UTLA President Warren Fletcher

The Los Angeles teachers union will ask the LA Unified Board of Education to temporarily suspend the two most recent rounds of teacher dismissals, which the board approved in closed sessions this month and last month.

“Teachers want to make sure that if there are any bad guys in the classroom, that they stop being in the classroom,” union President  Warren Fletcher, said in an interview. “But this system leads to many innocent educators being scooped up in the dragnet.”

Every time a teacher is fired in California, local school boards meet behind closed doors to review the dismissals. These meetings are often pro forma; the LAUSD board routinely votes unanimously to approve all of the recommended firings.

A group of UTLA activists is up in arms over the Sept. 17 board meeting, when, according to Fletcher, the dismissal of over 30 teachers was approved. UTLA activists have taken to calling the day “Black Tuesday.”

“The teachers did not know that their names were coming up,” said, Scott Mandel, a member of the UTLA board. “None of them had gotten previous notification at all. And the board accepted their dismissal recommendation without comment, and nobody questioned anything. They didn’t see the other side, they didn’t see any defense.”

At a special meeting of the union’s board, a motion by Mandel passed unanimously to ask the school board for a “stay” on all dismissals approved in the recent closed meetings.

“We want the board members to review [the teachers’] cases,” said Mandel. “These charges are absolutely ridiculous. A lot of them are trumped up, false and exaggerated.”

The motion is expected to be a approved by UTLA’s governing body, the 350-member House of Representatives, tomorrow night, where it will then become official union policy.

David Holmquist, the district’s general counsel, said that the dismissals that the Board approved of in September were high because dismissals aren’t initiated during the summer, although he added: “There’s no doubt that we have been raising the bar, and one of the consequences of that is there are going to be more dismissals.”

Holmquist denied UTLA’s claim that board members don’t have all the information they need to make a determination.

“I can’t talk about what we do in closed session, because it’s confidential,” he said. “But I will say that in my opinion, the board has all they need to make a proper decision.”

As far as Fletcher’s charge that LA Unified hasn’t provided UTLA with a list of all housed teachers, Holmquist said that the district provides the union with a partial list of housed employees, with some names left out – the names of employees that wish to remain anonymous.

The number of teachers fired in LAUSD has risen sharply under the leadership of Superintendent John Deasy – the result of an intentional policy decision, on his part, to weed out teachers that are found guilty of misconduct, but also teachers who have gotten two “unsatisfactory” evaluations in a row. Many UTLA activists accuse Deasy of being on a “witch hunt” to fire old teachers with higher salaries.

After teachers are dismissed, they can appeal to the state, a process that can drag on for years and cost both sides hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyers fees. Once dismissed, teachers stop receiving a salary.

Earlier this year, UTLA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Public Employee Relations Board, saying that the district was failing to provide the union with a list of “housed teachers.”

Before teachers are dismissed, they are often taken out of the classrooms and placed into “teacher jails” or “rubber rooms.” These teachers are “housed” while the district conducts investigations into alleged misconduct – often without knowing their charge, or knowing how long they are to be housed.

“The district, at multiple points, creates obstacles for UTLA to know who is even housed, or subject to dismissal proceedings,” said Fletcher.

*Updates with response from David Holmquist, LA Unified chief legal counsel.

Previous posts: Gov. Brown’s Veto Leaves Teacher Dismissal in Limbo*; Charted: Teacher Dismissals By the Numbers; More Failing Teachers Pushed Out Under Deasy; Teacher Misconduct Proposal Wins Unexpected Support;

“It’s something that I moved really quickly on,” Deasy said. “I’ve placed an emphasis on it. We’ve tracked it school by school.”

The number of instructional days lost due to suspension began to drop before Deasy took over. In 2007, the school board passed the Discipline Foundation Policy, which aimed to lower suspensions by “using effective classroom management and positive behavior support strategies by providing early intervention for misconduct and appropriate use of consequences.”

But as he has on many fronts, Deasy has taken a more aggressive approach to lowering suspensions.

“Dr. Deasy has been very diligent on conducting performance dialogues with instructional superintendents and looking at data,” said Zsuzsanna Vincenze, Director of School Operations. “It’s been very data driven.”

In 2011-12, nearly half of all suspensions were for “willful defiance,” essentially failing to obey an order by a teacher, such as refusing to spit out gum or turn off a cell phone.

But in May, the board voted, 5-2, to stop suspending students for “willful defiance.” The two dissenting votes were cast my Marguerite LaMotte and Tamar Galatzan, who told LA School Report at the time, “I think that limiting the options for schools to deal with students who don’t listen, disrupt the class, don’t what to be there — it’s sending the wrong message, and it’s not fair to students who are there to learn.”

As a result of the vote, the new district policy is expected to lower the suspension rate even more.

“I wouldn’t say nobody will ever be suspended,” said Vincenze. “But we do continue to reduce the rate of suspension and to look at the rate of disproportionate suspension.”

According to a U.S. Department of Education report released last year, black students in Los Angeles are suspended at a far higher rate than other students. “That gap,” said Deasy, “has closed dramatically.”

Previous posts: District Claims Reduced Suspensions; Why Galatzan Opposed End to “Willful Defiance” Suspensions; Suspension Rates Vary Widely Among Schools; LAUSD Suspensions: Not Great, but Not the Worst

Assembly member Joan Buchanan, left, and State Senator Alex Padilla, right

Governor Jerry Brown’s veto of AB 375, a bill that would have amended California’s teacher dismissal process, doesn’t mean the effort is dead.

