The Brief

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education’s website is getting a makeover.

The board’s website is “meant for the public to access anything and everything that the board does in the public eye,” says the board’s executive officer Michael McLean.

Parents, educators, students, and other members of the public can give feedback for the next several weeks on what works and what doesn’t.

“They should fill out this survey and they will have an easier time at the end of the day using the website,” he said.

Here’s a few examples of what lives on the board website:

• Agendas for upcoming meetings
• Instructions on how to give public comment
• Policies under consideration and previously passed 
• Presentations to the board on topics including school safety, attendance, test scores, special education, and afterschool programs 
• Video recordings of past meetings

Providing some of this information — for example, the agendas — is mandated by California law. The Brown Act requires elected officials conduct their business in a way that’s open and accessible to the public.

What's it like to use the website?

The board has had a “temporary” website for about a year. Most of what you want to find — and everything the district is legally required to provide — is there— somewhere— but it can take a lot of clicking to get to.

I had McLean walk me through a search for the latest board information on the district’s ongoing effort to bring more green space to asphalt-covered school campuses.

From the main site, I scrolled about halfway down the page to a link titled “2023-2024 Committee Meeting Schedule,” which leads to a PDF that shows the Greening/Climate Resilience Committee’s most recent meeting was Nov. 15, 2023.

Then I went back to the calendar on the main page, clicked until I got to November, where I could find the materials from that convening. The slide deck from the meeting alone has a lot of great info — for example, there are 15 million square feet, or 350 acres, of paved schoolyard the district wants to update to green or natural space.

I also looked under the “Board Resolutions” tab and found documents that mention greening dating to 1998, but not the most current materials.

McLean says his office regularly fields and fulfills requests from the public (often reporters) to find specific documents.

“At this point, it's easier for us to search our internal files that hold all the public facing documents than it is for the public, and that's not fair,” McLean said.

What's next?

The online survey will be up at least through May 27 and possibly longer if there’s an influx of responses. There is no set date for the new website launch, but McLean said it could be within the next six months.

“I just want folks to be able to find what they're looking for in the broadest sense,” McLean says. “I want them to believe and understand that the information on which the Board of Education runs … is available to them and that there's no hiding the ball.”

Contact your LAUSD school board member

Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a man who appeared to be armed with a rifle outside the California Science Center in Exposition Park on Thursday morning, according to LAPD Deputy Chief Marc Reina.

Reina said police do not yet know the identity of man, who they estimate was about 35 years old.

No police or other community members were injured in the incident, Reina said. The science center was placed briefly on lockdown but reopened. The north side of the museum remains closed, the deputy chief said.

Reina said a motorcycle cop initially spotted the man around 9:30 a.m. carrying what appeared to be a rifle and walking west down State Drive, a small road that runs between the science center and Exposition Park Rose Garden.

Multiple cops responded to the scene and faced off with the man. The subject continued down State Drive, Reina said, before police opened fire.

Los Angeles Fire Department personnel arrived at the scene and pronounced the man dead, Reina said.

The incident will be investigated by department use-of-force investigators, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and the LAPD’s inspector general, the deputy chief said.

Investigators have not yet determined what prompted police to open fire, Reina said. Police do not believe the man fired his weapon.

Here's what witnesses saw

Stacey Hutchinson said he was sitting on a bench along State Drive drinking a cup of coffee when the incident unfolded.

He said the man appeared in good spirits and greeted him nonchalantly as he walked up the street before taking a seat. Hutchinson said he saw the man carrying what appeared to be a long gun.

Police initially responded with bean bag guns, Hutchinson said, but drew firearms when the man picked up the weapon.

Police opened fire after the man pointed the apparent rifle in their direction, Hutchinson said.

The man did not appear to be trying to enter the science center, Hutchinson said, and appeared to remain calm until police asked him to drop his weapon.