Everything about Los Angeles Unified School District totally explained
Los Angeles Unified School District (the "
LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students)
public school system in
California. It is the
second-largest in the United States. Only the
New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. As of the 2007-2008 school year, LAUSD serves 694,288 students, has 45,473 teachers and has 38,494 other employees. It is the second largest employer in
Los Angeles County, after County government. The total school district budget for 2008 was $19,986,000,000 US dollars.. The LAUSD enrolls a third of the
preschoolers in Los Angeles County, and operates almost as many buses as the
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The LAUSD school construction program rivals the
Big Dig in terms of expenditures, and LAUSD cafeterias serve about 500,000 meals a day, rivaling the output of local
McDonald's restaurants. Bond issues and ambitious renovation programs have not uniformly eased these conditions. As part of its school-construction project, LAUSD opened two high schools (
Santee Education Complex,
South East) in 2005 and four high schools (
Arleta,
Contreras Learning Complex,
Panorama, and
East Valley) in 2006
Governance
Every LAUSD household or residential area is zoned to an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. As of 2007, Los Angeles Unified School District is governed by a seven-member school board. The Board of Education appoints a superintendent, who runs the daily operations of the district. Members of the board are elected directly by voters from separate districts that encompass communities that the LAUSD serves. The district's current superintendent is
David L. Brewer III, a former Navy Vice-Admiral who served as head of the Navy's Education and Training Division and was in charge of the SeaLift Command. From 2001 until his retirement in October, 2006, the district was led by former
Colorado governor and
Democratic Party chairman
Roy Romer. Current members of Board of Education include Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte (District 1), Board President Monica Garcia (District 2),Tamar Galatzan (District 3), Marlene Canter (District 4), Yolie Flores Aguilar (District 5), Julie Korenstein (District 6), and Richard Vladovic (District 7).
History
The Los Angeles Unified School District was once composed of two separate districts: the Los Angeles City School District and the Los Angeles High School District. The latter provided 9-12 educational services, while the former did so for K-8. It wasn't until the late 1960s that the two school districts merged to create what is today the LAUSD.
The last community to secede from the Los Angeles system was
Torrance, which later created the
Torrance Unified School District, in 1947-48.
Desegregation
In 1963, a lawsuit,
Crawford v. Board of Ed. of Los Angeles was filed to end segregation in the district. The
California Supreme Court required the district to come up with a plan in 1977. The board returned to court with what the court of appeal years later would describe as "one of if not the most drastic
plan of mandatory student reassignment in the nation." A
Desegregation busing plan was developed to be implemented in the 1978 school year. Two suits to stop the enforced busing plan, both titled
Bustop, Inc. v. Los Angeles Bd. of Ed., were filed by the group Bustop Inc. and were petitioned to the
United States Supreme Court.. The petitions to stop the busing plan were subsequently denied by
Justice Rehnquist and
Justice Powell. California Constitutional Proposition 1, which mandated that busing follow the
Equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution passed in 1979 with 70% of the vote. The Crawford v. Board of Ed. of Los Angeles lawsuit was heard in the Supreme Court in 1982. The Supreme Court upheld the decision that Proposition 1 was constitutional.
Reform
Various attempts at program reform have been implemented. First, individual schools were given more authority over day to day decisions, and public
school choice was implemented. In the 1990s,
LEARN and
LAAMP were created, giving principals even more authority to make changes in curriculum to benefit students. Regardless, student achievement failed to increase.
Later reform led to the creation of 11 lettered
minidistricts with decentralized management and their own individual superintendents . Due to the cost of this additional bureaucracy, then Superintendent Romer called for merging the minidistricts. United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing LAUSD teachers, supported this plan. Eight numbered Local Districts arose from the merger replacing the 11 lettered districts.
Twenty-first century
On
November 16,
2007, the
WorldNet Daily posted "Battle-scarred 'sub' in L.A. barrios speaks out" by
Migdia Chinea Varela, a screenwriter and former
substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Chinea stated that, in many schools she served, the students had no interest in learning, abused the teachers, vandalized property, and joined
gangs. Chinea, who was injured on the job, stated that teachers are underpaid and under-appreciated in the district. She described the campuses in LAUSD as a "mess, filthy, dilapidated and without supplies." Chinea believes that the district is taking little action against the conditions rampant in various low income schools.
On
January 5,
2008 Sandy Banks of the
Los Angeles Times reported that vandals and thieves targeted LAUSD schools in various neighborhoods during holidays. Banks said that the lack of police presence allows thieves to target schools.
33-year old Alberto Gutierrez sued the Los Angeles Unified School District, saying that the principal of the
San Fernando High School, who employed him, retaliated against him when he asked students to "think critically" about the role of the United States in the
Iraq War. Jose Luis Rodriguez, the principal, says that he spoke to Gutierrez because some parents didn't appreciate Gutierrez requiring students to attend off-campus screenings of
Fahrenheit 9/11 and
Crash.
