Results tagged “lausd”

Remember last when in 2007 a major LAUSD computer glitch caused thousands of teachers to go without a paycheck while other teachers, including former ones six feet under, got paid extra? That's all fixed now, but the school district is still seeking $9.4 million from 2,400 current and former employees.

Here in Los Angeles there is a valued relationship between the food on our plates and the ground from which it comes. From weekly stops at favorite farmers' markets to digging in at a local community garden, the bounty of the land and its role in our eating lives has a profound meaning for many Angelenos, and Americans. Local Chefs are eager to share how they use the market to influence their menu, like Grace and BLD's Neal Fraser and Ford Filling Station's Ben Ford, while some, like Border Grill and Ciudad's Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have partnered with the LAUSD to help reinforce the importance of garden-based learning and to be conscious of what we eat. The politics of eating has become a local focal point, thanks to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's championing a Food Policy Task Force this summer as we celebrated 30 years of farmers' markets in L.A.

Friday's Freshman-Sophomore football game between Hollywood High School and West Adams Prep ended abruptly when player Spencer Juarez collapsed on the sidelines, with just two minutes of play left. The game was halted, and paramedics were called to transport the teen to Children's Hospital. Teammates say "Juarez had just taken a hit, and as he was jogging back to the sidelines, he fell over," but just what caused the student to collapse...

A Hollywood High School football player died yesterday afternoon after being hospitalized when he collapsed during Friday night's game against West Adams Prep, according to LA Now.

Police are currently searching a Hollywood neighborhood after an after-school shooting near Helen Bernstein High School. At 1:55 p.m., police received a call about shots fired on the 1300 block of North Wilton Place. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the hip area, according to police. LAUSD officials say she is in stable condition.

The school year is well underway now, and campuses in the vast LAUSD system are coping with the consequences of this year's massive budget cuts. But in the state as a whole, "the impact of California's budget cuts has varied from school to school. Because of the patchwork of federal and state funding for education, some campuses have felt the pinch far less than others," explains Mitchell Landsberg in yesterday's LA Times.

There's been a national controversy bubbling around President Obama's planned speech to school-age students tomorrow, and specifically the initial course materials provided to accompany the talk, which features the country's leader talking about the importance of education and staying in school. Today the White House released the speech so that everyone can preview its content.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted 6-1 yesterday to approve a controversial plan put forth by Board VP Yolie Flores Aguilar called the "School Choice" plan which will allow private organizations and companies to submit bids for operational control of several schools in the district, including as-yet unopened campuses as well as troubled schools.

Many teachers, union leaders, students, and parents are crying foul as the LAUSD Board of Education is slated to vote tomorrow on the controversial School Choice proposal, which will allow non-profits, companies, and other interested parties to apply for control of troubled schools in the troubled district. The plan was authored and spearheaded by Board VP Yolie Flores Aguilar, and is being touted as a vital component of "reform" by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

State test score results released this morning showed 10 schools monitored by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's education reform panel, along with the charter-converted Locke Senior High School, earned an average grade when compared to the rest of the LAUSD.

At a Zocalo food panel focused on defining Los Angeles' cuisine moderated by the Pulitzer Prize winning Jonathan Gold last year, there was no specific dish or item that could be defined as owned by this city. Tacos, burritos, sea food, sushi were all brought up (mind you, this was before Kogi BBQ and the mobile food truck culture ever existed, so much changes in less than a year, right?), but none felt like the quintessential L.A. food. But one consistent theme was apparent with Gold and others: a chef's long-term relationship with farmers and farmer's markets. In other words, what L.A. should be known for is not one specific food or dish, but the locally grown and sustainable food trend, the panel seemed to agree.

If it's broke, fix it, right? Only what happens when the people who are supposed to fix it are the ones who broke it in the first place? And they happened to have run out of the money it's going to likely take to do the fixing? Easy solution: Sell management of the school(s) to the highest--well, "superior"--bidder.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines is going apeshit over photos of Sacha Baron Cohen with Lake Balboa high school football players published as part of a GQ magazine cover story. Cohen's salacious poses with the stars of Birmingham High's football team appear in the middle of this GQ fashion spread.

Leave it to Sacha Baron Cohen to stir things up. The comic entertainer and his upcoming new feature film Bruno is the subject of a few raised eyebrows at the Los Angeles Unified School District when they realized he'd posed for pictures at the Valley's Birmingham High, according to KCOP. In the publicity photos, Cohen is reportedly "wearing not much more than a paper cup as a jockstrap and pretending to sexually abuse a prone football player."

As late as 2005, the Ambassador sat on twenty-four acres of land on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown. It was set far back from the street and had the haunted look of old castles. It drew the eye as only someplace ruined, someplace steeped in history can. Blinded, it was worn with crumbling at the edges, bound by a perimeter of chain link fences. It was a fabulous ghost and it could have been a fabulous relic.

