Board of Education Meeting

More protesters at today's LAUSD Board of Education meeting.

Follow live, up-to-date Tweets at the UTLA2009 Twitter feed.

I'll try and report more of what's happened/happening later.

ALSO:

Don't forget we have a PTA Association meeting tonight where we'll be nominating/electing our new Executive Board members -- childcare will be available, and those precious HOMEWORK PASSES will be given to parents in attendance for each of their children, so please make plans to join us.

Potluck Dinner starts at 6:00 pm

Meeting begins at 6:30 pm

See you there!!

(ps. I won't embarrass anyone by mentioning any names [shelly clark] but someone's birthday is today! happy birthday!)

Field Trip!!

The second grade is very excited to be going on their field trip today! For parents who would like updates you can click on our Twitter feed (click the link on the side bar) and you'll receive our updates and photos.

Here, I'll make it easy for you... click here.

Have fun Second Graders!!!!

FYI

Report cards were sent home with students today. I'm just sayin'...

I hope EVERYONE has a good weekend and no matter what, we can always strive to do a little better, and sometimes even when we do try our best, we all could use and/or need a little help sometimes.

Either way, it's all good. We have very hard working students at Beckford with A+ characters and I'm glad to see their faces every morning. Except for today... I woke up late and was the Mom From Hell for most of the day. I will try and rectify that this weekend.

Enjoy the beautiful weekend with your kids.

Just one more reason why LAUSD is "teh" Suck

how many typos can YOU find in this fine, LAUSD approved sign?

Joseph Mailander writes about yesterday's Board of Education meeting; protesting parents and the cost of mailing out those scary Pink Slips we've heard so much about. It all makes me sick:

from street-hassle:

Word comes from LAUSD that some teachers who currently have classroom assignments will be asked to resign to accommodate administrators with both teaching experience and seniority. Some teachers with as much as five years of classroom experience have been provisionally pink-slipped.Yesterday, some parents protested prospective teacher layoffs at Beaudry. One commenter observes:

Each layoff notice sent on Pink Slip Friday cost $5.32 to send by registered mail. The postman needed to collect my signature before he handed me mine on Saturday, and said he had delivered thirty other letters just like it that day. If the Los Angeles Unified School District sent out 9000 of those letters – at a cost of $47,880 – that would have saved the salary of one of the teachers being laid off. What a waste.

You need to bookmark street-hassle. No one else is covering the LAUSD crisis as thoughtfully and as thoroughly as Joseph is over at his fine blog.

(disclosure: yeah, yeah, yeah... i know, i know, mr. mailander is my editor at street-hassle, what of it? he rawks.)

Stuff to do

My friend Kristin sent me an email reminding me that Amir's Garden , located in Griffith Park, is in full bloom. Kristin is a steward and volunteer at the garden. If you aren't familiar with Amir's Garden, here's a little background history of this amazing testament to volunteerism and patriotic pride:

Amir Dialameh worked a steep hill in Griffith Park for than three decades with a pick and shovel and turned a scorched, barren landscape into a lush, shaded grove that is visited daily by a steady stream of hikers and horseback riders.

For thirty-two years, Dialameh worked in the garden most days of the week, hiking up a service road to the rugged Mineral Wells location. Over the years, he planted pine and jacaranda trees along with rose bushes, geraniums, oleander, and yucca that grew into the beautiful oasis it is today.

"…what you need first and foremost here is shade," Dialameh explained in 1989. "That's why I planted trees like the jacaranda. In ten years, this place will be covered with their branches."

His words were prophetic. Today Amir's Garden is nearly five-acres of shady rest stop for Griffith Park's hikers and equestrians.

Dialameh first came to appreciate nature as a child during hiking trips in the Alborz Mountains of his native Iran. As his love of hiking and nature developed, so did his affinity for the United States of America.

"I was intrigued by the volunteerism that built this country... people doing things instead of relying on the government." In 1963 while visiting his brother in Pittsburgh, Dialameh made the ultimate decision to immigrate and moved to the Los Angeles area.

