Both LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan and UTLA President Warren Fletcher have plans to push for reform of the district’s teacher misconduct investigation process, but their plans have different focuses and end goals, according to a LA Daily News report. Board Member Galatzan is focusing on how long the teacher investigation process can take (an...

Tamar Galatzan, Warren Fletcher Look at Reforming System for Investigating Teachers A year after the Miramonte sex-abuse scandal sparked a flood of teacher misconduct complaints, a Los Angeles Unified board member and the teachers’ union president have launched separate efforts to devise a more efficient system for investigating allegations. LA Daily News To Lock Classroom...

United Teachers Los Angeles announced in the latest edition of its weekly newsletter that it plans to push back harder against LAUSD’s so-called “teacher jails,” where teachers accused of misconduct are sent to wait while the district investigates their cases. As LA School Report contributor Hillel Aron wrote in a recent LA Weekly report, teachers sent to “jail” are usually...

LAPD Has Few Easy Answers on School Safety The dozens of educators packed into a police station meeting room Wednesday had a lot of questions about how to protect their students. But LAPD Capt. Tom Brascia made it clear he didn’t have a lot of answers. LA Daily News, KCET, LAist California Teachers Retirement Fund Threat...

Teacher Vote on Whether to Use Student Test Scores in Performance Evaluations Teachers in Los Angeles Unified will vote Jan. 14-18 on a tentative agreement that would allow the use of student test data in performance evaluations. LA Daily News Calif. Teachers Fund Reviewing Firearm Holdings The nation’s largest teachers’ pension fund announced Tuesday that...

Miramonte Lewd Conduct Lawsuits Can Proceed An L.A. County Superior Court judge on Thursday lifted a stay on lawsuits arising from alleged lewd conduct at Miramonte Elementary School. LA Times 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...

LAUSD Wins Key Legal Battle With Charter Schools A California appellate court panel strikes down a ruling that could have opened up many classrooms for charters and created potential hardships for traditional campuses. LA Times LA Teachers Union Endorses Multiple Candidates for the Same Seats In an unusual move, the United Teachers Los Angeles on...

From LA School Report contributor Hillel Aron, writing for the LA Weekly: “On the outskirts of LAUSD’s sprawling, mazelike Educational Service Center in Reseda sit seven long, shabby, peach-colored bungalows with barred windows and rotting wood, which all but scream Southern California public education. “In one of them is a roughly 35-square-foot room where 25 or...

Teachers Endorse Zimmer The union on Wednesday also endorsed candidates for the three school board elections scheduled for March. LA Times 15 Candidates File to Run for LAUSD School Board Seats Officials have 10 days to verify whether each has the signatures of at least 500 registered voters from the candidate’s district. LA Daily News LAUSD...

Bill to Speed up Teacher Dismissals Is Revived Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) acted in the wake of a state audit concluding that current laws added excessive cost and time to the firing process. LA Times See Also: LA Daily News  Billboards Promote Law That Lets Students Leave Low Performing Schools The Open Enrollment Act became...