“The governor still wants to do something,” LA Unified’s chief lobbyist, Edgar Zazueta, told LA School Report. “I do see there will be one, if not several, efforts to do this next year. Hopefully we’re able to find somewhere in the middle, where more stakeholders can embrace final product.”

Zazueta added that Brown “always wants to make sure that all the stakeholders are on board. With 375, it was unbalanced. None of the folks who do dismissals were part of process.”

Gloria Romero, who just left California Democrats for Education Reform to start her own organization, the Foundation for Parent Empowerment, also sees a pathway forward, even if it remains uncertain who’s leading the effort.

“The stars are aligned,” she said. “There will be a very bright public spotlight on this. The legislature will have to act. The question is, who carries it this time?”

Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, the East Bay Democrat who sponsored the measure, has not decided whether she will go forward with a reconfigured approach or defer to someone else on the issue. One possibility is State Senator Alex Padilla, who authored a bill, SB 10, that would have made it easier to fire teachers accused of harming a student.

That bill died in committee after an intense lobbying blitz from the California Teachers Association.

This year, Padilla declined to take the lead on the new version of the bill – perhaps because he’s running for California Secretary of State and doesn’t want to antagonize the teachers unions. Buchanan’s bill was supported by teacher unions but widely attacked reform groups and newspaper editorial boards statewide.

“I still strongly believe that the discipline appeal process is broken,” Buchanan said in an email. “It takes too long and costs too much money. However, I agree that the path forward is uncertain.”

The question then, is there a compromise to made?

Romero also said that if the legislature doesn’t act, there could be a move by outside groups to write a ballot initiative. “There’ve been discussions, believe me, about which way to go forward,” she said.

A ballot initiative could pressure the legislature into acting. But the real pressure might come from Vergara v. California, the lawsuit filed by Students Matter aimed at tearing up many of the laws that govern the teacher dismissal process. That trial is set to being on January 27 – and could have an enormous impact on how teachers in California are fired.

Students Matter spokesperson Danielle Kelton said that Brown’s veto “definitely highlights the failure of the legislature to address the problem.”

*This update includes a comment from Buchanan. An early version of the post mistakenly identified the Vergara plaintiffs as Students First.

Previous posts: John Deasy on AB 375 Veto: ‘Wise Decision’; BREAKING NEWS: Brown Vetoes Weak Teacher Dismissal Bill; Brown Facing Pressure to Veto ‘Flawed’ Teacher Dismissal Bill; Unions Ask Court to Dismiss ‘Bad Teacher’ Suit

Tamar Galatzan

Bennett Kayser has taken over as chairman of the LA Unified School Board budget committee, replacing Tamar Galatzan, who stepped down after two years.

Galatzan said that she saw no reason for the budget committee — formally, the Facilities, Audit and Budget Committee — to meet at the moment, now that the district is conducting a a number of community meetings to address spending priorities.

“There are dozens of budget meetings being held throughout the school district,” she explained in an email. “In addition, many of the board committees are addressing budget issues, and board motions impacting the budget are introduced monthly. Until there are new procedures established to manage these multiple directions, I do not think a separate budget committee is effective or necessary.”

Kayser’s view is quite different.

“It’s the most important committee there is, and [Kayser’s] first priority is to get a three-year budget in place,” his chief of staff, Sarah Bradshaw, told LA School Report.

Kayser also chairs LA Unified’s new Early Childhood Education and Parent Engagement Ad Hoc Committee and sits on the Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee.

“It means it’s a much bigger workload for him but someone has to take the lead,” Bradshaw said.

Galatzan, who represents a large chunk of the San Fernando Valley, is known as one of the more fiscally conservative board members, often questioning how her colleagues plan on paying for various proposals. She has chosen to serve on the Board part-time; she has a full-time job as deputy city attorney.

She is regarded as one of the “reform”-aligned Board members, and is a close ally of Superintendent John Deasy – in rather stark contrast to her replacement, Kayser, who is one of Deasy’s biggest critics on the board.

Additional reporting by Vanessa Romo.

Previous posts: Galatzan Resolution Addresses Contradictory Goals; Why Galatzan Opposed End to “Willful Defiance” Suspensions; Board Member Galatzan Tells (Almost) All

Richard Vladovic

After a tense, four-hour closed meeting with his LA Unified Board colleagues, President Richard Vladovic opened a brief public session admitting that he had violated the district’s code of conduct and apologizing to employees he may have harmed.

“I did get upset at people,” he said. “I did tell them things I shouldn’t have told them.” He said he has a “passion for the district, and I believe in my passion I crossed the line, and I intend to never do it again.” He also conceded he has sought “professional help.”

Vladovic suggested that some on the board were reluctant to accept his mea culpa: “I’m saying it publicly, so that this issue doesn’t cloud other issues affecting the board. And I know all of my colleagues don’t agree with that. But I must accept responsibility.”

The sudden admission came two weeks after an outside firm concluded an investigation into allegations of verbal and sexual harassment against Vladovic, some of them from years ago. Details were kept out of public view until Monday night, when district officials released documents involving two accusers. One case described events that could be interpreted as sexual harassment; the other, verbal.

In his apology, Vladovic made no specific reference to the charges although his admission of improper behavior seemed directed only at accusations of berating and intimidating employees, rather than any allegations with sexual or homophobic overtones.