Please visit the Amir's Garden website for more images and information on this wonderful gift to the city. Take your kids! What a wonderful opportunity to show our children by the example of Mr. Dalameh how one person CAN make a difference in his or her community.

"LAUSD Gets Weeklied"

Joseph Mailander covers Ramon Cortines' first 100 days as Superintendant of the Los Angeles School district; along with Mr. Cortines' plans for LAUSD and even he admits he's not going to have an easy time of it.

from the LA Weekly:

Cortines was the de facto superintendent even before David Brewer left. He had a stint as interim superintendent here in 2000, when he attempted to decentralize the huge LAUSD—peeling schools away from tight district control, adding a new layer of administration in the form of minidistricts, and also giving more purchasing power to individual schools.

Cortines is pursuing that path again, but critics are already saying he’s taking on many targets at once, too many of them too poorly thought-out.

Scott Folsom, vice president of Tenth District Parent Teacher Student Association, and a member of an oversight committee that watches over how LAUSD spends construction bonds, says, “He was very subscribed to the decentralization plan he wrote 10 years ago. ... My personal feeling is that in the kind of economic era we’re in, centralization makes more sense.”

Cortines wants to give principals more authority to budget for their own schools, which, Folsom warns, is likely to be very costly, particularly since LAUSD principals cannot be fired or held accountable nearly as easily as charter-school principals can — and few of the principals have any budgeting experience.

“LAUSD principals are not prepared for that job,” Folsom says. “They don’t have the wherewithal, the power, the training. ...Their idea of balancing a budget is checkbook balancing.”

Cortines faces even more skepticism from the United Teachers Los Angeles. Many teachers remember how “decentralization” made for conspicuous consumption by the minidistricts early in this decade. Now they fear the fiscal battles facing LAUSD will hurt teachers while Cortines fiddles with an old experiment.

You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.

Pink Friday - Gotta Love the Girls

pink day at beckford, shelly clark


I have a lot more to say on the subject, as well as other things, but I have a girl home sick and not a lot of time to write. But I had to share this wonderful picture taken by our resident Beckford Photog, Shelly Clark.

I love our parents.

Pink Friday -- TOMORROW, Friday the 13th

click on the flyer to enlarge

Hmmm... wonder if I have anything PINK in my closet. Ha.

Right before the Room Parent meeting started (couldn't stay for the meeting, my boy is still sick), we discussed the boys balking at wearing pink.

The moms I spoke with came up with a most elegant solution:

The boys (and any girls who find pink offensive; I know, I know... but not all girls like pink) will wear UTLA RED.

Parents and anyone else who would like to show support for our teachers, please wear PINK.

Join us for PINK FRIDAY, TOMORROW -- FRIDAY the 13th!!!


WE LOVE OUR TEACHERS!!!!

They like us! They really like us!

Ha.

Love from various points of the blogosphere regarding our coverage of yesterday's Board of Education meeting/protest. First, from MayorSam's:

The Beckford Elementary School Parents Blog gives a good blow by blow of the scene from Tuesday's LA Unified Board of Education meeting where teachers' union members and other activtists were on hand to protest planned teacher layoffs. The District will send layoff notices to about 9,000 employees as a precautionary measure should the LAUSD actually have to reduce staff later this year.

Next, from certainly the Cutest Boy in the Blogosphere over at street-hassle.:

Not a lot of blogosphere notation of the fact yet, however. In fact, humble and lovable blog Beckford Parents had the best blow-by-blow, by aggregating Twitter updates. Kudos to MayorSam for noting the fact.

::swoon::

We're "humble" and "lovable"!!

I know, you can't resist us.

It's starting

Today's LAUSD Board of Education meeting is starting. Rumors of planned acts of civil disobedience by UTLA members and LAUSD parents have been burning up the Twitter feeds. I think if anyone gets arrested, we should have a Bail-Out Bake Sale, you know, in case any of the teachers need bail money. Srlsy.

You can follow it live on Twitter at http://twitter.com/utla2009.

For live feed of other Twitter UTLA feeds, search UTLA or UTLA/2009 for more tweets from people actually there.

Update 1: Lots of security and media already there when the UTLA buses rolled up to Beaudry.

