Inland educators say such programs keep students interested and motivated to come to school. They also help schools focus on preparing students for college and careers, Bechler said.

In the end, officials preferred a shorter year with a fuller academic program, rather than having a longer year with a limited academic program for students, Bechler said.

Across the state, the changes are expected to affect about 1.4 million students in the 30 largest districts alone.

Educators believe a shrinking school year, in combination with other budget cutbacks, could depress hard-won academic gains in recent years. To many, it is a dramatic illustration of how the state's budget crisis has begun to erode not just the fringes, but also the core of public education in California.

"This is a major setback," said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. "We're reducing opportunities for our students, which puts California students at a competitive disadvantage relative to other states."

A little more than a decade ago, California increased the number of instructional days to 180, catching up with most other states. Two years ago, as the state's economy deteriorated, the state gave districts permission to reduce the calendar to 175 days, but few exercised the option.

No longer. Facing crushing budget deficits, districts throughout the state will cut up to five days from the school calendar by granting teachers and other staff unpaid furlough days. Many also will eliminate days when students are not in the classroom that teachers traditionally have used for class preparation, staff training or parent conferences.

In Southern California, districts with a shorter year include Los Angeles Unified, the state's largest with almost 700,000 students, as well as San Diego, Long Beach, Anaheim and Poway. Several Riverside County districts, including Temecula Valley, Murrieta Valley, Lake Elsinore and Alvord in west Riverside and east Corona, also have cut up to five days.

School officials say they've tried to cut days that would least affect students and instruction. Many off days fall at the end of school year, after state testing or Advanced Placement exams. Several districts also will take the Friday following the Veteran's Day holiday, which falls on Thursday this year.

Even with fewer instructional days, the number of minutes students spend in class will still exceed state requirements, Murrieta Valley spokeswoman Karen Parris said. The district cut four days as part of a furlough package.

SLIPPING FURTHER

The nation's school year, with its lengthy summer vacation, already is viewed as an anachronism dating to when children were needed to work on family farms.

California's shorter school year will put the state even further behind numerous countries, such as South Korea with 220, and Switzerland with 228. Growing numbers of California students will find themselves in the company of those in Kentucky, Maine and Missouri, whose school years are 175 days.

California, which educates 1 in 8 public school children in the United States, is one of the few states in which districts in significant numbers are shrinking their school year, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C.

"California is the basket case of the country," Jennings said. "Fiscally, it is in worse shape than any other state."

The move is accompanied by cutbacks in almost every other aspect of public education, including rolling back or eliminating the state's program intended to keep class sizes in the early grades to just 20 students. Last fall, a survey by California Watch found that the majority of the state's 30 largest districts were increasing class size in the K-3 grades, in some cases to as many as 30 students.

What makes the shorter year attractive to many districts is that it yields large savings. The state's 30 largest districts are expected to save more than $200 million combined.

In Los Angeles, for example, a shorter year will save $145 million. San Diego will save $20.9 million, and Long Beach, $12 million.

By cutting the school year, however, California may be sacrificing a major source of revenue even while it attempts to trim its budget.

To compete for the $3.5 billion school-improvement grant program offered by the U.S. Department of Education, districts must agree to implement four turnaround strategies for their lowest-performing schools. Two of them would require expanding the school day, week or year to increase instructional time for core academic subjects.

Alvord Unified School District, which has Norte Vista High School in west Riverside on the lowest-performing list, rejected the models that would have required increased instructional time because of concerns about how to pay for it.

TEACHERS SACRIFICE

Some districts have been able to maintain a 180-day school year only by making cuts in other areas.

The San Bernardino City Teachers Association agreed to pay cuts of 1.9 percent without shortening the year for students, school board member Elsa Valdez said.

"They were concerned, too, with how that would affect students," Valdez said.

Some educators who will oversee a shorter school year believe it's more important for teachers to use that time effectively.

But Jennifer Davis, president of the Boston-based National Center on Time & Learning, said some of the most successful schools in recent years have demonstrated convincingly that more time in the classroom brings better results. "The highest-performing public schools in America ... all show that added time is a significant contributor to the success of their students," she said.

Schools chief O'Connell worries that if the state's budget crisis persists, an ever-shrinking school year and larger classes could become the norm. He fears a 170-day school year and 40 students per class with no floor in sight may soon replace the 175-day school year and K-3 class sizes of 30 students.

"This is not hyperbole," he said. "Absent additional funding, this may only be the beginning."

California Watch is a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Staff writers Michelle L. Klampe and Dayna Straehley contributed to this report.