Vladovic and his spokesman, Mike Trujillo, had “categorically denied” all of the charges but one – “occasionally using his outdoor voice.”

After the meeting, Trujillo said that Vladovic’s apology was only meant in reference to complaints about his temper.

“The apology is regarding raising his voice, which is like a drill sergeant raising his voice in boot camp,” Trujillo said, adding that Vladovic still maintains his innocence for all other charges. “The apology you heard today was acknowledging something he did in the past. He’s still board president and plans on continuing to serve the children and parents of our districts.”

The board spent considerable time in the closed session debating whether to take any punitive action against Vladovic, who was elected president earlier this year. The board has the power to censure him and even remove him as president. But people who were briefed after the meeting said members were unable to reach consensus on what, if anything, to do. It was their understanding that the question lingers and could arise at the board’s next public meeting, on Oct. 29.

Vladovic promised he’s a changed man from the one described in the complaints.

“You will see, and have seen, a more civil attitude form me, as I’ve reflected over it,” he said, adding, “There’s a better way to do things. I found that way, and we’re going to move forward.”

Before the meeting began, according to the LA Daily News reporter, Barbara Jones, a CBS news crew asked Vladovic about the charges. He said he was “innocent.”  Board member Marguerite LaMotte asked him to repeat that louder, then walked over and gave him a comforting kiss on the cheek. Vladovic looked pale and shaken.

The Board voted unanimously to approve Mayor Eric Garcetti staffer Abigail Marquez to the bond oversight committee. They then listened to public comments, the last of which was given by LaMotte herself, who told Vladovic that she admired him for his patience, and said, “I commend you and ask you to continue this fight.”

Previous posts: Complaints Against Vladovic Are Available for Viewing; Board to Review Vladovic Charges in Closed Session; Vladovic Denies Sexual Harassment, Other Claims;  Vladovic Investigation Concluded; Board Members are Briefed*

Board President Richard Vladovic

The LA Unified board is expected to review findings of an investigation into harassment charges against Board President Richard Vladovic when it meets today in closed session, according to people familiar with the meeting agenda.

The agenda makes no explicit mention of the investigation, which was concluded two weeks ago. While board members were individually briefed on the case after the report was completed, details emerged last night when the district released partial accounts through a public records request. The accounts appear here and here.

Vladovic has denied all charges against him. His spokesman, Mike Trujillo, told the L.A. Daily News that both of the cases made public were “unactionable.”

He told LA School Report: “We categorically deny the allegations in these complaints. What we have admitted to is Dr. V using his outdoor voice indoors, which makes him as guilty as every football coach in the district.”

It is unclear what action, if any, the board might take if members believe there is sufficient cause to respond. By a majority vote, the board can strip Vladovic of his presidency and censure him; it cannot remove him from office. Whatever it does would most likely be done publicly, and the day’s open agenda includes “Report on any actions taken” in the closed session.

Censure of a school board member by colleagues happens in rare instances. The most recent LA-area school board member to be censured is Joseph Chang of the Hacienda La Puente school board, whose colleagues took the action last month over allegations that he accepted trips from a private company and urged administrators to accept unqualified international students.

Previous posts: Vladovic Investigation Concluded; Board Members are Briefed*; Cleared On One of Two Investigations; Board President Hires Reform-Affiliated Consultant; Rules Allow Board Members to Censure Colleagues

That might be about to change.

In a presentation to the LA Unified School Board on Tuesday, SEIU local 99 Executive Director Courtni Pugh laid out a vision to better connect community services to schools. Dubbed OASIS, for Optimizing Access to Services, Inspiring Success, the plan aims to turn local schools sites into a hub of community services, such as park space, libraries, health care providers and technology.

“Not everyone enters the classroom in the morning with the same experiences the night before,” Pugh told LA School Report. “We have to recognize that a child’s day does not start and end in the classroom.”

It is, by her own admission, not a new idea. Earlier this year, the Youth Policy Institute launched an initiative called Los Angeles Promise Neighborhoods, which aims to fuse a variety of anti-poverty services into one program centered around a school. (The idea was inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone.)

Pugh’s goal is to set up six to 12 OASIS schools within LAUSD starting in the next school year. She hopes the project will get funding from a range of sources, including the City of Los Angeles, LA Unified and non-profits.

At Tuesday’s meeting, school board members were practically falling over themselves to praise Pugh’s idea.

“I love this,” said Steve Zimmer. “This is what we should be doing.” Even Monica Ratliff, against whom Local 99 campaigned heavily against last year, thought the plan was “fantastic.”

Pugh, a former political director of the powerful LA County Federation of Labor, has headed Local 99 for just over a year. She was also recently named the chair of SEIU International’s education council. From that platform, she is wading into the education reform debate, staking out a middle ground between charter school advocates and teachers unions.

“The debate on reform is false and silo-ed,” she said.

More than half of her members have children that go to LA Unified schools, she said, and the majority of them live within 2.5 miles of schools they work in. Not only will OASIS create jobs (some, presumably, for her members), but her members will benefit from the services it creates.

In a sense, OASIS grew out of Breakfast in the Classroom, an LA Unified program that provides, well, breakfast in the classroom. It has been heavily criticized by many teachers, who said it distracted students and left a mess. But when Superintendent John Deasy put the program to the board for a vote, hundreds of service workers rallied to support it, and the normally divided board unanimously voted to continue the service.

