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  • LAUSD receives mostly ‘B’ grades from district parents, survey reveals

    LAUSD receives mostly ‘B’ grades from district parents, survey reveals


    Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, right, with students at Miles Avenue Elementary School in Huntington Park.

    Credit: Twitter / LAUSDSup

    Parents and guardians of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District offer mixed reviews of the nation’s second-largest school district, scoring it low on how it disseminates information and considers parents’ perspectives but generally high on the quality of education their children are receiving. Specifically, less than a quarter give the district an “A,” according to the Family Insights survey, conducted by GPSN and Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Equity for English Learners.  

    The 2023 survey also marks the second year of the district’s four-year strategic plan under Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who garnered approval from two-thirds of survey respondents. 

    Forty-one percent of parents in the survey give district schools a ‘B’ overall — and 43% give the same grade to their children’s individual campus. 

    “Families generally feel positive about the quality of teaching and instruction in their direct school and their own child’s academic performance, but gave mixed results on the district’s overall performance,” according to the report.

    “Raising up family perspectives on the state of the district and its performance is key this year when we may expect to see progress from the many investments made to address learning loss and other impacts of the pandemic on students.” 

    The Penta Group, an independent research firm, surveyed a random sample of more than 500 district parents and guardians between Aug. 22 and Sept. 14, 2023 — asking them about the district’s progress and what they would like to see LAUSD focus on. 

    The survey sample was representative of Los Angeles families “with students attending district, magnet, pilot, and both affiliated and independent charter public schools, and aligns with key demographic variables of enrollment by grade level, race/ethnicity, school type, English learner status, language spoken in the home, board district enrollment, and family income level.”

    Academics 

    According to the report, parents throughout the district say they are satisfied with their children’s education and would like to see LAUSD invest in more enrichment opportunities and individualized support. However, many do not understand how their child or the district as a whole is performing. 

    Specifically, 82% of parents surveyed say instruction at their children’s school is “good” or “excellent.” 

    Parents’ broader perception of LAUSD’s academic performance, however, paints a different picture. A little more than half of parents think the majority of district students perform at grade level in reading and math. 

    Three-quarters of LAUSD parents surveyed also think their own child is performing at grade level in core subject areas. 

    In reality, however, 41% of students in the district met state standards in English language arts this past year, while 30.5% met state standards in math, according to state standardized test scores. 

    “As a family member, a parent or a guardian, you’re looking for the basic thing: Can my kids read? Can they do math at whatever level you think that’s appropriate?” said Ana Teresa Dahan, GPSN’s managing director. 

    “But … what type of words you’re reading and what your comprehension is really what differentiates having a basic skill versus being at grade level, and I think that’s like a nuance families don’t always understand.” 

    Families that make more than $60,000 are more likely to believe their child is performing adequately, the survey found. In contrast, only 28% of low-income families and 27% of families of English learners have the same confidence in their child performing at grade level. 

    “When you’re sending your kids to your neighborhood public school, there’s a trust that … the school is delivering on getting your kids at grade level,” Dahan said. “Unless someone is telling them that that’s not happening, I think they just inherently are trusting that it’s occurring.” 

    In previous years, the survey revealed a high demand for additional academic support as well as after-school and summer enrichment opportunities. And this year, the number of parents calling for that assistance — including one-on-one tutoring — increased even more.

    Parents “recognize and respect the challenges schools are facing and teachers are facing” in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dahan said. “You can’t just expect a teacher or the school to solve the entire challenge of what the pandemic brought to students and families and communities.” 

    Fifty-six percent of parents name high-quality tutoring as their top priority for the district as a whole —– marking a 25 percentage point increase over the past two years. Meanwhile, 54% say they want to see LAUSD offer free, widely accessible summer programs. 

    And specifically at their child’s school, 85% of parents — and 93% of English learner families — say they want one-on-one or group tutoring on campus.

    More than half of parents surveyed also voiced strong support for enrichment programs, including arts programs, sports and coding. 

    “We’re also seeing, for students in particular, what those 18 months of isolation did,” Dahan said.

    “Families are recognizing (that) impact (on) their students, whether that means not wanting to go to school or not being happy at home. … They know that straight learning at school isn’t going to bring back the joy, right? So, it’s the enrichment opportunities that do that.”

    Emotional support 

    Additional support for students’ mental health is also a top concern among the parents, with 45% of respondents naming counseling and therapy as their third priority for the district overall. 

    In comparison, 32% of parents made the same request in 2021, and 44% called for the same in 2022. 

    Food assistance 

    For the first time in the survey’s history, 38% of families called for food assistance to be more readily available on their child’s campus. 

    “The district has done a lot in the years (to feed students)” Dahan said. 

    “We know that the people most impacted coming out of the pandemic … continue to be families in low-income households. And, as different government financial support has faded away, I think we’re starting to see the effects of that in LAUSD.” 

    Internet connectivity 

    During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, LAUSD promised to provide a laptop to every student and provide free internet access to families in need. But now, nearly three-quarters of the families surveyed said they experience a barrier to consistent, quality internet access. That number, however, marks a 10% improvement since 2021. 

    This year, 42% say the cost of internet is a barrier, while 34% said their challenges had more to do with securing a good quality connection. 

    Twenty-six percent, however, attribute their challenges to their geographical area.

    Community involvement and communication 

    Parents also said they feel their input is increasingly insignificant to the district — and that they would like communication from LAUSD to improve, especially concerning academic standards. 

    Specifically, the number of parents who feel their thoughts matter “a great deal in school and district decisions” decreased by 9 percentage points, only accounting for 40% in 2023. That drop was even larger for low-income families, the study found. 

    Meanwhile, most families applaud LAUSD for timely and accessible communications, but more than half also say it “takes a lot of effort” to understand the messages. 

    Forty-eight percent of parents say they want to receive district communications via an app, while 44% said they prefer email. 

    More than half of the parents also say they want more information about academic standards and a better idea about what their child is learning in the classroom. Fifty-two percent also said they want to know whether district students are performing at grade level in the main subject areas. 

    “We want to ensure that families receive accessible and understandable information that aligns with their expectations and needs,” Dahan said. “That’s also going to be a factor not only just accessing programs, but their understanding of where their child is.” 

    A future in LAUSD 

    Despite mixed reviews in various areas, about 90% of families said they would likely keep their children in the district until they graduate from high school. 

    Respondents who said they are “extremely likely” to keep their children enrolled in the district, however, dropped by about 18 percentage points in the past year from 53% to 35%, according to the study. And the number of families who are “not very or not at all likely to stay” in LAUSD has increased from 3% to 8%.

    Forty-two percent of families that voiced an interest in leaving the district — which included disproportionate rates of low-income families, families of English learners and white families — said they would most likely pursue a charter school. 

    Private schools lagged in popularity for those considering leaving the district and would be the first choice of roughly 32% of families, while 28% said they would take their child to a public school in another district altogether. 

    “Whatever perspective families had about communications, or even their policies, the district (and the superintendent) really did rate high,” Dahan said. 