Los Angeles' "photo-op" Mayor has spent the past few weeks with the word 'FAILURE' hanging over him, so to speak, thanks to Los Angeles Magazine's recent cover story on Villaraigosa's approaching second term in office. Now it seems that the bulk of his Partnership schools within the LAUSD have also given the Mayor an 'F' in the form of a "thumbs down from teachers," according to the LA Times, adding:

Eight out of 10 schools delivered a "no confidence" vote, and we're talking landslides (84 to 17 at Santee Education Complex, 96 to 13 at Stevenson Middle School, 70 to 13 at Gompers Middle School, 61 to 8 at Markham Middle School and 184 to 15 at Roosevelt High, which the mayor himself once attended).

Students at Liechty Middle School engaged in a silent protest during their graduation ceremony last week and it wound up costing them their diplomas. "The students turned their backs on graduation speaker Monica Garcia, LAUSD Board President, to express their displeasure to teacher layoffs and cutbacks," press materials explain.

A teacher hunger strike protesting LAUSD budget cuts officially comes to an end today after 24 days. Nine participated with two making it to the end, according to LA Now. In an open letter on Day 6, Jose Lara, published an open letter to a few key board members about the strike.

In a pretty shocking move last month, the Los Angeles Unified School District cut summer school for elementary and middle students along with some high school level classes in a move to save $34 million from its dwindling budget. Overall, this affects 225,000 students. So what are the kids to do, asks the Daily News? Are they at risk? Will they run amok throughout the city? How about getting a job? The latter is particularly a problem in this economy because unemployed adults are accepting work usually held by teens.

Yesterday, First Lady Michelle Obama joined 5th graders from a DC-area school in harvesting some of the bounty from the White House's Kitchen Garden, a 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped plot on the South Lawn planted in April. Together they picked "harvested 73-pounds of lettuce and 12-pounds of peas," then worked together to create a meal they shared picnic-style right there at the White House. NPR broadcast a lovely story about the event, including the enthusiasm of the kids for working with the land and what it's taught them. The powerful partnership between learning and gardening has never been more evident than now.

Just last week, the LAUSD's Homeless Education Program was at risk of becoming a victim of the many budget cuts. The program aims to "ensure that homeless youth have access to a free public education, equal to that of any other youth". General Jeff, Skid Row activist and founder of Issues and Solutions, sent an email to the director of these programs explaining the importance of these services and asked them to reconsider. In an email from LAUSD's Melissa Schoonmaker, he received word that his efforts paid off:

Cuts to education are affecting, and will continue to affect, students at all levels here in California. From increased class sizes, teacher layoffs, program cuts, eliminating most summer school offerings at public K-12 schools, and enrollment caps or freezes, program cuts, and fewer courses offered at colleges and universities, the problems begin in Kindergartens and carry through each and every public school, college, and university classroom, and last beyond graduation, as students lucky enough to get in and get out face enormous debt.

Thousands of teachers are still going to lose their job at the end of the month, but at least 500 of them are saved. "Many of the teachers who were at risk of losing their jobs, as well as their supporters, camped out overnight at LAUSD headquarters in downtown L.A. to protest the proposed layoffs," says CBS2, who received the layoff information from LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines exclusively.

Today marks Day 8 of the Hunger Strike initiated by several LAUSD teachers and community members. In addition to the hunger strike, protesters have held, and will continue to hold, "camp-out" events, bringing supporters and community members together to "celebrate and protect the culture" of area schools; one such evening is planned for tomorrow from 6-8:30 p.m. at Miguel Contreras Learning Center.

Following several days of protests by teachers, and their students, against the Los Angeles Unified School District and their recent decision to layoff hundreds of teachers, increase class sizes, and eliminate funding for several programs, the civil disobedience continues in the form of a hunger strike.

Last Thursday the California Department of Education released their 2008 rankings for schools and districts using the Academic Performance Index (API) test scores as their base criteria, as well as "how they perform compared to schools having similar demographics," according to the Daily News.

Following yesterday's walkouts at Santee High School, where hundreds of students marched from their campus to the Downtown headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified District, Board President Monica Garcia has issued a statement. Her emphasis, however, is focused neither on the Board changing their minds about layoffs and budgetary decisions, nor on punishing the students, but rather on using their education as their best mode of protest. Says Garcia:

“I encourage our students to continue informing themselves and speaking out on cuts in California that affect their futures more than anyone else’s.

Continue reading "LAUSD Board President Garcia Responds to Student Walkouts"

Like last Friday, a number of students from Santee and Lincoln High Schools protested budget cuts and teacher layoffs this morning. They marched to the LAUSD headquarters in downtown where Superintendent Ray Cortines spoke to them, according to Cuts Hurt Kids on Twitter. Last week, students and teachers protested ending with a around 40 educators in jail.

Last Friday, protests against the LAUSD began before the school day began. Hundreds of teachers called in sick to work, and many participated, with students and their parents, in gatherings on campuses and outside LAUSD headquarters, despite orders not to. Wearing black to symbolize mourning for the loss of funds and jobs, the protests continued through the day, blocking traffic, shutting down streets, and resulting in the arrest of a handful, including UTLA President AJ Duffy.

      

On Tuesday May 12th, the Environmental Media Association, along with Yes to Carrots launched their new partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District to sponsor educational gardening in several of their schools. At an event held in the new garden at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood, many of the EMA's celeb board members were on hand to lend a hand and to share their interest in organic gardening and its role in both education and the Los Angeles community.