LAUSD Charters Would Lose Funding Under Gov. Jerry Brown’s Budget
Wilbur Elementary got $230,000 in state grants when it converted to a charter last fall. Now, administrators at Wilbur and other affiliated charters, nearly all of them in the San Fernando Valley, are struggling with the news that they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants if lawmakers approve Gov. Jerry Brown’s new formula for funding public education. LA Daily News

L.A. Charter School Aims to Toss Out Students With Fake Addresses
Officials at Carpenter Community Charter, a top-notch elementary, think 120 children are enrolled fraudulently. They want to make room for students who live in the neighborhood. LA Times

Try a Different tack: Hold Teachers Responsible for Education Quality
The logic of the reformers seems to be that teachers unions are so wrongheaded, and the citizenry sufficiently tired of fights about seniority and teacher evaluation, that putting forward a slate of school board candidates is the way to change the balance of power in the school district and mute the pesky union.  But the strategy hasn’t worked. EdSource Opinion

Over-Praising Preschool
Obama wants the government to fund a free year of pre-kindergarten, but studies don’t back up his claims of long-term benefits. LA Times Opinion

L.A. Schools Falling Apart, Literally
Years of budget cuts have meant many repairs simply aren’t getting done. There are at least 35,442 unresolved calls for service and repairs, with about 1,100 more coming in each day. LA Times Column by Steve Lopez

State Board to Discuss Districts’ Request for NCLB Waiver
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction and members of the State Board of Education will speak publicly this week for the first time on the effort by a consortium of California school districts to seek their own waiver from some regulations and consequences of the federal No Child Left Behind law. EdSource

Sequestration Special Education Cuts May Put Disabled Californians at Risk
The potential impact the sequester will have on the daily lives of the more than 36,000 K-12 students with disabilities in California show how the across-the-board budget cuts can have harrowing implications for millions in the U.S. HuffPo

Defining Bullying Down
The March 3 death of Bailey O’Neill, a 12-year-old boy in Upper Darby, Pa., was widely attributed to bullying, based on allegations that a classmate hit the boy in the face in January. NY Times Op-Ed (Emily Bazelon)

No Pay to Play or Learn at Public Schools
Public schools must provide the clay used in art class, but they can charge a student for taking home his or her finished sculpture. Playing sports is considered part of the educational mission, so schools have to cover all the costs – including uniforms – but attending a game is just for fun so students can pay admission. EdSource

Brown’s School Funding Formula Lauded, Then Picked Apart at Hearing
To a person, every Assemblymember at a committee hearing Tuesday and the six superintendents who testified at it praised the principles behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed school finance reforms: simplicity, clarity and equity ­­– more money for the state’s neediest children. EdSource

Waiting for Recovery: U.S. Public Schools Continue to Lose Jobs
Since the peak in local public school employment in July 2008, about 361,000 jobs in the sector have been eliminated, roughly half of the 725,000 government jobs lost overall in the same period, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. Reuters

Ex-Miramonte Teacher Mark Berndt Hires Defense Attorney
Mark Berndt, the former Miramonte Elementary School teacher accused of lewd conduct against his students, has hired as his defense attorney a former federal prosecutor who is also an ex-television news reporter. NBC LA

Tablets or Teachers? L.A. Tech Initiative Sparks Heated Board Debate
Last month, when a panel overseeing bond spending for Los Angeles schools narrowly rejected initial steps to provide all 650,000 students with tablet computers, the biggest concern for the program was whether bond funding could pay for technology. EdWeek

My View: I Would Trade Tenure for Better Teaching
Teacher Aadina Balti has tenure, but says it’s no reason for her, or any other teacher, to stop innovating. CNN Opinion

Lawsuit Filed for Teen Wounded in Gardena High Backpack Shooting
A lawsuit has been filed against Los Angeles Unified on behalf of one of two teens wounded when a then-17-year-old Gardena High School student brought a gun to campus that discharged while in his backpack. Daily Breeze

Common-Core Implementation Lags in California, Report Argues
Implementation of the Common Core State Standards in California is falling behind in contrast to other states, a new report from a California education policy group argues. EdWeek

State Board Approved Three out of Four Ed Waivers in 2011
School districts submitted nearly 900 applications for waivers from various elements of the state’s Education Code in 2011 with the California State Board of Education granting its approval 75 percent of the time. SI&A Cabinet Report