“That was a fight that we thought was for the moral good,” said Pugh. “Our members, many of them are part of the working poor that stood to move further down the food chain if they lost their jobs.”

Pugh expects getting OASIS off the ground to be even tougher.

“This is a humongous undertaking – very complex, multiple layers and a lot of red tape involved,” she said. “It’s a big step for us.”

Previous posts: Slideshow: Deasy’s Cafeteria Shift; Deasy’s School Breakfast Gambit Confuses Supporters; Campaign 2013: How Ratliff Won (& Reformers Lost)*; Local 99, LAUSD’s “Other” Labor Union

Caputo-Pearl, left, phone-banking for Steve Zimmer in March

The first step of running for office is raising money, and the UTLA Presidential election is no exception. In an email to would-be supporters this week, candidate Alex Caputo-Pearl set a fundraising goal of $100,000 by the end of the year for his slate of seven candidates, dubbed “Union Power.”

“The Union Power slate has the kind of broad-based support that gives us a real opportunity to win this election,” he said in the email. “It is, however, going to take major funding to do it.”

The email was sharply critical of the current wave of “school reform” thinking, or what Caputo-Pearl calls the “run schools like businesses” approach, “with test scores being viewed as the bottom line.” The email makes no mention of his chief rival and incumbent, Warren Fletcher, viewed by many as the slight favorite to be re-elected for a second three-year term.

Outsider candidate David Garcia said in a recent interview that he will not raise or spend any money. He contends that spending $100,000 has become typical in recent UTLA elections, and that, “for last five cycles, the slate that has spent the most amount of money has won.”

Anyone can contribute to a candidate for UTLA office, although only UTLA members vote. The elections are set to take place in February.

Previous posts: Another Candidate Emerges to Challenge for UTLA Presidency; UTLA Factions Lining Up to Oust Fletcher as President; ‘Political Season’ Starting with UTLA Leadership Conference; Union President Likely Faces 2014 Challengers; Union President Volunteers for Pay Cut

Gloria Romero, from her days as State Senate Majority Leader

Gloria Romero is stepping down from her position as Director of California Democrats for Education Reform (or DFER) to start a new organization, the Foundation for Parent Empowerment.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to have worked with DFER, but believe that it is time to move past party politics and focus my skills and organizing with parents who form the true base of any education reform movement,” she said in a statement.

In 2010, as a California State Senator, Romero authored the country’s first “parent trigger” law, which allows a majority of parents to replace a school’s leadership. But the fiercely independent Romero hasn’t always agreed with the tactics employed by Parent Revolution, the non-profit that has helped organize every parent trigger campaign in California to date.

Romero’s new organization will focus on empowering parents to affect change at their children’s schools.

“A myriad of federal and state laws exist which, when combined, offer parents greater opportunities to become more actively involved in helping their children pursue the American Dream via education,” she said.

Romero’s independence and unpredictability have earned her many enemies. Last year, she even broke with DFER’s national organization to support LA Unified and seven other California school districts in their quest for a No Child Left Behind waiver.

Nevertheless, DFER Executive Director Joe Williams lent a quote to Romero’s goodbye press release, saying, “We are extremely grateful for all the great work Gloria has done for children and families in California as an elected official in the California Legislature as well as her leadership of DFER in California.”

Previous posts: Reform Group Splits over Federal Waiver for LAUSD; Mayor Overreached Against Zimmer, Says Reformer; How Prop. 32 Could Affect LAUSD

Superintendent John Deasy, left, UTLA President Warren Fletcher, right

The Los Angeles teachers union said today that LA Unified’s application for a federal Race to the Top grant had “so many glaring problems” that the union could not support it.

This was the second straight year the union refused to sign off on the district’s application, which was unanimously approved by the school board. Union participation is a federal requirement for submission.

Tamar Galatzan, an LA Unified Board member, called the union’s decision “a travesty,” adding: “This district is still woefully short of funds,” she said in a statement. “To turn down millions in funding for our neediest and most at-risk students at a time like this is inexcusable. Our mission is to serve students above all else, and this action did not do that.”

Board member Monica Garcia agreed, saying, “Children lose when leadership stands in opposition rather than finding solutions to work together for the benefit of our children and communities.”

A statement from the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, said union officials last month expressed concerns with the district about the grant proposal and said the district “did not collaborate” with union president Warren Fletcher, who was only presented the proposal a day before the deadline.

The union complained that “pages were not numbered in this thick document and appendixes were missing. There was nothing to indicate what, if any, changes had been made.”

The union further questioned what would happen to counselors who would only be funded for two years by a four-year grant. The statement also said portions of money for digital “tablets” and training were “earmarked for an outside vendor and the District failed to provide any information on the vetting process.”

For all those reasons, the statement said, Fletcher found it not in the best interest of district students.

“I hope a day comes soon when the leadership of UTLA supports its teachers and our students by being a partner in bringing much needed resources to LAUSD,” said Superintendent John Deasy in a press release, announcing the demise of the application.

Elise Buik, CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, which is leading an effort to involve more teachers and administrators in district spending decisions, said: “Its disappointing to see funding opportunities for students squandered away because of adult politics.  Students lose here, and so do thousands of teachers who want more funds for their classrooms.  It’s a deeply frustrating situation.”

