As part of the change, UTLA negotiators also asked the district for an annual $1,000 stipend for all certificated bargaining unit members for supplies and support materials. And the union is demanding that members be paid at their hourly rate for professional development and or training.

In the same bargaining session, the district addressed another key union issue — reducing class size — by saying with limited money available, the district would keep class sizes at their current levels and spend what it can on salaries.

The two issues are among 12 the two sides are negotiating as the academic year moves into the second semester with no real agreement on salary — or much of anything else — in sight. The district’s most recent salary offer was a 4 percent raise, plus pay for professional development days that the district says represents another 2 percent. District negotiators did not change that offer yesterday.

The union’s latest salary demand was its fourth, after starting at 17.6 percent over two years, then 10 percent for one year, then 9 percent for one year.

Salary and class size are inextricably linked. More of one and smaller of the other have been two of the union’s bedrock demands since the election of Alex Caputo-Pearl as president last year. But the district has not budged from its position that, in effect, the union can’t have both, and for now, the priority is raising teacher pay.

In its class-size proposal yesterday, the district said, “…with its still-limited available funding, there is a more compelling need to prioritize its limited salary resources to pay for long-deferred salary increase, while maintaining current class sizes.”

The district has calculated that it would cost more than $523 million to hire about 5,000 teachers and other employees necessary to bring class sizes down to UTLA’s proposed levels, according to figures provided by district officials. Making those hires would be the equivalent of a “21 percent increase in total salaries for all current UTLA-represented employees.”

The teachers union wants to see the number of pupils per class set at the following levels:

• Transitional Kindergarten through 3: 26 students
• Grades 4 through 8: 30
• Grades 9 through 12: 34
• Physical Education: 50

Data gathered by the district in October showed more than 1,500 middle school and high school classes enrolled 40 or more students throughout the district. More than 300 enrolled 50 or more students. Those figures exclude homeroom, physical education, choir, band and any unfilled sections, all of which tend to be larger in class size.

Over the years UTLA agreed to several furlough days to maintain current class sizes but the district has phased those out using Proposition 30 revenues. In addition, the district used Local Control Funding Formula Funds to further reduce class sizes in secondary Math and English classes, below the levels protected by the furlough agreements.

The two sides will meet for another negotiation session next week, on Jan 29.

Protesters outside LAUSD headquarters on May 13, 2013. (Credit: UTLA)

* UPDATED

As contract negotiations plod along between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, the issue of class size reduction has taken on a new urgency for Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who plans to shrink the number of students in middle school and high school classrooms by the end of the year.

“I’m not going to tolerate this second semester,” Cortines told LA School Report, before launching into an anecdote about not being able to get through the door of two separate classrooms at Jefferson High School “because they were so crowded.”

“That’s just unacceptable,” he said in frustration.

Teachers have been calling on district leadership to reduce class sizes for years, even as billions of dollars were slashed from the budget and the number of desks per classroom sometimes doubled. It’s been one of UTLA’s core objectives in striking a new deal with the district, a pivotal component of the “Schools LA Students Deserve” platform that President Alex Caputo-Pearl ran on in the recent election.

Data gathered by the district last month shows there are currently more than 1,500 middle school and high school classes enrolling 40 or more students throughout the district. More than 300 enroll 50 or more students. Those figures exclude homeroom, physical education, choir, band and any unfilled sections, all of which tend to be larger in class size.

While 40 sounds like a large number of students for one class, it’s actually within the prescribed ratio of LA Unified classes for non-academic periods in grades 6-through-12 and for academic periods in grades 11 and 12. For academic periods in other grades, the ratios are smaller: 24 to 1 for K-through-3; 30.5 to 1 for grades 4, 5 and some 6; and 34 to 1 for the remaining grade 6-through-10.

Although the data reflecting current ratios comes directly from the district, Lydia Ramos, communications director, explains that “these are very raw numbers” and may contain errors caused by the new student data management system, MiSiS, as well as by unfinished “balancing,” the process of determining how many students are assigned to each teacher.

Still, even ruling out classes that are obviously MiSiS created mistakes — San Pedro Senior High, for instance, appears to enroll 566 students in something called “College Class” — the most notable findings in an analysis of the data by LA School Report include:

• About 1,100 high school classes enroll 40 or more students, in line with prescribed ratios; more than 300 enroll 50 or more students per class.

