The LA Times weighed in today with its endorsements for the LA Unified school board, backing two of three incumbents in the March 3 elections but both with language that suggests moderate misgivings.

The editorial board recommends Tamar Galatzan for board District 3 although the support “comes with misgivings.” Board president Richard Vladovic gets the endorsement for District 7 with the admonition that “he has not been the leader we had hoped for.”

In District 5, the editorial board bypassed the incumbent, Bennett Kayser, calling him “easily the weakest of the three contenders.” Instead, the paper picked Andrew Thomas for his “expertise in such areas as school software programs and program effectiveness.”

The editorial is available here.

Via LA Times Editorial Board

Two candidates with different styles and viewpoints are vying to join the Los Angeles Unified school board, replacing longtime board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who died in December. Both of the candidates also hold different beliefs than did LaMotte, who was a fiery opponent of most school reform. This is an opportunity for voters in District 1, which includes South Los Angeles and sections of West Los Angeles, to make themselves heard. That’s especially true, sad to say, because voter turnout on this one-race election day, Aug. 12, is expected to be below 10%. The only good thing that can be said about such low participation is that those who do turn out to vote will be making their ballots count.

Read the full endorsement here

Via The Los Angeles Times |  By Soumya Karlamangla

The White House on Wednesday will designate a swath of Los Angeles a “Promise Zone,” a move intended to marshal millions of dollars in federal resources for pockets of poverty under a signature program of the Obama administration.

But politics is never easy, and, instead, the vacancy has sparked disagreement and paralysis at the school board, where the six remaining members have been buffeted by community groups and special interests that passionately disagree on which option to take.  Last month, the board pushed off making a decision until tonight’s special board meeting, called for 6:15 pm.

Meanwhile, we’ve complied a roundup of editorials on the decision the board faces. This week La Opinion printed an editorial supporting an election: Election for the LAUSD. That followed in the footsteps of both the LA Times which printed not one, but two pieces last month, (Elect, don’t appoint, to replace Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and L.A. school board priority: Put students first and the LA Daily News which weighed in with this editorial: L.A. school board should let LaMotte’s district vote.  

Previous Posts: Pressure building: How, when to fill LaMotte LAUSD board seat, LA Unified board delays action on LaMotte vacancy to January, Filling LaMotte Seat by Election or Appointment? Board is Decider

LA Times Photo: New Open World Academy first grade teacher Bianca Sanchez

Via the LA Times | By Stephen Ceasar

When Carmina Rosas visited her son’s first-grade classroom, she got a lesson of her own.

She learned that her 6-year-old, who attends New Open World Academy in Koreatown, could read 59 of the 96 “high-frequency” words he should have known by that time in the school year.

She found out that to remain at grade level, her boy would need to know nearly three times as many words by the end of the year. To help him stay on track, Rosas was taught reading games they could play together. And, she received a personal homework assignment: to help her son reach 160 words in the next couple of months.

This was no ordinary parent-teacher conference. For one thing, the 20 or so parents met as a group with teacher Bianca Sanchez. For another, Sanchez discussed students’ performance data and then taught the parents skills to help their children at home. It’s called Academic Parent Teacher Teams, a program aimed at helping parents take a more active role in their children’s education.

Read the full story here.

The LA schools’ iPad adventure keeps getting worse
Commentary: One thing about cautionary tales — the cautions just seem to proliferate as time marches on. That certainly seems to be the case with the LA Unified School District’s increasingly fraught involvement with education by iPad. LA Times

For LAUSD’s iPad opponents, a history lesson
Editorial: There are several possible explanations for the emotional opposition the Los Angeles schools’ iPad program has inspired in some people, such as the 15 who took part this week in a Granada Hills rally featuring a protester dressed as Marie Antoinette and a cake shaped as a tablet computer. LA Daily News

LAO projects huge Prop. 98 increase for K-12 next year
From gloom to boom, how quickly things change. A resurgent economy and recalculations of revenue from the past two years will leave the state budget with a multi-billion-dollar surplus next year and K-12 schools and community colleges with unexpected billions more to spend, according to a projection that the Legislative Analyst’s Office released on Wednesday. EdSource

Common Core. Enter Business?

