*Updated March 25 Former L.A. city official Heather Repenning and teachers union-pick Jackie Goldberg are officially headed to a May runoff for L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 school board seat, as the county registrar certified the March 5 primary results on Friday. Goldberg had been leagues ahead of the race’s nine other candidates since election...

School board members have approved L.A. Unified’s latest budget, even though the district is still far from being financially sustainable. The revised fiscal stabilization plan lays out the district’s response to county concerns about deficit spending, inadequate reserve levels and reliance on non-guaranteed funds to keep itself afloat in coming years. But instead of providing...

*UPDATE: The county announced Thursday, March 21, that six more ballots have been counted in the race this week, and all went to Jackie Goldberg. There is still a 31-vote difference between Heather Repenning, who is in second place and thus eligible for the runoff election, and the closest competitor, Graciela Ortíz. The county will...

*Updated March 15 The top three finishers in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 election retained their positions after Tuesday’s vote count, though the race for second place narrowed to only 35 votes. A runoff election on May 14 is now certain, as Jackie Goldberg is 596 votes shy of a majority and there are fewer than...

*Updated March 7 The Board District 5 special election in L.A. Unified is almost certainly headed to a runoff, with teachers union favorite Jackie Goldberg clinching just shy of half the votes while her future opponent remains undetermined. Goldberg, a former school board member and vocal charter critic, received 48.26 percent of the vote with...

On Tuesday, L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 will hold a special election to fill a school board seat that’s been vacant since last year, potentially determining whether the board swings more pro-reform or more pro-union. The board district’s students — who are nearly 90 percent Latino — haven’t had a representative since last July, when education reformer...

*Updated Feb. 26 For public education firebrand Jackie Goldberg, next Tuesday’s special election to fill the vacant seat in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 is a chance to block a pro-charter majority on the school board — and not just through 2020. Goldberg, who served on the school board from 1983 to 1991, told LA...

L.A. Unified’s finances can be convoluted and complex. But it’s important to read up as the conversation on how much money the district has continues to swap out facts for politics, education expert Robin Lake said. Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, recently resurfaced a 2015 independent finance report commissioned by former...

*Updated Feb. 19: Board members voted down the resolution 4-2. Voting against it were George McKenna, Scott Schmerelson, Kelly Gonez and Richard Vladovic, who had co-sponsored the resolution.  The L.A. Unified school board will vote Tuesday on whether to get rid of a district policy that can force schools to hire “displaced” teachers — even if...

The L.A. Unified school board has approved a contract with its teachers union that officials admit they can’t fully afford, calling the deal’s sustainability into question as the district receives repeated warnings from the county that it’s in severe financial straits. To shoulder about $840 million in added costs through 2021, district officials say they’re...