• More than 120 middle school classes enroll more than 35 students, the current target maximum for students in grades 6 to 8.

• 14 classes show 90 or more students enrolled, most of them in “Advance Conditioning,” which are phys ed or athletics related.

• Approximately 60 algebra classes — including algebra 1A through algebra 2 — enroll more than 40 students, 30 algebra classes have 46 to 49 students, and six have between 51 and 65. Foshay Learning Center has one class of 71 students.

• About 87 Advanced Placement courses enroll 40 or more students. Grover Cleveland Charter High School has the biggest class: AP US History with 67 students

UTLA President Caputo-Pearl has called the numbers “shocking,” and told LA School Report, “This is an issue of improving student learning conditions and educator working conditions.”

And although he adds, “We welcome any efforts on the part of Ray Cortines to move his negotiating team to a place that works for educators and students,” Caputo-Pearl says he’s worried about class sizes ballooning even more.

“LAUSD is threatening to raise K-3 class size to as high as 33, and attempting to maintain a “fiscal emergency” clause which allows class sizes to be raised at the whim of the District.” The class limit of K-3 has held steady at 24 since 2009.

UTLA is seeking to set maximum caps on classes based on grade level. Its current contract proposal limits grades between Transitional Kindergarten through 3rd, to 26 students, 4th through 8th grades to 30, and high school to 34 students per class. Physical Education can be expanded up to 50 students.

Making these changes would come at a tremendous cost to the district, which Cortines says is already heading toward a $300 million deficit by 2015-16. Still, he acknowledges that classrooms bursting at the seams are bad for everyone — students, teachers, administrators, and the district — but he did not shy away from putting at least some of the blame for the unwieldy classes on local school leadership.

“The district is not all to blame,” he said explaining that schools are funded based on the total number of students attending. “And local control makes the decisions on how to spend the money. So, it’s they who decide to have so many teachers in the classroom and so many people out of the classroom.”

“I expect local principals, the local superintendent, and the directors to work with schools to see that this doesn’t happen,” he said.

But despite the mandate to cut class sizes by the start of the second semester, which is a little more than a month away, Cortines admits only a portion of the problem can be resolved with the money available.

“I know there will be some large classes, but do I think there will be thousands like there are now? No,” he answered himself.

School board member Bennett Kayser has a different solution: Rather than pursue across-the-board class size cuts, take a targeted class approach.

“As long as California remains 49^th in the nation in per-pupil funding, our classrooms will be larger than we like,” he told LA School Report. “My goal is to push for targeted class-size reduction in the areas students find most challenging such as algebra, a key requirement to graduating within our new A-G curriculum.”

He argues this is a far more realistic approach that will garner effective results, because it will ensure that students receive adequate attention in subject areas that are used as building blocks for future, more advanced areas. For instance, reducing a culinary arts class is not as imperative as reducing 4th grade math, where kids learn about fractions.

Kayser also warns that the problem is about to get worse. Federal grant dollars and state money owed to the district through a lawsuit several years ago and were used as a work-around to hire more teachers are all expiring.

In a memo to Cortines, Vivian Ekchian, the district’s chief labor negotiator, detailed the loss of funding.

“During the period of time that the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) funds were available, schools used those funds to purchase addition [sic] teacher positions to lower class size (CSR positions — and have adjusted their course offerings to provide a greater variety of options to students, intervention classes, enrichment opportunities, etc. QEIA funding has now ended for the majority of schools and many now struggle to find way to maintain their programs.”

UTLA and Ekchian and her staff will meet again on Friday for the next bargaining session. Neither side has said whether class size will be discussed.

*Clarifies reasons for larger class size to include “unfinished balancing” in assignment of teachers and adds prescribed teacher/student ratios.

UTLA President Warren Fletcher praised the resolution, arguing that Board member Bennett Kayser’s proposal would remedy the “current degraded levels of funding, staffing and the ballooning class sizes.”

However, some education experts and community leaders are questioning if Kayser’s plan is necessary or even realistic for a school district with declining enrollment and a host of other problems that might take precedence over re-hiring, such as giving struggling students more instructional time and paying teachers for extra days.

The district says it has about a $1 billion less per year and 15 percent fewer students enrolled than five years ago

Though Supt. John Deasy opposed the idea of hiring more staff and said the new funding should be used to give raises to current staff, most of whom have not had a raise since 2007, the Board passed the “Creating Equitable and Enriching Learning Environments for all Los Angeles Unified School District Students” motion 5-2.

