Los Angeles parent Karen Wolfe here recounts the hilarious showdown at the meeting of the LAUSD school board between real parents and the organizers from Parent Revolution.
The subject at issue was whether the board would assure an open, transparent, public process when some outside group (ahem) seeks to gather signatures to seize control of the school. That is, when someone decides to pull the “parent trigger” and fire it at staff or the school itself.
The outcome was great: The parents won.
More evidence that the public is awakening to defend public schools against disruption and privatization disguised as “reform.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not sure, but I heard it was reversed. I am hoping that Karen’s account is correct. Our Board is historically pro-charter, pro-privatization. I’m not sure that has been overcome. I also think people are afraid of Deasy.
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Zimmer’s resolution passed, which will add a modicum of transparency to the inequitable law. Ultimately it needs to be overturned entirely, but that struggle will take some work given the corporate forces invested in triggers and charters.
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Hi all,
Zimmer’s resolution passed with an amendment to work towards overturning parent trigger instead of simply working towards making some legislative changes.
HOWEVER….. right before the meeting adjourned (9:15pm-ish) Zimmer with the support of Vladovic, Kayser, and LaMotte decided to bring the original resolution back to vote. In other words, they are against repealing this horribly divisive policy. This turn of events even shocked Board Pres. Monica. According to Vladovic, this move was legal. so, they threw out their first vote and Zimmer’s original resolution with no amendments passed.
Board Pres. Monica and Galatzan, stuck to their original vote. Kayser, Vladovic, and LaMotte did not. Kayser and Vladovic had originally voted for the amendment, LaMotte abstained. Wonder what or who change their minds ????
the amendment would have signaled a HUGE step in the right direction.
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I think you missed the political subtext of all those shenanigans. Zimmer’s original motion directs LAUSD both to “seek legislative changes…and/or administrative rules and regulations” to the Parent Trigger. At the very beginning of the board discussion of the resolution, Deasy says “why don’t you consider just overturning it?” The amendment to leave out the effort to set rules and regulations, and instead try only to repeal the law would have neutralized Zimmer’s resolution because right now setting regulations for the law is far more likely than repealing it.
A motion to repeal it would have made the LA school board—and especially Zimmer—look like extremists. Red Queen in LA has pointed out that it would have jeopardized federal funding to California schools. It also would have left LAUSD off the hook for pushing for regulation. When repeal failed–as it would have in the current political climate–the district could have shrugged and said “oh well, we tried.”
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Hi all,
Zimmer’s resolution passed with an amendment to work towards overturning parent trigger instead of simply working towards making some legislative changes.
HOWEVER….. right before the meeting adjourned (9:15pm-ish) Zimmer with the support of Vladovic, Kayser, and LaMotte decided to bring the original resolution back to vote. In other words, they are against repealing this horribly divisive policy.
This turn of events even shocked Board Pres. Monica. According to Vladovic, this move was legal. so, they threw out their first vote and Zimmer’s original resolution with no amendments passed.
Board Pres. Monica and Galatzan, stuck to their original vote. Kayser, Vladovic, and LaMotte did not. Kayser and Vladovic had originally voted for the amendment, LaMotte abstained. Wonder what or who change their minds ????
the amendment would have signaled a HUGE step in the right direction.
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I was there and her account is correct. In fact I videoed it all and am in the process of putting it up onto YOU TUBE at George1la. You can also listen to Warren Fletcher, President of UTLA, and David Lyell, Secretary of UTLA speak for teachers and the people in these videos along with former board member David Tokofsky. They will not overturn the law. This amendment came from outgoing board president Garcia who is a total loser.
Steve Zimmer is merely responding to the law, rules and regulations which I sent all board members and the L.A. Times along with others. Zimmer’s Resolution is a proper response to the situation of illegality which the LAUSD Board of Education has allowed.
