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Los Angeles Unified School District
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Los Angeles Unified School District ("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. During the 2007-2008 school year, LAUSD served 694,288 students, and had 45,473 teachers 38,494 other employees. It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County, after the county government. The total school district budget for 2008 was $19,986,000,000 US dollars.
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Encyclopedia
Los Angeles Unified School District ("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. During the 2007-2008 school year, LAUSD served 694,288 students, and had 45,473 teachers 38,494 other employees. It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County, after the county government. The total school district budget for 2008 was $19,986,000,000 US dollars. In enrollment breakdown by ethnic group, 73% of its students were of Hispanic origin and 11% of its students were African American. Non-Hispanic white students comprise 9% of the student population, while Asian students comprise 4%. Students of Filipino origin form 2% of the student population, and American Indian and Pacific Islanders together are less than 1%
The school district consists of Los Angeles and all or portions of several adjoining Southern California cities. LAUSD has its own police force, the Los Angeles School Police Department, which was established in 1948 to provide police services for LAUSD schools . 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.
The LAUSD has a reputation for extremely crowded schools, high drop-out and expulsion rates, low academic performance in many schools, poor maintenance and incompetent administration. 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 and South East) in 2005 and four high schools (Arleta, Contreras Learning Complex, Panorama, and East Valley) in 2006
In 2007, LAUSD's dropout rate was 33.6 percent for grades 9 through 12.
Governance
Los Angeles Unified School District is governed by a seven-member Board of Education, which 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 Ramon Cortines, after the school board decided to buyout the contract of David M. 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.
The seven 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).
Every LAUSD household or residential area is zoned to an elementary school, a middle school and a high school, in one of the eight local school districts. Each local school district is run by an area superintendent and is headquartered within the district.
History
The Los Angeles Unified School District was once composed of two separate districts: the Los Angeles City School District, formed on September 19, 1853, and the Los Angeles City High School District, formed in 1890. The latter provided 9-12 educational services, while the former did so for K-8. The two school districts merged to create what is today the LAUSD on July 1, 1961.
The annexation left the Topanga School District and the Las Vergenes Union High School District (then renamed to the West County Union High School District) as separate remnants of the high school district. LAUSD annexed the Topanga district and, as it had the same boundaries as the Topanga district, the West County Union High School District, on July 1, 1962.
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 Gutierrez 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 did not 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 (U.S.) with the total cost estimated to be $95,000,000. The system went live in January 2007. As of 2008, a number of problems have been experienced with some staff getting overpaid and some underpaid, or even not at all. Deloitte representatives and District officials have pointed fingers at each other. Some of the problems have been software and hardware, some have been due to the complexity of labor agreements, salary scales, work rules and job assignments within the district.
LAUSD cities and unincorporated areas
Source:
LAUSD serves all of the following communities:
and portions of the following communities:
List of schools and properties
Schools
LAUSD has 219 year-round schools and 439 schools on the traditional calendar. About 47% of all LAUSD students are enrolled in year round schools.
Edward R. Roybal Learning Center
The Edward R. Roybal Learning Center (previously known as Belmont Learning Center or Vista Hermosa 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 opened in 2008 as Edward R. Roybal Learning Center.
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 .
United States Academic Decathlon
The following LAUSD schools have won the United States Academic Decathlon:
- John Marshall High School, 1987, 1995
- William H. Taft High School, 1989, 1994, 2006
- El Camino Real High School, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007
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 Los Angeles mayor 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 .
- 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 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. .
Other
- José Huizar, a politician who served as a board member and president for LAUSD
- Fabian Núñez, a politician who served as the government affairs director for LAUSD
All District High School Honor Band
The All District High School Honor Band represents the finest musicians from the LAUSD's high school band programs. Band members are invited in September each year to audition for a spot on the band, which includes only brass and percussion instruments. The group, marching at a high energetic level, has marched in every Tournament of Roses Parade since 1973. Additionally, this All District High School Band provides LAUSD students with the opportunity to perform in Bandfest, at Disneyland, and on other special events. The 300 members are required "to maintain a 2.5 or greater grade point average, and stay in good standing with home school program."
Originally organized to meet the minimum requirement of having 100 members on the band to perform in the prestigious Rose Parade, the Honor Band has performed at Anaheim Stadium, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood Christmas Lane Parade (now Hollywood Christmas Parade), Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Rams and Raiders football games, and Super Bowls XI, XIV, and XVII. They were there at the Governor's Inauguration in Sacramento, XXIV Olympiad Salute, and the World Series during the past 25 years.
Stated mission of the “All City Band”:
- To provide performance opportunities for LAUSD high school musicians and auxiliary unit programs; to foster inter-school and District wide positive student relations.
- To develop the finest composite high school band that represents the Los Angeles Unified School District at high profile events.
- Promote the importance and the strength of music and auxiliary teams (dance and flags) District wide
- To support music and auxiliary teams at the high schools in the LAUSD.
See also
External links
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