Change The LAUSD

"San Fernando Valley education advocate Carl Petersen sent a uniform procedure complaint to the school and to LAUSD last week alleging that charging for the summer program constituted illegal pupil fees since the school is publicly funded.

'To charge fees they are not supposed to be charging is serious,' Petersen said in an interview. 'You’re setting a barrier of entry. If someone cannot afford those charges, they can’t go to that school.'

"The website K-12 News Networks The Wire reported on the recent meeting during which Schmerelson allegedly described details of the Board’s closed-session interview with Beutner during the hiring process.

“In describing Beutner’s conversations with the Board prior to his being hired, Schmerelson states that ‘It was the worst interviews [that] I have ever seen in my entire life. Not one question was answered about education.’ Every time Schmerelson ‘asked a question about education, [Beutner] couldn’t answer because he really didn’t know,’” the site reported.

A video of Schmerelson’s comments that appeared on that site and on changelausd.com [sic] website has been removed, but Melvoin confirmed that he viewed the video before its removal. In a press release issued May 1, Schmerelson also revealed how many and which Board members agreed to enter contract negotiations with Beutner during closed session on April 20."

"The Los Angeles school board selected an unqualified person to lead its schools. The decision was made in secret, with no public input.

Carl Petersen points out that state law requires that Superintendents must have experience as teachers and administrators. There is provision for a waiver. Is the superintendent is unqualified, like Austin Beutner, he may be required to take an in-service training program.

35028.
No person shall be eligible to hold a position as city superintendent, district superintendent, deputy superintendent, associate superintendent, or assistant superintendent of schools unless he is the holder of both a valid school administration certificate and a valid teacher’s certificate, but any person employed as a deputy, associate, or assistant superintendent in a purely clerical capacity shall not be required to hold any certificate.
(Enacted by Stats. 1976, Ch. 1010.)"

Read the article HERE

"The recent defeat of legislation that would make charter schools accountable and transparent, AB 1478, established definitively that charter schools are private businesses, not public schools.

All public schools must comply with the Brown Act, the California Public Records Act (PRA), or the Political Reform Act of 1974, which make their spending and operations transparent to the public. The charter lobby insists that there are merely bureaucratic burdens and that charters must be free to operate without any public transparency, as private businesses do.

Carl Petersen writes about this issue here."

"Carl J. Petersen was a candidate in the 2017 LAUSD District 2 board election. He became a public education activist while fighting for his two daughters who are on the autism spectrum. Petersen had this to say about the influence of CCSA in Los Angeles:

The California Charter School Association (CCSA) and their allies poured nearly $2.3 million into last year’s LAUSD election, helping to make them the nation’s most expensive school board election. Given this influence, is it any surprise that the LAUSD Charter School Division, which is responsible for overseeing the largest charter system in the country, is headed by a former staff member of the CCSA or that the District has only revoked one charter in the past three years?"

"Walker isn't the only parent to raise a complaint about iGranada. At least nine parents have sought the help of the officials at the L.A. Unified School District who oversee and regulate charter schools, saying their children deserve access to Granada's traditional, brick-and-mortar classes, according to emails obtained via public records request and provided to KPCC by local public education activist Carl Petersen (who's long been a thorn in Granada's side).

'They look at themselves as a private school,' Petersen said of Granada. 'We don’t care that we get public money, we're going to do it our way.'"

At its meeting on November 7, the LAUSD board showed who is boss: the California Charter Schools Association.

Carl J. Petersen reports here on the meeting.

"Carl Petersen, who ran unsuccessfully against García in last spring’s election, spoke about how the allegations against Rodriguez were known and the board should have vetted him better before making him president.

'Do not make the same mistake, Mónica García is his political ally,' Petersen said. 'This is not children first.'"

My exact comments before the Board can be found at:

"Carl Petersen, who still [has] three children in LAUSD, speaks to LAUSD board before they chose Monica Garcia to replace Ref Rodriguez as president on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. Ref Rodriguez gave up that position last week after conspiracy charges were filed against him related to financing for his 2015 campaign for school board seat. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)"