    “Effective leadership plays a pivotal role in driving school improvement and meeting the diversities of our community. I think that is a signal that families think that the district is going in the right direction. It also underscores the importance of sustained leadership support in fulfilling these aspirations of our families and kind of fostering a thriving educational environment.”





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  • What to know about public health guidelines as LAUSD students return from the holidays

    What to know about public health guidelines as LAUSD students return from the holidays


    Third graders at Hooper Avenue School in Los Angeles wear their mask during class.

    Credit: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Polaris

    As students return to school after holiday travel and festivities, respiratory illnesses are at high levels in Los Angeles, with many suffering from a mix of Covid and the flu. 

    During the week leading up to Dec. 28 and with Covid-19 strain JN. 1 having become dominant, the LA County Department of Public Health reported an average of 621 cases each day, marking a 25% increase from the previous week. 

    The Department of Public Health also said the figures are an “undercount” since most tests are done at home and not reported to medical staff. Meanwhile, for the first time this season, the county has entered the CDC’s “medium” category for Covid hospitalizations. Mask mandates have been reinstated in health care facilities.

    “There have been notable, yet not unexpected, increases in COVID-19 reported cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” according to a news release from the LA County Department of Public health. 

    “While recent increases are significant, they remain considerably below last winter’s peak and common-sense protections are strongly recommended to help curb transmission and severe illness as the new year begins.”

    Earlier this season, 23% of LA County residents participating in a text message survey said they had experienced a cough or shortness of breath within a week of Dec. 10, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

    More specifically, they reported that about 18% of specimens tested at Sentinel Surveillance Labs in LA County came back positive for the flu — marking a 4% increase from the previous week. And, in the week leading up to Dec. 16, more than 12% of specimens came back positive for RSV. 

    “Respiratory infections among children and adults are increasing this winter season. These infections are not limited to Flu and COVID-19,” read a message from LAUSD. “We are also seeing a rise in Respiratory Syncytial Virus, also known as RSV.”

    Before going on winter break, between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12, LAUSD also reported 528 Covid cases, according to the district dashboard. 

    LAUSD and the LA County Department of Public Health suggest parents follow these guidelines for determining when a child should be home, come to school and how to stay healthy. 

    What should I do if my child tests positive for Covid? 

    Whether symptomatic or not, students with Covid should stay home for five days, following either testing positive or experiencing symptoms. 

    Those who are immunocompromised, however, may isolate for longer periods, according to the district. 

    If my child tests positive for Covid, when is it safe for them to return to the classroom? Do they need to provide a negative test result before coming back? 

    Students do not need to provide a negative antigen test to return to class between days six and 10. And following day five, if your child has been without a fever for 24 hours without taking fever-reducing medicines, and their symptoms are improving, they can return to the classroom. 

    If, however, the symptoms come back after the isolation period, the student should test again, according to the district. 

    What does it mean if my child is a “close contact?” What do I do then? 

    If your child is in the same indoor space for Covid for 15 minutes within 24 hours with someone positive, they are a “close contact.” 

    In that case, the district asks that your child’s health be monitored for 10 days following the exposure. They also recommend masking and testing between the third and fifth days. 

    What about other illnesses like the flu or RSV? Do the same rules apply? 

    If your child has a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher — or if they are vomiting or have diarrhea —  they should stay home, according to the district. 

    What should I communicate to the school? How do I ensure my child’s absence is excused?

    If your child has Covid, upload the result onto the Daily Pass. 

    And regardless of the sickness, absences due to illness are excused. To excuse an absence, provide the school with documentation within 10 days of your child’s return to class. 

    If the school does not receive documentation, the absence will count as uncleared or unexcused, meaning it can count toward truancy. 

    Where do I find free Covid tests, vaccinations and treatments to keep my child healthy? 

    LAUSD provides Covid-19 home test kits at each school site. Libraries and other community centers may also supply tests. 

    Additionally, as of Nov. 20, the federal government provides each household with four home tests for free, according to the LA County Department of Public Health. 

    How do we stay healthy? 

    The LA County Department of Public Health suggests testing, not only if you have been exposed or have symptoms, but also if you have attended larger gatherings or have visited individuals who are more susceptible to illness.  

    They also recommend washing hands frequently and masking in crowded indoor areas as well as in spaces that are poorly ventilated to prevent Covid, RSV and the flu. 





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  • LAUSD agrees to issue $500 million in bonds to settle sexual abuse claims

    LAUSD agrees to issue $500 million in bonds to settle sexual abuse claims


    The Los Angeles Unified school board did not discuss the bonds for settling sexual abuse claims before members authorized them on June 3.

    Credit: Livestream recordings of LAUSD board meetings

    The article was updated on June 18 to include LAUSD’s previously undisclosed information revising total costs of the bonds it authorized to settle sexual abuse claims against it.

    Top Takeaways
    • School trustees authorize bonds without comment or public explanation.
    • The total cost of $500 million in bonds could reach $765 million.
    • Other districts also face massive costs in response to a 2019 state law.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District board has quietly authorized issuing a half-billion dollars in bonds to settle decades-old sexual abuse cases involving former students. 

    And that will likely not be enough to settle all the claims the nation’s second-largest school district is facing under 2019 legislation that allows victims of abuse by school employees to seek damages for incidents dating back decades.

    Since Jan. 1, 2020, LAUSD has received approximately 370 child abuse claims under Assembly Bill 218, of which 81 cases have been settled or dismissed, according to data that LAUSD released this week. The district stated it is currently defending against more than 275 claims; approximately 76 allege abuses dating back to the 1940s through 1970s, while 45 to 50 claims allege abuses in the 1980s. 

    Board members approved the expenditure on June 3 without comment or a public presentation, agreeing to borrow up to $500 million through judgment obligation bonds.  Unlike bonds for school construction, they did not require voter approval. The claims are not covered by insurance carriers. 

    The scant information in the meeting agenda estimated the total cost of the bonds, including principal and interest, at $899 million. It assumed a now outdated 6.10% interest rate, documents show (see Page 3).

    On Monday, the district lowered its estimate. It said it would initially issue $303 million in 15-year bonds, instead of 20-year bonds, at the current interest rate of 5.6%. At that rate, the total cost of $500 million in bonds would be $765 million.

    “The board has been talking about judgment obligation bonds for, I would say, about a year and a half,” board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said in an interview. Spreading out the payments means “the district’s current students aren’t punished by depleting resources,” she said.

    No public hearings were held. Board members were briefed about the matter in small groups, she said. “We also had several conversations in closed sessions, as we typically do with legal cases.” She did not disclose the number of claims made against the district or how many were settled.

    The district administration will likely ask the board to approve more borrowing next year to settle additional claims, Ortiz Franklin said. 

    The district is far from alone in facing massive payouts to victims who have filed claims under the legislation, Assembly Bill 218, which experts say is impacting local public agencies throughout the state.

    Los Angeles County alone is facing $4 billion in settlements involving formerly incarcerated juveniles and foster youth.