Kayser said he wanted to return the district to 2007-08 “ratios and norms,” and said that critics shouldn’t focus on the differences in “hard numbers.” Kayser called the 900:1 student-to-counselor ratio at some schools “just ridiculous.”

Reducing class size is extremely popular among parents and teachers, though research has shown weak effects from modest class size reductions and schools sometimes struggle to find qualified teachers and classroom space to create new classes.

The 2007-08 budget was $7.2 billion and the district had about 100,000 more students than it does now, according to data from the LAUSD Budget Services and Financial Planning Division.

Reactions to the proposed staffing increases were mixed among nonprofits who work with schools in Los Angeles:

Inner City Struggle Director Maria Brenes said the proposal could benefit the district so long as it rehired staff members that students truly need.

“We have 600 nurses in the district, that’s a nurse-to-student ratio of 1:100,” said Brenes, who advocates for the social and educational justice  of Eastside youth and their families.

“For many families the school nurse plays a critical role in pediatric health and some schools have to share nurses on the same day,” she added.

There are actually about 450-500 nurses spread across LAUSD, not 600, according to District Nursing Services, 25 percent less than there were two years ago.

“I was around in 2007 and people were still not happy with the budget and how things were run,” said Community Coalition President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, whose organization works to change public policy to better the health, education and environment in South L.A. “I don’t think we should look back and hold that time up as the best circumstance.”

Instead, Harris-Dawson hopes Board members will “do a vigorous analysis” and use the rare new funding to redesign the district by expanding smaller successes and pilot programs across the district.

“When money comes back, we shouldn’t apply it the way it was applied before,” he said. “This is a teachable moment for our society. Let’s try something different.”

No details or estimates as to how the district could feasibly re-staff all schools to pre-recession levels, along with other large-scale proposals, have surfaced. Kayser’s office did not respond when contacted to elaborate on the plan, nor did the Los Angeles County Office of Education want to comment on how the proposal could be financially sustained.

The district has 60 days to figure it out, according to the office of Budget Services and Financial Planning.

Previous posts: LA Times: Kayser Resolutions “Silly,” Make “No Sense”, Marathon Board Meeting Signals Changes to Come, Board Likely Approves Call to Re-Hire Teachers

The votes seemed like a loss for LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who had floated the idea of having new funding flow where it was needed most (along the lines of the Galatzan resolution) and had opposed the idea of hiring more staff.

But on Wednesday a defiant Deasy told LA School Report that his plan for future spending will include the spirit of Galatzan’s resolution anyway:

“The Board voted down the directive to have me come and do it,” said Deasy, referring to Galatzan’s local spending resolution. “[But] they can’t stop me from doing it; we’re doing it anyway. If they had voted to prevent me from doing it… well they didn’t think of that.”

The Superintendent explained that the future spending plan the Board ordered him to produce will comply with the Board-passed Kayser resolution regarding staffing (or as Deasy derisively called it, a “directive to hire every human being on the West Coast”) but will also include some form of the local spending plan he and Galaztan have been advocating.

Previous posts: Marathon Board Meeting Signals Changes to Come; LA Times: Kayser Resolutions “Silly,” Make “No Sense”; Board Likely Approves Call to Re-Hire Teachers; Galatzan Resolution Addresses Contradictory Goals; Deasy Wants to Revamp Local School Funding Formula

Superintendent John Deasy, Board President Monica Garcia, and departing Board member Nury Martinez

As anyone following us on Twitter knows all too well, Tuesday’s School Board meeting was a marathon session that lasted well into the night — much of it accompanied by the sound of protesters drumming on the street outside.

Among several key decisions the Board arrived at during the lengthy session were votes to award a $30 million contract to Apple, close a charter school that had dodged a district audit, and add some local regulations to the controversial parent trigger process (but not call for the law’s repeal).

The last meeting of the 2012-2013 school year, it also marked the final appearance of Nury Martinez, who left the Board after four years to run for City Council.

School Board President Monica Garcia presented Martinez with a giant bell, and Board held a bizarre mid-meeting reception in her honor that included a soft jazz band and chicken salad sandwiches.

By 9 pm, when the meeting finally ended, the Board had also approved its 2013-14 budget and begun a furious (and likely to be long-running) debate on how to spend future revenue increases.

