5-17-00 ACLU
class action suit against the state for poor quality schools.We want your comments about LAUSD. E-mail them to us to post on this site
5-17-00 ACLU
class action suit against the state for poor quality schools.
3-13-00 Reorganizing LAUSD:
Final Proposal For 11 Local Districts
1-18-00 Richard Alarcon (D-Van Nuys) letter
to
LAUSD about site report
12-22- 99 California State
Auditor/Bureau of State Audits Summary
in html Full Report
Number 99123 in PDF
1-11-00 Concept Paper for
Changing LAUSD: Multiple District Plan
2-15-99 LAUSD's inspector
general's report outlining massive fraud during construction of the Belmont
11-3-99 Little
Hover Commission report on LAUSD
10-18-99 ValleyVote forms a committee to study breaking
up LAUSD.
1997 Studies
on breakup of LAUSD by Urban Education Studies Center UCLA Graduate School of
Education & Information
Download
Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF reports
a coalition of civil rights groups today filed the most comprehensive lawsuit to date concerning the bare minimums required for education ever to be brought against a state.
The class-action lawsuit charges the state with reneging on its constitutional obligation to provide the bare essentials necessary for education and says that officials violated state and federal requirements that equal access to public education be provided without regard to race, color, or national origin.
"These are schools that shock the conscience, schools where students can't learn and teachers can't teach," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California, a joint participant in the lawsuit with the ACLU of Northern California and other groups. "These schools are the shame of California."
For a description of the suite from the ACLU site and for the PDF file of the full suit.
The Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) received a major reorganization plan from district staff that removes 834 positions from its central office and saves over $46 million. It is the single greatest overhaul in the district's history and continues the path of reform that has accelerated since the current Board of Education took office in July 1999, with calls for major changes to turn around the beleaguered district.
Here is the 11 District plan w/o the attachments in indexed HTML file that can be translated and copied for your use.
Click here for summary, meeting schedule and the full report (which is in a very slow downloading 867K PDF file).
1-18-2000 State Senator Richard Alarcon (D-Van Nuys) has sent a letter to LAUSD Board President Genethia Hayes saying that a new state audit on the district's school site selection process shows that nothing has changed at the district and current board members have acted just as irresponsibly as their predecessors
California State Auditor/Bureau of State Audits Summary of Report Number 99123 - 12-22- 1999 Summary in html full report in PDF (364K)
1-11-2000 Concept Paper for Changing Los Angeles Unified School District: Multiple District Plan (Presented to the Board of Education Jan. 11, 2000, by Adviser to the Superintendent, Ramon Cortines)
Note LAUSD placed this on their website in easy to read HTML as it was presented to the School Board. This effort to inform the public should be applauded compared to the secrecy employed by LA City
12-15-99 Here is LAUSD's inspector general's report outlining massive fraud during construction of the Belmont Learning Center in more readable html. This the internet standard and is easer to read, searchable and sections can be down loaded for reports and other uses. It is not the official report.
Don Mullinax, director of the Internal Audit and Special Investigations Unit, basically found at least $2 million in fraudulent billing and found that the problems could have been detected, had not Los Angeles Unified School District's outside attorney told district officials to relax their normal accounting practices.
Executive Summary
Chapters 1 The Role of the Internal Auditor and
the Nature of the Belmont Investigation
Chapter 2. Selected California Laws
Governing Public School Budget, Accounting and School
Contractors
Chapter 3 Lausd’s Internal Payment
System
Chapter 4 Prior Reports Document Breakdowns in
Lausd’s Budgeting, Accounting and Procurement
Chapter 5 The Belmont Disposition And
Development Agreement
Chapter 6 Budgeting and Financing Belmont
Chapter 7 "Belmont Was Handled
Differently” .Analysis Of Lausd’s Budgeting and Accounting for Belmont
Chapter 8 Payments to Construction Contractors
Chapter 9 Findings and Recommendations
Exhibit list
The official report in a slow loading 524K PDF file.
12-3-99 A Draft "Education Plan" (Discussion Points Prepared By Yvonne Chan)
The Los Angeles Unified School District, after repeated attempts to reorganize in the past 30 years, still has not been able to provide an effective education to all students. It is just too big to monitor decentralized efforts (e.g. Regions, Zones, Areas, Clusters, School-based Management, etc.), too big to be accountable for centralized tasks (e.g. facilities, E-rate application, fiscal allocation, safety, etc.), too big to discipline itself by adhering to long-term goals and strategies (e.g. LEARN, reading programs, master plans, student progress reporting, etc.). The newly elected, reform- minded LAUSD Board members are placed in a "no-win" situation.
11-3-99 Little Hover Commission report on LAUSD. Note this is a slow loading PDF file
10-18-99 ValleyVote forms a committee to study breaking up LAUSD.
1997 Urban Education Studies Center UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies on breakup of LAUSD
Few issues are more important to local communities than the quality of their schools. Polls suggest that education ranks at the top of Americans' concerns about their future. Political rhetoric at all levels is rich with references to the importance of education in creating individual opportunity, establishing civic culture, and maintaining economic prosperity. Yet at the same time, in many communities, the path to educational improvement seems hopelessly overgrown. A tangled thicket rises between parents and citizens who want safer schools, higher quality curriculum, evidence of increased student learning, and the interlocking governance systems charged with bringing these about. Cutting through this thicket can be a frustrating experience for even the most seasoned and politically savvy reformer. To those without experience or political clout, this thicket becomes an impenetrable wall of bureaucratic stone.
12-4-99 On Saturday, December 4, 1999 a meeting was held at Mar Vista Recreation Center in West Los Angeles In attendance were Parents, Educators, Community Activists, Students and Elected Official from throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District coming together to discuss a comprehensive and district wide plan to restructure the School District into smaller School Districts that better serve our Children.
11-13-99 Meeting Agenda for Summit On LAUSD
11-13-99ValleyVote district wide meeting on the LAUSD breakup was held 11-13-99 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital Main Auditorium at 15107 Vanowen St. Van Nuys
11-4-99 MEDIA ALERT Valley VOTE will organize a District wide Summit on the issue of LAUSD Breakup