Category Archives: Public School

Early Start Calendar…It’s EARLY!!

Posted on by

Aug 2013Hard to believe that for hundreds of thousands of LAUSD students and families, not to mention our teachers, school starts back in just a week. Yes, a week! Where DID the time go? Did we even have a summer?

With the adoption of the Early Start Calendar, and I’ve heard a lot of grumblings* from parents on this topic, the first day of school this “fall” (and I use that term lightly), is Tuesday, August 13th, 2013. Next Tuesday.

This Early Start date applies to all LAUSD Neighborhood schools, Magnet schools, Affiliated Converted Charter Schools, Language Immersions and Pilot Schools. Independent charters, however, have the autonomy to set their own calendars, so many will start in late August or after Labor Day in September.

Not to feel left out, the surrounding school districts are also upping their start times into August this year. So gather up your back-to-school supplies, dust off those backpacks and sharpen your No 2 pencils…it’s going to be another great, albeit early, year! Hey, it just means that next summer vacay will come sooner too!

To view the entire 2013-14 LAUSD calendar, including winter and spring break dates, see:
2013-14 LAUSD Calendar

Santa Monica-Malibu Schools start back on Thursday, August 22nd.
2013-14 SMMUSD Calendar

Culver City schools will start on Monday, August 26th.
2013-14 CCUSD Calendar

Tip: If you are headed to an independent charter, check their website, Facebook feed or newsletter to find out their start date. Each one is unique.

Alright kids, enjoy what’s left of it! Summer, that is.

*Note: to read through previous grumblings on this topic, see the comment thread from when I originally posted the new calendar. Here.

Open Enrollment Applications Accepted Now Through May 24th

Posted on by

OpenEnrollment Every year LAUSD offers up a list of schools that have seats available to anyone who would like to apply for them through a process called Open Enrollment (OE). This is an easy way to transfer to another school without having to jump through all the hoops one typically does with the permitting process.

Every year the District determines which schools will have open seats and how many for the following fall, then posts the list in May on their website. Schools are listed under their Educational Service Center: North, South, East, or West.

During the application window, which opened this year on Mon, May 6th and closes on Fri, May 24th, you may go to as many of the OE schools listed and apply for a seat. Applications are available at each school site, and are a brief one-page transfer request.

At the end of the application period, if there are more seats than applicants, everyone who applied will be offered enrollment. If there are more applicants than seats, the school site will hold its own lottery to determine who gets offered enrollment and the sequence of their waitlist. You may apply to as many OE schools as you like. Once enrolled on an OE transfer, you do not need to reapply each year.

For more info, see

LAUSD OE info page:
http://tinyurl.com/lyg2aj3

2013-14 Open Enrollment List 
http://tinyurl.com/k6qn8rq

SAS Applications Accepted Now Through April 30th

Posted on by

GATEIf your child qualifies, NOW is the time to get those SAS applications in. (SAS stands for Schools For Advanced Studies.) The deadline to apply to an SAS school is Tuesday, April 30th for the 2013-14 school year. Acceptance notifications will come out May 6-10th.

In order to apply to an SAS school, students must meet eligibility requirements, either by being identified as GATE (Gifted and Talented), verified by their teacher and principal, or by meeting specific testing thresholds.

If your child is wait listed at their magnet choice and you haven’t yet heard if they got into that charter school, SAS programs (if they qualify) can be another school option to consider. You may apply to more than one SAS program, you apply directly at the school site, and the school will determine which applicants get accepted or not at the end of the application period. Sometimes its handled on a first-come first served basis, other schools base student enrollment on a more selective criteria and student review.

For more on SAS (Schools for Advanced Studies) programs, including eligibility requirements and the list of school programs in each local area, see:

http://www.lausd.net/lausd/offices/GATE/prog-opt-3.html

Magnet Acceptance Letters Sent!

Posted on by

eChoices

If you applied for the magnet or one of the echoices programs, you should have received both an email (if you applied online) and  a hard copy letter in the mail this week announcing your initial results.

If you were waitlisted, do not despair just yet. There is still a long time to go, namely several months and 4 weeks into the school year or mid-September, before things are completely finalized.

If you received an acceptance letter, you have until Friday April 19th, 2013 to either accept or decline the offer. You must respond. If you delay and avoid and do not respond, (eh herm, some people actually think this tactic will work), that will be considered a decline.

After April 19th, remaining seats (by those who declined them in the initial offer) will be offered to the next students on the wait list. This process of working their way down the wait list and offering remaining seats to the next on the list will continue through April, May and June. School offices will close for the month of July but getting all the seats filled will resume again in the beginning of August – through the first day of school, Tuesday August 13th – and continue until all the seats are filled and settled at the end of the 4th week of school, September 13, 2013.

