This district continues to cut elective classes that actually provide the background knowledge that leads to increased literacy while throwing teachers under the bus to whore for Race to the Top and other money that will never go for anything other than scripted curriculum, out of classroom “teachers” making more than those in the classroom and test materials.

I would like to know from you when my RIF’d colleagues will get their jobs back, especially the computer, music and art teachers. I would like to know when we will have a full Academic Decathlon program in every school. Even Options schools used to have Decathlon.

I also would like to know why a colleague from HPHS who was “displaced” in that reconstitution had a district person try to place him back there full time! This just proves that reconstitution of schools was a sham and all of it to try to get money from the government that never hits the classrooms or students in any meaningful way. My colleague had an Orwellian moment trying to tell this district suit that he wasn’t supposed to go back to the school because he was considered a “failure” like other good teachers at the school. Apparently reconstitutions are undertaken to get money because obviously the district isn’t keeping track of what teachers were displaced from which schools. The reconstitutions were also undertaken to try to disrupt the union and that has now come back to bite you in the butt. Labeling competent teachers as “failures” and disrupting and in some case ending their careers certainly won’t make them want to cooperate with you.

Kids will become proficient when we had a full complement of classes and extra curricular activities that are not necessarily tied to testing. So if you would like to give the Race to the Top money to schools to add extra classes like Creative Writing, computer -guided carpentry, driver’s education, Decathlon, Psychology, Nursing and more, I think the union would be on board. If you would use it to hire a full time college counselor at each school, including middle schools, we would be on board. If it was used to shore up the middle schools and prevent kids from failing every class then move on to high school, we would be on board. That would mean really small classes in middle school and very strict discipline which they currently don’t have. Kids
also need financial literacy as freshmen in high school, not in their senior year.

Second off, every time Lausd berates Utla for blocking their greedy little hands from getting more funds to blow off like the $50 million building funds used to buy iPads, you see can why Utla does not trust Lausd with another $29+ million being used FOR the kids sake.

Thirdly, If the District would consult, or even visit some of there ‘worst performing schools,’ and visualize those kids given an iPad willy-nilly before clear guidelines are set, they would stop sipping on the grape stuff and INCLUDE teacher input…Input from theirr ‘choice’ schools, where positive parent support is a no-brainer, doesn’t count!! Lausd needs to work with teachers in some of LA’s very tough schools, like a Crenshaw, an Audubon, an Obama…to set up reasonable policies and get buy in from communities to safeguard our kids as they bring technology home…

Fourth, Yes technology is sorely needed for our kids to compete..BUT just equipping EVERY Lausd classroom with THE SAME technology AND putting a trained competent tech teacher in EVERY school would have been 1000% more effective – along with having ALL teachers train on, use and report back various strategies on the iPad BEFORE 47 schools worth of kids were given a free-for all…

Well that’s what I see as a teacher in ground zero, Superintendent Deasy..and NOW the Board delays at least attempting to level the ground of pay for its beleaguered teaching corps…Work with us, Superintendent, and I am pretty sure we WILL work with you…..As sometimes ineffective as our Utla leadership seems to be in really pushing for stability for ALL it’s members, WE ALL have the kids of LA FIRST…no matter what our slanted media suggests…I surely HOPE that agenda – the KIDS Of LA – moves out past the politics…They deserve it, and their teachers deserve a decent, fair and immediate raise to make up for the 7 years of sacrifice, which should have been clearly decided upon (Board this is for you) before YOU ALL approved millions of building funds to be used to purchase iPads in front of good teaching and time to really navigate the new Common Core..

Putting the cart before the horse, doesn’t even begin to explain the current state of Lausd.

Let’s hope this changes sooner, rather than later….Children only have so much time in school…we can’t keep messing it up for many, just to show off for a few.

Deasy and his Board toadies, Galatzan and Garcia, (possibly with the help of Broad’s legal team) are trying to deflect the public’s attention away from his hugely poor judgment in the ill-fated iPad fiasco which is costing California taxpayers billions of dollars. Of course, he will try to castigate the union about this drop in the bucket Federal grant funding.

The great number of union members are vocal naysayers from their ‘inside’ LAUSD perceptions, but still Deasy tries to relieve himself of budget decision responsibility. He is always where the buck stops as the Superintendent of LAUSD. He tried to put the blame on Jaime Aquino for the ill-spent iPads, but he is the ultimate ‘decider.’

The public and the media finally see how inept his leadership has been in so many designated areas.