Local Votes of Confidence: Most Bonds, Parcel Taxes Pass
Proposition 30, raising statewide taxes to support education, was a nail biter, struggling to get a majority of voters behind it. But that wasn’t the case for most K-12 parcel taxes and school construction bonds on the ballot Tuesday. Ed Source

The Prop 30 Windfall – Not Yet
In its first year, more than $2 billion of Prop 30 funds will be used to start paying off the nearly $10 billion in deferrals, those late payments that forced cash-strapped district to borrow money.  Those payments should free up funds so in 2013-14, districts will start to see some real money. Ed Source

LAUSD Teacher Named One of Five California Teachers of the Year
Veronica Marquez, a fifth-grade teacher at Harmony Elementary School in South Los Angeles, was named today as one of five California Teachers of the Year by state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson. Daily News

Where Did the Lottery Money Go?
The truth is that education budgets have shrunk so much that the lottery money just goes into the pot to help pay for what is needed—as permitted by law. But that was never its purpose. Galatzan Gazette 

Formal Recommendations on Revising Statewide Testing Due Out This Month
Setting the stage for perhaps the most critical public school issue that will come before the Legislature next year, the state board of education held its first public hearing Thursday on plans for shaping the future of student standardized testing in California. SI&A Cabinet Report

Brought about by an organization called Students Matter, which is funded by wealthy tech entrepreneur David Welch, the suit takes aim at five laws in California: one that grants tenure to teachers after 18 months, three that make it extremely difficult to fire teachers with tenure, and the so-called “Last hired, first fired” [LIFO] law that mandates seniority based firing. You can read the full complaint here. See also: Firing the Bad Teachers LA Weekly).

The State of California has filed motion to dismiss the suit, on which the judge is expected to rule on Friday. If the judge agrees to hear the case, the trial is probably still at least a year away.  LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, who was named as a defendant in Doe v. Deasy, gave a deposition in favor of the plaintiffs’ argument and, when we spoke to him in August, said he expected to be deposed in Vergara as well.

Previous posts: School Reform in the Courts

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

Obviously, these parents want voters to support increased funding for schools proposed in some of next month’s propositions.  Click here to watch it again or read the lyrics.

Miramonte lawsuits are on hold, attorneys hope to settle KPCC: Attorney Luis Carrillo is the one who pushed for the stay. He says the temporary delay gives his clients a chance to engage in settlement discussions with the school district. The talks would be facilitated by a mediator and could begin as early as November.

Charters draw students from private schools, study finds LA Times: The study by a Rand Corp. economist found that more than 190,000 students nationwide had left a private school for a charter by the end of the 2008 school year, the most recent year for which data was available.

CSUDH grant will aid LAUSD math teachers Daily Breeze: California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson has received the first of three grants to support the development of math teachers in economically challenged areas of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong Mother Jones: Attendance: up. Dropout rates: plummeting. College acceptance: through the roof. Kristina Rizga’s mind-blowing year inside a “low-performing” school. ALSO: The Kids Are All Right Mother Jones: Students today score better on tests than you did.

Colleges ranked by “bang for your buck”, California schools dominate list KPCC: The Washington Monthly’s top 10 “bang for your buck” schools include 5 in California: UC San Diego, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Riverside.

Cramming For Tests Doesn’t Work, Says UCLA Study LA Weekly: The main problem? Sleep deprivation.

Fairfax music program’s loss Bev Hills’ gain Weho News: Ray Vizcarra, Fairfax High School’s bandleader, has taken a job at Beverly Hills High, after facing the prospect of likely being laid off.

Los Angeles college students face more crowds, fewer classes LA Times: Students on Los Angeles campuses struggle with trying to get needed classes, or any at all, as state budget cuts continue to take their toll on the community college system.

Middle Schoolers Make a Scale Model of 6 Blocks of Broadway Curbed (blog):  Middle school students at the Bresee Foundation summer camp have created a scale model of six blocks of Broadway and the whole thing is installed temporarily right now at the Blackstone Building at Ninth and Broadway.

El Camino Real Charter High School to stage reading of ‘8’ (Press Release): El Camino Real Charter High School’s internationally acclaimed theatre program has been selected as one of the only high school companies in the nation to stage a reading of Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black’s latest play, “8,” it was announced today. “8” is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), which ruled California’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples unconstitutional.