The Business Roundtable and U.S. Chamber of Commerce are making Common Core a priority but it’s a lift for companies because the payoff from better schools is long-term and the political costs are immediate. That’s why business talks a good game about all the tough stands they will take. EduWonk

Will New Education Funds Reach Students Who Need It Most?
California school districts will soon receive more money for high-needs students, but many parents and advocates are wondering: will the money actually be spent on the students it’s meant for? New American Media

White House to honor South LA educator Daphne Bradford
Daphne Bradford, CEO and founder of the grassroots organization, Mother of Many (M.O.M), which helps prepare South L.A. high schools students for both their college and work career, will receive a “Champions for Change” award from the White House on Thursday, November 21, 2013. Intersections South LA

“This is not new news and [is] part of the original board-approved contract,” said LA Unifed spokesperson Shannon Haber.

The article, “School iPads to cost nearly $100 more each, revised budget shows,” circulated by numerous media outlets including LA School Report, reported that the iPads now cost $770 per tablet, stating, “the newly disclosed price, a 14 percent increase per iPad, appeared in a revised budget released in advance of a public meeting Tuesday on the $1-billion project.”

But there was no revision. The “newly disclosed price” was available by reading the July contract, which states that the district would receive a significant discount upon purchasing 520,000 devices, totaling $400 million.

According to Haber, the original contract had always included this “structured, volume discount,” which eventually would reduce the price to $678 per device.

School board members in committee meetings yesterday seemed equally uninformed about details of the arrangement despite voting unanimously in June to authorize the $24.7 million contract with Apple.

Board Member Bennett Kayser

Today’s LA Times editorial page notes that several of the Board member budget resolutions being debated later today aren’t realistic or necessary.

While there should be targeted hiring in key areas such as librarians and school counselors, according to the Times, the Bennett Kayser resolution to restore staffing levels across the board “makes no sense.”

The number of LAUSD students has dropped by about 15 percent, and the district cannot shrink classes to 18 students or less (the number research suggests actually makes a difference in students’ performance).

Another resolution by Board member Kayser (to require numerous hearings on budget priorities) is described as “just silly.”

That doesn’t mean they won’t pass, of course.  As we’ve reported previously, Kayser already has three co-sponsors on his resolution calling for the district to hire back teachers.

Previous posts: Controversy Awaits $30 Million iPad Vote, Board Likely Approves Call to Re-Hire Teachers, Deasy: Raises & Deficit Reduction Before New Hires

Governor Brown speaking at recent LA press event, with Superintendent Deasy to the far right

Last week’s visit from Governor Jerry Brown in support of his proposed new funding formula garnered lots of media attention and the enthusiastic support of LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy (who’s depending on the $188 million bump in funding for LAUSD that would come from the Brown overhaul).

But Brown hasn’t yet persuaded lawmakers in Sacramento … or the LA Times editorial page: “The concept is spot on,” according to the Times, “but in this case the details matter too.” In particular, the Times thinks that the Brown formula isn’t generous enough to smaller districts with smaller numbers of poor students, creating funding gaps over time as large as $2,000 per kid between adjacent districts.

To read the full piece, go here:  Fairly funding California’s schools

The journalists in attendance included the LA Times‘ education editor, Beth Shuster, and its editorial page writer, Karin Klein, and  Larry Gordon. The academics — all from UCLA — who presented included Phillip Goff, Joan Herman, John Pryor,Girlie Delacruz, and Patricia Gandara,

Read all about the sessions and panels here. Catch up on all the tweeting that took place at #ewa13.

So it’s all the more striking that editorial page writer Karin Klein took to the newspaper’s pages yesterday to denounce the fiery anti-reform rhetoric at last weekend’s California Democratic Convention:

“Real Democrats clearly aren’t allowed to disagree with the California Teachers Assn,” wrote Klein, who pens many of the editorial page’s education opinions.

“[But] how well were disadvantaged students doing before reform? What was the CTA doing for them? Yes, it lobbied for more money, and schools do need more money; unfortunately, it didn’t lobby for that money to be spent in effective ways that would have to prove their educational worth.”

Gates and his foundation have been pushing the use of student achievement data (ie, test scores) in teacher evaluations for several years now — as has the Obama administration, which has made it a key part of both Race to the Top and the so-called “waivers” from No Child Left Behind.

Thanks to new research, however, the Gates Foundation and others are warning districts and states not to over-rely on test-based teacher rating systems and encouraging districts to consider the value of other methods like traditional observation and student surveys along with test score results.

While not mentioned in the Times editorial, the appropriate use of student test scores is an issue in LAUSD because of the new teacher evaluation system that had seemingly been agreed to earlier this year but is now the subject of much dispute. (See:  Dueling Evaluation Memos from Union, District).