    By taking on long-term debt to deal with the AB 218 cases, LAUSD is “lessening any potential impacts to (its) core education programs in the near term,” by spreading out the settlement costs, supporting documents provided to board members stated. Nonetheless, issuing $500 million in bonds would reduce spending on students by tens of millions of dollars annually from the district’s general fund during the years it takes to pay off the bonds. 

    In a statement this week that pointed to potential costs that could “bankrupt entire school systems,” LAUSD urged state leaders and advocates to work with districts “to ensure we can meet our moral obligation to survivors while still protecting the essential right to a free, high-quality public education for all students.”

    “Los Angeles Unified unequivocally believes that survivors of sexual abuse deserve to be heard, supported, and empowered to pursue justice on their own terms. AB 218 has enabled victims of childhood sexual assault to seek justice with less legal limitations,” it stated. 

    “However, we must also acknowledge the very real and unintended consequences”  on  school districts that “may face lawsuits from decades past, even when current leadership, policies, and practices have changed dramatically,” it continued.

    AB 218, brought by then-Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, rolled back the statute of limitations for abuse claims involving public employees like teachers to “22 years from the date the plaintiff” becomes an adult “or within 5 years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that the psychological injury or illness occurring after” reaching adulthood was caused by sexual assault. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill on Oct. 13, 2019.

    Messages left at Gonzalez’s office were not returned. 

    Legislative records show that proponents of AB 218 argued that sexual assault scandals involving the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts showed that victims of child sexual abuse sometimes took years to come forward, often after the statute of limitations to seek damages had expired. 

    “Victims who are ready to come forward today deserve an opportunity to expose their perpetrators and those who covered up the abuse,” members of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Victim Policy Institute told lawmakers, records show.

    Opponents of the bill, including the California Association of School Business Officials and other groups, expressed concerns about cost.

    “It will be impossible for employers to effectively defend against these claims when evidence is likely gone, witnesses have moved or passed away, and there has been a turnover of staff,” a summary of opponents’ concerns in legislative archives stated. “With these barriers, schools will be unable to adequately respond to these claims. This failure will result in diversion of funding intended to educate students and serve communities to financing increased legal costs, whether or not the claim is valid.”

    A Senate staff analysis warned of “unknown, potentially major out-year costs to local entities and school districts to the extent litigation is successfully brought outside the current statute of limitations and/or the entities are liable for damages.”  The bill was unanimously passed by both the Senate and the Assembly.

    Last week, in an interview, an advocate for taxpayers was critical of the debts the legislation created for school districts and other agencies. 

    “These bonds are going to hang around the necks of school districts for decades,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “There has to be a statute of limitations,” he said. “Witnesses are probably gone. All cases have to be time-barred at some point. This is bad policy.”

    School districts across the state are facing similar claims allowed by AB 218 and facing crises of how to pay for settlements, according to a January report by the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT. As the matter evolves, there is no firm number of the number of claims so far brought against districts, “but the best estimate is $2 billion to $3 billion.” 

    “A comprehensive analysis of claims is not available,” the report states. “But what we can conclude is that the impact is significant.” 

    FCMAT concluded that “the goal should be to completely eliminate childhood sexual assault in public schools” and to “increase mandated training to build awareness of, and reporting options for, childhood sexual assault.”

    Other recommendations, such as creating a victim compensation fund to eliminate claims brought against individual public agencies, have received little support in the Legislature and were opposed by plaintiffs’ attorneys, the FCMAT’s chief executive officer, Michael Fine, said in an interview.

    The claims and settlements, Fine said, continue to pile up. “The data changes daily.”





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  • LAUSD agrees to fund $900 million to settle sexual assault lawsuits

    LAUSD agrees to fund $900 million to settle sexual assault lawsuits


    The Los Angeles Unified school board did not discuss the bonds for settling sexual assault lawsuits before members authorized them on June 3.

    Source: Livestream recordings of Los Angeles Unified board meetings

    Top Takeaways
    • School trustees authorize bonds without comment or public explanation.
    • Lawmakers were warned of the financial impact of erasing the statute of limitations.
    • Other districts also face massive costs in response to a 2019 state law.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District board has quietly approved borrowing nearly $900 million — including interest — to settle decades-old sexual assault cases involving former students. 

    And that will likely not be enough to settle all the claims the nation’s second-largest school district is facing under 2019 legislation that allows victims of abuse by school employees to seek damages for incidents dating back to the 1970s. District spokesperson Britt Vaughan would not say how many claims the district faces, the number that have been settled and what they have cost to date.

    Board members approved the expenditure on June 3 without comment, agreeing to borrow up to $500 million through judgment obligation bonds with an estimated 6.10% interest rate, documents show. Unlike bonds for school construction, they did not require voter approval. The debt is due to be paid off in 15 years. The claims are not covered by insurance carriers. 

    This fiscal year, the district’s undisclosed number of settlement claims was roughly $302 million, Vaughan said.

    “The board has been talking about judgment obligation bonds for, I would say, about a year and a half,” board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said in an interview. Spreading out the payments means “the district’s current students aren’t punished by depleting resources,” she said.

    No public hearings were held. Board members were briefed about the matter in small groups, she said. “We also had several conversations in closed sessions, as we typically do with legal cases.” She did not disclose the number of claims made against the district or how many were settled.

    The district administration will likely ask the board to approve more borrowing next year to settle additional claims, Ortiz Franklin said. 

    The district is far from alone in facing massive payouts to victims who have filed claims under the legislation, Assembly Bill 218, which experts say is impacting local public agencies throughout the state.

    Los Angeles County alone is facing $4 billion in settlements involving formerly incarcerated juveniles and foster youth.

    By taking on long-term debt to deal with the AB 218 cases, LAUSD is “lessening any potential impacts to (its) core education programs in the near term,” by spreading out the settlement costs, supporting documents provided to board members stated. Nonetheless, the cost of paying down the bonds will reduce spending on students from the district’s general fund by tens of millions of dollars annually for the 15 years after the bond is issued. 

    AB 218, brought by then-Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, rolled back the statute of limitations for abuse claims involving public employees like teachers to “22 years from the date the plaintiff” becomes an adult “or within 5 years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that the psychological injury or illness occurring after” reaching adulthood was caused by sexual assault. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill on Oct. 13, 2019.

    Messages left at Gonzalez’s office were not returned. 

    Legislative records show that proponents of AB 218 argued that sexual assault scandals involving the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts showed that victims of child sexual abuse sometimes took years to come forward, often after the statute of limitations to seek damages had expired. 

    “Victims who are ready to come forward today deserve an opportunity to expose their perpetrators and those who covered up the abuse,” members of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Victim Policy Institute told lawmakers, records show.

    Opponents of the bill, including the California Association of School Business Officials and other groups, expressed concerns about cost.

    “It will be impossible for employers to effectively defend against these claims when evidence is likely gone, witnesses have moved or passed away, and there has been a turnover of staff,” a summary of opponents’ concerns in legislative archives stated. “With these barriers, schools will be unable to adequately respond to these claims. This failure will result in diversion of funding intended to educate students and serve communities to financing increased legal costs, whether or not the claim is valid.”