$71 MILLION STIMULUS DELAY STUNS EDUCATION ADVOCATES

by Corey G. Johnson | California WatchBlog

July 26, 2010 | Education advocates of all stripes shook their heads in disbelief Friday at the revelation that $71 million in education stimulus dollars sat unused for nearly a year while the state's budget crisis devoured teachers' jobs, eliminated classes, kicked kids off school buses and closed down school libraries.

"We are at a loss as to why this is happening. Why would the Legislature move so slowly or not move at all?" asked Sandra Jackson, spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association. "On the one hand, they want to Race to the Top for some funding. But when they get other funding for our children, they want to drag their feet across the finish line."

"Wow. That's pretty bad. That's awful," said Liz Guillen, legislative director for Public Advocates, one of several community groups suing the state to reform the school funding system. "A lot of districts could use that money."

Virginia Strom-Martin, former Assemblywoman turned legislative director for Los Angeles Unified, was equally frustrated by the logjam to get these one-time funds released.

“These funds should have been used in a classroom by now. We're not sure what else we can do. We've tried and tried. I've worked with many of them in the Capitol. I believe their intentions were good. But nevertheless, the money has not reached the classroom to where it was intended (to go).”

Nearly a year of negotiation among state education officials, finance officials and the Legislature over education technology funds has kept the money in state bank accounts, unable to help thousands of K-to-12 schools it was intended for.

While a debate about expenditures is nothing new, the stall over these stimulus funds is significant because it appears to undercut the intent of the Obama Administration's stimulus program – which was to spend money quickly to help revive a sluggish economy.

Documents and interviews suggest some of the delay is rooted in missteps made by state education officials.

Keric Ashley, a state education administrator, said officials believed that since the stimulus award was attached to an education technology program the state had been participating in since 2002, they already had legal authorization to disperse the funds. So they began taking applications from school districts. But state law required legislative approval and the Department of Education didn't formally alert lawmakers to its plans until several months after collecting school district bids, a legislative review concluded.

In November, the joint legislative budget committee chaired by Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-Imperial County, stiff-armed the Education Department's move by sending a letter to then-Finance Director Michael Genest, rejecting the department's plan.

Several meetings ensued as education officials, finance officials, the legislative analyst's office and legislators hawked competing views of what the education technology stimulus could be spent for.

Some wanted the money to be spent on the state's Race to the Top efforts. Others wanted the money to bolster the state's weak data-tracking systems. Still others pushed for spending the funds on preschool and college career training programs. The Department of Education held fast to the position that the grant was meant to help fourth through eighth graders and that local districts should decide how to spend the money.

Meanwhile days became weeks. Weeks became months. No action still.

Some school districts began to lobby lawmakers directly.

In an April 10 letter, Ramon Cortines, superintendent of LAUSD wrote to the chairs of the Assembly and Senate budget committees:

“I am very disturbed and frustrated that the State of California has yet to release $71.6 million in Enhancing Education Through Technology grant funding that was authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Los Angeles Unified School District along with districts throughout the state depends on this funding to continue their integration of technology into the classroom. Without this funding, these efforts will stop because of California's ongoing budget problems and cuts to education.”

In May, LAUSD and other districts followed up on their letter-writing campaign by sending officials to the state Capitol to urge lawmakers to loose the funds.

Eventually, a compromise of sorts was reached and legislators decided half of the $71 million could be awarded to school districts, charter schools and county offices of education with state-approved technology plans.

Last week, state education officials unveiled that list of 1,063 stimulus awardees. To see the list, click here.

However, legislators decided to hold on to the other half of the stimulus – roughly $37 million – while they continue to debate how it should be used.

Recently that process has concluded in the Assembly, Strom-Martin said Friday. But the stall continues in the Senate's budget and fiscal review committee chaired by Sen. Ducheny. As of last week, the committee's website suggested a meeting could take place this week.

Some educators see a shrinking window to take advantage of the funds:

“Waiting until the 2010-11 school year is unacceptable as these funds must be encumbered by June 30, 2011, and expended by September 30, 2011”, wrote Cortines. “There is no way we can effectively and strategically implement programs on such a short time frame.”

Paul Tran, spokesperson for Californians for Justice, said the current episode over stimulus funding is emblematic of a consistently broken approach to governance.

"I think this does a disservice to students and to schools and it doesn't uphold the promise of stimulus," Tran said. "But I'm not surprised. The No. 1 job for legislators is to pass the budget every year. And we see how well that goes."