Now to the butting in line. After the last fiasco of line butting I called LAUSDPD Chief of Police Steve Zipperman. We had a friendly 45 minute discussion on school police controlling the line waiting to go into the board room wherein first in line gets first choice on the speaking spots due to the board changing the rules to make this mes. Without control of the line and breaking into line the cheaters steal the speaking cards from those following the rules of first come first served. Chief Zippperman agreed to have his officers control the line. Last Tuesday I saw from back in the line, as I got there about 10:00 A.M., the same thing again and went up to the entrance door and pounded on it for an officer to come over and they would not. Later inside I saw Chief Zipperman and was not happy with him breaking his word as I took him at his word. Chief Zipperman threatened to have me arrested. At that point I knew he had overstepped on “Color of Authority” and walked away after he told me to put it in writing. The next day I wrote him and stated this in the Ravich Blog. That afternoon I got an apologetic letter but it still did not state that he would implement order. I wrote him back that all was well if he just did his job. Now we will see what happens at the next board meeting when Monica Ratliff is inaugurated and the new board president is elected.
Thank you ladies who got there early and did not let Parent Revolution cheat you again. We have had enough of Broad, Gates, Walton, Rhee, Parent Revolution, ALEC, Obama, Duncan and all the other crooks who have been taking away our rights and the law. LAUSD is a RICO organized crime organization and this mess in the line to speak is an example of such.
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Thanks George – keep up the good work. Maybe you need to wear a BTA shirt next time. 🙂
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These are the types of victories we all need to share! No matter the size, we should relish each and every one!
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Here’s another viewpoint from Red Queen In LA —
http://redqueeninla.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/best-reality-tv-ever/
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RedQueen’s article is here in its entirety:
– – – – – – – – – – –
20 Thursday Jun 2013
Best. Reality. TV. Ever.
Posted by redqueeninla in Education
Tuesday’s LAUSD school board meeting provided
more than fourteen (14) hours of High Drama on
Beaudry Street. Angeleno educational stakeholders
withstood the full gamut of emotions ranging
from Anger to Zealotry between the hours of
7am when sidewalk turf was first staked out by
families with small children and teachers devoted
to students of all ages, all the way through to
9:13pm when the gavel fell on the LAUSD 6/18/13
school board, leaving one would-be speaking
member of the public standing at the podium,
unrecognized.
A veritable plethora of mini-dramas punctuated
the day, referenced below for your viewing
pleasure by video time in parentheses:
Parent Revolution, the corporate-bankrolled,
trigger-friendly, purportedly parent-led
organization, commanded overriding attention.
Indicative of their tactics at large, in two
separate waves of intimidation against those
in line awaiting entrance to the board room,
peaceable stakeholders prevailed against
their attempt to sabotage the board’s
‘first come-first served’ rules for public
recognition (7:10).
Rampant, systemic misconduct in implementing
the “parent trigger” was publicly attested to
from across the community (7:14). The teachers’
union president highlighted their professional
mandate to reach out to parents (7:34), and
board members emphasized supporting constructive
rather than destructive, violent means for initiating
parent-driven improvement of our kids’ schools (7:57).
Board member Zimmer introduced a resolution
designed to structure the process for the Race
To The Top (RTTT)-ingratiating “parent trigger”
law, clarifying LAUSD’s role in conveying clear
and balanced information, without jeopardizing
federal RTTT funding. RTTT is a federal
money-lure, a jackpot of competitive funds
essentially rewarded to, and only to, states
enacting laws that enable charter-schools and
high-stakes testing.
A fascinating political slight-of-hand ensued
with an amendment that escalated the original
thoughtful, measured resolution into explosive
territory, demanding full-out repeal of a law in
defiance of federal funding mandates. The
irony of this conflagration was extreme.
“Several board members eloquently decried
the essential violence of this law that incites
community stakeholders who ought properly
to be allies.
But worst of all, by instigating factions a
“breach” (7:56) appears between adversaries
that entraps the most guileless among us:
our children.
And so the essential explosive nature of
the “trigger” law was harnessed to an
amendment that would obliterate it, causing
further collateral damage to LAUSD by
ruining its finances and reputation.