Assembly Bill 1381
After his election to
Mayor of Los Angeles,
Antonio Villaraigosa advocated bringing control of the public school system under his office, removing power from the Board of Education. This sparked some protest from teachers, LAUSD board members and many residents of communities not within the City of Los Angeles but served by LAUSD.
In August, 2006, after a compromise was brokered which allowed the mayor large control while retaining an elected school board and allowing input to be provided from surrounding cities, California State Assembly Bill 1381 passed, giving the mayor a measure of control over district administration. Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the law on
September 18,
2006. The Board of Education immediately filed suit to block the law, claiming that it violates the state constitution by allowing a local government to take over an educational agency.
AB 1381 was required to sunset on January 1, 2013, unless extended by the Legislature. On
December 21,
2006, AB 1381 was ruled unconstitutional. The mayor appealed, but later dropped his appeal as two of the candidates he supported for school board were elected, essentially giving him indirect control over the school district.
Payroll system
In 2004, a new payroll system project began, with
Deloitte Consulting engaged to customize software purchased from
SAP AG. The Deloitte contract was $55,000,000 US Dollars with the total cost estimated to be $95,000,000.
Belmont Learning Center
The
Belmont Learning Center, in the densely populated
Westlake district just west of downtown, was originally envisioned as a mixed-use education and retail complex to include several schools, shops and a public park. After more than a decade of delays stemming from the
environmental review process, ground was broken for construction in 1995 . Midway through construction it was discovered that explosive
methane and toxic
hydrogen sulfide were seeping from an old underground oil field. Later, an active surface fault was found under one of the completed buildings, necessitating its removal. The LAUSD had spent an estimated $175 million dollars on the project by 2004, with an additional $110 million budgeted for cleanup efforts. The total cost is estimated by LAUSD at $300 million. Critics have speculated that it may end up costing closer to $500 million. The school is scheduled to open in 2008.
The Ambassador Hotel
Another controversial project has been the development of
The Ambassador Hotel property on
Wilshire Boulevard in densely populated
Koreatown. The LAUSD fought over the defunct landmark with among others
Donald Trump, who later walked away from it, with the legal battle dating back to 1989 . In
2001, the LAUSD finally obtained legal ownership of the property. Plans to demolish the building, the site where Senator
Robert F. Kennedy was shot, were met with strong opposition from
preservationists. Kennedy's family supported the demolition plans. In August 2005, LAUSD settled a lawsuit over the matter that had been filed by several preservationist groups: most of the Ambassador complex would be destroyed, but the
Paul Williams-designed coffee shop and the
Coconut Grove nightclub would be preserved, with the Grove serving as the
auditorium for a new school to be built on the site. Demolition began in late 2005, and the last section of the hotel fell on January 16, 2006. The first new school on the site is scheduled to open in 2009.
Santee Dairy
In 2005, soil samples taken at the LAUSD-owned site of a former Santee Dairy facility in
South Los Angeles found high levels of
carcinogens in soil used as foundation fill for a high school then under construction. A small controversy brewed on the matter, with some neighborhood activists and LAUSD critics claiming a repeat of the Belmont Learning Center fiasco. State scientists determined that the contaminated soil was sufficiently deep to pose no threat to students on the site, and the now-called
Santee Educational Complex opened its doors in July 2005.
Park Avenue Elementary School
On February 9, 2000, the
Los Angeles Weekly published an article about the environmental troubles of Park Avenue Elementary School .
Bus fleet
Active
Notable staff members
Teachers
Alberto "Beto" Gutierrez - Author of "A Sentence with the District," Former teacher at San Fernando High School and James Monroe High School. While working at SFHS he filed a law suit against two LAUSD Principals and two Vice Principals in summer of 2006. Beto is currently teaching Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge. In fall of 2006 he was appointed by the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa to the Commission of Children Youth and Family Services. In spring of 2007 he was appointed by City of San Fernando Councilmember Jose Hernandez to the Commission of Recreation and Community Services.
Jaime Escalante taught students Calculus at Garfield High School in the East Los Angeles CDP of Los Angeles County for many years, as dramatized in the movie Stand and Deliver.
Essie Mae Washington-Williams, the daughter of Strom Thurmond, taught typing in the district from 1967 until 1997 .
Writer/Director Alec Cicak (Mr. Id) currently teaches English at Crenshaw High School.
Eleanor Bralver, the oldest teacher in the United States, retired in June, 2006 at the age of 92 from Sylmar High School .
Ezola B. Foster, controversial right-wing political activist, taught in various LAUSD schools from the 1960s until the early 1990s.
Jody Weissler, Teacher who founded Teachtopia.com, the largest education network on the internet.
Permanent Substitute teachers
Cuban-American Screenwriter Migdia Chinea has taught English, Physical Education, Spanish, Art, Social Sciences and other subjects at various LAUSD schools in the Central District.
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