    A Senate staff analysis warned of “unknown, potentially major out-year costs to local entities and school districts to the extent litigation is successfully brought outside the current statute of limitations and/or the entities are liable for damages.”  The bill was unanimously passed by both the Senate and the Assembly.

    Last week, in an interview, an advocate for taxpayers was critical of the debts the legislation created for school districts and other agencies. 

    “These bonds are going to hang around the necks of school districts for decades,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “There has to be a statute of limitations,” he said. “Witnesses are probably gone. All cases have to be time-barred at some point. This is bad policy.”

    School districts across the state are facing similar claims allowed by AB 218 and facing crises of how to pay for settlements, according to a January report by the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT. As the matter evolves, there is no firm number of the number of claims so far brought against districts, “but the best estimate is $2 billion to $3 billion.” 

    “A comprehensive analysis of claims is not available,” the report states. “But what we can conclude is that the impact is significant.” 

    FCMAT concluded that “the goal should be to completely eliminate childhood sexual assault in public schools” and to “increase mandated training to build awareness of, and reporting options for, childhood sexual assault.”

    Other recommendations, such as creating a victim compensation fund to eliminate claims brought against individual public agencies, have received little support in the Legislature and were opposed by plaintiffs’ attorneys, the FCMAT’s chief executive officer, Michael Fine, said in an interview.

    The claims and settlements, Fine said, continue to pile up. “The data changes daily.”





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  • ‘My confidence grew’: LAUSD student board member works to elevate Latino, student voices 

    ‘My confidence grew’: LAUSD student board member works to elevate Latino, student voices 


    Credit: Courtesy of LAUSD/KLCS-TV

    After hours of test taking last May, Karen Ramirez perked up when she saw a district leader and a camera crew walking onto her high school campus. 

    She had a hunch good news awaited. 

    Her instincts were right — then-17-year-old Ramirez was about to learn she had been elected as LAUSD’s student board member.  

    “I turned around, and I was like, ‘Wait, I think this means something happened,’” Ramirez, a senior at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy, said. “Eventually, I walked into my classroom because they brought cameras to film my reaction, and that’s when it hit. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I think I got it!’”

    Since launching her campaign last February, Ramirez has made it her mission to promote student leadership across the district and to support the district’s Latino community. 

    “I know this is a position that not every student has in the district,” she said. “And to be able to be the one to experience all this, I feel very privileged.”

    A path to the board 

    Ramirez’s path to LAUSD’s school board began when she was in the eighth grade and on LAUSD’s Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, a group that meets with the superintendent several times each year to provide student input on the district’s efforts. 

    “I thought it would be a really nice idea to get an insider’s perspective into what’s going on,” Ramirez said. “Being able to see how (the committee has) evolved has definitely been an amazing thing.” 

    Ramirez has remained on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council since, tallying up nearly five years of district leadership. Being part of the board, she said, has been a “constant” in her educational journey. 

    One day during her junior year, an older mentor on the advisory council told her about the student position on the Los Angeles Unified School District board, and Ramirez’s campaign began. 

    “I started off just kind of thinking ‘Oh, OK, I just want to see what happens next,’ but then, as I got involved in the campaign process and started seeing how many students I would actually be representing in the district, that’s when it really became such a big passion for me,” she said. 

    “I know that my representation on the school board is something that is pretty big, especially for the Latino community.” 

    Last April, following an application and interview process, the district posted introductions to each of the position’s 10 finalists on its Instagram account, along with a brief speech made by each. Students then had two weeks to vote through an online portal. 

    “Everyone would start reposting on their Instagram stories, and they would all start campaigning for me on their own, and I didn’t even know that it was happening until after the fact, when I would talk to some friends who told me, ‘Oh, I voted for you!’” Ramirez said. 

    Elevating student voices on LAUSD’s school board

    A critical forum for Ramirez to amplify student voices is through LAUSD’s school board meetings, where she speaks on behalf of students and co-sponsors resolutions, including one honoring Latino heritage. 

    Each month — and after a week of reviewing roughly 600 pages worth of materials and a summary in preparation for the board meeting — Ramirez is pulled out of school around 11:00 a.m., after her second period class, and is driven to downtown Los Angeles for the board meeting. 

    “Once I get there, I have lunch. I prepare, I look over all the board resolutions we might be discussing in the boardroom, and I take notes. I circle any things that might be relevant to students and that I might want to comment on,” Ramirez said.  “And I also look for any board resolutions that I might want to co-sponsor.” 

    LAUSD’s student board members’ votes don’t technically count in board decisions, but they can introduce resolutions and can cast advisory votes, which school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said is “powerful” when making major decisions for the district. 

    Ramirez said it is vital that students’ voices are heard by school board members and the community at large, noting that district leadership often has to prioritize other challenges and communities. 

    “Sometimes the responsibilities that we (students) hold are big, but it’s not as big as what board members are doing. They have so much more on their plate,” Ramirez said, stressing the importance of providing students one-on-one attention. 

    “We are accessible, and (students) can reach out with any worries or comments, or just things that they want to see in the district. … I will always be attentive to the needs. … That’s the biggest thing.”

    Ramirez also emphasized the importance of individual, one-on-one interactions, where she meets with students and encourages them to attend board meetings and join the various student councils at the district level, including an Asian American Pacific Islander council, individual board members’ councils and the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council. 

    “Oftentimes, we feel a gap or lack of connectivity with our school board members, especially because our school board members are always on their platform … and so as students, a lot of times, we feel like we can’t really reach out to them,” Ramirez said. “My biggest thing is to really bridge that gap that we might feel.” 

    Bridging gaps 

    Beyond attending regular school board meetings, Ramirez has attended leadership conferences, appeared on television for Latino heritage month, reached out for collaboration with the Mexican Consulate and is working to launch a podcast later this year. 

    The podcast, she said, is in Spanish and will specifically cover topics pertinent to English learners. “That’s a community that’s really close to my heart and I always want to support,” she added.

    Ramirez’s commitment to her heritage makes her stand out, Ortiz Franklin said.

    “What’s so clear from Karen is how proud she is to be Latina, how privileged she feels to be a representative on the board in a district that is almost three-quarters Latino, and just what that means for immigrant families in particular, given how much of Los Angeles has been influenced by immigrant communities over the past generations,” Ortiz Franklin added. 

    Moving forward with confidence 

    Ramirez’s motivation to enter public service goes back to her parents, who encouraged her to take advantage of every opportunity. 

    “Some of the things that we … don’t have access to are things that you do have access to,” she remembers her parents telling her. “So if you have that opportunity, then you definitely have to take it.”

    Ramirez said, “When I was told about the student board member position, and I knew that I had the opportunity to do something for my community as a whole, I thought that that was something that I couldn’t give up.”

    Ramirez said her education at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy — LAUSD’s only all-girls school — has been especially formative in developing her confidence, not only as a board member, but as a leader in her high school’s student body and various clubs. 

