Auditors praised it for meeting state requirements
By LaMonica Peters | The LA Local
Published August 7, 2026 9:55 AM
Michael Fine (right) and Shayleen Harte, representatives with the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), praised the Inglewood Board of Education at their Aug. 5, 2026, meeting for making significant strides to exit state control.
Why now: Representatives from the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, presented findings from their audit in February, which showed the school district improved in every category for the last three years that ranged from student achievement to personnel management.
Why it matters: This means the district is expected to exit the first of two phases of receivership next year, according toMichael Fine, FCMAT’s chief executive officer. Entering the final phase means the district can hire a superintendent and the school board will regain voting power while it remains under the guidance of a county trustee who has the authority to override the board’s decisions, if needed, Fine said.
Read on... for more on the findings from the audit.
Representatives from the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, presented findings from their audit in February, which showed the school district improved in every category for the last three years that ranged from student achievement to personnel management.
This means the district is expected to exit the first of two phases of receivership next year, according toMichael Fine, FCMAT’s chief executive officer. Entering the final phase means the district can hire a superintendent and the school board will regain voting power while it remains under the guidance of a county trustee who has the authority to override the board’s decisions, if needed, Fine said.
“Everybody is waiting for it to get back to the way it was,” said Margaret Turner-Evans, Area 4 school board trustee. “People need to know about the good things happening in Inglewood.”
The report comes as Inglewood Unified continues its efforts to improve overall. Since 2018, the district has closed nearly half of its schools, is facing declining student enrollment and has to pay a $29 million balance on an emergency loan it received from the state in 2012.
Inglewood’s FCMAT score summary, provided by the district, shows that on a scale of 1 to 10, no district can receive a score lower than four in any category and must have an average score of six or more.
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Courtesy of Inglewood Unified School District
)
Inglewood can officially leave receivership after it fully repays the loan and the school board can decide if it wants to do that immediately or continue to make payments, according to Fine.
“I think the community in Inglewood is anxious to have 100% local control and nobody looking over their shoulder, and so the only way to achieve that is to pay it all at once,” Fine said. “So the board will balance that and figure that out.”
Here’s what was in the FCMAT report
During the presentation to the school board, the report covered five key operational areas including pupil achievement, community relations and governance, personnel management, facilities management and financial management.
Shayleen Harte, FCMAT’s deputy executive officer who has worked with Inglewood for the last nine years, commended the district’s progress in three of the five areas while also highlighting where improvements can be made in the areas of facilities and financial management.
With facilities management, some of the areas that need attention include improving the work order system, scheduling preventative maintenance and building internal staff.
In terms of financial management, some of the areas of improvement include eliminating deficit spending, maintaining long-term financial stability and continuing to improve budget monitoring to align with spending.
The coalition of parents and community members worked unsuccessfully to halt Inglewood school closures last year, but they remain tuned in to what’s happening with the district.
Although the district appears to be exiting receivership based on the scores it received in this year’s FCMAT report, Dixon said Inglewood is far from being financially stable.
“Cash reserves today do not equal long term stability when the district is predicting major deficits,” Dixon said, referring to the continued deficit spending noted in this year’s FCMAT report.
This slide was presented by Fre’Drisha Dixon, Inglewood mayoral candidate and head of the Stop IUSD School Closures Coalition, during a July 30, 2026, meeting to highlight Inglewood’s financial standings based on the 2026 FCMAT report.
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LaMonica Peters
/
The LA Local
)
Dixon said she based her stance on FCMAT’s findings, which stated the district will have a $13.3 million deficit for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Despite reservations from the local coalition, district officials still celebrated the latest news on Wednesday.
“There are a lot of folks in this room and on this board who have worked for 14 years to achieve this goal,” said James Morris, Inglewood county administrator, as he explained the latest district scores for the board.
Echoing those sentiments, Joyce L. Randall, Area 1 school board trustee, talked about feeling overwhelmed with emotion.
“After being under receivership for so long, to finally see the goal and we’re about to cross the finish line, I’m very excited,” Randall said.
Ernesto Castillo, Area 5 school board trustee, approached the moment with the same gratitude and a little bit of humor.
“You all are great people and I enjoy seeing you but I can’t wait to stop seeing you,” Castillo jokingly said to Fine and Harte. “I can’t wait for this relationship to finally end!”
The next document review will begin in September and FCMAT will conduct interviews and site visits in February 2027.
The final report will be issued next year in July and posted to FCMAT’s website.
Jordan Rynning
has been following this case for months, including interviewing the man at the center of allegations.
Published October 31, 2026 7:00 AM
Michael Angel Alvarez, 41, spoke with LAist on Sept. 16, 2026, about the federal body armor case against him being dismissed.
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Jordan Rynning
/
LAist
)
Topline:
The L.A. County District Attorney’s office dropped its felony body armor charges against Michael Angel Alvarez earlier this week. Alvarez was sentenced to time served on a lesser charge — a probation violation. He served more than 100 days in jail earlier this year while awaiting trial.
Most serious claims haven’t materialized: Though federal prosecutors made headlines claiming in court documents and on social media that Alvarez was “leading a violent street gang, while claiming to be a gang interventionist for the City,” they have not filed charges related to those claims.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office dropped its felony body armor charges against Michael Angel Alvarez on Wednesday. Alvarez was sentenced to time served on a lesser charge — a probation violation. He had served more than 100 days in jail earlier this year while awaiting trial.
Why Alvarez’s arrest made headlines: Alvarez was working as a city-contracted peace ambassador in MacArthur Park when he was arrested by federal agents in May. Federal and county prosecutors each brought felony charges against him, claiming he was in possession of body armor as a violent felon.
Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A., pointed to the case on social media to criticize city officials for allowing taxpayer money to be “shelled out to a convicted gang murderer.”
About his criminal record: Judges in federal and state court have now dismissed prosecutors’ felony charges against Alvarez, after U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang found on Sept. 9 that Alvarez did not have a violent felony conviction. Alvarez was 15 when he committed a gang-related murder. He was tried and convicted as an adult in 2002. After a change in state law increased the age at which minors could be sentenced as adults to 16, Alvarez’s case was sent back to juvenile court, and he was released in 2024. At that point, he had served more than 20 years.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday, Oct. 7 that Republican Bill Essayli is not legally serving as the top U.S. prosecutor in Los Angeles.
The ruling is the latest roadblock to the Trump administration’s effort to extend handpicked acting U.S. attorneys beyond the 120-day limit set by federal law. The strategy was designed to bypass confirmation by the U.S. Senate — something that generally requires a degree of bipartisan support.
Essayli “is unlawfully serving as a ‘de facto’ United States Attorney,” U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote.
The order won’t take effect until the court rules on the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal. Essayli said he doesn’t agree with the court’s order. He said the president and Attorney General “have every right to select supervisors within the Justice Department.”
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Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published October 31, 2026 5:00 AM
Myrna Velasco (left) performs as Dolores Huerta in “¡Sí Se Puede!” at Boyle Heights City Hall on April 2, 2026.
(
Carlin Stiehl
/
LAist
)
Topline:
An all-ages play about the life of Dolores Huerta and other under-told stories of the farmworker labor movement is back on tour in Los Angeles.
The backstory: Center Theatre Group commissioned ¡Sí Se Puede! from Eliana Pipes in March 2025 and it debuted in L.A. this spring. “There's this perception that farm work was only done by men,” Pipes said. “There were women on the fields, there were women on the picket lines, and there were women in leadership in the United Farm Workers movement.”
An all-ages play about the life of Dolores Huerta and other under-told stories of the farmworker labor movement is back on tour in Los Angeles.
The show's extension had been announced prior to the news that Huerta died Wednesday, Oct. 28., at her Bakersfield home. She was 96 years old.
“There's this perception that farm work was only done by men,” said playwright Eliana Pipes. “There were women on the fields, there were women on the picket lines, and there were women in leadership in the United Farm Workers movement.”
Center Theatre Group commissioned ¡Sí Se Puede! from Pipes in March 2025 and it debuted in L.A. this spring.
CSULA seeks memories from underground music scenes
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published October 31, 2026 5:00 AM
CSULA is seeking memorabilia from LA's underground music scenes for its research archives.
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Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, University Library, California State University, Los Angeles.
)
Topline
There’s a whole world of underground Southern California music history that’s hidden in storage boxes — photos, fliers, cassettes and other memorabilia. Research librarians at the California State University, Los Angeles are holding a community archive event on Nov. 5 to ensure the cultural memory of L.A.’s underground music scenes are preserved for future generations.
Why it matters: The memorabilia are the physical remnants of the supportive L.A. communities built around music and enjoyment. But many of these objects languish out of sight, and run the risk of being lost, along with the memories attached to them.
Why now: For four years, archive staff have held an annual day to receive ephemera from the public. They're doing it again on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Read on… to hear how goth, rockabilly and other underground clubs in L.A. inspired the head archivist.
Right around the year 2000, there was a club night in Hollywood called Clockwork Orange. Fans of The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus and other bands came for the DJ’s mix of their favorite songs but also for a vibe that welcomed people regardless of race, ethnicity or sexual and gender identity.
“I was a pretty shy person, and so that was a place where I could sort of be myself and express myself,” said Azalea Camacho, a regular there in those days.
She had just graduated from Workman High School in the City of Industry and was also clubbing at rockabilly music nights in Rosemead and goth club nights in downtown L.A.
Camacho said there was lots of memorabilia from those times, such as photos taken in and outside the clubs, ticket stubs and promotional fliers. They're the physical remnants of those supportive communities built around music and enjoyment, but many of them languish in shoeboxes and storage units, at risk of being lost — along with the memories attached to them.
Cal State LA has hosted Sounds of the Underground Archive for the last four years. It's an opportunity for people to donate their underground music scene memorabilia.
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Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, University Library, California State University, Los Angeles
)
“I think the danger is maybe those stories are not being told, or people don't know about the story,” she said.
Keeping stories alive
More than two decades later, Camacho is now in a position to make sure those stories are kept alive. She’s head of special collections and archives at the university library at California State University, Los Angeles.
Four years ago, she and library staff created an annual day for area residents to donate or digitize memorabilia for their Sounds of the Underground Archive. This year it's on Thursday, Nov. 5. They’ll accept physical donations, but they’ll also have a scanner to digitize printed material, so people can keep items that are precious to them.
SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND ARCHIVE
Date: Thursday, Nov. 5 Time: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Location: Cal State LA Library Community Room, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles
Camacho is hoping this year will bring in a bumper amount of memorabilia. It's taken time to get the word out, she said.
“From the actual community archiving day [we’ve collected] maybe 100 or less than 100 items. … It's not a lot,” she said.
She said they're on the lookout for a wide range of mementos, including:
Fliers
Handbills
Zines
Newsletters
Posters
Set lists
Photographs (prints, negatives or digital files)
Cassette tapes, CDs, or vinyl records
Ticket stubs
Wristbands
Band merchandise (stickers, buttons, patches, T-shirts)
DIY press kits or liner notes and correspondence (letters, emails, messages related to music scenes)
Venue or collective ephemera (membership cards, schedules, announcements and more)