According to LA Unified’s submission, the district was seeking $29.7 million in federal grant money to serve 20,500 students, with three specific goals:

• All graduating 12th graders are proficient, having completed a rigorous college preparatory curriculum and participated in a career pathway.
• All 9th grade students earn enough credits to reach 10th grade on-time, thereby ensuring they are on track for high school graduation.
• All 8th grade students leave middle school at or above grade-level proficiency, so that they are ready to take on the challenges of high school work and not require significant remediation.

A spokesman for the California Federation of Teachers, Fred Glass, said it’s not unusual for local unions to decline participation. “One reason for the refusal,” he told LA School Report, “is that one of the requirements is teacher evaluation based in part on state standardized test schools. That’s a line in the sand for many unions.”

The district’s statement made no mention of evaluation issues.

Glass also said that union’s contend that the value of the grant is often less than the costs of administering it, which is the reason UTLA cited when it declined to join the district’s application last year.

Deasy sent the application in anyway, but it was rejected by the U.S. Department of Education, which said the application was incomplete without UTLA signing off on it.

*Includes UTLA response.

Previous posts: School Board Approves New Application for Race to the Top; LAUSD Applies Without Union Support; Union Unmoved by Hurricane Extension; 

Via Governor Jerry Brown’s twitter feed

The old California Standardized Tests are a thing of the past.

Governor Jerry Brown just signed Assembly Bill 484, which immediately suspends the old tests and funds a trial run this year of the new Smarter Balanced Assessments, which will be taken on computers and are aligned with the new Common Core curriculum.

“I’ve said from the beginning, California needs tests that measure how ready our students are for the challenges of a changing world,” State Superintendent Tom Torlakson said in a statement.

A number of groups, including Ed Voice, Educators 4 Excellence, Teach Plus, and Parent Revolution, had urged Brown to veto the new law on the grounds that it would leave school districts with a year of missing test data, which is often used to gauge the effectiveness of teachers, administrators and schools.

“At this critical juncture in our transition to Common Core, the public needs a thoughtful, rational middle approach that both gives teachers, students and parents space to adapt to new standards, and also maintains transparency for all our stakeholders,” Ama Nyamekye, executive director of Educators 4 Excellence, said in a statement. Unfortunately, AB 484 does not deliver on this important second task. By signing this bill, Governor Brown has created a black hole of information for students, parents and teachers.”

Superintendent John Deasy had also been deeply critical of the bill, on the grounds that it only funded either the math or English parts of the new Smarter Balanced Assessments. Deasy had been urging lawmakers to fund both tests.

Deasy now says that LAUSD will cover the costs of the test that the state doesn’t pay for and that he will try to find a way to use the Smarter Balanced testing data to gauge student performance.

*This adds statement from Educators 4 Excellence.

Previous posts: Coalition Calls on Gov. Brown to Veto Testing Bill, AB 484; CA Has a Plan for Using Test Scores — Even With No Tests (Updated); Superintendent Deasy Not Happy With Latest Testing Bill; California Could Face Year With No Meaningful Testing Data

Board member Monica Ratliff

Responding to incidents of iPad misuse at district schools and widespread public criticism over problems with the rollout, the LA Unified board yesterday approved setting a special meeting later this month to “publicly grapple” with iPad issues.

The 5-2 vote on a resolution from Monica Ratliff, who chairs a committee that oversees the iPad initiative, turned a planned “retreat” for board members on Oct. 29 into a meeting specifically devoted to one of the district’s biggest policy initiatives, getting an iPad into the hands of every student and teacher by the end of next year. The retreat was pushed back to November.

“It’s not that I don’t believe district personnel is working on these issues,” Ratliff said after raising several iPad issues that have burst into public view. “I think that the board needs to weigh in.”

In promoting a separate meeting on iPad issues, Ratliff said she was dismayed to read newspaper accounts of “security breaches” before board members were briefed on the incidents.

“Much of what has been reported in the media is not accurate,” countered board member Tamar Galatzan. She did not identify any specific story although many accounts have depicted the actions taken by students at Roosevelt High as “hacking.” In fact, students were taking advantage of a seemingly obvious loophole, deleting their user account to gain open internet access.

Just before the vote, board member Bennett Kayser asked if he could expand the focus of the meeting to include iPad software, a product of Pearson. He said he had examined one of the district’s iPads and found the software lacking, saying “it’s either not there or doesn’t work.” Ratliff, the newest board member, agreed to include software issues in the meeting agenda

Galatzan objected to the proposal for a new meeting, telling Ratliff, rather pointedly, “Some of these questions have been answered a year ago, before you got here.”

Board member Monica Garcia objected as well, saying that it was another instance of the board trying to micromanage things.

“It is not wise to think that we seven create policies,” she said, in a clear indication that not only is the board ideologically divided, they don’t even agree on what their role should be.

As they often are, Galatzan and Garcia were the lone dissenters on the vote.

iPad issues will get an unusual public airing tomorrow night, when Superintendent John Deasy will appear on the district’s public TV station, KLCS, to answer questions in a live call-in show. The program starts at 6 p.m.; viewers can pose questions by calling 1-800-527-8839 or emailing cctp@lausd.net.

Previous posts: Live: LAUSD Board Meeting Via Twitter; LA Unified Removes iPads From Hackers’ High Schools; LA Unified Wants Student Hackers on an Anti-Hacking Panel; iPads Hacked? ‘Surprised it Took This Long,’ Says Zimmer

A combination of declining enrollment, federal cuts in special education and this year’s Federal sequestration has put a big pinch on big plans. While the district managed to close a $450 million budget gap for the current fiscal year, thanks in part to one-time funds from the state, it faces a $350 million deficit in 2014-15.