While the board agrees implicitly with the
underlying motivation of “parent empowerment”,
and sought only to mitigate any malevolence
that arose in implementation of the law, this
maneuver would have blown apart California’s
bid for much-needed federal educational funds.
But hold on; it all gets more complicated.
Upon inciting the alchemy that transformed
this benign resolution into a poisoned pill
threatening the very political integrity of LAUSD,
our superintendent exited the meeting quietly
(8:15). The architect of such perfidy remained
absent when one hour later the resolution was
called back onto the floor (9:15), first separated
from its amendment and subsequently re-voted
into being in its original form.
Thus the purportedly “friendly” resolution that
was anything but, was in the end, neutralized.
And this twist came in the last three minutes of
a day of meetings that lasted over twelve hours.
Other riveting happenings of controversy
occurred when LAUSD voted to purchase
$30M worth of ipads at 170% of retail cost
(3:54). Yep, it’s cheaper to walk into the apple
store and buy the things. Though these devices
come “loaded with software”.
Presumably that is Gates-manufactured software
by the self-same tycoon who has spent so very
much influencing “Ed Reform” efforts. There was
concern about ‘buyer’s remorse’ and spending
priorities that favor machines over humans.
Class size reduction was discussed (4:58) at
some length, though the issue is essentially a
“no-brainer”. Everyone benefits from a smaller
classroom size, students and teachers alike.
It benefits students to have teachers who can
pay attention to them. It benefits students to
have teachers who are not impossibly
overextended. There is no threshold below
which class size reduction is enjoyed
exclusively; benefit is seen continuously.
35 is better than 40, 25 better than 30 and
charter schools, nominal “public” schools
on equal footing as district public schools,
bet their full value on the capacity to offer
class sizes below 20 (5:34).
Why one flavor of public schooling (charters)
should be thus blessed and another (district
schools) not is an abidingly perplexing and
unfair proposition.
Yet while the need is incontrovertible to lower
class room size and increase ancillary support
staff, yet there is a concerted effort elsewhere
to morph the issue as pertaining to personnel
rather than our children’s learning needs (5:36).
Denying the imperative of in-classroom needs,
including support staff, is just preposterous.
Schools are criminally underfunded, classrooms
unconscionably overcrowded, facilities
embarrassingly filthy, libraries scandalously
left fallow, students adrift with effectively no
counseling.
And all this is documented by testimony at the
hearing … as the World Turns.
– – – – –
Again, you can link to this (and comment) at:
http://redqueeninla.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/best-reality-tv-ever/
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Oh yeah… how could I forget? You can
watch all this and judge for yourself
(This video is of the meeting inside, not
the confrontation outside regarding the
cutting in line… someone else might
have captured this… who knows?)
Here’s the link to the 8 hour-meeting (on
the left side of the page, just hit PLAY…
and the FULL SCREEN logo watch it…
well… “full screen”) :
http://lausd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=58
It’s over nine hours, so you may want to
use the times in RedQueen’s article to go to the
good parts that she referenced, (NOTE: those
times are in HOURS : MINUTES… i.e. … “8:15” is
at the “8 hour: 15 minute” mark of the meeing.)
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I was there in line for a totally different matter and have been suspicious of Parent Revolution for some time now, but it was a fiasco from both sides. A couple of people were holding a place in line for some parents who showed up after and cut in (for parent rev), then some women from the union came up and started yelling and pointing (“these people” this, that), and then all of her group (about 6 or 7 people) cut in front of them.
Both sides were wrong to do what they did, but it’s only made possible because nobody, and I mean nobody, enforces or follows any rules and cutting is the norm. The childish yelling and pointing was pretty embarrassing for the rest of the adults who were standing in line and definitely not the way to handle the situation as an adult.
There are two sides to every story, and unfortunately in this story it seems like one side is all about expanding charter control and the other about protecting union interest. It certainly didn’t seem like parent, community, and especially student needs were very important in all this.
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Inline,
A little context here.