If last month’s Board meeting represented a series of hard-fought victories for Superintendent John Deasy and his allies on the Board, last night’s meeting included a couple of losses, with a hint of more to come when the Board changes composition and leadership next month.

iPads for All

Union president Warren Fletcher addresses the Board

A Deasy proposal to equip tens of thousands of students with iPads passed unanimously despite lengthy discussion and no small amount of controversy leading up to the vote.

Addressing the Board, UTLA President Warren Fletcher called the plan “not fully baked,” saying that hiring more teachers and counselors should take priority over the technology plan, which aims to prepare students for the new state standardized tests, which must be taken on computers.

Board member Steve Zimmer worried that the tablet devices don’t come with keyboards, while Dr. Vladovic said that on a recent trip to Best Buy he found a better price.

Chief facilities executive Mark Hovatter explained that of the 13 bids received by the district for Phase I of its technology plan, which aims to put a tablet computer in the hands of every student and teacher by the end of 2014, only three were found to be acceptable.

The three finalists — Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard — all went through what Hovatter called a “rigorous selection process” that included testing by students and teachers.

Not only did the iPad receive the highest rating, it was also the cheapest of any device, at $678 per unit – which includes the software, cases and a 3-year warranty. That price represents a discount for the district, since they are buying the tablets in bulk.

Zimmer called the vote “one of the most high-profile contracts this board will ever approve.”

Board member Bennett Kayser recused himself from the discussion and the vote because he owns Apple stock; Superintendent John Deasy and General Counsel David Holmquist left the room during the discussion because they too own Apple stock.

Students will be allowed to take the iPads home with them. Independent charter school students will be given iPads as well as district students.

There will be no new bidding process for the next phase of the technology plan. Apple will automatically be awarded the next contract unless the Board intervenes.

(For more see the LA Times)

Local Spending Plan Postponed

Board members Martinez (left) and Galatzan pose together during the Board’s going-away reception for Martinez (via LADN)

A resolution by Board member Tamar Galatzan, intended as a sort of mirror to Governor Brown’s new state education finance formula, was postponed.

The Galatzan  proposal would do two seemingly contradictory things: set a minimum level of funding for each school site and also make sure schools with a higher concentration of low-income students, English language learners and foster kids receive a funding boost.

Deasy spoke in favor of the motion.

“We want a plan that is mindful of the tenets of the Local Control Funding Formula,” he said, referring to Brown’s new funding scheme. “I think of all the motions, this is likely to be the most important thing you decide.”

UTLA President Warren Fletcher was opposed to the targeting provisions in the proposal, however.

“Every school deserves a librarian, every school deserves a nurse,” he said. “The dollar-following-a-child model is something that causes us grave concern.”

“I’m just a little shocked,” responded Galatzan. “UTLA is opposed because they don’t trust schools to hire teachers.”

Board Member Marguerite LaMotte angrily denounced the idea of letting school sites decide how revenue is spent.

“The District knows what the schools need!” she said. “And I’m tired of monetizing children!”

It was hard to know what Lamotte meant by that last comment, since per-pupil spending is an engrained part of public education finance.

“If you want to pretend people in this building know everything, we’re doomed for failure,” said Galatzan.

Board member Zimmer said he was “hesitant to lock in strategies” for spending before final regulations from the State legislature are approved.

In the end, the Board voted 4-3 to postpone their decision on Galatzan’s resolution.

Money, Money, Money

The district’s $6.2 billion budget for 2013-14, drawn up by Superintendent John Deasy, was approved unanimously, after a number of public speakers pleaded with the Board to restore budget cuts.

A number of public commenters pleaded with the board to restore various programs, but there was little discussion from the Board members themselves, who are bound by law to pass a budget by July 1.

Despite more than $200 million in additional in funds, most restorations will have to wait at least another year.

The Board also approved two proposals directing Superintendent Deasy to draw up plans spend future revenue from Proposition 30 and Governor Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula.

The first, a motion by Board President Garcia to explore the feasibility of lengthening the school year beyond 180 days, passed unanimously if not without some concerns being expressed.

The other motion, written by Board member Bennet Kayser, called on LAUSD to hire more teachers, counselors, librarians and other LAUSD employees, in line with the ratios that existed before the recession in 2007. It was approved 5-2, with Galatzan and Garcia voting no.