    “Being in that environment around so many women, I felt like my confidence grew. In school, we always like to support each other,” Ramirez said. “I bring that confidence and that energy anywhere I go.” 

    Ramirez has accepted a scholarship to Yale University, and this fall she will become the first in her family to attend college. 

    “It’s an honor. I’m so excited to see how I experience that,” Ramirez said. “And anything that I learn there, I’ll bring that to my family and bring back to my community.” 

    Editors’ note: This story has been updated based on information made available after publication.





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  • LAUSD considers limiting charter co-locations on vulnerable campuses

    LAUSD considers limiting charter co-locations on vulnerable campuses


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    The Los Angeles Unified School District school board drew a mix of gratitude and frustration from communities throughout the region during its discussion of a policy that prevents charter schools from sharing a campus with its 100 priority schools, Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) schools and community schools. The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), along with charter supporters, said the board policy was discriminatory and threatened lawsuits against the district. 

    Borrowing from a previous resolution, the proposed new policy encourages the district to avoid co-location offers that “compromise district schools’ capacity to serve neighborhood children” and that “result in grade span arrangements that negatively impact student safety and build charter school pipelines that actively deter students from attending District schools.” 

    The policy would come into play when the district evaluates new charter schools, when charters request different or new sites or when “existing conditions change for reasons including, but not limited to, insufficient space, addition of grade levels, and other material revisions.”

    LAUSD’s school board directed Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to develop such a policy through a resolution passed last September, and the board is slated to vote on it in February. 

    The goal of the resolution, according to board President and resolution author Jackie Goldberg, is not to undo anything — but instead, to prioritize the needs of district students who are more vulnerable. She cited hostility on campuses and challenges with sharing spaces, including those used for enrichment activities and basic needs support. 

    “We’re on the right path to get past, shall we say, discomforts and disagreements on what it means to have a charter school on a campus,” said school board member George McKenna during Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole Meeting. 

    “Everyone may not be satisfied all the time, but I think the guidelines are a great opportunity.”

    Charter supporters, however, have claimed that the policy discriminates against roughly 11,000 charter students by closing off roughly 346 district campuses. These restrictions, they say, could lead to more school closures and instances where schools are split between various locations — leading to longer commutes and accessibility issues for disadvantaged students. 

    “If the board adopts the proposed policy presented today, CCSA will be left with few remaining options but to, yet again, meet LAUSD in court and enforce the rights of charter school students,” said the organization’s CEO and president, Myrna Castrejón. 

    Co-locations in LAUSD 

    As a result of Proposition 39 — a statewide initiative — public school districts throughout California are required to share space with charter schools. 

    While there are several ways for districts to share space with charters — such as pursuing private sites or long-term leases — LAUSD has opted for years to co-locate its campuses, meaning that both a regular public school and a charter school share one campus. 

    “What we have at play here in Los Angeles is very unusual. … We know how we got here, so we have a golden opportunity here to fix it, to make it better,” said district Superintendent Alberto Carvalho at Tuesday’s meeting. He added that the district should be “vigilant and honest about unintended consequences of well-intentioned policies.” 

    To secure a space, charters request facilities from LAUSD. The district then evaluates the request and comes back with a preliminary offer by Feb. 1 every year. 

    Charters are given a month to respond, after which the district has until April 1 to finalize the offer. 

    Currently, there are 50 co-located charters across the district spanning 52 sites. About 21 charters are located on sites that would be protected under the new policy. 

    While the proposed co-location policy has not yet been approved, several district officials said during Tuesday’s meeting that the proposed guidelines were considered when making this year’s offers. 

    And of the 13 new requests from charters this year, only two offers will likely be made on the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan, community and priority schools. Meanwhile, the district did not have an estimate on the number of charters that failed to receive an offer on their requested campus. 

    “Co-location is one of many ways to deal with the legal obligation to share space and our moral obligation to make sure kids are treated equally; and, we have a myopic focus on these co-locations, which are really difficult even in the best-case scenarios,” said school board member Nick Melvoin on Tuesday. 

    “This district, LA Unified, traditional schools, has lost a couple hundred thousand kids in 20 years. We definitely have enough space for everyone. We just don’t allocate it properly.” 

    In fact, as the district experiences declining enrollment because of larger demographic shifts — in both non-charters and charters — the number of facilities requests and co-location offers has also declined. 

    Specifically, over the past five years, Castrejón said charter schools’ need for space has gone down by more than 50%. 

    Instead of focusing on solutions, Melvoin claimed both charter supporters and opponents have attempted to “articulate the pain for political gain on one side or the other.” 

    “I remain disappointed in the unwillingness to actually try and solve this,” he said. 

    Support for the policy 

    The policy’s supporters have repeatedly emphasized that avoiding co-locations on Black Student Achievement Plan, community and priority schools is critical to promoting equity and protecting the district’s more vulnerable students. 

    “That’s not a political issue, that’s an issue of equity,” Goldberg said. 

    “An issue of equity says that the schools that are struggling the most to educate our students should not be given continuously more things to do, like figure out a bell schedule and how to share the cafeteria and how to share the playground and how to share the bathrooms. … That’s an additional burden on everybody on that school, really on both sides.” 

    Goldberg added that in order to avoid co-locations on vulnerable campuses, the district will need to reevaluate their definition of a “reasonable distance.” 

    Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing district teachers, have historically sided with the district on matters concerning charters and have voiced support for September’s resolution. 

    “It’s been months since the School Board passed the resolution on co-locations, but we have schools that are in the process of losing valuable classroom and learning space. Without action, there are schools that will soon have to hold counseling sessions on the playground, or will lose their computer lab,” reads a Facebook post from the union. 

    “Enough is enough. LAUSD needs to stand by its own resolution and protect our amazing programs.”

    Yolanda Tamayo, a teachers union leader from the East Area, said during public comment that Lorena Street Elementary, where she teaches, used to be co-located with a charter. 

    During that time, 10 years ago, the school allegedly “endured the dismantling of our computer lab, lost a full-time use of our library, auditorium, eating area, yard, plus the gutting of our important resources that our school desperately needed back then and now.”

    Another speaker, who teaches at an LAUSD community school, said he fears his campus could be co-located with a charter, which he believes would cost them space used to house clothes for students in need and preclude them from opening a health center and food pantry. 

    Concerns from charters 

    Supporters of charter schools have claimed, however, that the policy discriminates against charter students and could lead to “charter deserts,” harming students from marginalized communities, who make up the bulk of charter students, according to Castrejón, the CCSA president. 

    “Charter schools do pay a fee for the use of district facilities,” Castrejón said, noting that several at-risk charters are also community schools. “The cost of going to an open market in a place that is as overbuilt and as expensive as Los Angeles could actually … result in some school closures if Prop. 39 co-location is not made available.” 

    Another potential impact of the policy is an increase in multi-site offers, where charters are split across multiple LAUSD campuses, which would force families to weigh what is feasible against what they feel is right for their children, according to Keith Dell’Aquila, CCSA Greater Los Angeles local’s vice president. 

