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Los Angeles School Board Passes Policy Limiting Charter Co-Locations

By dianeravitch
February 14, 2024 //
9

By a vote of 4-3, the Los Angeles Unified Schiol District Board adopted a policy barring charter schools from co-locating in public schools with high-needs students. The charter lobby immediately threatened to sue the district. Currently one of every five students in the LAUSD district attends a charter school. For years, billionaires such as Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, Bill Bloomfield, the Walton family, and Michael Bloomberg have poured millions into school board races on behalf of privatization. But for the moment, the anti-privatization supporters of public schools have a slim majority.

The seats of two of the four-person majority—Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna—are up for election next month. Both are veteran educators and pro-public schools. Schmerelson is running for re-election; McKenna is retiring and has endorsed veteran educator Sherlett Hendy Newbill. I endorsed both Scott Schmerelson and Sherlett Hendy Newbill.

The new policy could be ditched by pro-charter replacements or by a legal challenge from the charter lobby.

Howard Blume wrote in the Los Angeles Times:

The struggle between traditional and charter schools intensified Tuesday when a narrow Los Angeles school board majority passed a sweeping policy that will limit when charters can operate on district-owned campuses. 

Access to public school campuses for charter schools is guaranteed under state law — and charter advocates immediately threatened to sue over the new restrictions.

The policy, passed 4 to 3, prohibits the new location of charters at an unspecified number of campuses with special space needs or programs. One early staff estimate put the number close to 350, but there’s uncertainty over how the policy will be interpreted. The school system has about 850 campuses, but advocates are concerned that charters could be pushed out of areas where they currently operate, making it difficult for them to remain viable.

Under the policy, district-operated campuses are exempt from new space-sharing arrangements when a school has a designatedprogram to help Black students or when a school is among the most “fragile” because of low student achievement. Also exempt would be community schools — which incorporate services for the broader health, counseling and other needs of students and their families. 

The district argued these programs need space beyond the normal allotments for classrooms, counselors, health staff and administrators — for example, rooms for tutoring, enrichment or parent centers. Such spaces had frequently been tabulated as unused or underutilized — and then made available to charters…

In the current school year 52 independent charters operate on 50 campuses, according to L.A. Unified. The number is expected to be smaller for next year and down significantly from a peak of more than 100. But even 50 schools would make for one of the larger school systems in California.

In all, there are 221 district-authorized charters and 25 other local charters approved by the county or state, serving about 1 in 5 public school students within the boundaries of L.A. Unified — about 535,000 students total. Most charters operate in their own or leased private buildings.

The L.A. school system has more charters than any other district in the nation. Most were approved under charter-friendly school boards and under state laws — since changed — that made it difficult for school districts to reject charters.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Elections, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Vote for Sherlett Hendy Newbill for LAUSD board, District 1

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2024 //
1

I am pleased to endorse Sherlett Hendy Newbill for election to the Los Angeles Unified School District Board in District 1. The accomplished incumbent George McKenna is retiring, and Newbill would be an outstanding replacement for him.

Sherlett is a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the Susan Miller Dorsey Senior High School in Los Angeles, where she has spent her professional career after earning her bachelor’s degree at Xavier University in New Orleans.

She has worked as a physical education teacher, department chair, director of athletics, and dean of students since 1998. As a PE teacher and dean, she has been deeply engaged in the physical and mental health and well-being of students. Since 2007, she has been the UTLA representative at her school.

In recent years, she has worked in the office of George McKenna, the District 1 board member, as an education policy advisor. She has worked with district stakeholders and understands the needs of the district.

She was endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the Los Angeles Sentinel, PST (Parents Supporting Teachers), a large grassroots parents organization. She has also been endorsed by the incumbent LAUSD board member, George McKenna, as well as LAUSD board members Jackie Goldberg and Scott Schmerelson.

Visit her website.

Please vote for Sherlett Hendy Newbill for LAUSD Dictrict 1!

Categories California, Education Reform, Elections, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Vote for Scott Schmerelson in District 3

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2024 //
3

I warmly, heartily, enthusiastically endorse Scott Schmerelson for re-election to the LAUSD board, representing District 3. I have known Scott since he was first elected in 2015, and I admire his dedication to the children, families, and educators of the schools in his district. He is a steadfast champion of public schools.

It was Scott who told me in 2019 that 80% of the charter schools in Los Angeles had empty seats. When I saw him a year ago, he told me that the percentage of vacant seats is even higher now.

The best way to introduce Scott, aside from expressing my heartfelt admiration for him, is to post his story, which appears on his website. No razzle-dazzle here: just an experienced and dedicated educator who wants to work to make the schools better for all children. Here is his campaign website.