Update 2: Duffy is there giving Channel 2 an interview

Update 3: The doors to the board room have just opened. UTLA members flooding in.

[1:11 p.m.]: The meeting has started. [ed: And now I have to leave to pick up my Beckford Princess. Will be back in an hour.]

[2:14 p.m., updates via @utla/2009: Board has moved to secret, undisclosed location.

[2:20 p.m.]: Gregg Solkovitz speaking, but cannot hear in cafeteria, where tv monitors are showing mtg

[2:33 p.m.]: From inside the vacated board room, no arrests yet. Testimony from teachers still going on. Media still inside too.

[2:30 p.m.]: UTLA preparing for 4pm rally off 4th and Boylston.

[3:30 p.m.] UTLA members, families and community members beginning to arrive for 4pm rally.

[4:00 p.m.]: Picketers lining 4th St

[4:15 p.m. via @utla/2009 at Twitter: A bus of 40 students from LA High just showed up, bringing even more excitement.

[4:22 p.m.]: More students from Dorsey and Crenshaw!

[4:26 p.m.]: The brave "band of yellow" who risked arrest are being introduced

[4:28 p.m.]: They represent all regions of LAUSD and are ready to do it all over again.

[4:40 p.m.]: The enthusiastic crowd continues forward to stop increased class size that layoffs could lead to

~~~~~~~~~

It is at this point I have to sign off. Mom's gotta cook dinner. And maybe go to a Girl Scout Leader meeting tonight.

More updates when I can.....

Stand Up for Schools on Pink Friday!

This Friday the 13th, show your support for teachers by

WEARING PINK


PINK FRIDAY, THIS FRIDAY the 13TH

Will it really come to Civil Disobedience?

from the UTLA website:

March 10, 2009: UTLA members put it all on the line to stop teacher layoffs

On Tuesday, March 10, the School Board will vote on whether to issue close to 6,000 reduction in force (RIF) notices to permanent and nonpermanent teachers and health and human services professionals. We are asking School Board members to VOTE NO on layoffs and use the federal stimulus money to save jobs.

At the meeting, some preidentified UTLA volunteers will engage in civil disobedience and may be arrested. We can't let it be business as usual at LAUSD when School Board members are making make-or-break decisions about our livelihoods.

If you are off-track: Join us at the School Board at 1 p.m.

Parking: Athena Parking: 1230 W 3rd St (map) Enter on 4th St.
Make sure to mention to the attendant that you are there for the school board meeting.

If you are on-track: join us after school at 4 pm for a rally outside LASUD headquarters.

If you are working, follow immediate updates of our actions at twitter.com/utla2009 and then join us at the rally.

Call the School Board today and tell them "No layoffs": Tell the School Board that in the end it's our students who will pay the price if we lose thousands of teachers. Class sizes will balloon, and student learning will suffer. Phone: 213-241-6389.

Our members and parents who may get arrested are truly putting it on the line for our schools, and they need your support.

Dramatic threats take dramatic action. In the end it's our students who will pay the price if we lose thousands of teachers. Class sizes will balloon, and student learning will suffer. Join us as we fight the layoffs together.

You can follow the proceedings live via UTLA's Twitter feed. We'll definitely be following and Tweeting on Twitter ourselves. Click here to follow Beckford Parents on Twitter.

Save Our Assistant Principals!!

from our friends at MOMS UNITE:

On Tuesday, the LAUSD school board is voting on whether to eliminate 475 Assistant Principal/Elementary Instructional Specialist positions in ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

This will severely impact students with special needs, the quality of IEP process, oversight of the Behavioral Support Team, and a number of other crucial student programs. All of the AP’s other duties would have to be performed by clerical staff. This includes addressing safety issues and discipline issues. Every student will suffer. Instead, 200 jobs for Elementary Instructional Specialist (EIS), would be created. These new specialist positions would have significantly different responsibilities and would report directly to the Local Districts and the Division of Special Education.

Each position will serve two or three schools and only conduct assessments for IEPs. Nothing else. They will be responsible for making recommendations for children whom they DO NOT KNOW. If this passes, it will leave our elementary schools with overloaded principals, uneven and impersonal IEP evaluations and over 200 teachers out of work. LAUSD says that this will improve our schools.

IT WILL NOT.

Our children deserve better.

How will this impact Beckford: We will lose our Assistant Principal, Mr. Garren. Mr. Garren's responsibilities will be divided up among the office staff – including discipline and other important functions. Our special needs children will suffer from the lack of individual attention and advocacy. We need your help:

MOMS UNITE is spearheading an effort to stop the School Board from eliminating this position in a vote. Here's how you can help:

Email each and every Board member to express your feelings. You are taxpayers and parents. You have a voice – use it! The contact information for each Board member is attached below. Please call and email. A sample script is below.

Come with us to the Board Meeting on Tuesday at 1:00. This is our chance to show our support of our schools en masse. We are hoping to have 100 parents from all over the city at the meeting to let the School Board know that we DO NOT support this.

333 South Beaudry Avenue
24th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Thank you for your help!! If we all work together, we CAN make a difference. Please see below for more information.

SCHOOL BOARD CONTACT INFO:

MARGUERITE LAMOTTE, Board Dist. 1, marguerite.lamotte@lausd.net 213-241-6382

MONICA GARCIA, Board President, Board Dist. 2, monica.garcia@lausd.net 213-241-6180

TAMAR GALATZAN (Our District Board Member), Board Dist. 3, tamar.galatzan@lausd.net
213-241-6386

MARLENE CANTER, Board Dist. 4, marlene.canter@lausd.net
213-241-6387

YOLIE FLORES AGUILAR, Board Dist. 5, yolie.flores.aguilar@lausd.net 213-241-6383

JULIE KORENSTEIN, Board Dist. 6, julie.korenstein@lausd.net 213-241-6388

DR. RICHARD VLADOVIC, Board Dist. 7, richard.vladovic@lausd.net 213-241-6385

RANDY ROSS, Board Director of Education Policy, randy.ross@lausd.net 213-241-2021

JEFFERSON CRAIN, Executive Officer of the Board, jefferson.crain@lausd.net 213-241-7002

General Fax Numbers for all Board Members: 213-241-8953 or 213-481-9023

Sample Script (feel free to customize):

Hello, my name is _____________. I am a taxpayer, a voter and the parent of an elementary school child. I understand that there will be a vote on Tuesday to determine if the position of Assistant Principal will be eliminated. I am calling/writing to ask you to please do whatever you can to ensure that this does not happen. Do not make little children pay. They need an Assistant Principal at their schools.