If the board didn’t understand that before yesterday, it seems crystal clear now.

Months ago the members directed Superintendent John Deasy to devise a spending plan that included a laundry list of wants, needs and programs, including rehiring employees laid off during the recession and bringing back student-to-teacher and student-to-counselor ratios to 2007 levels.

The presentation Deasy and LAUSD Chief Operating Officer Megan Reilly made to the board brought the fiscal reality into the open, leaving the unmistakable message: We can’t afford what you want.

Several members bristled when Deasy ticked off the costs of various items the board wanted to fund, including $207 million for new teachers, $68.8 million for psychiatric social workers, $300 million for extending to the school year 20 days. The total bill, including the cost of closing the deficit: as much as $1.4 billion.

“What are the prospects of us getting a billion dollars,” Monica Ratliff asked Reilly.

“Not at all,” she said.

Board member Steve Zimmer seemed to find the presentation incomplete, lacking a grand vision to move the district toward long-term fiscal stability.

“We asked for a three-year plan of what it might look like,” board member Steve Zimmer said. “This isn’t a design. This is only what the costs are.”

He asked Deasy to provide “a trajectory” for the future, a request echoed by Board President Richard Vladovic, who said, “I prefer a strategy that we can move toward over the next five to 10 years.”

Deasy’s presentation did include a three-year plan, of sorts, his own spending recommendations for the next three years, which included pay raises for current LA Unified employees and allowing school sites to make their own spending decisions, a contentious issue.

Local input has emerged as a major concern in the budget debate, and it’s now clear that no vote on spending will take place until a series of public meetings are complete. Deasy’s proposal listed five that have been scheduled with community groups, and a sixth is on the books to give the district’s unions the opportunity to contribute ideas.

In drawing the meeting to a close, Vladovic, who has been criticized by community groups for not engaging them more aggressively, said, “I encourage parents out there to attend one of these meetings.”

Public comment will likely weigh heavily on one of the major points of contention in the battle over spending priorities. Zimmer and others on the board want to rehire personnel, with the idea that to solve the long-term problem of declining enrollment — 3 to 3.5 percent a year, about half the number students leaving district schools for independent charters — it must bring back more teachers, counselors and librarians.

That debate, begun in June, will continue into November, when the board has a meeting scheduled to discuss spending priorities and, presumably, a “trajectory.”

In the meantime, the first public meeting will be held Oct. 8 at Daniel Pearl Magnet HIgh School in Reseda.

Previous posts: Local Groups to LA Unified Board: Let Schools Decide Spending; LA Unified Budget Wars Return with the Usual Competing Visions; Deasy’s D.C. Trip Yields ‘Less than Positive News’ on Federal Budget; Common Core Budget Approval Put Off for Another Week; School Board Meeting Wrap Up: More Discussion Than Votes*

David Garcia

The election campaign for president of the teachers union, UTLA, has expanded with a third candidate entering the race, joining the incumbent, Warren Fletcher, and a previously-announced challenger, Alex Caputo-Pearl, a member of the Progressive Educators for Action caucus within the union.

The new candidate, David Garcia, is a former Navy corpsman and veteran of the first Gulf War who was a high school art teacher until he was laid off in 2010 because of budget cuts.

Now a substitute teacher, Garcia has begun sending emailing flyers with a 14-point campaign plank, which includes promises to lower union dues, to make all officer and board meetings open to the public and to prohibit consecutive terms for UTLA officers.

He’s also pledging to do the job for only $10 an hour, which calculates to about $18,200 a year, about a fifth of Fletcher’s annual salary.

As a frequent speaker at school board meetings, wearing black wraparound sunglasses, Garcia has been deeply critical of LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy. And now he’s taking shots at his campaign opponents.

“Everyone knows that LAUSD is wanting to privatize the school district,” Garcia told LA School Report. “That’s fine, it’s phenomenon that’s going nationwide. Everyone wants to vilify LAUSD, but it takes two to tango. The union hasn’t been doing a good job defending our teachers.”

As for Fletcher, the incumbent: “I think that he’s incompetent,” Garcia said. “He doesn’t return your calls, he doesn’t return your emails. He’s evasive. A real leader would try to bring in the community into the forum. That’s something that Warren Fletcher has avoided at all costs.”

As a parent of four children in the school district, Garcia says he supports what he calls “legitimate reform.” Having taught for years in South LA, he says the district needs to focus more on security for many schools, and he favors randomly searching students for weapons and contraband. He also thinks all teachers should be subject to random drug testing, much like army personnel.

“That would raise the consciousness of the public, convince people that these guys are professionals,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, he’s adamantly opposed to the kinds of reforms put forward by Deasy, such as using test scores as part of teacher evaluations and switching the curriculum to the new Common Core standards.

“No Child Left Behind was a failure, Common Core will no doubt be a failure,” he said. “It just keeps going and going.”

Garcia remains a decided underdog in the election, which will be held in February. Both Fletcher and Caputo-Pearl have bases of support and are expected to raise and spend tens of thousands of dollars. Garcia calls this practice “buying yourself a position of power in the union.”

Money notwithstanding, Garcia does claim to have a secret weapon – an endorsement from renown linguistics professor and liberal activist Noam Chomsky.

