Results tagged “teachers”

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.

When Kenan Bell isn't in the classroom of a local Montessori school teaching youngsters language arts, he's on stage schooling crowds with his own unique brand of hip-hop that blends indie-rock with electronica, a style URB called "his very own genre of nu-gaze, emo-hip-hop." In March, the La Crescenta native put on full display his eclectic musical taste and range when he dropped the “Good News: The Mix-Tape,” which features remixes of songs by artists as wide-ranging as Pink Floyd, Lily Allen, Gang Gang Dance, Jose Gonzalez, Peter, Bjorn & John, Duran Duran, and Neil Diamond. Yes, you read that right, Neil Diamond.

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.

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.

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.

LAUSD teachers planned a walk out today over budget cuts forcing massive teacher layoffs, then a judge said no, the teachers okay, we won't walk out, we'll protest before school begins and now some teachers haven't stopped protesting.

       

Plans for a one-day teacher walk out and protest planned for Friday had the kibosh put on them today by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. Unionized teachers wanted to protest anticipated layoffs and large class sizes and LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines doesn't want to disrupt school environs, especially in light of state and advance placement testing.

The folks at Cuts Hurt Kids have set up this interactive map to show where parents, teachers, students, and community members are working in protest of Los Angeles Unified School District budget cuts, including teacher layoffs. The map plots points of action, locations, as well as links to stories, images, and videos related to LAUSD's budgetary woes and how the cuts will affect the community at large. Have something to add to the map? Let Cuts Hurt Kids know.

In a closed-session meeting yesterday, the LAUSD Board of Education voted unanimously to file suit against the teachers' union, UTLA, charging that their planned May 15th "work stoppage" is "unfair labor practice," reports abc7.

It was as close to a split as a panel of 7 can get: In a 4-3 vote, the LAUSD Board of Education voted late yesterday afternoon to approve layoffs that will affect thousands of teachers and other district staff.

Following a morning meeting held between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Board of Education members Monica Garcia and Yolie Flores-Aguilar, and parents and teachers, the LAUSD has just announced they will "drop a proposal to lay off as many as 1,900 permanent teachers," LA Now reports. The move spares permanent teachers at elementary schools, who will still have to deal with increased class sizes and other shortfalls in support and services. Although the news is encouraging for some, teachers at middle and high schools in the district still face layoffs, as do thousands of other employees. The issue of the budget cuts and layoffs will be on the agenda for tomorrow's regularly scheduled Board meeting, but following today's meeting and announcement, "Supt. Ramon C. Cortines and school board president Monica Garcia insisted that they will continue to work to minimize the number of layoffs, even if the board approves them as a precaution."

With one day left before the LAUSD Board is due to vote on the postponed motion for thousands of layoffs district-wide at their regularly scheduled meeting, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to meet later this morning with teachers and parents to talk about ways to avoid the ax falling so mightily.

Under pressure from United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing educators working in the LAUSD, the Board of Education agreed on Tuesday during their regular meeting to postpone voting on proposed layoffs. The Board, in a gesture meant to show alignment with Superintendent Ramon Cortines, decided to pursue meetings and discussions of alternatives with bargaining units, and will bring the motion to the table once more on April 14th.

Members of the United Teachers Los Angeles are gathered right now outside the LAUSD's Local District 5's offices to protest the board's plan to terminate thousands of teachers, many of them the district's youngest and most energetic. The crowd, dressed in either their UTLA red shirts or pink (symbolic of the pink slips) prompted District 5 Superintendent Carmen Schroeder to come down to address the crowd. Using a microphone, several of the area's...

The Los Angeles Unified School District reached a tentative agreement yesterday with the union representing its teachers which gives them a new contract that will last until 2011, according to abc7.com.

Students in LAUSD schools in Highland Park are already under a lot of pressure to do well, from test scores to less-than-ideal classroom environments. But the neighborhood is experiencing an increase in gang-related violence, mostly via gunfire, and that is making getting an education even harder, explains the LA Times' Steve Lopez.

With their counterparts in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) staging sit-ins to protest pink slips yesterday, Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) teachers are whining about smaller things in today's LA Times. Smaller things as in small kitchen appliances.

By next Monday, Los Angeles Unified School District will have sent off nearly 9,000 impending layoff notices to teachers and employees as part of a plan to reduce the predicted $718 million budget deficit for the 09/10 fiscal year. That plan's presentation set off a protest at today's school board meeting, but come Friday, or rather Pink Friday, larger protests and rallies are planned across the state by the California Teachers Association regarding similar school budgeting issues.

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines is looking for ways to help the beleaguered district function on a budget deficit and in the wake of more state-level cuts. To do so, he is considering laying off "a great many employees," according to abc7.com. "The first wave of possible cuts will likely be made among non-teaching personnel. They include management and staff throughout the district." If approved by the school board by vote on March 10, the pink slips will go out shortly after, although not all those employees notified will immediately lose their jobs. Cortines insists that instruction will continue in the classrooms and that he is focused on doing what he can to minimize how these layoffs will affect the kids.

Watch out, downtown traffic. The United Teacher of Los Angeles will be holding an afternoon protest and march over education budget cuts.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) is calling for a boycott of periodic assessment tests mandated by the LAUSD, and have "directed teachers to refuse to give them to students on the grounds that the tests are costly and counterproductive," according to the LA Times.

The perilous state of the California budget has had a rippling effect on institutions and employees for months now. The California State University has been no exception, and now its officials have announced that things are about to get even chillier on their 23 campuses with the arrival of a salary and hiring freeze aimed at controlling costs.

The United Teachers Los Angeles, the powerful school teachers union, is out in force this afternoon throughout the city protesting LAUSD budget cuts this afternoon. They say school bureaucrats are looking to cut healthcare benefits, raise class sizes and impose a three-year salary freeze. Therefore, they will chant in the streets:

The California Teachers Union, the largest union of its kind in the state, made a second donation to the No on Prop 8 campaign this week. After their initial $250,00 donation in August, their $1 million gift comes as the campaign has been struggling against the large amount of funds raised by proponents of the measure that seeks to eliminate gay marriage.

The Daily News has published a series of articles today regarding the financial layout of the Los Angeles Unified School District's administration, and points to what appears to be a bit of an upper-tier bloat. As the LAUSD preps to face a massive budget cut, some wonder if now is the time to trim the fat downtown at their administrative headquarters.

Yesterday, parents his the streets of downtown Los Angeles to protest decisions made by the Los Angeles Unified School District who denied space for charter schools, which are still public schools, but are run differently. The LA Times explains:

LAUSD officials trying to stop tomorrow's massive one-hour teacher strike has failed -- a judge struck down the request for a restraining order and the Public Employee Relations Board decided not to file an injunction against the action earlier this week. Union teachers will protest during the first hour of school across the city because of Gov. Schwarzengegger’s plan to cut $3.8 billion from public education, which is expected to affect $350 million of LAUSD's budget.