It is unlikely the District would be able to afford both resolutions. But Deasy will report back to the Board within 90 days with a few different options.

“We do need to have a balanced approach with extending the school year,” noted Board member Zimmer.

“If we did everything we say we’re going to do, it will take about 15 minutes for the County to step in and take us over, cause we don’t have the money for all these things,” said Board member Richard Vlaldovic.

“This resolution wasn’t meant to be a be-all-end-all,” agreed Board member Kayser. “We’re asking the Superintendent to make some proposals that are within the budget of Prop. 30 and Local Control Funding Formula.”

Board member Zimmer lashed out at the resolution’s critics, who include the LA Times editorial page, saying there was a “whisper campaign” to call the hiring of more employees as an “adult agenda.”

“The counselor-to-student ratio is 900 to 1,” said Zimmer. “That’s a civil rights issue.” He also pointed out that the popularity of charter schools is due in part to their smaller class sizes.

“If they weren’t sending us a message on class size, it wouldn’t be on the front of every charter school website,” he said.

Garcia said she wanted to support the resolution but was “not convinced that 2007-08” was the right year to set as a goal.

(For more see the Daily News)

Parents, students and school staff demonstrate in favor of Academia Semillas. The schools head, Marcos Aguilar, dances in the center.

Charter School Not Renewed

In one of the day’s more dramatic turns, the Board voted 6-1 to deny the renewal of  Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School’s charter.

A large number of parents, students and school staff, many dressed in full Aztec regalia, showed up to demonstrate outside the meeting.

For hours leading up to the vote, furious drum beating could be heard inside the Board room. (When this reporter went outside to photograph them, he was recognized instantly by a woman with a megaphone; she screamed at the reporter, “Do your homework!”)

Superintendent Deasy’s office recommended the non-renewal after the school, which is run by the Charter operator Academia Semillas del Pueblo, failed to comply with an audit by the district’s Office of the Inspector General. According to the district, the school was also suffering from a structural deficit, as well as fluctuating test scores and attendance.

School board President Monica Garcia was the sole vote to give Semillas another 5 years, citing in part the fact that the school was trying something different — educating students about the indigenous culture of the Aztecs.

“I respectfully disagree with your team,” she said, addressing Superintendent Deasy. “There is an indigenous culture being celebrated.”

When Semillas’ elementary school’s charter came up last year for renewal, Deasy’s office also recommended its non-renewal. But the district voted 4-3 to override Deasy.

This time around, Board members Zimmer, Martinez and Vladovic all reversed their votes.

Regulations Coming for Parent Trigger Process

Based on a new resolution proposed by Board member Zimmer and passed by the Board, the District will seek to bring greater order and transparency to the process when parents gather signatures to reform or even take over a failing school under California’s “parent trigger” law.

A number of parents and teachers at the Board meeting spoke out against the law.

UTLA President Warren Fletcher called the current law “very, very bad” and said it was “built on the premise that the only way to reform a school is for one group of stakeholders to blame another group of stakeholders.”

Board member Zimmer’s resolution was aimed at added a few regulations to the process at the local level. It would provide public information about the process and independently verify signatures. It also would direct the district to lobby the State legislature to make changes to the law.

“There is very little that the School Board is actually able to control as the state law stands now,” Zimmer admitted. As the law is written, only parents that sign the trigger petition can, in the end, vote on the transformation model. Zimmer wants that changed. “It’s a basic democratic principle. If we believe in change, it’s gotta be for everyone.”

Even Board member Galatzan, who opposed the measure, admitted that  “the parent trigger law is flawed… We need to ask [the state legislature] for guidance when we have evidence of fraud in the signature gathering, or misconduct.”

At one point during the debate, Deasy suggested that the Board might have an easier time if it called on the state to repeal the law rather than seeking fixes.

The Board initially voted to adopt Deasy’s recommendation, 4-3, with Kayser, Martinez, Galatzan, and Garcia in favor.  However, it later reversed itself and passed the original Zimmer language 4-3 thanks to a change of vote by Board member Kayser.

(See also: The Daily News)

For even more quotes and tidbits from the proceedings, check our Twitter feed, complete with pictures and video.