The creation of these new schools is being touted by LAUSD and, according to a new study from UC Berkeley’s Bruce Fuller, has been associated with higher achievement for elementary students.   But with many riches come many problems, and equitable distribution of school space among district and charter schools has been — and continues to be — a major headache for charter proponents and Superintendent Deasy.  Blame it on Prop. 39, passed in 2000, and a judge’s new ruling that has thrown the situation into further disarray and uncertainty.

At the time all those bonds were being passed, the economy was booming and student enrollment was growing. In 1997, there were 680,430 kids attending LAUSD. That number trudged steadily upward, peaking at 747,009 in 2003.

Proposition 39 was something of a double edged sword. Passed by California voters in 2000, it made it easier to pass local school district bonds– a major reason why LA was able to raise $19.5 billion. But that wasn’t all– Prop 39 also included a vaguely written clause, that schools had to share facilities “fairly among all public school pupils, including those in charter schools.”

Of course, not every charter school gets its facilities from the school district. Many of them build or rent their own campuses. Of the 186 Independent Charter Schools, only about 80 of them apply to the district for facilities. After they apply, according to Ricardo Soto, a lawyer for the California Charter Schools Association, there is a back and forth process, based on how many kids and how many in-district kids the charter school plans on enrolling. Many of these charters end up sharing campuses with district schools.

Prop 39 mandated that districts divide up classrooms equally. Last month, a judge ruled that the law applies not only to classroom space, but any space that could be used for instruction. LA Unified will appeal the ruling. In statement, Superintendent John Deasy (himself a champion of the charter school movement) called the decision “a devastating blow to public school students.” He added:

Under the order, students attending District-operated neighborhood schools may be displaced to other locations, through involuntary busing and other means, in order to provide additional space to charter schools.  Further, the District may be forced to eliminate space for essential programs, including Special Education and English Learner.  The consequences would be devastating to our families, especially at a time of severe budget cuts.

But, as Soto told me, “LAUSD is not in position to argue that they don’t have space. Based on enrollment figures, their district space is growing.”

Indeed, attendance started to shrink back down several years ago, largely due to the declining birthrate in Los Angeles (in line with that of California as a whole). As of October 2011, enrollment was back down to 664,000, below even what it was in 1997.

Now, the district looks at student-to-classroom ratios as a whole, and then decides how many classes to give charter schools. But the recent court ruling says that the district must use “comparison schools”– schools in the area that the student may have attended. The ruling also said that the district must include any rooms that could be used as classrooms in calculating the total available classrooms. That would likely not include a teacher’s lounge, but could include, say, a computer lab.

Both parties have agreed that the new rules shouldn’t be applied for at least another year, when the district has had a chance to appeal. While the court system has seen plenty of school reform skirmishes lately, this isn’t really one of them. It’s more of a territorial dispute.

• Lots of Parent Revolution coverage, including pieces from the AP, Reuters, the LA Times, the Wall St. Journal and the The Washington Post. RiShawn Biddle posts as well at Dropout Nation.

• Scott Graham filed a lawsuit against former superintendent Ramon Cortines, “accusing him of making repeated unwanted sexual advances.” Graham has apparantly turned down $200,000 (plus lifetime health benefits!) settlement offered by LAUSD. City News Service.

• Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, died yesterday at 61. In addition to being an astronaut, the Encino-born Ride also worked to “inspire young people, especially girls, to become interested in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” Curriculum Matters

• LAUSD is fighting a court order to give more space to charter schools. The district says enforcement would lead to school busing. LA Times, KPCC
• RiShawn Biddle argues that the NAACP should get on board with public school choice
• All sorts of media outlets are reporting, incorrectly, that the entire staff of Miramonte elementary was fired. LA Weekly
• When did “a teacher being accused of lewd acts” become as routine a phrase as “a suspect wanted for questioning?” Gawker has good video of the Kip Arnold denouement. One more question: anyone know why some outlets are calling him Kip and others are calling him Kyp?

When allocating space to charter schools, the law requires the district to look at all space at a school site, look at the total number of students served at that site, and make an equitable offer to charter schools based on the same allocation, said Ricardo Soto, the general counsel for the Charter Schools Association.

 

Superintendant John Deasy was not quoted in either the KPCC piece or the LA Times piece, although he is said to disagree with the ruling.