    Dell’Aquila added that split schools also lead to longer commutes and accessibility challenges for lower-income families. 

    “You may see a charter school forcibly relocated by the district that forces a family to make a choice: Are you the type of family who can travel across Los Angeles, can travel 45 minutes, has access to private transportation to get your family to that car or not?”

    Split campuses also pose challenges for school communities, he emphasized. 

    “You start to look at a school that has to do more with less with their budget, and they’ve got to have two administrators across two different sites. They’ve got to make programs work, you’ve got to make teacher [professional development] work,” Dell’Aquila said. 

    “You have a divided school culture. We’ve talked to every one of our schools who has experienced this split site offer and have said, ‘yeah, life is harder across the board.’” 

    While they cannot fully anticipate how the policy will be implemented and its effects, CCSA sent a letter to LAUSD’s school board Monday evening addressing several of their concerns with the policy, ranging from the alleged limits placed on charter school growth to the district allegedly ignoring the intent of Proposition 39. 

    The letter also threatens legal action if the board adopts the policy. 

    “A public school policy is a promise you are making to the public,” said Shawna Draxton, who has served as an educator in both regular Los Angeles public schools and charters for more than 25 years, during public comment Tuesday. 

    “My students are watching. They admire you; they care about civics; they’ve been to these meetings. And whether or not they agree with your decisions, they are looking to you to be courageous leaders.” 

    Editors’ note: This story has been updated to add a statement from UTLA.





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  • ‘Happy, but tense’: LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity

    ‘Happy, but tense’: LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity


    Jackie, a Maywood Academy High School graduate, wrapped the Mexican flag around her gown as she looked for her mother in the crowd after the ceremony.

    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Top Takeaways
    • Students and families experienced a mix of joy and anxiety before and during ceremonies.
    • Commencements remained safe amid regional ICE presence.
    • LAUSD deployed school police and communities established volunteer efforts to ensure safety.

    Maywood Academy High School’s graduation Thursday was classic in a county where nearly half its population identifies as Latino. 

    Students decorated their caps with photos of loved ones and messages of gratitude to God and their immigrant families. A student’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was met with cheers from the crowd; some graduates carried lavish bouquets of roses, commonly known as ramos buchones; their guest speaker was a prominent record label owner pivotal in the rise of corridos tumbados, a now-mainstream genre of Mexican American music with a stronghold in Los Angeles; some students’ stoles featured flags from both the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala — their families’ home countries. 

    Among them was Jackie, a graduating senior who plans to study cosmetology at Cypress College in the fall. She was wrapped in the Mexican flag, and in Spanish, her cap read: “For my mom, who arrived with nothing and gave me everything.” 

    “I’m first-generation — everything is for my mami,” said Jackie, who declined to share her last name out of fear of immigration raids by federal agents. “I’m proud of my culture.”

    Anxiety about immigration enforcement actions was omnipresent. They have largely targeted predominantly working-class, Latino, and immigrant neighborhoods like Maywood, a densely populated city that is just over 1 square mile wide.

    “I apologize to you for the words of many who insult and demean and diminish your parents, in some cases yourselves, and I have to admit to you, me. For I am you,” said Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who was once an undocumented immigrant, during the ceremony.

    Children of color make up the great majority of the district’s students, with nearly 75% identifying as Latino or Hispanic. And with families hunkering inside their homes to avoid potential interactions with ICE, many parents and relatives of this year’s graduates took the risk to celebrate.  

    “I’m so proud of her because she’s always worked hard,” said Rocio, Jackie’s mother. “We’re here with fear because of everything that is happening. And, we’re happy — but tense.” 

    On June 9, Los Angeles Unified announced a series of protocols to keep graduations as safe and normal as possible. 

    District police forces were deployed and formed a “perimeter of safety” around each LAUSD site where a graduation took place. Families were welcome to stay at the graduations as long as possible to avoid contact with ICE, and principals were instructed to avoid lines so parents didn’t have to wait on the streets. 

    The measures proved effective. And graduation ceremonies across Los Angeles Unified’s 86 senior high schools were not interrupted by any sign of immigration authorities’ presence. The final graduation ceremony is scheduled for Monday evening. 

    “We made a promise that our graduations are an extension of the school experience, therefore they’re protected spaces,” Carvalho said. 

    At the heart of ICE raids in Los Angeles

    Part of the Maywood Academy campus sits within the city limits of Huntington Park, where, on the early morning of graduation day, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was present at an ICE raid at the home of a pregnant U.S. citizen. 

    On Friday, the day after the graduation, immigration agents were seen accosting and detaining people in Maywood. In the days leading up to the ceremony, immigration agents chased day laborers at the local Home Depot in Huntington Park.

    And then there was the unspoken awareness that one of their peers, a 17-year-old Maywood Academy sophomore, was one of the hundreds of Angelenos recently detained by immigration agents. On June 3, 18 months after fleeing violence in their home country of Guatemala, Johanna, alongside her mother, Elizabeth, and youngest sister, Jessica, were detained by ICE while attending a scheduled immigration court appearance for their legal asylum case. The family declined to share their last name out of security concerns.

    Maywood Academy graduates accept their diplomas. Some wore stoles featuring flags from the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala — their families’ home countries. (Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales)
    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Johanna’s father, Hector, suddenly stopped receiving messages from his wife and daughters soon after they arrived at the court, and then they vanished for two days. He and his third daughter, Dulce, searched for them on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s website. By the time their information appeared on the site, they had been transferred to a detention center in Texas, where they remain as an attorney handles their case.

    “I want my daughters to grow up and realize all their goals in the United States,” said Hector. “They’re all so intelligent, hardworking, and really amazing people to serve this country.”

    Before the ICE raids started, his daughters had felt safe in their home and neighborhood.

    “They’re so happy here. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, and their school is nearby,” Hector said. “They’re really happy.”

    He said Maywood Academy is in constant contact, offering support, though the school declined to comment on the case. 

    Austin Santos, a geography and world history teacher who has taught both of Hector’s daughters in high school, said Johanna is on the path to becoming valedictorian and is “all-around a great student.” 

    “We made sure to tell the other students to be careful and used Johanna’s story to bring awareness to the situation because it’s not only happening at our school,” said Santos. “Her classmates and everyone around her — once the story broke, and they found out who was detained, they all rallied around her.”

    Beyond Maywood

    The area surrounding Maywood Academy is a hotbed of ICE activity. And it isn’t alone. 

    “We saw an ICE vehicle going toward St. George Church; I have friends in the court, and they’re not coming out; I saw two immigration officers on the sidewalk; there’s a community school nearby where the raid happened,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), reading Rapid Response notifications aloud during an interview with EdSource. 

    LAUSD was early to establish itself as a sanctuary district — and the school board unanimously affirmed its commitment to immigrant students in November. The resolution also vowed to “aggressively oppose” any efforts to make districts work with federal agencies on matters dealing with immigration enforcement. 