The absence of a student achievement-based teacher evaluation could also be a stumbling block for districts including LAUSD who are applying for a federal waiver from No Child Left Behind. (See:  District Waivers Worry State Education Chiefs).

And, as noted in the latest newsletter from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA), the Gates Foundation and Obama administration haven’t been the only enthusiasts for test-based teacher evaluations.

The LA Times was the first major newspaper in the country to publish teacher ratings for thousands of LAUSD teachers in 2010 — failing to heed “experts’ concerns about invalid and unreliable methodologies and negative consequences for the teaching profession.”

Previous posts: More Failing Teachers Pushed Out Under Deasy; The “Ineffective” Teachers Game; Tenure Approval Still +90 Percent; Don’t Water Down Teacher Evaluation, Parent Pleads

So don’t expect any big changes in his May 21 runoff election with teacher Monica Ratliff.

“We only need to capture less than 10 percent of the outstanding vote,” Sanchez political consultant Mike Shimpock told LA School Report. “It’s not like our model is gonna change considerably.”

But possible changes in endorsements from the UTLA’s House of Representatives and the LA Times editorial page next week could shake things up.

Right now, the campaign is in a somewhat lower gear. Ballots don’t go out to voters until April 22. Sanchez is raising money and calling voters, while his campaign is targeting early absentee voters, a demographic that likely tipped the balance for Steve Zimmer, another client of Shimpock’s, who won last month in District 4.

Independent Expenditure campaigns by the Coalition for School Reform and the SEIU local 99 supported Sanchez in the primary to the tune of $1.2 million, and they’re expected to play a similar role in the general election. In fact, they’ve already spent nearly $50,000, according to the LA Ethics Commission.

But possible changes in union and newspaper endorsements would change the dynamics somewhat.

The teachers union endorsed three out of four District 6 candidates in the primary, including both Sanchez and Ratliff. Next week, the union’s governing body, the House of Representatives, will likely vote again on whether or not to change that endorsement to only Ratliff.

The House met last month but didn’t have enough members for a quorum. The move would take a 2/3 majority.

“I don’t think they have enough votes to make it happen,” said Shimpock. “I just don’t think that Antonio has done anything that would merit them pulling the endorsement. I know they’re upset about the Coalition IE, but that’s out of his control. They endorsed him, he didn’t endorse them.”

If the House changed its endorsement, the move would draw a bright line between the two candidates and allow for the possibility of a modest IE campaign on Ratliff’s.

Another endorsement that might get changed is the LA Times. The newspaper surprisingly endorsed Ratliff in the primary, but Shimpock says the Times has called both candidates in for a re-interview next week.

“I think they took exception with our opponent saying she would get rid of Deasy,” said Shimpock.

Previous posts: District 6 Candidate Hardens Position on Deasy Leadership; Union Endorsements Unchanged for District 6; Reform Coalition Attacks Sanchez Opponents in District 6; After Election, Board Status Quo Remains Intact

“We don’t know what heft test scores should have in performance reviews — no one does because the concept is too new and untested — but if the scores will indeed prove helpful, [LAUSD Superintendent] Deasy would do better by starting with a lower figure until the evaluation system proves its worth.”

Previous posts:  Union Tells Teachers How to Protest Evaluations; Teachers & Principals Question Deasy Teacher Evaluation Plan; Union & District Clarify Positions on Teacher Evaluation

District 2: Monica Garcia: “She has been a consistent, if sometimes lukewarm, supporter of reform.”

District 4: Kate Anderson: She is “squarely in the camp of education reform – but sane reform that doesn’t hand over our public schools to private interests.”

District 6: Monica Ratliff: “Ratliff may be a teacher, and a UTLA chapter chair at that, but her platform is pure students-first. Her platform encompasses standard reform issues from curbing teacher tenure to encouraging more charterlike flexibility at the school sites.”

Previous posts: Who Won the LA Times Endorsement Contest?; Times Endorses Garcia, Anderson, & Ratliff 

David Holmquist

Not many people would recognize David Holmquist, general counsel for the LA Unified School District (pictured below). But Holmquist serves as an important role, overseeing all labor negotiations, and representing the district in over 1,000 lawsuits  – including attempts by LAUSD to recover overpayment from 600 employees and dismiss more than 120 teachers.