LAUSD Enhancing Education Through Technology Letter

LAUSD LOST ALMOST $10 MILLION IN INEFFICIENT INVENTORY SYSTEM, AUDIT FINDS: The report says thousands of textbooks are not bar-coded or returned by students and poor communication between schools has led to unnecessary purchases.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

July 25, 2010 | An audit of textbooks at 21 local high schools has found that lost books and excessive purchases at these campuses cost the Los Angeles Unified School District nearly $10 million.

Such problems are pervasive across the system of more than 1,000 schools, auditors concluded, exponentially increasing the potential losses and unnecessary spending.

"The district does not manage or control the textbook inventory process effectively, efficiently or economically," auditors wrote in a June 30 report, which is posted online.

Textbooks represent a huge annual cost for the nation's second-largest school district: $83.3 million last year for texts in required academic courses. Among a sample of reviewed titles, the cost of each book averaged $109.31.

Misused resources stand out in a school system that in the past two years cut $1.5 billion from a general fund that will total $5.4 billion next year. The results have been pay cuts, a shorter school year, larger classes and thousands of layoffs — and the postponement of $60 million in textbook purchases.

To manage a textbook inventory worth more than $256 million, L.A. Unified "relied on an outdated, substandard" system at secondary schools, auditors said. The elementary schools have no inventory system.

Senior district officials insist that a fix already was in the works when auditors began their review, which covered the period from July 1, 2008 to February 5, 2010. But a comprehensive online tracking system won't be up and running for several months at least. First, staff members have to enter every textbook storage room in the sprawling system and find out what they have and what has been lost.

Three of the 21 high schools randomly sampled lacked sufficient records to enable a thorough audit. At the other 18 campuses, investigators selected and counted the stock of 10 titles.

Among the findings:

* 87,332 copies of the 10 texts were supposed to be on the shelves, but only 42,374 copies were found.

* Two schools each exceeded $600,000 worth of missing inventory.

* In one year, two schools lost 2,036 of 13,274 copies of the 10 texts, which would cost $222,555 to replace.

Regarding excess book purchases, the findings were no better. The total value of extra, unused books at one school exceeded $600,000; at another, the figure was $550,000.

Twelve schools accouned for 5,203 stored and unused copies of "Integrated Coordinated Science." Despite these extra copies, two other schools purchased an additional 750 copies for $67,846.

The inspector general's office began its probe after receiving tips regarding both shortages and surpluses. It found two pallets of new texts — worth $500,000 — that had gathered dust, unused, in a district warehouse for several years.

The office is also investigating reports that some schools have been selling unneeded books to a vendor who then marks up the price and resells them to other district campuses.

Top officials have publicly contested the inspector general's office over some recent audits. And the Board of Education recently declined to renew the contract of Inspector General Jerry Thornton, in part, district insiders have said, over the embarrassment caused by some audit findings.

But L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines praised this review.

"It puts the spotlight on the problem," said Cortines, who admitted to a case of deja vu.

In 2000, he served for six months as interim superintendent and launched a "books and bathrooms" agenda to address textbook shortages along with dirty, vandalized restrooms.

Shortages are now rare, according to district data, and typically result from poor coordination. But issues of losses and excess texts never were resolved.

"A lot of things [from] 10 years ago … they've returned to haunt us," said Cortines, who rejoined the school system in 2008 and recently announced his plans to retire next spring.

Auditors also warned of safety violations, which they illustrated with photographs. Rows of unopened boxes, stacked back-to-back and taller than any teacher, filled the aisle of a storage room at Cleveland High School in Reseda. At nearby Reseda High School, unused books piled up within inches of the ceiling — a fire-code violation. At John C. Fremont High School, a mountain of book boxes, some tilted at precarious angles, covered a back wall.

Many school districts have had problems managing textbooks because coordinated online tracking has become available only in recent years, said Esther Sinofsky, the district's director of instructional media services.

But other school districts addressed the problem sooner, including the Long Beach and San Diego unified school districts. In Los Angeles, money is not an issue: A new integrated system will cost $3 million to $5 million, dollars already set aside as part of voter-approved school-construction bonds, Sinofsky said.

IN FINAL MONTHS, LAUSD CHIEF RAMON CORTINES INTENT ON ACHIEVING GOALS

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer

LAUSD Superintendant Ramon Cortines chats with a fourth grader at Gulf Elementary School in Wilmington during birthday tour of schools. (Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer)

Click photo to enlarge

LAUSD Superintendant Ramon Cortines as kids sing "Happy Birthday" to him at Gulf Elementary

26 July, 2010 -- Los Angeles schools chief Ramon Cortines sped through the halls of Widney Special Education Center in South Los Angeles one day last week, forcing his tour guides - all at least 20 years younger than him - to double their pace just to keep up.