Scott Schmerelson knew when he graduated from high school that he wanted to become a teacher. The first member of his family to attend college, he graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Foreign Language Education and soon began his career as a high school Spanish teacher in Philadelphia. In 1978, he moved to Los Angeles and joined the LAUSD family.

Scott’s commitment and service to the children of LAUSD began with 12 years at Virgil Middle School as a teacher, school counselor and Assistant Principal. He later became an Assistant Principal at Griffith Middle School in East Los Angeles for 5 years and the Principal at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth for 5 years. Scott retired as Principal of Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Middle School in South Los Angeles after 10 years of leadership that included significantly improving test scores, a deteriorated physical plant, and student, teacher and parent morale.

After almost four decades in the classroom, and school counseling and administration, Scott could not envision a retirement that did not include continuing to advocate for the future of public education in the second largest school district in the United States. In 2014, at the urging of colleagues and community members, Scott decided that he could make a difference for kids and for our neighborhood public schools, which he considers the heart of our communities, by running for School Board.

On July 1, 2015, Scott Mark Schmerelson took the oath of office as the duly elected LA Unified School Board Member representing Board District 3. He was re-elected on November 3, 2020.

Scott has been a proud member of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, United Teachers Los Angeles, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. He also served as the treasurer of the Middle Schools Principals’ Association and is currently the treasurer of the Cuban-American Teachers’ Association. He is a member of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and served a two-year term as President of ACSA Region 16. He is past Executive Director of Region 16 which encompasses the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.

If you live in School District 1 in Los Angeles, please cast your vote for Scott Schmerelson!

Categories Education Reform, Elections, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Vote for Fidencio Gallardo for School Board, District 5

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2024 //
1

Los Angeles has an important school board election coming up on March 5.

The esteemed school board President, Jackie Goldberg, is retiring, leaving her seat open in District 5.

Five candidates are running for the seat, and one stands out: Fidencio Gallardo.

Gallardo is an experienced educator who has worked in LAUSD for 35 years as a middle school English teacher (18 years), a high school English teacher (9 years), an assistant principal (3 years), an adult school teacher (3 years), and as a deputy to board member Jackie Goldberg for the past four years.

He is also the Mayor of Bell, California. And an Adjunct Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Cal State, LA. Whew!

As you might surmise, he is a highly accomplished professional who has devoted his life to educating young people.

Gallardo has been endorsed by Jackie Goldberg, who is one of my personal heroes. I met Fidencio on a Zoom fundraiser where I offered my personal endorsement based on his stellar record.

And he was also endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, which interviewed all the candidates.

Here are a few excerpts:

Of the four candidates running, Gallardo articulates the clearest vision for improving student achievement and well-being in the wake of the pandemic. And his breadth of experience puts him the best position to actually get things done.

Gallardo said he plans to prioritize student literacy and achievement, which along with attendance, has suffered tremendously since the pandemic. He would continue the important work of greening school campuses that are asphalt-laden hot spots and detrimental to children’s health and learning.

His most recent teaching experience as an 11th-grade English Language Arts instructor at South Gate High School gives him insight into the best ways that the school board can allocate resources to help students struggling with reading.

Gallardo is appropriately critical of some decisions by district leaders in recent years. That includes Carvalho’s move to replace the successful Primary Promise program that helps elementary school students struggling with reading and math with a new program that includes middle school students, and the board’s 2021 decision to remove school police from campuses without a clear plan to keep students safe.

Gallardo said he will push for more unarmed school safety officers so that every campus has someone consistently responsible for keeping students safe, and for giving individual schools greater discretion over what type of safety personnel are on their campuses. It’s middle-ground positions like these, that seem reasonable but are at odds with UTLA, that could be a good indication of what to expect from Gallardo on the board.

He also wants to see more educational support for kids during their critical middle school years, including more one-on-one instruction.

Please vote for Fidencio Gallardo in District 5!

Categories Education Reform, Elections, Los Angeles, Personal

Correction: Los Angeles Charter Story Was Inaccurate, for Now

By dianeravitch
February 5, 2024 //
5

Yesterday I posted a story from the Los Angeles Daily News about a new charter policy that barred charter schools from co-locating in certain public schools.

The headline in the Daily News story, I learned from a well-informed source in L.A., was premature and thus inaccurate.

My informant wrote:

Hi, the headline of the Daily News story was inaccurate. The policy was not adopted. It could not have been adopted because the meeting was a committee meeting, not a board meeting where action items are approved. The policy will be adopted — probably mostly as written — but it hasn’t been adopted yet.