Previous posts: Live Coverage: School Board Meeting; LA Times: Kayser Resolutions “Silly,” Make “No Sense”; Update: Controversy Awaits $30 Million iPad Vote; Board Preview: Budget, Parent Trigger, iPads

But is it up to them?  Hiring teachers and lowering class sizes is contractually required, according to LAUSD teacher Brent Smiley:

“I’m all in favor of getting a raise,” commented Smiley, who is also an officer of UTLA’s political action committee, known as PACE.  “But the Superintendent needs to understand that his predecessor negotiated a set class size level. If the good Doctor Deasy wants to use the money for something else, then he must go back to the negotiating table.”

Well, according to LAUSD General Counsel David Holmquist, Smiley is mistaken: “There is nothing in the current Collective Bargaining agreement between UTLA and the District requiring an automatic lowering of class sizes,” Holmquist told LA School Report.  Though, Holmquist added, “UTLA is certainly free to make such a proposal.”

Even if there’s nothing in the contract requiring restoration of certain staffing levels, Smiley and the teachers union may still get its through the class size resolution introduced by several Board members last week, endorsed by UTLA, and scheduled for a vote on Tuesday.

Previous posts: Board Likely Approves Call to Re-Hire Teachers; Deasy: Raises & Deficit Reduction Before New Hires; Special Board Meeting Not So Special After All

Starting in July, the composition and leadership of LAUSD’s School Board will change substantially.

District 6’s Nury Martinez will be out, replaced by Monica Ratliff, and Monica Garcia will step down as Board President, thanks to term limits motion passed by the Board in March.

But the shifts in direction for the Board are already emerging and will likely become clearer at the June 18 Board meeting, when the Board is expected to debate and pass a resolution that’s been introduced by Board members Bennett Kayser, Steve Zimmer and Richard Vladovic calling on Superintendent John Deasy to draw up plans to raise employment levels back up to pre-recession levels.

“It’s basically — ‘bring the grown-ups back,'” said Kayser’s chief of staff Sarah Bradshaw. “All of them. The guy who fixes the plumbing, the assistant principals, the librarians, the nurses, the arts. All of it.”

Hiring more staff has been a top priority for the teachers union. UTLA President Warren Fletcher praised the resolution at this past Tuesday’s special Board meeting.

Superintendent John Deasy would rather give all current employees raises than start hiring new ones.  But it doesn’t look like he has the votes to block Vladovic, Zimmer, and Kayser.

“My main priority is to serve students and compensates adults,” Deasy told LA School Report. “I find it incomprehensible that we wouldn’t have, as our first priority, compensating employees and restoring programs that students lost.”

In a recent memo, Deasy laid out his desire to give raises and restore programs rather than rehire teachers.

Board member Tamar Galatzan also signaled that she opposed the new hires resolution.

“I don’t understand where the money will come from to hire thousands of new staff members,” she said. “Everyone agrees that class sizes should be reduced. My question is, are we putting the cart before the horse? Before the Board decides what the priorities are, we need to have that conversation with people and with schools.”

Galatzan is calling for community input to decide how the district spends its money.

When asked if Tuesday’s Board meeting — which Galatzan opposed and did not attend — wasn’t doing that very thing, she replied:

“Are you asking if a meeting downtown at Beaudry is the way we’re going to get community and school input? I would say that’s not ideal.” She said she’ll be holding one-on-one school meetings and town halls in her district, as well as putting out an online survey.

Galatzan also wonders if any increased revenue LAUSD might receive in the future — dividends of Proposition 30 and increased funding if the Brown funding formula proposal passes — would be better spent at the local school site, so that individual schools can decide what the ideal classroom ratios would be.

“Are we gonna get back to the time when Board decided priorities for a school, and take away that locally-based decision-making?” she asked.

Chief of staff Bradshaw agrees that community input is essential, and says that once Kayser’s class-size reduction motion passes, the Superintendent will come up with a plan, and then the Board will seek community input.

“The expectation is that the Superintendent is gonna come back with these plans,” she said. “At that point, it’s… ‘What do you think people?’ This stuff should not happen in a vacuum.”

Previous posts: Budget: Class Size, Re-Hiring Teachers, & Raises; Special Board Meeting Not So Special After All; Deasy: Raises & Deficit Reduction Before New Hires; Board to Consider Hiring, Formula Issues

So expect school districts to go on a spending binge this summer—Los Angeles Unified School District aims to equip all of its 650,000 students with tablet computers—and then unions in the fall to protest draconian budget cuts and layoffs.