    Months later, administrators at Lillian Street Elementary and Russell Elementary, both in South Los Angeles, denied entry to two officials from the Department of Homeland Security. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KibeV-R_k

    “The district has acted superbly and bravely — and they have set up the atmosphere to … welcome everyone and ensure that every child, regardless of their immigration status or background, feels safe,” Cabrera said. 

    “They are an example for us to follow, and we will continue to collaborate with them on as many opportunities as possible.” 

    Roughly five and a half miles from Maywood, in Boyle Heights — the home of Roosevelt High School and Garfield High School — sightings of ICE agents and unmarked cars have become more common. A checkpoint was stationed just outside a freeway entrance. 

    At the same time, June 8 was supposed to be about celebrating. 

    But in a community like Boyle Heights, with its history of law enforcement violence, Roosevelt High social studies teacher Thalia Cataño said the district’s approach to commencement safety was “tone deaf.” Volunteers organized hours ahead of the graduation ceremony to have teachers, locals and members of CHIRLA’s Rapid Response team patrol the area. 

    At the same time, leading up to the ceremonies, students contemplated whether to have their families come and support them. Others wondered if they should attend their graduation.

    Most did. 

    And when the now-alumni of Roosevelt High returned to school on June 9 to officially wrap up their high school careers, they reminisced on the ceremony — the highs and lows. 

    “We’re there. We’re happy,” Cataño heard her students sharing. “But we’re looking over our shoulder … just waiting for anything to happen.” 





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  • ‘Happy, but tense’ – LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity

    ‘Happy, but tense’ – LAUSD graduations continue safely amid regional ICE activity


    Jackie, a Maywood Academy High School graduate, wrapped the Mexican flag around her gown as she looked for her mother in the crowd after the ceremony.

    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Top Takeaways
    • Students and families experienced a mix of joy and anxiety before and during ceremonies
    • Commencements remained safe amid regional ICE presence
    • LAUSD deployed school police and communities established volunteer efforts to ensure safety

    Maywood Academy High School’s graduation Thursday was classic in a county where nearly half its population identify as Latino. 

    Students decorated their caps with photos of loved ones, and messages of gratitude to God and their immigrant families. A student’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was met with cheers from the crowd; some graduates carried lavish bouquets of roses, commonly known as ramos buchones; their guest speaker was a prominent record label owner pivotal in the rise of corridos tumbados, a now-mainstream genre of Mexican-American music with a stronghold in Los Angeles; some students’ stoles featured flags from both the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala — their families’ home countries. 

    Among them was Jackie, a graduating senior who plans to study cosmetology at Cypress College in the fall. She was wrapped in the Mexican flag, and in Spanish, her cap reads: “For my mom, who arrived with nothing and gave me everything.” 

    “I’m first-generation – everything is for my mami,” said Jackie, who declined to share her last name out of fear of immigration raids by federal agents. “I’m proud of my culture.

    Anxiety of immigration enforcement actions was omnipresent. They have largely targeted predominantly working-class, Latino, and immigrant neighborhoods like Maywood, a densely populated city that is just over 1 square mile wide.

    “I apologize to you for the words of many who insult and demean and diminish your parents, in some cases yourselves, and I have to admit to you, me. For I am you,” said Los Angeles Unified superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who was once an undocumented immigrant, during the ceremony.

    Children of color make up the great majority of the district’s students, with nearly 75% identifying as Latino or Hispanic. And with families hunkering inside their homes to avoid potential interactions with ICE, many parents and relatives of this year’s graduates took the risk to celebrate.  

    “I’m so proud of her because she’s always worked hard,” said Rocio, Jackie’s mother. “We’re here with fear, because of everything that is happening. And, we’re happy — but tense.” 

    Monday, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced a series of protocols to keep graduations as safe and normal as possible. 

    District police forces were deployed and formed a “perimeter of safety” around each LAUSD site where a graduation took place. Families were welcomed to stay at the graduations as long as possible to avoid contact with ICE, and principals were instructed to avoid lines, so parents didn’t have to wait on the streets. 

    The measures proved effective. And graduation ceremonies across Los Angeles Unified’s 86 senior high schools were not interrupted by any sign of immigration authorities’ presence. The final graduation ceremony is scheduled for Monday evening. 

    “We made a promise that our graduations are an extension of the school experience, therefore they’re protected spaces,” Carvalho said. 

    At the heart of ICE raids in Los Angeles

    Part of the Maywood Academy campus sits within the city limits of Huntington Park, where, on the early morning of graduation day, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was present at an ICE raid at the home of a pregnant U.S. citizen. 

    Friday, the day after the graduation, immigration agents were seen accosting and detaining people in Maywood. In the days leading up to the ceremony, immigration agents chased day laborers at the local Home Depot.

    And then there was the unspoken awareness that one of their peers, a 17-year-old Maywood Academy sophomore, is one of the hundreds of Angelenos recently detained by immigration agents. On June 3, 18 months after fleeing violence in their home country of Guatemala, Johanna, alongside her mother, Elizabeth, and youngest sister, Jessica, was detained by ICE while attending a scheduled immigration court appearance for their legal asylum case. The family declined to share their last name out of security concerns.

    Maywood Academy graduates accepting their diplomas. Some wore stoles featuring flags from the United States as well as Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala – their families’ home countries. (Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales)
    Photo: Betty Márquez Rosales

    Johanna’s father, Hector, suddenly stopped receiving messages from his wife and daughters soon after they arrived at the court, and then they vanished for two days. He and his third daughter, Dulce, searched for them on Immigration & Customs Enforcement’s website. By the time their information appeared on the site, they had been transferred to a detention center in Texas, where they remain as an attorney handles their case.

    “I want my daughters to grow up and realize all their goals in the United States,” said Hector. “They’re all so intelligent, hardworking, and really amazing people to serve this country.”

    Before the ICE raids started, his daughters had felt safe in their home and neighborhood.

    “They’re so happy here. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, and their school is nearby,” Hector said. “They’re really happy.”

    He said Maywood Academy is in constant contact, offering support, though the school declined to comment on the case. 

    Austin Santos, a geography and world history teacher who has taught both of Hector’s daughters in high school, said Johanna is on the path to becoming valedictorian and is “all-around a great student.” 

    “We made sure to tell the other students to be careful and used Johanna’s story to bring awareness to the situation because it’s not only happening at our school,” said Santos. “Her classmates and everyone around her — once the story broke, and they found out who was detained, they all rallied around her.”

    Beyond Maywood

    The area surrounding Maywood Academy is a hotbed of ICE activity. And it isn’t alone. 

    “We saw an ICE vehicle going toward St. George Church; I have friends in the court, and they’re not coming out; I saw two immigration officers on the sidewalk; there’s a community school nearby where the raid happened,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), reading Rapid Response notifications aloud during an interview with EdSource. 

    LAUSD was early to establish itself as a sanctuary district — and the school board unanimously affirmed its commitment to immigrant students in November. The resolution also vowed to “aggressively oppose” any efforts to make districts work with federal agencies on matters dealing with immigration enforcement. 