Categories Charter Schools, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Charter Schools Barred from Nearly Half of LA’s Public Schools

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2024 //
12

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District adopted a new policy last week that will bar charter schools from “co-locating” in schools that enroll the most vulnerable students. This policy will provide stability to public schools that have been forced to give up classrooms and other facilities to privately-managed charters. Los Angeles and New York City both guarantee free public space to charter schools, which compels the host school to give up classrooms and other space that are not used 100% of the time.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported:

Charter schools will be barred from hundreds of Los Angeles Unified District school campuses under a new policy that is among the most restrictive of its kind.

The new rules, presented at a school board meeting Tuesday, Jan. 30, prevent charters from being sited in campuses that have been identified as serving vulnerable students, accounting for roughly 350 of about 770 school buildings in the district. Charter schools would still be offered space to operate in other LAUSD district school buildings.

The regulations prevent co-locations in low-performing schools, community schools that provide social services, and schools in the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan — immediately impacting about 21 charter schools — now co-located in those buildings — enrolling thousands of students who may need to move to new L.A. Unified campuses in the fall.

“This is one of those situations that, no matter what, we’re going to have some people dissatisfied on either side,” said L.A. school superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who created the new regulations at the direction of the district school board, an effort led by board president Jackie Goldberg and board member Rocio Rivas.

Carvalho said the new regulations are within the bounds of a 2000 state law compelling California districts to provide classroom space for charter schools. There are currently 50 charter schools co-located in 52 LAUSD school campuses, serving roughly 11,000 students. Thirteen additional charters have requested space for the upcoming school year.

“I believe that what has been presented may in many ways alleviate some of the issues,” he added. “However, we need to be vigilant and honest about unintended consequences of well intentioned policies.”

The new rules are a reversal for a city that historically has been friendly to charter schools and was immediately opposed by charter advocates, who threatened legal action in a letter to the school board as soon as the new policy was announced….

The long-simmering conflict over charter schools in Los Angeles reached a flashpoint in September when the board issued a resolution compelling Carvalho to create the policy and spelled out many of the specific components it should contain.

Categories California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Los Angeles

LAUSD Board Will Vote on Co-Location Policy with Charters

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2023 //
32

“Co-location” of charters inserts a charter school into the space of an existing public school, causing the public school to lose space for resource rooms, computer rooms, and other non-classroom uses. California has a law requiring public schools to make room for charters, no matter how crowded one or both schools may be.

Long plagued with bad feeling between public schools and charter schools, the elected board of the Los Angeles Unified School District will vote tomorrow on co-location policy.

MEDIA ADVISORY 

For Immediate Release – September 25, 2023 

 

Media Contact:

Alex McElvain, (630) 881-0545, cp-a.mcelvai­n@lausd.net                

Christine Louise Mills, (213) 503-0883, christine.mills@lausd.net      

                                                 

Los Angeles Unified Board of Education to Vote on Creating a Charter Schools

Co-Location Policy to Mitigate Impacts Caused by Proposition 39  

A long overdue resolution seeks to protect innovative programs and prevent the worst impacts of

co-locations on vulnerable students and schools.

 

What:        The Board of Education will vote on whether to adopt Resolution 026-22/23 “Creating a Charter Schools Co-Location Policy to Mitigate Impacts Caused by Proposition 39”. The resolution authors, Board President Jackie Goldberg and Board Member Dr. Rocío Rivas, along with parents and educators, will be available for media following the event. 

Who:         Resolution co-authors Board President Jackie Goldberg (LAUSD District 5) and Board Member Dr. Rocío Rivas (LAUSD District 2) 

 When:      Tuesday, September 26 

·        1:00 pm           Regular Board Meeting 

·        3:15 pm           Agenda Item will be heard 

·        4:00 pm           Press Availability

Approved in 2000, Proposition 39 imposed mandates on California schools based on its obligations to share space with charter schools. Co-locations—where district-led schools are required to share space with charter operated schools—have raised myriad educational, operational, safety, financial, and legal challenges. Parents, educators, and students have described how co-locations have syphoned away needed resources from neighborhood schools, such as parent centers, computer labs, and even space for electives. Many are concerned that co-locations undermine District-led initiatives to support students and schools, such as Priority Schools, Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) schools, and Community Schools. This resolution calls for improvements, transparency, and accountability in the charter co-location process. The lack of clear guidance from prior Boards has resulted in co-locations on numerous Priority, BSAP, and Community Schools, and “charter pipelines” that actively encourage students to leave the District for middle and high school charters on their campus. Today’s resolution will not undo any of the District’s current co-locations, but will provide guidance in the future for new co-locations, and those where a charter school moves due to growth or other material revisions.

