John Deasy is the most admired school superintendent in city history. But this fifth-grade teacher isn't impressed
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 >>
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 >>
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 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 >>
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 >>
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 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 >>
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 --Â even as compared to their identical, struggli ... More >>
At LAUSD, big friends help
Arrested as sex pervert, former LAUSD teacher settles into retirement
In-N-OutUpdate 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 >>
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 >>
She forced through the most radical idea in recent lausd history. So whys she leaving for a Bill Gates start-up?
Candidate Kayser's UTLA endorsement got a late start -- Sanchez has had Mayor Villaraigosa's backing from the startWith 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 >>
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 >>
Better luck next time, DuffyUpdated 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 >>
John Deasy, man of the hourWell, 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 >>
LAUSD Deputy Superintendent John DeasyThe 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 >>
If not, LAUSD board could buckle to union over L.A. Times teacher-test-score expose
On L.A.'s Skid Row, a generational war over how to teach the American children of illegal immigrants
John DeasyBoard 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 >>
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 >>
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 >>
Strings were pulled, and Ramon Cortines was stopped by his own Board of Education
Police Chief Manion relinquishes powers but old blood is still at top
How an oblivious school board lets a tiny, scandal-ridden force endanger L.A. kids
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 >>
President Monica Garcia and a cowed LAUSD board punt on firing bad teachers
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 >>
Who's More Incompetent, the Ousted Supe or Garcia and LAUSD Board Flunkies?
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 >>
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 >>
The admiral's sinking ship
Hes gushing over his historic school-reform plan, and so are some in the media. Look again
A team advises the mayor how to fix troubled high schools. Most havent fixed any.
But with 43,000 kids fleeing LAUSD to charter schools, will mayor follow?
Or, will the new school superintendent turn out to be the next Willie Williams
Will teachers give his school plan a passing grade?
The mayor’s vision of L.A. schools encounters reality
He'll settle for power to hire the superintendent — not appoint school board
Fallen and withdrawn, this guy remains on ballot for school board
Union’s soiled candidate drops out of school board race
A divided UTLA and its wounded candidate face three more mean months
L.A. Weekly’s choice for school board
Big-money candidate limps to the finish line
Teacher unions-backed candidate rolling in the dough
Antonio plays the bully in this school-board race