Chomsky did not respond to a message seeking confirmation of his endorsement.

But Garcia provided an email from Chomsky, who wrote after reading Garcia’s 14-point plank: “I’m always somewhat reluctant to endorse anyone when I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the circumstances.  But this seems a clear enough case so that I’ll overcome the hesitations. Glad to be listed as an endorser.”

Previous posts: UTLA Factions Lining Up to Oust Fletcher as President; ‘Political Season’ Starting with UTLA Leadership Conference; Union President Likely Faces 2014 Challengers; Union President Volunteers for Pay Cut

Board President Richard Vladovic

Richard Vladovic, president of the LA Unified School Board, has agreed to meet with a coalition of community groups that claimed Vladovic was ignoring their requests to meet over spending issues.

The meeting has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 18, and it follows a sequence of events that began with a letter the coalition, known as CLASS, sent to Vladovic last Friday. In an interview with LA School Report on Saturday, Ryan Smith of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, a coalition organizer, elaborated on the group’s concerns, saying Vladovic appeared uninterested in consulting with school communities on spending priorities.

But Mike Trujillo, a spokesman for Vladovic, said the board president responded to Smith the day after receiving the letter, telling Smith to call his chief of staff to set up a meeting.

“Our office is extremely confused,” said Trujillo. “Dr. V responded positively to meeting with CLASS. It may have taken us one business day. Unfortunately, unlike Dominos Pizza, we may not deliver within the first 30 minutes, and for that we sincerely apologize.”

Smith was unavailable for comment today, but his spokesman, Jason Mandell, said Trujillo’s account is accurate, that Smith did receive a message from Vladovic on Saturday — but apparently after the interview. The time and date for the meeting was set today.

The LA Unified board, which is meeting today, has been trying to develop budget priorities for the billions of dollars coming into the district from Gov. Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula.

The teachers union and what appears to be a majority of the school board want to use new money to rehire teachers, counselors and other employees who were laid off during the recession. But Superintendent John Deasy and his allies, including two board members and a number of community groups like United Way, would prefer that any new money be given directly to schools.

When asked which of the two strategies Vladovic prefers, Trujillo said, “With someone like Dr. V, who was a parent of LAUSD students, and teacher at LAUSD, a principal, a local superintendent, and now a school board member, I’d argue that there’s no one more qualified to understand the various stakeholders in this process, and he’s sympathetic to how they want the money spent.”

*This update reflects the time and date a meeting has been set.

Previous posts: Local Groups to LA Unified Board: Let Schools Decide Spending;  LA Unified Budget Wars Return with the Usual Competing Visions; Deasy, Board Plunging Back into Turbulent Budget Waters

Confusing? Welcome to Budgeting 101, LAUSD style.

Deasy’s presentation prioritizes addressing the debt, giving new money to campuses with high concentrations of low-income and English language learning students and raising the salaries of all LAUSD employees. It’s largely an update of the version he proposed back in June.

But the board voted 5-2 to send him back to the drawing board to put re-hiring teachers and staff — an idea backed by the teachers union — at the top of the list, along with a laundry list of its own wants and needs. Deasy effectively said, well, OK, but it’ll cost you something in the $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion range. And that includes expunging a $341 million deficit.

The board has twice postponed voting on his proposal, and it’s entirely possible it will be postponed again, inasmuch as Deasy has scheduled five public hearings in October, and a sixth with union members, to get feedback on his proposal.

Then there’s board member Steve Zimmer’s proposal (No. 14 on your agenda scorecard), that essentially ignores Deasy’s approach and recommends that the superintendent fund things closer to the way the board asked him to back in June.

Zimmer would have the superintendent be “guided” by various “principles,” such as “[b]ringing LAUSD in line with national averages for class size, counselor ratios, administrator ratios, and clerical and classified ratios.” It would return all employees that have been placed on temporary status to permanent status (primarily substitute teachers).

It’s doubtful the board will take action on either plan, given the intensity of the debate.

A Problem for President Vladovic?

And here’s another mystery: What will the board do in the aftermath of the investigation into harassment allegations against Board President Richard Vladovic?

Members were individually briefed this week on what investigators concluded. So far, the nothing has not been released to the public, and — shockingly — there have been no leaks.

If the result was bad for Vladovic, the board could choose to censure him or even remove him as president, the type of thing would most likely be done in closed session –  and the Board doesn’t have one of those scheduled until October 15.

Or, there’s an outside chance a Board member, or even Vladovic himself, could bring the matter up.

But with this board, well, you never know.

Previous posts: Vladovic Investigation Concluded; Board Members are Briefed*; Deasy’s D.C. Trip Yields ‘Less than Positive News’ on Federal Budget; Common Core Budget Approval Put Off for Another Week; School Board Meeting Wrap Up: More Discussion Than Votes*

Jaime Aquino

The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun the search to replace Deputy Superintendent for Instruction Jamie Aquino, who announced a week and a half ago that he would resign at the end of the year.

The job posting seeks to find “an accomplished and visionary educator with considerable experience aligning student and school needs with the resources that ensure academic success.” The annual salary for the job is $250,000 a year plus benefits, about what Aquino was making.

Superintendent John Deasy said that he expects the job search to take months. Deasy has final say on the candidate, but the board retains the right to reject the choice.

Shortly after Aquino resigned, the teachers union’s twitter account tweeted that the opening represented an opportunity “to revisit the instructional direction of the District.”