We spoke last Wednesday in his office on the 24th floor of LAUSD headquarters about what actions LAUSD is preparing to take unilaterally if the teacher evaluation negotiations with UTLA remain unresolved, the recent LA Times lawsuit, his role in the Ramon Cortines sexual assault allegations, the ongoing legal fallout from the Miramonte scandal, and LAUSD’s version of the infamous New York City “rubber rooms” where teachers are housed while investigations against them are pending.

LA School Report: What exactly do you do?

David Holmquist:  I serve the Board of Education and also the Superintendent. We provide advice to all district employees that need it. Probably the number one issue that comes up at the schools is, someone shows up with a piece of paper and they tell the principal, “I wanna take Johnny out of class and this document allows me to do so.” And so the school will call us and say, “What’s up with this? Do I release the child into this person’s custody?” We get kind of a lot of questions about that. And we have about 1,000 lawsuits at any given time that we are either a plaintiff or defendant in.

LASR: A thousand lawsuits — that’s so many. What is the typical lawsuit?

DH: I would say in probably about 65 percent of them, we are the plaintiff and we are actually going after former employees, retirees and others on overpayments. They were, as a result of some computer problems and payroll problems we’ve had over the years, overpaid.

The next largest group is the teacher dismissals, where our board has voted to initiate a dismissal process for teachers. And so we have to go through a rather protracted process in order to actually terminate their employment.

LASR: About how many teachers right now are in that process?

DH: About 120 are in that process now.

LASR: And all those teachers are still getting paid by the district?

DH: I would say about 60 percent of the 120 are unpaid. And that has been a change, an interpretation that our office has done in terms of the actual charges being brought. In the past, we have typically interpreted the charges as being such that a teacher does in fact need to be on paid status.

LASR: Is there an LA equivalent of the “rubber room” from New York City?

DH: It’s not exactly equivalent, but yes, we have places where we keep housed employees. They are at each of the local district offices, and then we have one centrally. Some employees, actually an increasingly large number are housed at home.

LASR: How many teachers are like that?

DH: We have 278 on the list, of which 120 of those are in the dismissal process. We have about 150 more on top of that in various stages of that dismissal process. The majority of those are in that situation because law enforcement is still conducting the investigations. There also may be charges filed with the district attorney’s office, and we don’t want to compromise a criminal investigation.

LASR: What can you tell me about the negotiations with UTLA over the Doe v. Deasy lawsuit?

DH: I think you probably know that we’ve gone to impasse. It was about two weeks ago. So we’ve had one session with the mediator, and another one is scheduled.

It’s our view that we’re not required to collectively bargain this agreement. But in the interest of trying to come up with something that teachers and the teachers union can live with, we have been engaged in conversations with them.

LASR: What is your sense of how these negotiations are going? Are the two sides coming closer together?

DH: Well we’re certainly closer than we were when we started. I am optimistic that an agreement will be reached, but if we need to go through fact-finding and, unfortunately, if we have to unilaterally impose [a new evaluation process] in order to comply with the judge’s order, then so be it.

LASR: So in the event that the negotiations don’t work and you guys just write your own plan, do you have that plan written already?

DH: Oh yes. We’ve given them an offer of how we would do this, and we’ve certainly gone back and forth. And we, in good faith, have moved off our original position in order to get something that we think makes sense for students and also complies with the judge’s order. And if we have to go to unilateral implementation – hopefully not, but if we do, then we’ll be prepared to execute that.

LASR: The LA Times is suing you guys. Is the dispute over the names, is that what it is? They have the data and they want the names?

DH: That’s pretty much it. And so we feel that, given the Doe vs. Deasy litigation, that this is not something that we can properly turn over to the LA Times.

LASR: I don’t understand why Doe vs. Deasy has anything to do with it.

DH: It’s part of ongoing litigation, and more than that, I really can’t say.

LASR: Are you guys saying it’s a privacy issue?

DH: Certainly had we negotiated with UTLA that this information was in fact part of an employee’s evaluation, then the line would be very clear that we would not turn it over. And we are currently negotiating over that very issue with UTLA.

LASR: So in that respect, you would assume that UTLA wouldn’t want you to turn over the names to the LA Times.

DH: You would of course have to talk to them, but I would well imagine that they would want to respect their members’ privacy. Certainly UTLA has been invited to participate in this litigation if they wanted to express a view that the court should consider. To date, they have not. But they might be wise to do so.

