http://web.mac.com/videopalitalia/iWeb/Site/Photos.html
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD PEOPLE TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!
TEACHERS ON BULLHORNS? WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA'S LACK OF "WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD" COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION: SOME WELL-HEALED PRIVATE LOS ANGELES HIGH SCHOOLS COST OVER $20,000.00 PER SCHOOL YEAR WHILE CALIFORNIA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS RANK ONLY ABOVE THE GRAND STATE OF MISSISSIPPI IN PER CAPITA PUPIL SPENDING...WHERE IS THE BEEF? THROWING MONIES AT INNER CITY DROPOUT RATES ARE NOT A PANACEA FOR 70% DROPOUT RATES, BUT PROVIDING FOR BASIC BOOKS AND SUPPLIES AND PHYSICAL PLANTS CERTAINLY COULD MAKE THIS DIRE SITUATION, BETTER!SHOW ME THE MONEY, LAUSD CORTINES AND CALIFORNIA'S GRUBENATOR, INSTEAD OF GREASING THE GREEDY PALMS OF MEGA-BOOK COMPANY CARTELS FOR SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS THAT SIT IN ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSES.
OUR STUDENTS DESPERATELY NEED TEXTBOOKS, LAPTOP COMPUTERS, SAFE BUILDINGS/LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND "BEST PRACTICES TRAINED TEACHERS" AND ADMINISTRATORS WHO HAVE COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING AND PANACHE, RATHER THAN PROFIT-MAKING BUREAUCRATS: OUR STUDENTS ARE HUMAN BEINGS, NOT ROBOTS!
Wayne Dennis Kurtz.
L.A. Unified moves to cut 5,000 teachers and others
ReplyDeleteAn LAPD officer stands in front of demonstrators at the LAUSD building as school district officials moved forward with plans to lay off more than 5,000 teachers, counselors and other employees.
The board's 4-3 vote closes most of a $596.1-million deficit for next year and will lead to larger classes. But the battle over funding will rage on for weeks.
By Howard Blume
April 15, 2009
Los Angeles school district officials moved forward Tuesday with plans to lay off more than 5,000 teachers, counselors, custodians, clerks and other employees, but the battle over funding will rage on for weeks -- affecting who goes, who stays and what schools and classrooms will look like for students next year.
The Board of Education's 4-3 vote, after more than four hours of pleading and debate, closed most of a $596.1-million deficit for next year in the nation's second-largest school system.
Photos: LAUSD cuts
As LAUSD layoffs loom, debate over...
L.A. Unified to rescind layoff notices to about 2,000 teachers
"Anger is appropriate and outrage is appropriate," said school board President Monica Garcia, who voted with the majority. "Nobody wants to do these layoffs."
No one expects every employee with a layoff notice in the Los Angeles Unified School District to be out of work, and most observers believe the current budget plan will evolve, perhaps considerably.
The board action affects about 3,500 newer teachers who have yet to earn tenure protections as well as administrators, nursing staff, library aides, computer programmers and others.
The teachers will lose positions as a result of larger classes, which could rise from 20 to 24 students in the early grades. Sixth-grade classes would rise to 35 students. The average high school class would be larger still.
Much of the contention centers on how much money will be available from the federal stimulus package and how that money could and should be used. Opponents of the cuts have added up federal dollars and come up with figures that surpass the current deficit.
District officials insist that their math is wishful thinking.
But there's also a strategic disagreement. Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has decided to spread the federal money over the next two budget years. Even with the cuts, the district faces an additional deficit in 2010-11. Using most of the federal money now, Cortines said, would create an untenable funding cliff when the dollars ran out.
His top advisors have also yet to factor in some additional funding that they fear could be poached by other government agencies. And some of the money has restrictions that limit the district's flexibility in saving jobs and programs.
Initially, the budget proposal deadlocked on the seven-member board at 3 to 3, with Richard Vladovic suddenly becoming the swing vote. He missed the first roll call, explaining when he returned that recent food poisoning had forced him to leave for several minutes.
He then asked for a legal opinion on whether the district could spend more restricted money to save jobs. The district's top lawyer warned against it, and Vladovic tipped the scale for the Cortines plan.
Vladovic had recused himself from some recent budget votes because his son, a teacher, had received a layoff notice. But that conflict evaporated earlier Tuesday when Cortines recommended rescinding notices of possible layoff that had been sent to nearly 2,000 tenured teachers, including Vladovic's son.
Those still at risk include all teachers without tenure: 1,605 at the elementary level and 1,872 at middle and high schools. The notices also went to 498 other employees with teaching credentials and to 2,875 administrators. Most of those administrators will keep their jobs, but some small campuses will lose a full-time principal.
At one point, a group of Spanish-speaking parents cited security fears and other concerns should their children's campus lack a principal at all times.
Some principals are likely to be replaced by administrators with more seniority.
The "bumping" process, officials acknowledged, could become a nightmare, because more than 1,200 positions will be cut from central and regional offices.
These cuts are not just to save money, but also about decentralizing operations, which is a key Cortines goal and a longtime demand of the teachers union. In the short run, at least, this approach could bump teachers out of their jobs.
Some campuses could be especially hard hit, among them Del Olmo Elementary in Koreatown, where test scores surged in 2008.
At Del Olmo, nearly two-thirds of teachers received notice that they could be laid off. About half of these, however, were spared when permanent teachers got their reprieve.