According to the LAUSD’s Director of Maintenance and Operations, “it’s inevitable” that the district will have to place a request to sell more bonds on a future ballot. He says that “we want our students and staff to be in buildings and on grounds that are in good condition, where the roofs don’t leak and the air conditioning works.” I agree, but wonder why the last construction funds that the voters approved were not used for this purpose. They were supposed to be for repair and construction but then they diverted $1.3 billion dollars to purchase iPads.

I have always used a basic set of rules to decide if I will vote for a bond measure. First I determine if the item being funded is important. Next, I ask if there is an alternative funding mechanism. Finally, I make sure that whatever is being funded will have benefits over the entire life of the bond.

The parents and teachers of Calahan Street Elementary school are angry, but that is not the emotion that affected me the most as I sat in on their PTA meeting last night. It was the genuine sadness. The meeting in the school library was standing room only and had the feeling of an intervention. Speaker after speaker expressed how much the school community meant to them and then went on to detail the many problems that they are facing this year. Unfortunately, there was not a happy ending as the subject of the intervention did not agree to take a trip to rehab. They only promised to try not to hurt the community when they went on their next binge.

LAUSD Argued Middle Schooler Can Consent to Sex with Teacher

Elkis Hermida has already been convicted of lewd acts against a child and is serving time in prison for having a six month sexual relationship with one of his students. The student was 14 at the time. The girl’s parents then sued the LAUSD claiming that the district was negligent in the matter.

Tamar Galatzan was the guest speaker last night at the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council meeting. When speaking about the ongoing MiSiS crisis, she stated that “It went live, it didn’t work. It turns out now that a lot of people within the district probably knew it didn’t work. The board did not know, we did not get one update on it. We found out that the system went live when we read about it in the newspaper.” When questioned by the council about how this could have been a surprise, she responded that “I don’t know what I know what I don’t know.” They further pressed her on how the Board can avoid similar problems in the future if they do not take responsibility for their lack of oversight. Ms. Galatzan said that she was “happy to take blame for not knowing about this, I just, I don’t know how I don’t how I don’t know what I don’t know about it.” She then went on to say that she holds the Superintendent and his staff responsible for it.

My wife and I believe that too much influence has been given to high-stakes, corporate testing and this has resulted in the placement of undue pressure on students. Therefore, at the beginning of the school year, we exercised our parental rights under California law and signed the opt-out forms so that our children would not have to take these tests. Apparently, this was not enough, as we later learned that our daughter’s high school had shut down their academic program for over half of a day in order to administer the PSAT to all students in the ninth through eleventh grades.

I remember taking the PSAT when I was in school and expected my children would take it in the same way. The test was given when I was in the eleventh grade and was administered on a Saturday morning so that no instructional time was lost. Since the student was responsible for paying for the test, it was administered on an opt-in basis. The results were supposed to give you an idea of how you would perform on the SAT and were also used for various national and state scholarships. Performance must not have been emphasized too much because, unlike the SAT, I do not remember how I scored.

If the Board’s official announcement of John Deasy’s departure is any indication, then they have not learned much from his tenure. A resignation in disgrace was almost a foregone conclusion after Superior Court Judge George Hernandez Jr. ruled that the students of LAUSD’s Jefferson High School “have suffered and continue to suffer severe and pervasive educational deprivations,” but the Board worded their release like they were handing Deasy a gold watch as he headed for retirement.

Mismanagement of the MiSiS implementation, resulting in the interruption of education of thousands of students, was ignored as they celebrated “all of the successes of our students that have occurred during Dr. Deasy’s tenure as Superintendent.” Even worse, they stated they did “not believe that the Superintendent engaged in any ethical violations or unlawful acts” in implementing the $1.3 billion iPad purchase. They did this while acknowledging that the Inspector General had not even concluded his investigation.

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge George Hernandez Jr. ruled that the students of LAUSD’s Jefferson High School “have suffered and continue to suffer severe and pervasive educational deprivations” and ordered the state to step in to fix the problems. Hopefully, the state will be able to find an adequate solution for these students. In the meantime, as a father and taxpayer I have to question why there has been no “organized effort to help those students” from the district itself.

“Despite the vigorous debate by the BOC, school board member Tamar Galatzan, in sentiments echoed by her colleague, Monica Garcia, said debate at the school board level was not necessary.”

- LA School Report

Bond funds are not picked from the free money tree. Every year the taxpayers of the district open their mail to see the various line items needed to pay off these bonds (plus interest) added to their property tax bills. Money received from investors today will become the responsibility of taxpayers who are yet to be born. They are owed the assurance that these funds were properly spent.

My neighborhood school holds a “Summer Transition Academy” for all incoming Freshmen to help them “understand the school’s expectations both academically and behaviorally.” This two week program is mandatory to the point where anyone who misses more than four hours “will earn a grade of FAIL and will have to repeat STA next year…[and] THERE ARE NO PERMISSIBLE/EXCUSED TARDIES OR ABSENCES.” Students who are late for school are punished with detention. It is a program that establishes itself on paper as very serious and important one for setting the proper tone for a successful high school education.

Imagine my surprise when AFTER the academy was completed I received an email informing me that all ninth grade students completed “a computer based, adaptive test that helps identify a student’s individual learning level” with questions that “are aligned to the Common Core State Standards.” Instead of receiving her first experience in front of a high school teacher, my daughter was being tested by a computer that was classifying her and providing research material for the Northwest Evaluation Association. Welcome to the new world of “reformed” education.

It has been my experience that my children are unduly stressed by the administration of high stakes tests and I, therefore, signed the appropriate “opt-out” forms last year. Had I known that testing would also be part of the summer program I would have sent my daughter with a new form. This exposes a flaw in the system. Instead of parents having to work to exempt their children from a battery of tests that they consider to be harmful, they should have to give their permission for the tests to be administered.

Too many of us with children enrolled in LAUSD’s special education programs are familiar with Rosanne Walden’s experience. As a parent, she knows what services her son, Adam, needs in order to unlock his full potential. The experts at the school Adam attends agree with her assessment. Unfortunately, some faceless bureaucrat with an office in the Beaudry headquarters has formulated a policy that prevents Adam from getting these services. That person has never met Adam or witnessed the progress that he has made, but that has not prevented him from enforcing a policy that stands in the way of unlocking Adam’s full potential.

At the last LAUSD board meeting, Ms. Walden testified about her experiences with the district’s bureaucracy. She explained that Adam is on the moderate to severe range of the autism spectrum and has severe communication issues. Despite these challenges, he is on an academic track to receive a high school diploma. In fact, in middle school he was even included on the honor roll. Adam’s mother gives a lot of credit to his Inclusion Specialist, Adrienne Johnston, for helping him to achieve this success.