John Deasy

'We the Parents' Premieres in Beverly Hills

We the Parents, the new documentary about California's cutting-edge Parent Trigger law, premiered in Beverly Hills last night, with an expert panel discussing the ups and downs of Parent Trigger battles in Compton and Adelanto, where parents sought to gain control of their children's failing schools ... More >>

The Parent Trigger Warriors of Watts: How a Special Forces Hero and a Group of Moms Took Back Weigand Elementary

LAUSD's Grumpy Old Man Richard Vladovic Could Squelch Reform

Monica Ratliff: The Woman Who May Change L.A.

John Deasy is the most admired school superintendent in city history. But this fifth-grade teacher isn't impressed

Los Angeles Voter Guide May 21, 2013: Mayor, Weed Measures, City Council, City Attorney, LAUSD Board and The Works

Here's a quick guide to the key races and issues on the May 21, 2013 ballot in the city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayoral Race: Read this fascinating dissection of the five main behavioral and philosophical differences between 2013 Los Angeles mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, ... More >>

Democratic Party Schism over Scandalous Schools: Gloria Romero, Slimed By Teacher Unions, Says Sober Up

See also: "LAUSD Supe Fires Lemon Teachers" and "Firing the Bad Teachers." A few days ago, the teachers union wing of the California Democratic Party tarred the growing numbers of breakaway Democrats who, in sync with President Obama, point the finger at teachers unions as a big obstacle to fixing ... More >>

LAUSD Superintendent Fires Lemon Teachers

Once nearly unheard of, heads are rolling under John Deasy

LAUSD School Board District 2 Primary: Absentee Ballot Results Put Monica Garcia Well Ahead of the Pack

An initial count of early vote-by-mail ballots put school board president Monica Garcia in the lead with 54 percent of the vote. She'll need over 50 percent of the vote if she wants to avoid a costly runoff with the second place finisher. Robert Skeels is in second place with 20 percent, followed b ... More >>

LAUSD School Board District 2 Primary Results: Monica Garcia Leads Comfortably, Could Avoid Runoff

School Board President Monica Garcia enjoys a healthy lead in the early vote count, outpacing her rivals with 55 percent of the vote. Robert Skeels is in second place with 16 percent, followed by Annamarie Montanez with 12 percent, Isabel Vazquez with 10 percent, and Abelardo Diaz with 7 percent. ... More >>

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Pours $1 Million into LAUSD Elections to Oust Steve Zimmer, Elect Monica Garcia

See also, "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons," and "Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?"Los Angeles Unified School District, whose teachers union UTLA has squelched attempts to raise student learning by making ineffective certified teachers relearn subject matter and skills, just attracted $1 mill ... More >>

Failing 24th Street Elementary Targeted for First Parent Trigger in Los Angeles Unified School District

Read "Los Angeles Unified School District Braces For First Parent Trigger Take Over." Parents of children who attend the failing 24th Street Elementary School in West Adams dropped a signature petition on Los Angeles Unified School District officials in downtown today, pulling the first Parent Trig ... More >>

Los Angeles Unified School District Braces For First Parent Trigger Take Over

Los Angeles Unified School District will finally become a target of a Parent Trigger, a California law that allows parents to take over a failing school in which their children attend, according to L.A. School Report. Parents at 24th Street Elementary School, with the help of Los Angeles-based educ ... More >>

LAUSD Rubber Rooms Crowd Up

Denials and confessions by those in teacher jail

Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?

Will Betsy Butler's Sex Pervert Vote Kill Her Political Career?

In Assembly District 50, underdog Richard Bloom sees daylight

GOOD Founder Ben Goldhirsh Talks About Launching a New Platform and Firing Editorial Staffers

When word hit the street back in June that GOOD Magazine would be transforming its website into a "platform" -- oh, and it was firing the majority of its editorial staff -- readers and media-watchers were shocked, and CEO Ben Goldhirsh wasn't talking. That was then. "I didn't feel comfortable sp ... More >>

Miramonte Elementary Teachers Return for Strange First Day Back at School

How many elementary schoolers can say that four TV news vans and 16 psychiatric social workers showed up to their campus on the first day of the school? Welcome to the strange life of a Miramonte Elementary School student. After a horrifying sex scandal rocked the South L.A. campus last year -- lon ... More >>

Miramonte Teaching Staff Not Fired Over Sex-Abuse Scandal, Despite Reports

Sunday and Monday headlines declared that the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary School in South L.A. has been fired following the sex-abuse scandal there earlier this year. Why? To quell a "culture of silence," the reports quoted L.A. Unified School District superintendent John Deasy as saying. ... More >>