Where: Los Angeles Unified – Boardroom, 333 S. Beaudry Ave., Los Angeles, 90017; or Live stream in English and Spanish, via lausd.org/BOE Board of Education / Board of Education Homepage (lausd.org)

Categories California, Charter Schools, Competition, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Jackie Goldberg, President of LA School Board, Denounces Homophobia

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2023 //
21

Over the years, I have had many reasons to visit Los Angeles. Frequently, people would ask me if I had met Jackie Goldberg. I had not. They spoke of her with awe as a brilliant public servant who had been a teacher, a member of the City Council, a member of the State Legislature.

Finally, I did meet her a few years ago, and I was blown away by her dynamism and charisma. We met after an awards dinner, supposedly for a 15-minute chat. The 15 minutes turned into an hour and a half. Subsequently I attended a fundraiser to help when she ran for school board. Now she is president of the LAUSD school board, and the district is in excellent hands. Oh, I forgot to mention that she is openly gay and married.

At a recent board meeting, the board discussed parent protests at an elementary school. The parents had heard rumors that the school was promoting homosexual lifestyles. It was anti-gay propaganda. One book had one line referring to the fact that some families have two mommies or two daddies. That’s simply a fact.

Watch her speak passionately about the anti-gay hysteria.

Categories Bigotry, Extremism, Fake News, Gender, Lies, Los Angeles

Carl J. Petersen: Why Is LA Building More Schools for Declining Enrollment?

By dianeravitch
June 10, 2023 //
17

Parent advocate Carl J. Petersen thinks there’s something fishy about the school building boom in Los Angeles. It makes no sense. Enrollment is declining. Why so many new schools?

He suspects it’s about making room for more charter schools.

He begins:

Decades of changing demographics have left public schools and charters competing for a share of the shrinking school-age population. This shift was predicted by the LAUSD years before it occurred and should have resulted in dramatic changes to how many new facilities the District planned to build. Instead, Monica Garcia led efforts to greatly expand the number of classrooms available in Los Angeles.

Perhaps by design, Garcia’s building spree has left charter schools with an opportunity to claim “empty “space on District campuses using PROP-39. At one school I visited during my 2017 campaign in BD2, the campus appeared to be built with a separate entrance for a charter school. The waste of taxpayer money was not an accident.

Over 15 years into the demographic shift, the use of scarce education funding to build more capacity has not stopped. A tour of a neighborhood near the intersection of North Vermont and West 1st Street near Korea Town provides an example.

Before charter schools, this small area had two campuses: Virgil Middle School, which was built in 1914, and Frank del Amo Elementary School. Despite the decades-long reduction in the number of school-age children, the Value chain of charters built a brand new building for the Everest Value School. Across the street, the Central City Value Charter High School was opened in what appears to be a converted commercial space. While enrollment declines are continuing in both public and charter schools, the Bright Star charter school chain is building the Rise Kohyang High School across the street from Virgil.

In addition to these five school campuses that will be located within blocks of each other, the Virgil campus hosts two other separate schools. The Sammy Lee Medical and Health Services Magnet is an elementary school operated by the LAUSD. The Citizens of the World charter chain has also forced one of its franchises onto the campus using PROP-39.

Please open the link and read on.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Los Angeles

Glenn Sacks: Why the L.A. Strike Is Good for Workers and Students

By dianeravitch
March 25, 2023 //
8

Glenn Sacks teaches social studies at James Monroe High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is one of the UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles) representatives for his school and also a strike captain in both 2019 and 2023. I was pleased to join the 2019 strike and walk the picket line with UTLA. Wish I could have been in L.A. for this one too.

The public schools of Los Angeles were closed this past week by a three-day strike, led by the low-wage staff represented by SEIU 99—about 30,000 workers, including bus drivers, teacher aides, custodians, cafeteria workers, gardeners, and special education assistants. The UTLA struck in support of the SEIU; UTLA’s 35,000 members include teachers, counselors, therapists, nurses and librarians.

A tentative settlement was reached after Mayor Karen Bass intervened to mediate. The SEIU was seeking a 30% wage increase, and they won it. The agreement must be approved by the membership.

Glenn Sacks reported the unions’ victory directly to me:

Friday afternoon SEIU and LAUSD reached an agreement which addresses SEIU’s central demands. The agreement includes:

• a 30% wage increase

• Retroactive pay of $4000-$8000, depending on job classification, including a $1000 bonus for all
• Increase to average annual salary from $25,000 to $33,000
• 7 hours of work guaranteed for Special Education Assistants
• Fully paid health care benefits, including family coverage, for Teacher Assistants, Community Representatives, After School Program Workers and others)

The average pay for SEIU workers went from $15.00 an hour to $22.52 an hour.