After then, if you still have not received a magnet offer, then your wait list points will become finalized for the 2013-14 school year.

I hope this is clear. Mainly, I hope this gives you some clarity that there’s still plenty of time to get offered a spot. Good luck, all!

Mailer Maelstrom

Posted on by

P1090944

Parents,

This School Board race is getting out of hand. It’s no secret that our little race, especially BD4 covering the Westside thru parts of the West Valley and into upper Hollywood, is garnering national attention. With NYC Mayor Bloomberg throwing money into the race as well as lots of other outside interests from the reformer PACS to the collective union PACS, it’s becoming a real dogfight. The negative ads are downright distasteful, and not at all representative of either human being running for office.

What I hope people understand is that these ads flooding your mailboxes are filled with misleading rhetoric at best and downright lies at worst, and are usually NOT paid for, approved by, or even representative of the candidates themselves.

This is our “independent expenditures” category gone wild and run rampant throwing unlimited dollars into the fray at the same time we limit individual campaign contributions to $1000 per registered voter. Personally, I think we’ve sunk to a new low as outside groups spend millions of dollars battling for control of our local school board.

Hey Super PACS…here’s a novel thought. Spend your money on our kids! We sure could use a few million and definitely could use it in more productive ways.

In the meantime, please stay focused on the issues that REALLY matter, the ones that will affect OUR children’s future school experience as you select a candidate…such as how will you prioritize the budget, will you support continued charter growth or try to shut it down, what will you do about the growing co-location issue, how can we truly get rid of poor teachers, what about our middle and hight schools that still lag behind???

Please listen to the issues, listen to the candidates themselves, and decide who you think will be the most decisive and effective leader. And parents, please vote next Tuesday! We typically are completely under-represented at the polls. These are our kids. It’s time to activate on their behalf.

Listen to my “Meet the Candidates” PODCAST and decide for yourself!

LAUSD 2013-14 Calendar Approved by School Board

Posted on by

It’s official. Last Tuesday, the School Board voted in the 2013-14 Calendar. First day of school in the “Fall” is Tues, August 13th. Major holidays are also noted.

http://home.lausd.net/ourpages/auto/2013/1/9/46336778/Single%20Track%202013-2014%20Bd%20Approved%20–%202-12-2013.pdf

Pilot Schools – The New Autonomy

Posted on by

This is a great article by LA School Report, breaking down of the types of new autonomy models the district is dishing up. Look for more schools to follow in these footsteps as they try to staunch the flow of charter startups and conversions.

Some of the benefits of these new models of autonomy are the “thin contract” or “elect to work” contract hashed out between LAUSD and the teachers union, UTLA, requiring teachers to attend training, put in more hours, and face the possibility of being fired if they don’t pan out. Also included are varying amounts of school-site autonomy over things like budget, curriculum, and other governance issues.

http://laschoolreport.com/autonomy-models-a-real-utla-lausd-compromise/

12 new pilot schools were approved at the last school board meeting, and more go before the board next month.

SAS Apps Available April 1-30th

Posted on by

SAS, (which stands for Schools For Advanced Studies), will open their application window April 1-April 30th for the 2013-14 school year. Acceptance notifications will come out May 6-10th.

In order to apply to an SAS school, students must meet eligibility requirements, either by being identified as GATE (Gifted and Talented), verified by their teacher and principal, or by meeting specific testing thresholds.

For more on SAS (Schools for Advanced Studies) programs, including eligibility requirements and the list of school programs in each local area, see:

http://www.lausd.net/lausd/offices/GATE/prog-opt-3.html

It also helps to tour specific programs, as each SAS program varies significantly from school to school depending on who runs it, how they run it, and how many students they have in the program.

**Also, since April 1st is Cesar Chavez Day and technically a holiday, SAS apps will actually be accepted beginning April 2nd, not April 1st.

Inter-District Permit Requests Accepted Now

Posted on by

Inter-District permit requests (leaving LAUSD for another district) are being accepted now, Feb 1st through April 30th online.

Potential reasons to apply are to leave the District are: Business Address, a Specialized Program that impacts the core curriculum (such as language immersion) NOT replicated in an LAUSD school, Sibling of existing permit holder, and the dubious Exception permit decided on a case-by-case basis.

Questions can be fielded to Melissa Schoonmaker at 213.241.5255 in the Permit Office.

For online apps, go here:

https://permits.lausd.net
or
http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33%2C168887&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP