Monica Garcia

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

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 4 Election Results: Incumbent Steve Zimmer Holds Healthy 14 Point Lead Over Kate Anderson

Update, 11:39 PM: The race is tightening up a bit, with Zimmer's lead down to 10 percent. Incumbent Steve Zimmer has a significant lead over challenger Kate Anderson, with absentee ballots and a small number at-poll ballots being counted. This race was expected to go down to the wire. But Zimmer ... 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 >>

Eric Smidt, L.A. Dem who Owns Harbor Freight Tools, Gives $50,000 to Elect Kate Anderson, Antonio Sanchez and Monica Garcia to LAUSD

Eric Smidt must be L.A.'s least-written-about, super-rich, self-made guy pouring money into Democratic races in the U.S., and now he's given $50,000 to the Coalition for School Reform to elect Kate Anderson and Antonio Sanchez to the powerful LAUSD Board of Education, and to re-elect incumbent Monic ... 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 >>

Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?

Academia Semillas del Pueblo, a Failing School, Gets an L.A. Times Puff Piece

Updated with response from the Times on next page. By Hillel Aron The Los Angeles Times printed an odd take on Academia Semillas del Pueblo, the failing charter whose kids are nowhere near state standards on reading, writing, adding and subtracting -- even as compared to their identical, struggli ... More >>

Academia Semillas, a Failing School, Escapes Closure

At LAUSD, big friends help

Mark Berndt's $40,000 Payoff

Arrested as sex pervert, former LAUSD teacher settles into retirement

In-N-Out's Longest Surviving Location Demolished in Baldwin Park: City Officials Shocked

In-N-Out​Update and correction: In-N-Out says it isn't the oldest surviving location. Plus, why L.A. Conservancy director Linda Dishman says this could happen again. All of that after the jump. Oops. In a typically L.A. move, the corporate folks at In-N-Out tore down what many believe is the ... More >>

LAUSD Follows Lead of Los Angeles Times, Adopts New Value-Added Method of Grading Student Progress, Teachers

Sean TeagardenThe dance is over for LAUSD's lemons ​Updated after the jump with the differences between the Times' and LAUSD's grading criteria. When the Los Angeles Times unrolled a list of 6,000 Los Angeles teachers, ranked in order of whose students were showing the most improvements on st ... More >>

School Reformer Yolie Flores Departs LAUSD to Fight From Outside

She forced through the most radical idea in recent lausd history. So why’s she leaving for a Bill Gates start-up?

L.A. Unified School District Board Race: Hot Seat is District 5

Candidate Kayser's UTLA endorsement got a late start -- Sanchez has had Mayor Villaraigosa's backing from the start​With Yolie Flores deciding not to return to this post, the hot seat in the L.A. Unified School District Board elections tomorrow will be District 5, the only open seat with no in ... More >>

El Camino Real High School in San Fernando Valley, Nationally Respected, Flees LAUSD to Become Charter School

Office-clinger Tamar Galatzan, behind Zuma Dogg, unsuccessfully humping to become a Los Angeles City Council member.​Update: The school was in the news recently for the Jeff Stenroos faked shooting. One of the top-rated schools in the Western U.S., El Camino Real High School -- so good that ... More >>

L.A. Teachers Union Loses Historic Lawsuit to ACLU: No More 'Last Hired, First Fired'

Better luck next time, Duffy​Updated after the jump: UTLA plans to appeal the ruling. Update: L.A. Mayor, Board of Education Prez and Superintendent-to-be join the victory lap. This one's for the kids. An L.A. Superior Court judge ruled just a few hours ago, in Reed v. State of California, ... 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 >>

Has Ray Cortines Got Cojones?

If not, LAUSD board could buckle to union over L.A. Times teacher-test-score expose

Educating Maria

On L.A.'s Skid Row, a generational war over how to teach the American children of illegal immigrants

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 >>

L.A. School District Decries Arizona's Immigration Law; Board President Says It's 'Un-American'

​The Los Angeles Unified School District's board late Tuesday approved a resolution denouncing Arizona's controversial immigration law, a move that puts it in line with the city and county of Los Angeles. The move will also have the district explore how to cut economic ties with Arizona-based ... More >>

L.A. School District To Consider Resolution Denouncing Arizona Immigration Law

​Los Angeles public schools president Monica Garcia was expected on Tuesday to propose a resolution denouncing Arizona's controversial immigration law and laying out ways to discuss the law in classrooms, according to La Opinion. "The goal is to ensure that America is a place where all citize ... More >>

Insiders Versus Charters at LAUSD

Strings were pulled, and Ramon Cortines was stopped by his own Board of Education

LAUSD’s Finest Shakeup

Police Chief Manion relinquishes powers but old blood is still at top

LAUSD's Finest: Los Angeles School Police

How an oblivious school board lets a tiny, scandal-ridden force endanger L.A. kids

More Ozo, Pink Slips and Villaraigosa Misgivings

New MacArthur Park Blog Debuts

The new MacArthur Park Media blog is the creation of Westlake neighborhood resident Devin Anna Bosch/Ruido PhotoBrowne, a young journalist whose reporting you may have heard on KPCC and Marketplace, or read in the L.A. Weekly. The site's mission is straightforward enough -- to "tell stories set in a ... More >>

Free Pass From (Teacher) Jail

President Monica Garcia and a cowed LAUSD board punt on firing bad teachers

Eighth Graders' Undiploma-tic Protest

Fifteen students at the MacArthur Park-area Liechty Middle School have not received diplomas as a result of a graduation ceremony protest they staged last week. Last Thursday the 15 demonstrated against L.A. Unified School District layoffs by turning their backs on guest speaker and LAUSD board pres ... More >>

Brewer's Bungled Buyout

Who's More Incompetent, the Ousted Supe or Garcia and LAUSD Board Flunkies?

Villaraigosa's Mini-Me, John Perez

Who needs voters? The fix was in on the Eastside last night By Max Taves Waiting for a full vote count didn’t get in the way of a good time at the John Perez for Assembly HQ late last night. After the polls closed, the party—al estilo Mexicano—began: There was an eight-man mariachi band play ... More >>

Brewer hires Cortines

The press release, whether deliberate or not, was sent out late in the news cycle on a Friday evening--6:43 p.m. to be exact. 17 months after officially taking the helm at the Los Angeles Unified School District, Superintendent David L. Brewer III finally hired a senior deputy superintendent to over ... More >>

How Superintendent David Brewer Ran Aground

The admiral's sinking ship

Villaraigosa's Spin Cycle

He’s gushing over his “historic” school-reform plan, and so are some in the media. Look again

Antonio's Kitchen Cabinet

A team advises the mayor how to fix troubled high schools. Most haven’t fixed any.

Antonio Remakes School Board

But with 43,000 kids fleeing LAUSD to charter schools, will mayor follow?

A Black Antonio?

Or, will the new school superintendent turn out to be the next Willie Williams

Antonio's Big Test

Will teachers give his school plan a passing grade?

Antonio Gets Schooled

The mayor’s vision of L.A. schools encounters reality

Antonio's New Democracy

He'll settle for power to hire the superintendent — not appoint school board

Chris Who?

Fallen and withdrawn, this guy remains on ballot for school board

So Long, Chris

Union’s soiled candidate drops out of school board race

Union's Choice Nearly Flunks

A divided UTLA and its wounded candidate face three more mean months

Right the Ship

L.A. Weekly’s choice for school board

The Big Test

Big-money candidate limps to the finish line

An A-Plus in Fund-Raising

Teacher unions-backed candidate rolling in the dough

All About Breaking Up

Antonio plays the bully in this school-board race