Firing the Bad Teachers: Ted Olson and LAUSD Parents Sue

Michelle Rhee, 'Parent Trigger' Supporters File Huge L.A. Lawsuit to Strip Teachers of Job Protection

California's teachers have long been protected by a series of state laws -- lobbied into existence by powerful teachers unions -- that make the ineffective ones almost impossible to fire. Now, in the largest state lawsuit of kind, the key players behind the controversial "Parent Trigger" law allege ... More >>

LAUSD Has Dug Up 500 Cases of Unreported Teacher Misconduct Since Miramonte Scandal

Back in February, after the world found out what Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt had allegedly been feeding his blindfolded third-graders (hint: his semen), the Los Angeles Unified School District erupted in scandalous accusations against other teachers. Pervy, unfit educators had a ... More >>

Academia Semillas, a Failing School, Escapes Closure

At LAUSD, big friends help

LAUSD Hires Ex-Journo Stephanie Abrams as New Social-Media Director in Wake of Sex Scandal

One thing we can say about new L.A. Superintendent John Deasy, after a year on the job: He sure knows how to smooth over a scandal. After longtime Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt was arrested in early February for allegedly spoon-feeding his semen to third-graders, an explosion of similar ... More >>

LAUSD Can Now Spy on Teachers' Online Activity, Punish Them for Facebook Comments

A new policy bulletin out of Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters tells teachers -- and any other adult associated with the district -- that they'd better keep their social-media persona in check. Actually, the new policy was put in place almost two months ago. But until the news wire m ... More >>

LAUSD Principals Furious at Superintendent Deasy for Demanding They Dig Up Years of Teacher-Misconduct Complaints

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who oversees nearly 670,000 campuses as head of the nation's second largest school district, got some more great press today from the Los Angeles Times. Despite the overall horrificness of the Miramonte sex scandal (turned districtwide sex scandal) of 2012, the Time ... More >>

LAUSD Principals Furious at Superintendent Deasy for Demanding They Dig Up Years of Teacher-Misconduct Complaints

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who oversees nearly 670,000 campuses as head of the nation's second largest school district, got some more great press today from the Los Angeles Times. Despite the overall horrificness of the Miramonte sex scandal (turned districtwide sex scandal) of 2012, the Time ... More >>

Miramonte Scandal Fallout Prompts L.A. School District to Report Alleged Pervs to State, as It Should Have Done From Day 1

So L.A. Unified School District has had a few alleged bad apples that only it and, in some cases, police knew about. Despite what we've been told about federal Title 9 guidelines requiring parents and students to be notified when someone at their campus is accused of sexual improprieties with stude ... More >>

Alain Salas, Fremont High School Girls' Volleyball Coach, Arrested by FBI for Alleged Sex Crime

Updated at the bottom with a few more details from the FBI and a possible Facebook connection to the case. First posted at 6:40 a.m. It seemed like a week or so could go by without another sex abuse arrest of an L.A. Unified School District employee. Nope. KTLA News this morning reports that a Fr ... More >>

LAUSD Might Eliminate Adult Ed Today

Rich district, poor district: LAUSD spent wildly on the plush Robert. F. Kennedy Community Schools.​When it came time to make cuts for the 2012-13 LAUSD budget, Superintendent John Deasy passed on the scalpel, opting for a chainsaw to hack away at a $557 million deficit. LAUSD's youngest and ... More >>

Matt Sorum of Guns 'n' Roses Stands Up for Arts Education, Woos LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy Into Postponing Budget Cuts

Matt Sorum drums some sense into LAUSD.​Updated at the bottom with video of Sorum's inspiring speech. Reporting by Tessa Stuart. Of all the crucial LAUSD programs on the chopping block at today's board meeting -- like the entire adult-education department and after-school tutoring -- perhaps ... More >>

LAUSD's Adult Schools May Be Cut From Budget Entirely: Protesters Rally in Defense of 350,000 Endangered Students

KCETEvans' marquee may go blank next year.​By far the most concerning cut on the Los Angeles Unified School District's most recent budget proposal: The entire Division of Adult and Career Education. If all the adult schools and career centers are eliminated, as planned, close to 350,000 stude ... More >>

Miramonte Staff Will Never Return to Scandal-Plagued Campus, Teachers' Union Says

LAUSD​As was sure to happen, the sex-abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary is turning into a battle between the powerful teacher's union and the bureaucratically stifling L.A. Unified School District. Who's right and who's wrong shouldn't even matter at this point. Sheriff's investigators bel ... More >>

Miramonte Staff Replaced Amid Sex Abuse Scandal, but They'll Be Back

L.A. Unified School District chief John Deasy told parents tonight that the entire staff of the school would be replaced as authorities investigate the atrocious alleged sex crimes that took place at the Florence-Firestone campus. However, many staff members would be allowed to eventually return, a ... More >>

Mark Berndt Sex Abuse Case at Miramonte School: Silence by John Deasy, Plus Parent Hysteria, Can Turn This Into McMartin

Parent hysteria at Miramonte School today -- parents are pulling kids out of school over alleged pervert teacher Mark Berndt and the arrest of a second teacher -- could degrade into a McMartin Preschool witch hunt or Wenatchee child sex orgies B.S. Both of those were false, created by lying children ... More >>

Boyle Heights High-Schoolers Plan 4-Mile Walkout to LAUSD Board Meeting Over School Bus Cuts

flickriverNo more school buses in Los Angeles?​A few hundred students from Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Boyle Heights will trudge over four miles through whizzing downtown streets today. Fittingly, the brave urban hike will end in a plea to local Board of Education members: Don't you d ... More >>

LAUSD Contract Deal Between John Deasy and Warren Fletcher: Bad Teachers Might be Ousted at Schools Freed from Old Rules

John Deasy, Los Angeles schools supe, might finally have something to grin about.​ By Hillel Aron It was a real kumbaya moment at the LAUSD school board today as Superintendent John Deasy and teachers union President Warren Fletcher held hands and announced that, after months of contract talks ... More >>

Outing Lemon Teachers at LAUSD

33,000 teachers, now always stamped "satisfactory," might finally get graded

John Deasy LAUSD Union Contract Cave-in? New Superintendent has a Rare Chance to Force Teachers to Really Teach

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy: Will he cave, or finally protect the kids?​Uh oh, John Deasy, the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent, is issuing glowing claims to the media that he is nearly ready to cut a labor contract deal with the anti-reform leaders at United Teachers of ... More >>

LAUSD Becomes First California School District to Mandate Gay Curriculum

Instinct MagazineL.A. is officially leading this parade.​The "Stop SB 48" campaign may be doing its darndest to shield California youth from the horrors of learning about gay and lesbian contributions to history, but the religious bigots behind it are bugs under the shoe of the L.A. Board of E ... More >>

Why Los Angeles Schoolkids Get Lousy Meals

LAUSD Bans Chocolate Milk: Thanks To Parents, Jamie Oliver & Jimmy Kimmel

photos by Gendy Alimurung​ Say goodbye to chocolate and strawberry milk at Los Angeles public schools beginning July 1. The LAUSD Board of Education voted 5-2 to remove flavored milk with added sugar. A new dairy contract will exclude the chocolate and strawberry milk as part of the district's ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 4/25-4/29

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "To get to Ray's, the new restaurant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, you thread your way through Chris Burden's streetlamp installation, past the outdoor Stark Bar and into a glowing minima ... More >>

Can John Deasy Fix Huntington Park High?

LAUSD superintendent faces his first test at a disastrous, fractured school

Jamie Oliver and the LAUSD Call Truce: On Jimmy Kimmel's Show

The Jamie Oliver saga continues, played out -- as it has been since the British chef and television star first came to Los Angeles -- in the media more than in any school, cafeteria or kitchen. Oliver and new LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy sat down together finally last night. On the set of Jimmy ... More >>

LAUSD School Board Promotes John Deasy To Superintendent -- Without So Much As A Job Interview

John Deasy, man of the hour​Well, we were right: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's superintendent of choice made it past the L.A. School Board yesterday. Board members voted him in 6-0; only Steve Zimmer, of Board District 4, abstained. John Deasy will now be promoted from deputy superintendent to ... More >>

Is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Pushing To Replace L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines With John Deasy?

LAUSD Deputy Superintendent John Deasy​The conventional wisdom in local public education circles was that Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines would retire this spring... well, so much for that. HollywoodHighlands.org bloggers John Walsh and Miki Jackson and the ... More >>

John Deasy Ruffles Feathers As L.A. Public Schools' New Deputy Superintendent

​There's a new kid in school. According to the Daily News, Los Angeles School District's new deputy superintendent John Deasy began his first day at work on Monday. Deasy, who is rumored to be taking over as chief superintendent following Cortines' retirement in spring, is already having to ... More >>

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines Retiring

​Following a frenzy of budget cuts and rapid changes to a struggling school system, Los Angeles Unifed School District Superintendent Ray Cortines announced Wednesday to the Daily News that he plans to retire next spring. "I'm tired," he told the newspaper.

Controversies Surround LAUSD's New Hire John Deasy

John Deasy​Board members of the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to hire John Deasy as deputy superintendent yesterday, which will make him a major player in the operation of the nation's second largest public school system, and a possible successor to Superintendent Ramon Cortines. ... More >>