~~~~~~~

We need your help. Please make a phone call or send an email today!

Zuma Dogg is EVERYWHERE

God, I love that boy.

LOL

I just read this in the comments section at MayorSam:

Zuma Dogg said:

I just recorded video of LAUSD school board president Monica Garcia with her CA EXEMPT vehicle parked in the red no parking zone (with dry cleaning in the back seat). She was talking on her cell phone while driving. My camera cut out, so we'll see if that part is in the video, too.

So remember people, Villaraigosa's LAUSD president Monica Garcia wants to remind parents and kids to follow and obey the rules, even though she doesn't feel the need to lead by example, and is perfectly comfortable driving around talking on her cell phone, parking in red no parking zones, with the dry cleaning in the back seat of her CA EXEMPT car with the ZumaCam rolling.

Maybe she needs to attend a community training and education seminar with Gavin Newsom who was also busted on the ZumaCam parking in the no parking zone.

And don't bother asking how or why Zuma happened to be there to bust her ass. All that matters is that Batman, Spiderman and Zuma Dogg always end up being at the right place at the right time. And that's all you need to know! Batman has the Batsignal. Spiderman has his Spidey-senses and Zuma Dogg has his collective conciousness fueled by community spirt that has been the guiding force pulling him all over town. ;)

March 08, 2009 1:30 PM

He's baaaack!

We get mail

Kristin at MomsRising.org sent us this email:

At MomsRising we're always looking out to make sure that mothers and families are treated fairly in our nation. The other day I saw a video that shocked me: Two young children crying, alone in a car, reaching out for their mother who'd been taken away by deputies wearing ski masks after being stopped for a minor traffic violation.[1] The images haven't left me. A nightmare, right? Never in America? Wrong.

