LAUSD’s Monica Garcia unveils new district goals

Article in this week's Sun Community Newspapers - www.studiocitysun.com

LAUSD’s Monica Garcia unveils new district goals
BY NAZBANOO PAHLAVI

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board President Monica Garcia addressed members of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce at their monthly First Friday Club meeting January 4 at the Daily Grill in Studio City.

The gathering marked Garcia’s first community appearance in 2008.

Garcia, 39, shared stories from her educational path growing up in East Los Angeles and attending UC Berkeley. “There were so many Garcias in the Chicano studies classes that I got somebody else’s ‘F,’” she recalled.

Garcia received a heavy dose of identity politics at the school, whose emphasis on pushing minority quotas led to her now-amusing realization that “I was a person of color, which I had no idea.”

She joked that she was “shocked that my life was so much in peril” growing up as a Latina in a working class family in the barrio – labels that identified who she was as a person.

The experience, she said, fuels her drive to “change the belief system” in the LAUSD to put the 50 percent dropout rate into perspective rather than just viewing it as a statistic.

Garcia, along with a school board that was newly elected last May, has worked with Superintendent David Brewer III to devise a strategic plan that would change the course of the LAUSD.

“We do a very, very good job in L.A. with some kids,” Garcia said, citing Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School downtown as one of 28 national blue medal schools.

But despite such exceptional standouts, LAUSD still failed to meet three out of 46 yearly California assessment criteria that included language arts for special education, language arts for English learners, and graduation rates. “LAUSD cannot stay the same,” said Garcia.

As a result, the board has devised an eight-part resolution to move LAUSD forward and bring about needed change. The resolutions include recruiting top-notch teachers, training principals and administrators, paying employees on time, and refocusing facility use.

To address the low graduation rate, the “Diplomas for All” resolution has set the bar high – a graduation goal of 100 percent by 2015. To keep the district in check, a system of metrics will be used to evaluate its progress during reports to the community.

“We have an imperative to change our graduation results. We have an imperative to be the district of choice for teachers and principals and parents,” said Garcia, who said she was excited to be involved in Los Angeles education.

Garcia said the LAUSD is currently waiting to hear from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, since 80 percent of the district’s funding comes from the state level. “Our challenge today, really, we have to wait for Sacramento to tell us how much pain we’re going to endure with this budget crisis.”

Brewer assesses first year at LAUSD helm at VICA

Article out in this week's Sherman Oaks Sun
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Brewer assesses first year at LAUSD helm at VICA
BY NAZBANOO PAHLAVI

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent David Brewer III spoke about his challenges during his first year in office November 14 at the Valley Industry & Commerce Association’s (VICA) monthly Newsmaker Connection breakfast in Van Nuys.

“Everybody wants to lay it on the school district or the Superintendent – that’s the wrong answer,” Brewer said, calling for a “systematic and holistic approach” in dealing with the problems of a district with 700,000 students in grades K to 12 and 400,000 students in the adult schools.

The district has improved this year, meeting 43 out of 46 assessments in accordance with California’s “Adequate Yearly Progress Criteria.” The three unmet criteria were language arts for English language learners, language arts for special education, and graduation rates.

According to Brewer, English language acquisition is especially challenging since about 250,000 of students in grades K-12 are English language learners, even though 78 percent are native born. To determine how to best address their needs, the LAUSD will sponsor a national summit on language acquisition December 13 to 14.

In response to an editorial that day in the Los Angeles Times criticizing Brewer, the retired Navy Vice Admiral said that “they’re there for selling papers” and the problems won’t be solved with a quick fix.

“You just can’t open up a kid’s brain and pour knowledge into it,” Brewer stated. “You got to work with those children and you got to stabilize them and move forward. So in essence that’s where we are right now.”

This includes working with local organizations such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club in order to provide on-site “wrap-around services” such as mental healthcare and after-school activities. University High School in West Los Angeles already has a YMCA on campus with the eventual goal of securing satellites on East and South Los Angeles schools first.

Wrap-around services are also vital for the 24 percent transient population within the school system, a group that is increasingly moving into the Valley, Brewer said.

Responding to a question regarding the possible creation of a distinct San Fernando Valley school district, the Superintendent said he is disinclined to do this since economies of scale would yield a redundancy of programs on the one hand, and a shortage of services on the other. He does support the Valley’s acting smaller, however, and has already funneled $11 million from the central to local districts.

Although Brewer said his goal is to “focus like a laser” on learning and curriculum in the classroom, his inaugural challenge was cleaning up the BTS payroll mess – an ongoing problem for which he has instigated contract oversight to assess and ameliorate the crisis now and to watch over the system in the future.

Although the crisis has mostly been associated with LAUSD teachers and other employees, payment irregularities have also affected businesses and organizations that contract with the school district.

Jan Sobel, President & CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley, complained of a severe delay in payments expected from the after-school education enrichment grants secured under the passage of Proposition 49.

Brewer said that although he wasn’t aware of the problem, he would look into it.

VICA conference forecasts the “economics of the quality of life”

Article in this week's Sun Community Newspapers (Nov 16-22)

http://www.suncommunitynewspapers.com/index.php?page=studio-city-sun

VICA conference forecasts the “economics of the quality of life”
BY NAZBANOO PAHLAVI

The Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) held its 19th annual business forecast conference on the Economics of the Quality of Life at the Universal Hilton Hotel on November 9.

The half-day event included panels with elected officials, business representatives, professors and community leaders with discussions about workforce education, health care, traffic relief, smart growth, and risk management for business.

The meeting featured John Pitney, Professor of American Politics of Claremont McKenna College, who discussed the current political climate and race for the presidency. Despite Mitt Romney’s popularity in Iowa, Pitney foresees a Rudy Giuliani nomination for the Republican Party.

“This pro-choice, pro-gay rights former mayor of New York, who appeared in a video in drag, mind you, with Donald Trump, was endorsed by Pat Robertson,” Pitney said, as an indication of Giuliani’s widespread appeal.

Shirley Svorney, Chair of the Department of Economics at CSUN, addressed the need for officials to better draw new enterprise to the region.

“Jobs and wealth come from unexpected places,” said Svorney, who noted the benefit of other sources, in addition to the film or healthcare industries that she said have received past preferential treatment in the form of incentives.

Tyree Wieder, President of Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC), moderated a panel on workforce education that featured Monica Garcia, President of LAUSD Board of Education, and Senator Jack Scott, Chair of the CA Senate Committee on Higher Education.

Scott, former president of Pasadena City College, lauded the importance of career technical education in fulfilling students whose needs are unmet by traditional classes. A course in geometry used in the field of construction, for example, provides some students with a relatable hands-on framework to better understand the subject. “If we emphasize that in our high schools, we will reduce our high school dropout rate,” he said.

The panel also included Robert Sainz, Assistant General Manager for the Community Development Department of the City of Los Angeles, who, in partnering with LAVC, met a workforce need – a shortage of 400 MTA bus drivers. A curriculum and bridge program was designed which fully met the demand in about two years.

The topic of universal healthcare coverage on another panel produced a passionate debate on an issue that has created a “white hot political atmosphere,” according to Jot Condie, President and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, who in August proposed a one-cent sales tax to benefit healthcare reform.

Jim Lott, Executive Vice President of the Hospital Association of Southern California, stressed the immediate need for reform with 44% of all hospitals in L.A. County operating under a deficit.

The conference concluded with a luncheon featuring Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who hopes to make the crane — not the long-necked bird, but the long-necked machine used in construction — L.A.’s mascot.

“We want to do something about traffic and housing? Put them together…invest in this town,” said the mayor, who emphasized the need for smart growth.

Villaraigosa touted his recent victory in bringing Mexican tortilla manufacturer Mission Foods to the San Fernando Valley as an example of bringing business to the region.

The mayor also asked for support of the telephone utility replacement tax, which voters must decide on early next year. The measure will ask to replace the telephone utility tax, which puts an excise on cell phones, in the event it will lose legitimacy by the courts due to new IRS laws. The tax, which has helped yield $270 million for the L.A. budget, fuels the equivalent of one-third the Los Angeles Police Department.

The luncheon also featured Dale Bonner, Secretary of California’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.