As the UTLA often says: “When we fight, we win.”

Sacks wrote this article for FOX News. Good for him for getting published in a place usually dominated by anti-union views!

I don’t blame our bosses for being surprised.

For decades Los Angeles Unified School District’s workforce has been divided into eight different unions. Our contracts expire at different times and labor law often ties our hands, so LAUSD plays us off against each other, to the detriment of all employees.

Service Employees International Union Local 99 represents 30,000 LAUSD bus drivers, teaching assistants, maintenance workers and cafeteria staff. Recently SEIU announced a three-day “Unfair Practice Charge” strike based on its well-founded accusations that LAUSD’s mistreatment of SEIU workers violates California labor law.

LAUSD probably expected that with teachers coming in to work, along with personnel brought in from LAUSD headquarters on an emergency basis, they could roll right over SEIU, as school districts often do to campus workers in similar situations.

Except this week, Los Angeles teachers said “No.”

Over half of LAUSD’s SEIU workers have children in LAUSD. Many of our students have aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and older siblings who work at LAUSD.

There is only one way UTLA educators could keep faith with our students, their families and the workers whose labor enables us to educate our students — by honoring SEIU’s picket lines.

Our sympathy strike (aka “solidarity strike”) is very much in line with the traditions of American labor. American labor unions were built through labor solidarity, and in recent decades, unions have been undermined because union leaders have abjured sympathy strikes.

On this issue, recently one publication often critical of teachers unions unwittingly paid UTLA a complement:

“State law allows one bargaining unit to go on a sympathy strike with another union, but
Bradley Marianno, an assistant education professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said it’s ‘highly unusual,’ for a teachers union to join a walkout with non-teaching employees.

“‘They may issue statements of support, but to join in strike is a different, and relatively rare, matter.’”

SEIU has historically been a much weaker union than UTLA. Their membership is divided into many different job classifications, they are often on campus at different times, and their heavily minority, immigrant and female membership is at a much lower socioeconomic level.

Despite this, SEIU’s performance this week was remarkably strong, reflecting the raw anger of its members over low wages and LAUSD abuses, which were well-documented by the national media this week.

UTLA has its own contract battle with LAUSD, but its robust showing this week also reflects our sympathy for our SEIU colleagues and the fact that UTLA has become a strong, disciplined labor union.

LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has found himself increasingly isolated, as many key players in Los Angeles education, including Austin Beutner, LAUSD superintendent from 2018 to 2021, school board Member Kelly Gonez, who served as president of the LAUSD Board of Education from 2020 until earlier this year, and LAUSD school board President Jackie Goldberg have all made statements undermining Carvalho in his battle against SEIU.

Earlier this week dozens of CA Legislators signed a letter backing SEIU, telling Carvalho to “resolve this.”

As in 2019, many of LAUSD’s own school administrators made it clear their hearts aren’t in this battle either, with some walking early morning picket lines with us or bringing us coffee and donuts.

Carvalho, humbled by the firestorm he foolishly ignited, has pivoted, shifting from stonewalling and even mocking SEIU workers towards a humble, “I feel your pain” posture.

Some of our critics claim our strike hurts our students, yet meeting SEIU demands will improve our schools.

To pick one example among many, each day special education students are deprived of two hours of their special education assistants’ time. Why?

LAUSD keeps these paraprofessionals at only six hours a day, so they won’t be considered full-time employees. This petty chiseling at the expense of our students typifies the way LAUSD mistreats its SEIU employees.

Other critics assert that parents have turned against teachers unions. These people are kidding themselves.

Polls show LAUSD parents support educators. A Loyola Marymount University poll taken earlier this year asked “LAUSD teachers requested an increase in salary. If labor negotiations cannot reach an agreement, would you support or oppose LAUSD teachers going on strike to meet their demands?”

Among those living within LAUSD’s boundaries, 76% supported teachers. Among those aged 18-29 — people who most likely attended LAUSD schools not long ago — 88% supported teachers.

Moreover, throughout this week of picket lines and massive rallies, the public showed they were behind us with continual honking horns, raised fists and shouts of approval.

As we walk to and from rallies in our union colors, we’ve had truck drivers and firefighters walk up to us, pat us on the back, and tell us, “Good luck.”

Leaving one rally a construction worker walked up to me, shook my hand, and said, “Give ’em hell!”

We did.

Categories California, Inequity, Injustice, Los Angeles, Students, Teachers, Unions
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