A local NBC news report described the incident through the eyes of a witness, "…the deputies were wearing ski masks and detained the children's mother for about an hour while her children watched, crying."[2]

Who's in charge of these deputies!?

It turns out that the person in charge knew exactly what was going on. Sheriff Arpaio has been cited repeatedly for gross civil rights violations and racial profiling of both citizens and non-citizens in the name of immigration enforcement, and when questioned about his tactics, he said that under his jurisdiction, "it was not unusual for law enforcement officers to wear ski masks while on duty."[2,3]

In the video the young girl is asked, "What did the sheriff tell you?" The little girl said, "To be quiet, but I couldn't 'cause I wanted to go with my mommy." [2] And here's what Mary, a MomsRising team member said after seeing the video, "We may not all be on the same page about immigration policy, but we do all agree that children and mothers shouldn't be treated this way."

Regardless of where immigration policy stands, no one should be treated that way. We've all got to stand up against this inhumane treatment of families. This type of treatment of women and families simply isn't acceptable.

*Watch the video and join us in urging the Department of Justice to investigate Sheriff Arpaio's tactics at: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=5CDWsj9sk0GdWdEzb0LX5tzF4K57RE28
-Please forward this email to friends and family now so they too can take action too. We need to put a spotlight on this inhumane treatment with as many people paying attention as possible in order to get an investigation.

Together we can do something about this. Sheriff Arpaio is out of control in Maricopa County, Arizona, and it's going to take all of us, and then some, standing up to say that this type of treatment has got to stop.

With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-Latino and anti-immigrant tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Sheriff Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while his deputies cross the line by using tactics that violate civil rights in the name of immigration enforcement.[4]

The voices of mothers are needed right now to say clearly that all mothers and children need to be treated with respect and fairness.

*Don't forget to watch the video and sign on now to urge the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Sheriff Arpaio at: http://www.momsrisingaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26817

Mothers taken away from young children by men in ski masks, and people being marched in shackles through town to electric fenced "tent cities" in the desert [5] crosses the line of humane treatment. Let's help put a stop to this.

Thank you - Kristin, Joan, Katie, Dionna, Mary, Ariana, Anita, Ashley, Donna, Roz, Julia, and the MomsRising Team

[1] See the video and take action: http://www.momsrisingaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26817

[2] February 5th, 2009: http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2009/02/05/20090205motherarrested02052009-CR.html

[3] From "Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children": Approximately five million children have an undocumented parent; however, the vast majority of these children are U.S. citizens and under the age of ten. Despite efforts to mitigate harm to children by changing the manner in which raids and other immigration enforcement actions are conducted, children continue to be placed in harm's way.

[4] http://www.americasvoiceonline.org/page/content/sheriff

[5] February 5th, 2009: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hTF9W1wsdXskb%2FrfCkH8e9zF4K57RE28, http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=j4bpZruTfK9v6FRFKHixMdzF4K57RE28 , http://vivirlatino.com/2009/03/04/thousands-protest-racist-sheriff-joe-arpaio-in-arizona.php

p.s. MomsRising joins the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=uNAKwPR1Et3kHpVSLGIi5dzF4K57RE28), National Council of La Raza (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=W5C2x4efzxOf9463OnMz3dzF4K57RE28), America's Voice (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=GDjjNwKG4eGbRsujHZzVydzF4K57RE28), and many others in calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into Sheriff Arpaio's tactics.

"LAUSD Disconnected from mission"

A snippet from an editorial in the Daily News:

If residents needed more evidence that the behemoth bureaucracy that is the Los Angeles Unified School District has become a dysfunctional agency, the scandals at two San Fernando Valley schools in recent weeks should do the trick.

Last week, six staff members at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, including the volleyball coach and Principal Sharon Thomas, were reassigned under suspicion that they didn't report a hazing incident last fall involving the boys varsity volleyball team. A few days later, four students were suspended as well.

