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Friday, August 23, 2013

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Education Headlines

Friday, August 23, 2013

Fresno, Clovis school districts on economic upswing but face large class sizes

A review of California's 30 largest school districts shows two Valley districts are successfully digging out of the Great Recession, even as they contend with large class sizes and high numbers of impoverished students.

LAUSD has deal for ad-free Bing searches

Students and staff at L.A. Unified School District can now use the Microsoft Bing search engine without having to see ads or adult-content links in their search results.

LAUSD charged with violating union contract in teacher evaluation

Los Angeles Unified’s teachers union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school district, saying administrators failed to negotiate key changes to a controversial performance evaluation system now being used to review educators.

L.A. schools top lists of California’s best charters

High Tech High in Lake Balboa was named Thursday as the top charter high school in California by the University of Southern California, which included 11 other Los Angeles-area campuses in its annual ranking of the best independent schools.

Key education bills await action as session deadline looms

Whatever education bills the Legislature passes in the next four weeks will pale in importance compared to its monumental achievement of 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula, Gov. Jerry Brown’s sweeping school finance and accountability plan that legislators enacted as part of the state budget in June.
Thursday, August 22, 2013

Survey suggests Conejo Valley voters would support school bond

A survey of Conejo Valley voters has found modest support for a $229 million school bond measure to raise money for science and technology upgrades, infrastructure repairs and campus safety.

Chico district being cautious in face of enrollment dip

A report that was going to highlight some of the rosy fiscal news in the Chico Unified School District was shelved Wednesday night when an entirely unexpected dip in enrollment hit during the first days of the new school year.

Supervisors reject school bonds due to district’s financial woes

As Garden Grove school officials stare down a major structural budget deficit, the Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday rejected their request to issue $120 million in bonds for infrastructure repairs.

Private police for public schools?

They huddled in coffee shops, diners, and conference rooms – former cops itching, on some level, to get back in the game. One guy knew another who knew another. Soon, a loose affiliation of ex-law enforcement types congealed into about a dozen. What brought them together? The horror of Dec. 14, 2012, when a madman armed for slaughter fatally shot 20 children, ages 6 and 7, and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School.