It was 9:45 a.m. and Cortines had already gone through e-mails, returned phone calls and attended one event. Three school visits were next on his schedule - all to be completed before noon.

Dressed in his usual crisp, white shirt, marked with the initials "RCC" on the breast pocket, and a moss-green Hermes tie, Cortines bolted from classroom to classroom. He slowed down only to shake the hands of teachers, students and janitors, or to quiz an administrator on test scores and attendance rates.

Just a few hours after news had broken about his decision to retire this spring, reporters also called Cortines on his cell phone and met him on campus, peppering him with questions.

The veteran educator charmed the news cameras one minute, and chided substandard conditions in a classroom he observed the next.

"Some people get caught in the trappings of this job ... for me it's always been about the work," Cortines said.

"I plan to stay dedicated to the work until the day I leave."

After celebrating his 78th birthday Thursday, Cortines said he's ready to "pass the baton" after an education career nearly six decades long.

However, the veteran educator lists a healthy  number of tasks he'd like to finish in the months he has left at the helm of the nation's second-largest school district.

Intentionally vague about his exact retirement date, Cortines said he wants to stay long enough to tackle the district's 2011-12 budget, which will need to address an anticipated shortfall of at least $240 million.

The district also has yet to implement its largest reform effort to date - the School Choice plan, which allows nonprofit organizations and charter operators to bid to operate public schools.

The first round of participating schools will open under their new management this fall and the operators for the second round of campuses will be selected in February.

Cortines also hopes to at least lay the groundwork for a better relationship with charter operators and advocates in Los Angeles - a goal he's had since he joined the Los Angeles Unified School District as deputy superintendent in 2008.

Currently, the LAUSD is being sued by the California Charter Schools Association for what it claims is the district's inability to comply with state laws and share public space with the independently run schools.

Cortines also laments his inability to motivate and engage the local teachers union to play a bigger role in reform plans.

"It's hard to leave with so much unfinished business," Cortines said.

Perhaps some of his urgency comes from the political pressure he's felt recently.

Last month Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa publicly scolded Cortines and the district for moving too slowly with reforms.

"We have to stop biting at the edges of reform," Villaraigosa said during a City Hall news conference that Cortines was not invited to.

A week later, LAUSD board president and Villaraigosa ally Monica Garcia also asked him to "move faster" with school turnaround efforts during a board meeting.

Cortines won't admit to any political tension with the school board, most of whose members were elected with Villaraigosa's support.

He also won't comment on troubles with the mayor, whose bid to take over the school district failed in his first term.

However, he admitted that the mayor was one of few professional colleagues and elected officials who did not call him to talk about his retirement announcement.

"I don't understand that," Cortines said, shaking his head.

When asked to comment about Cortines' departure, Villaraigosa e-mailed a two-paragraph statement thanking the superintendent for his "service and leadership, especially during the current budget crisis."

"We are now focused on finding a new superintendent who will drive reform and put students and families first."

But in the company of first-graders at Gulf Elementary in Harbor City on Thursday, Cortines had no time to ponder such political drama.

During a math lesson the spry school chief grabbed an empty chair at a desk and sat next to a young boy who looked a bit surprised by his seatmate.

Cortines crouched over the boy and pointed toward the textbook page that the teacher was explaining.

Minutes later in another classroom he was beaming when Gulf kindergartners sang Happy Birthday to him.

"You really know how to make an old man happy," Cortines said.

Teachers and school workers who come in contact with Cortines often comment on his genuine concern for students and the adults who work directly with them.

At Harbor City Elementary, Cortines approached plant manager Johnny Ray Young to thank him for his help in keeping the campus clean and ask him how things were going.

"He makes good eye contact and pays attention so you know he cares," Young said after the encounter.

Cortines brings up his own childhood and how at just 17 days old he was adopted from a Texas orphanage.

"I was a brown, emaciated, boy with sores," Cortines says.

"Things could have been very different for me."

After seven attempts at retirement - the first one nearly 20 years ago - Cortines said he plans to spend more time with friends, traveling and pruning in his English garden at his ranch in Tulare County.

Of course, there is plenty of time between now and then for the notoriously impatient Cortines, who cannot sit still long enough for a meal on most days.

"I'll be working my darnedest until the very end for the kids of this district," he said.

"Don't tell me there is one kid out there that cannot learn."