It's a serious issue because, if true, the administrators are guilty of failing to report a suspicion of child abuse, and that could be cause for termination.

If that incident weren't shocking enough, during the very same week three top officials at Porter Middle School in Granada Hills were reassigned for allegedly conducting a drug sting on campus involving their students. Indeed, according to police, the three administrators, including school Dean Laura Custodio, asked one student to try to buy marijuana from another student.

If this is true, not only would they be guilty of serious irresponsibility, but they could be charged with actual crimes.

One thing seems clear from these two incidents: Not only have LAUSD schools failed at educating; they are now contributing to the delinquency of their charges.

Good grief! As if things aren't already dismal at LAUSD, now we have to worry about Nutty Administrators contributing to the delinquency of our children. Great. Just great.

You may read the rest of this editorial by clicking here.

Wow

Radio station 89.3 KPCC is currently running a series of oral history stories for their StoryCorps program.

In this latest episode, Jordan Sugar of Granada Hills interviews Porter Ranch resident Teofil Schintee about his incredible experiences as he escaped Communist Romania as a young man.

Click here to listen to this amazing story.

"Friends Don't Let Friends Vote For Walter Moore"

My friend Michael "Mayor Sam" Higby has some compelling reasons NOT to vote for Walter Moore:

I find Moore to be a poor decision-maker. First lets start off with how, according to current LA City Ethics Commission records, he has spent the nearly $300,000 he collected in both private contributions and taxpayer funded public campaign financing on things like campaign hats, bumper stickers, yard signs, fliers and radio advertising. For sure, these are all things typically associated with campaigns. But anyone who has worked on campaigns knows that getting elected requires getting out the vote. In his filings, I see nothing with respect to hiring a consultant to manage get out the vote efforts, setting up a phone banking operation or anything related to those mission critical campaign items. A campaign office, bumper stickers, rallies, radio and TV commercials are great things to stoke a candidate's ego but they are not the most important part of getting out the vote. We know Mayor Villaraigosa has troops out there this weekend. They may motivate Moore's base but his base isn't sufficient enough to get him elected. There is no indication on Moore's wesbite of phonebanking or precinct walking activities, indeed the only activity I see over the weekend was an hour and half long event at Moore's office where he handed out fliers to fans. All of this leads me to question if Moore is serious about winning. I believe he has wasted significant resources and significant opportunity. Radio talk show host Kevin James who I have great respect for makes the point that Walter is the only candidate who got out early raising money. Fair enough. But how Walter has spent the money raises serious concerns for this blogger and gives me pause as to what kind of manager Moore would be.There are a number of disturbing things many have told me with respect to their interaction with Walter. But because these are sometimes third party accounts and their side of the story I won't go into them specifically here. I feel my own experiences and that which is already documented are sufficient cause to not give Walter Moore my vote.

The LA Weekly covers Mayor Sam's condemnations of Moore here. A snippet from the Weekly blurb:

The blush is definitely off the romance between the city's leading center-right blog and immigrant-bashing, billboard-friendly mayoral candidate Walter Moore.

Higby also notes that while Moore has raised nearly $300,000, the candidate has apparently blown it all on lawn signs and bumper stickers, while making no effort to set up a phone banking system or organize precinct walkers who would canvas neighborhoods for his candidacy. In other words, Moore's campaign appears to be nothing but a narcissistic gesture and not a serious effort to challenge Villaraigosa. The Mayor Sam bill of charges against Moore seems incomplete, however, for although Higby doesn't mention Moore's shilling for the billboard industry, the L.A. Weekly recently examined the issue, as have the Street Hassle and Ron Kaye L.A. blogs.

My own reasons not to vote for Walter Moore are here.

Quite frankly, his anti-Mexican rhetoric (and this includes not only illegal Mexican immigrants, but also to hundreds of thousands of legal resident Mexican-Americans living in Los Angeles) scares me. His arrogance and lack of appreciation of this City and it's history and culture are not worthy of your vote.

"Anyone but Antonio" has been the latest rally call. I think we need to add to it: Anyone but Antonio or Walter Moore.

We need more love, less hate.

No to Walter Moore.