– Allysia Finley in the Wall Street Journal (California’s Shrinking Surplus)

Previous posts: Union Focusing on Jobs; Teachers Vote Against Deasy, For More Teachers; UTLA, LAUSD Prep for Prop. 30 Budget Battle

L.A. Schools Need Technology, but Can We Afford It?
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles School Board will consider a Common Core Technology Project Plan. If approved, the plan would initially fund computing devices for 30,000 students at 47 schools for $50 million, beginning in 2013. LA Daily News Op-Ed by LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan

Districts to Seek NCLB Waiver Whether or Not They’re Invited
Rather than taking a position on the legality of district waivers, Duncan said his biggest concern is capacity. With 15,000 school districts that could potentially apply, it would be unmanageable. EdSource

LAUSD Petitions for Sweeping Relief From Class Size Requirements
The Los Angeles Unified School District is set to bring applications forward next month seeking relief for 78 school sites from class-size restrictions required under a special state funding program. SI&A Cabinet Report

Granada Hills Charter Wins LAUSD’s Academic Decathlon
Granada Hills Charter High clinched the top spot in Los Angeles Unified’s Academic Decathlon for the third straight year, raising hopes for a three-peat by the school at this year’s state and national contests. LA Daily News
See also: LA Times

L.A. Teachers Union Wins Grant for School-Reform Model
The union representing Los Angeles teachers has won a grant to help instructors play a prominent leadership role in their schools. LA Times
See also: LA School Report, LA Daily News

We Can Do More to Protect Children
Too often, the needs of adults and institutions come before those of youngsters they are supposed to safeguard. That could change if we all took it more personally. LA Times Opinion

Valentine’s Day Lesson Plans Aren’t Just for Teachers
The Texas-based teacher social network We Are Teachers has some Valentine’s Day classroom lesson plans that aren’t just for teachers. KPCC

Teachers Press Obama to Keep Promises as Spending Cuts Loom
The largest teachers union in the United States is telling President Barack Obama not to back down from promises he made in his January inauguration speech as the country prepares to begin a decade of billions of dollars in federal spending cuts. Reuters

Brown’s School Finance Reform Has the Right Intent but Major Flaws
Fresh on the heels of having saved – at least for now – California’s public education system through passage of his Proposition 30, Governor Jerry Brown is rededicating himself to the task of tearing down and redesigning the twisted maze that currently serves as the K-12 funding system. EdSource Opinion

Rockers Help Students Roll on Toward Understanding
Members of Ozomatli visit Hawthorne High for a discussion of immigration reform, capitalism, equal rights and community development. A teacher had set the Bill of Rights to one of the group’s melodies. LA Times

Charters Adjusting to Common-Core Demands
Charter schools throughout the country are coping with myriad challenges in preparing for the Common Core State Standards, an effort that could force them to make adjustments from how they train their teachers to the types of curriculum they use to the technology they need to administer online tests. EdWeek

Union Membership Falls to 11.3%, Lowest Level Since 1930s
Teachers unions were among the hardest hit, with the ranks of public school teachers and educators falling sharply. AP

Years After Bond’s Passage, No Start on New Sierra Madre School
The middle school, slated to benefit from a $350-million bond approved in 2008, has been operating out of trailers since the old campus’ demolition in 2010. LA Times

Despite Budget Woes, Superintendents’ Pay Rises
Los Angeles Unified pays Superintendent John Deasy $384,948 a year, about five times the salary of the average teacher. Bay Citizen

Azusa Elementary School Found Lunch After Recess Improves Diet and Concentration
For years, students at Murray Elementary School were like most others, they saw lunch as an easy obstacle to overcome to get to the important part of the school day: recess. KPCC

Head Start Requirement Boosts College Degrees for Early Childhood Educators
Through a concerted effort over the past five years, California is on track to meet a national requirement that 50 percent of Head Start lead classroom teachers hold a bachelor’s degree by the end of September. EdSource

For L.A. Schools, Stories of Modern-Day Martin Luther Kings
On Thursday night, I have the honor of joining students from the RFK Community Schools in Los Angeles for a special theatrical performance of Ariel Dorfman’s play, Speak Truth To Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark, which will raise money to bring our human rights curriculum and the stories of these defenders into schools throughout the city. Huffington Post Op-Ed

Watch: Inside the Mind of a Bilingual Child
Bilingual immersion programs are growing in popularity all over California, but are there actual benefits to programs that teach multiple languages at the elementary level? KPCC