Previous posts: Analysis: Aquino’s Resignation Turns a Spotlight onto Deasy; Aquino’s Resignation Explanation; Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated); Senior District Employee Gives to Garcia

Dr. Richard Vladovic

LA Unified’s chief lawyer said today the investigation into harassment charges against School Board President Richard Vladovic was complete, and board members were briefed on its findings.

“We have concluded the investigation, which was conducted by an outside firm. We are in the process of providing individual board members with the findings of that investigation,” LAUSD General Counsel Dave Holmquist said in a statement.

For now, the “document is privileged due to the potential threat of litigation,” according to Sean Rossall, a spokesman Holmquist, meaning that it’s at School Board’s discretion when and if the results of the investigation are released.

A spokesman for Vladovic, Mike Trujillo, said Vladovic would not comment on the investigation.

The LA Daily News first reported the harassment investigation in June. The specific charges were never made public, but sources have said they included bullying, intimidation, and one instance of sexual harassment. Vladovic denied the charges, and a source close to him had told LA School Report that the charges were “politically motivated,” intended to derail his bid for the board presidency.

Board members contacted for this story declined to comment.

If the investigation found truth in the charges, the school board has the option to remove him from his role as president or censure him. It does not have the power to force him off the school board.

*An earlier version said the findings could be released tomorrow; the board decides when or if to make the results public.

Previous posts: Update: Vladovic Cleared On One of Two Investigations; Board President Hires Reform-Affiliated Consultant; Rules Allow Board Members to Censure Colleagues; How Vladovic Won (& Zimmer Went Un-Nominated); Harassment Allegations Could Hurt Vladovic’s Chances

The union filed the action in June with the Public Employee Relations Board (or PERB), objecting to the new teacher evaluation system set up by Superintendent John Deasy, which will, in part, use student test scores. (Of course, there may not be any test scores this year, but that’s a different story.) If the two sides don’t reach a settlement, the case will move to a hearing before an administrative law judge.

The teachers union filed two other unfair labor practice charges in September, over teachers that were separated from their classrooms at Crenshaw High School and City of Angels Independent Study School.

Previous posts: UTLA Files Action Against District Over Teacher Evaluations*; Teachers Union Files Two More Unfair Labor Practice Charges*; District Urges Board to Dismiss Union’s Unfair Practice Charge

Steve Zimmer, left, John Deasy, right

Superintendent John Deasy and School Board members Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff flew to Washington D.C. last week, not for a relaxing getaway but to meet with lawmakers to discuss the impact of federal budget cuts is having on the district. Known as “sequestration,” the cuts are costing the district hundreds of millions of dollars in Title I money for school districts with high percentages of low-income students.

The trip was “marked mostly with less than positive news on the fiscal front, for sure,” Deasy told LA School Report today. “There was no evidence whatsoever that the sequester is going to go away.”

As Deasy begins to prepare next year’s budget, he’s faced with a school board that favors hiring more teachers and support staff at a time the electorate has voted to raise taxes to fund public education. In other words, expectations are high. But federal cuts threaten to plunge the district further into debt, even as new money begins to flow from the state.

“Do we take new money and [fill] the hole? It’s going to be a very big dilemma,” said Deasy.

The term sequestration refers to $85 billion in reduced spending per year, scheduled to continue through 2021. The cuts were initially meant as a threat, set to start automatically should Congress not find a way to increase revenue or make targeted cuts. After lawmakers failed to reach a compromise, the sequestration went into effect in March.

Deasy has warned that if sequestration is not ended, LAUSD would face a $350 million budget hole in the current school year.

“I’m very worried about the general direction of support for public education,” he said. “It seems like there isn’t any.”

Deasy said he, Zimmer and Ratliff met with a number of House members, including George Miller a northern California Democrat, and Lucile Roybal Allard, a Democrat who represents parts of east Los Angeles. They also met with the heads of two national teachers unions: National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

According to the LA Daily News, which spoke with Ratliff, Weingarten was “so impressed with local efforts to implement new English and math standards that she asked the superintendent to share the educators’ lesson plans.”

The group also met with senior staff of the Department of Education but not with Secretary Arne Duncan.

The LAUSD trio discussed a number of other subjects while in D.C., including the implications of AB 484, which eliminates the California Standardized Tests and designates the current school year as a sort of dry run for the new Common Core tests. Both Deasy and the Obama administration were upset with state lawmakers for only funding either math or english tests.

Deasy now says LAUSD students will take both tests; the district will most likely cover the costs of the second test. He also said he would try to find some way of using the testing data to gauge student performance – something state lawmakers said was not feasible this year.

“We will attempt to find out if we can provide some level of student performance,” said Deasy.

Ratliff attended a meeting of the Council of the Great City Schools – she was appointed to succeed Zimmer as the district’s liaison to that council by Board President Richard Vladovic. Deasy said it was “very helpful” to have Ratliff in that role. He said that Zimmer was included on the trip because he has “repeatedly built connections on special education funding.”

Zimmer told LA School Report that they also met with LA Unified’s Washington-based lobbyist, the Raben Group.

Previous posts: In DC, Deasy, Ratliff and Zimmer Talk Budget Cut Impact; Coalition Calls on Gov. Brown to Veto Testing Bill, AB 484; Superintendent Deasy Not Happy With Latest Testing Bill; Vladovic Adds Committees, Doles Out Assignments