At a prior LAUSD Board meeting, the Parent Revolution people got in first and grabbed all ten speaker cards, effectively silencing those parents speaking against Parent Revolution / Parent Trigger.
This time, they tried to do the same thing, but Karen and her fellow parents got there ahead of them
So Parent Revolution, without asking or saying a word, just cut in front of Karen and the others—all in an attempt to have a repeat of the last fiasco where only they got to speak.
Karen and the other parents attempted to request (verbally) that the Parent Revolution folks go to the back of the line, and the P-Rev-ers just stayed put, acting as if they were deaf.
At this point, Karen and the other parents just cut back in front of them, and some shouting ensued, with the Parent Revolution folks fabricating victimhood and taking pictures and threatening to call the police.
However, at this meeting, there was riveting testimony from parents and teacher alike against the abuses and underhanded behavior on the part of Parent Revolution folks.
To Board Member Steve Zimmer’s credit, he did try to strike a balance. (Remember that this was Zimmer’s motion.)
Recognizing Parent Revolution’s Gabe Rose standing on the side of the room, Zimmer said that, if he Rose wished, he would be allowed to speak (without a speaker card… a breach of Board rules, as there was no motion to let someone without a card speak. This did not occur at the last meeting.)
Now, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Gabe Rose’s general deportment. In addition to his navy blue Parent Revolution T-shirt, he work dirty blue jeans with multiple tears in them (proletarian-chic?) and flip-flops with no socks on his feet. Pointing to Rose, I whispered to a friend from UTLA, “What’s up with the ripped jeans and the flip-flops?”
“He’s goin’ for the tragically hip Gen-X look,” my friend whispered back, causing me to burst into laughter which I quickly suppressed as you need to remain silent during the meeting.
When Rose spoke, a few people started interrupting and booing, at which point, UTLA President, standing at the side of the room, lifted his hands and said, “Be respectful… we’re not them,” and Rose finished his spiel. (It’s all on the LAUSD video).
To Inline: one more thing from your account… you mention “then some women from the union came up and started yelling and pointing”. When you say “the union”, I presume that you mean UTLA (United Teachers Los Angeles).
One might infer from that comment you mean that Karen and those parents were under the direction of the union, or puppets of the union, or coached by the union.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
UTLA, of which I’m a part, had never met or coordinated with Karen before, during, or after the board meeting. They were as much strangers to us as (and to the Parent Revolution folks) as we were to them.
You can contrast that with the Parent Revolution antics as described by Karen… “I heard one Parent Revolution staffer coach parents on their testimony… ”
Again, you can read Karen’s post at:
http://venice.patch.com/groups/karen-wolfes-blog/p/ya-say-you-want-a-revolution-well-ya-know
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Yes WE can! And–as proven by this and many of the small victories (which WILL become big victories, occurring all over the country)–we WILL! Keep it coming!!!
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hmmmm … cutting in line… no wonder my students have so many issues with it… so do adults
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I was at the meeting too. All above accounts are accurate. Sometimes, it’s more important what is NOT said than what is said. Not one board member, even Garcia, dared defend Parent Revolution’s actions. The evidence was too massive to ignore. Most important were the numerous accounts of escalating interactions on and near campuses with the strong possibility of physical violence. With children caught in the crossfire, the board could not dismiss what has been going on. It is the board’s responsibility to make schools safe. Parent Revolution thrives on confrontation. One of their errors was to assume that they could intimidate all parents and squelch any possible uprising. It hasn’t worked so far. Now, with UTLA stepping up to the plate and informing teachers of their rights to give parents facts about the trigger, and now with this resolution, the trigger movement is in danger of collapse. How long will the millions roll in if Austin and company can’t produce more trigger “successes”?
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@ George… waiting on the link to that youtube clip 🙂
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You can go right to Karen’s testimony here:
http://lausd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=58
Just jog the line to the following time and watch:
07:10:40
After Karen’s 3 minutes, you can keep watching as
several more parents complain about Parent Revolution.
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