LASR: What is going on with Miramonte?

DH: Well, we are slowly but surely trying to resolve these claims in a way that will help to restore some confidence in the community. We’ve set up a mediation process that we think respects what the community needs, what the students need. I can’t talk a lot about that right now.

LASR: You’re saying that you hope to reach a settlement.

DH: Right. We got just short of 200 claims and lawsuits that were filed against us. The majority of them are claims. I think we have 3 lawsuits and the rest are all claims.

LASR: I wanted to talk about the Scot Graham lawsuit. He’s made some allegations, one of which involves you personally, that you told him, “Why don’t you just forget about this,” or something like that. Do you want to comment on that?

DH: Actually I do. I will tell you that I met with Scot Graham. It was part of my investigation that caused me to speak to Mr. Graham, not because he came to me independently. He begged me not to divulge any of this information. He said he would withdraw his complaint – he never filed a complaint.  And our policy says we will respect the confidentially of those who come forward, and we don’t bring things forward that would compromise their confidentiality.

So I did what our policy requires and what I thought was the right thing to do under the circumstances. I’m glad that you’re asking me about that, because that hasn’t been out there yet.

LASR: Just to reiterate, you did not tell him to forget about his accusations against Cortines?

DH: He told me he wanted to forget about it. He told me that he was seeing a therapist and he had spoken to his husband, and that everything was OK, and he did not want to pursue this. He told me it was a private matter between he and his friend [former LAUSD Superintendent] Ray Cortines.

LASR: Did you think that was odd at the time?

DH: No, I believed him. I had no reason not to believe him. I don’t know what circumstances changed for him, that caused him to change his mind, but that was what he told me.

Edited and condensed for clarity

Previous posts: Concerns About Teacher Talks, LAUSD & UTLA: Headed To Mediation, Cortines Suit Raises Board Questions

LA Schools to ‘Shake It Up’ With the Rest of California
As millions of Californians participate in the “Great California ShakeOut” Thursday, so will students at L.A. Unified. The district uses the day for an annual full-scale emergency drill and an opportunity to teach kids about earthquakes. KPCC

L.A. Unified Partners With Gay Advocates to End Bullying
The initiative, called Project SPIN, seeks to help gay, lesbian and transgender students deal with bullies, and more broadly, to change the district’s culture. LA Times

T.V. Camera Crews to Join Football Players for East L.A. Classic
Next week, the 78th East L.A. Classic between the Roosevelt Roughriders of Boyle Heights and the Garfield Bulldogs of East Los Angeles will be broadcast live on Time Warner Cable-the first live broadcast in more than 20 years.  Not everyone, however, has been thrilled with the idea of watching the East L.A. Classic on T.V. Eastsider 

Deschooling California: Postmodern Theory Meets Props 30 & 38
People who care about California’s children watched in horror this week as the battle between Governor Brown and Molly Munger over their dueling education initiatives descended into a Hobbesian war of all against all (with most of the “all” firmly in the governor’s camp). Ed Source (commentary) 

Students Engaged in Justice System Given Guaranteed Entry to School
Even before Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 1088 into law this fall, the Los Angeles Unified School District had enacted its own policy prohibiting its schools from denying  entry to a student solely on the basis that he or she has had involvement with the juvenile justice system. SI&A Cabinet Report

• Student attendance grows at LAUSD: A slightly higher percentage of students within LAUSD enrolled in school compared to last year. Patch

• School closures, employee cuts, selling land debated by near bankrupt Inglewood Unified: School district staff are recommending the school board cut $14 million from their budget. The board has “taken steps to declare bankruptcy in January,” although it can avoid that if it cuts enough. KPCC

• Dustup between Dems threatens tax measures: There’s something of a growing rift between rank-and-file Dems who support Governor Brown’s tax measure, Prop 30, and those who support Prop 38, Molly Munger’s measure, best exemplified by the California PTA. The two sides aren’t quite openly feuding – but they’re close. SI&A Cabinet Report

• LAUSD to ban styrofoam food trays: The ban was apparently being pushed by students at a Silver Lake middle school. CBS

ALSO

Bill to revamp teacher evaluations in California headed for final vote in state Senate KPCC

Three New Schools to Relieve Overcrowding at Crenshaw, Others LA Sentinel

Education reform in L.A. takes a hit with recent ruling Daily News

The Mars Rover Gives 826LA’s Student Writers a Tech Boost GOOD