    Months later, administrators at Lillian Street Elementary and Russell Elementary, both in South Los Angeles, denied entry to two officials from the Department of Homeland Security. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KibeV-R_k

    “The district has acted superbly and bravely — and they have set up the atmosphere to… welcome everyone and ensure that every child, regardless of their immigration status or background, feels safe,” Cabrera said. 

    “They are an example for us to follow, and we will continue to collaborate with them on as many opportunities as possible.” 

    Roughly five and a half miles from Maywood, in Boyle Heights — the home of Roosevelt High School and Garfield High School — sightings of ICE agents and unmarked cars have become more common. A checkpoint was stationed just outside a freeway entrance. 

    At the same time, Sunday, June 8, was supposed to be about celebrating. 

    But in a community like Boyle Heights, with its history of law enforcement violence, social studies teacher Thalia Cataño said the district’s approach to commencement safety was “tone deaf.” Volunteers organized hours ahead of the graduation ceremony to have teachers, locals and members of CHIRLA’s Rapid Response team patrol the area. 

    At the same time, leading up to the ceremonies, students contemplated whether to have their family come and support them. Others wondered if they should attend their graduation.

    Most did. 

    And when the now-alumni of Roosevelt High returned to school Monday to officially wrap up their high school careers, they reminisced on the ceremony — the highs and lows. 

    “‘We’re there. We’re happy,” Cataño heard her students sharing. “‘But we’re looking over our shoulder… just waiting for anything to happen.’” 





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  • Backlash mounts as LAUSD approves policy preventing charters on vulnerable campuses

    Backlash mounts as LAUSD approves policy preventing charters on vulnerable campuses


    The LAUSD School Board meeting on Aug. 30, 2022 in Los Angeles. Credit: Julie Leopo, EdSource

    The Los Angeles Unified School District school board voted 4-3 Tuesday to adopt a policy that would prevent charter schools from sharing a campus with the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) schools, community schools and priority schools.

    This decision means that when making co-location offers, the board will try to avoid offers that “compromise district schools’ capacity to serve neighborhood children” and that “result in grade span arrangements that negatively impact student safety and build charter school pipelines that actively deter students from attending district schools.” 

    The policy is months in the making — beginning with a resolution passed in September, mandating that Superintendent Alberto Carvalho devise such a policy. Board members reviewed a draft of his proposal at January’s Committee of the Whole Meeting. 

    “This policy, in the eyes of some, does not go far enough; and, in the eyes of others, it goes too far,” Carvalho said at Tuesday’s meeting.  “And somehow, experience tells me that any time you’re in that position, you probably achieved some degree of balance.”

    Supporters of the co-location policy, including United Teachers Los Angeles, have claimed that the presence of charters in district schools has created an atmosphere of ongoing hostility and that charter schools take critical resources —  including spaces used for enrichment programs and social-emotional support services — away from district students who are more vulnerable. 

    “Before we became a community school and a BSAP school, we had no arts, no sports, no clubs, and our students [compared] our school to a prison,” said a science teacher who spoke during public comments at Tuesday’s board meeting. 

    “The school has transformed….The students that used to want to leave immediately now want to stay after club hours. And this is only possible because we have the space available to host these resources.” 

    Pro-charter organizations maintain that the new policy is detrimental to the future of charter schools in Los Angeles and that it will likely result in more charters being divided across multiple LAUSD sites. They also anticipate charter closures will become more common. 

    “The district has finally made its intentions clear: to run charter schools out of town,” states a  letter to Carvalho and LAUSD’s school board members by the L.A. Coalition for Excellent Public Schools — consisting of about half of charters in the district — including 107 charter schools that educate more than 50,000 students. 

    “If the district can just elbow charter schools out of the campuses they’ve been sharing – if it can engineer feeder patterns, if it can remove charters from predominantly Black campuses, if it can make it all but impossible for kids to enroll in charters throughout their K-12 education – then L.A. Unified will keep more students and save a few bucks.” 

    The letter further alleges that the district’s policy is not about students’ education or equity, but rather about the district’s enrollment and financial challenges. 

    “The resolution will most immediately and severely impact thousands of predominantly Black and Latino students. Even more alarming is that it paves the way for L.A. Unified to eradicate charter schools altogether, denying so many families their civil rights, their hopes and dreams for their children’s futures.” 

    Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, said in a statement that “the decision of the LAUSD Board of Education to enact this policy is divisive, discriminatory, and unlawful.” 

    Castrejón added, ”It is a shameful day when the second-largest school district in the nation puts politics ahead of students and families. . .. Instead of following California law and providing equitable facilities for charter public school students, LAUSD’s Board voted today with their campaign donors and against the very students they took an oath to support.” 

    ‘Merely moving and enlarging challenges’ 

    In addition to a wealth of support, the policy has also garnered backlash — from both pro-charter organizations and from individuals who said the policy doesn’t do enough to protect vulnerable students. 

    “This resolution is the capstone of a relentless, decades-long campaign….to cast blame rather than take responsibility,” the letter reads. 

    A survey conducted by CCSA’s Local Advocacy Team of 28 organizations also found that 10% of charter students in district facilities are Black/African American, in comparison to 4% of all public school students in LAUSD. About 90% of those students are from low income backgrounds.

    Charters were also found to have more socio-economically disadvantaged students and students who are English learners. 

    Meanwhile, the coalition’s letter also states that blocking co-locations on BSAP campuses will lead to fewer charters being able to serve Black students in the long run, adding that it takes “gall to rob Black families of the critical lifeline that our schools provide.” 

    School Board Member Nick Melvoin, who voted against the policy, also said that while he appreciates the policy’s intentions, “the district’s own analysis suggests that this policy will create not fewer, but more co-locations.” 

    “This may placate some folks in the room, but next year, we’ll have folks from 600 other schools back here with concerns because we’re not solving anything,” Melvoin said. “We’re merely moving and enlarging challenges.” 

    Spreading a charter school across multiple campuses can have negative effects, according to charter proponents — and CCSA’s survey specifically found that: 

    • “89% (8/9) reported a negative impact on staffing due to a split campus.”
    • “77% (7/9) reported a negative impact on school culture due to a split campus.”
    • “66% (6/9) reported a negative impact on student enrollment and the ability of families to maintain access to the school due to a split campus.”
    • “66% (6/9) reported a negative impact on school finances due to a split campus.”
    • “55% (5/9) reported a negative impact on programs or academic offerings available to students due to a split campus.” 

    Meanwhile, LAUSD board president Jackie Goldberg, who co-authored the initial resolution passed in September, rebuked claims from charter proponents, insisting that she was not “complaining about charters” and had no intention to “un-do anything.”

    “This resolution simply says if we can undo some of the problems we’ve created, let’s try to do that as we go forward,” Goldberg said. 

    Rather, she faulted Proposition 39 — which requires public school districts to share space with charters — calling it “flawed from the day it was written.”  She also criticized the “privately owned, publicly funded” nature of charter schools. 

    Goldberg also blamed the CCSA and the current state of the charter movement — which she said is more focused on competing with public schools rather than improving them. 

    “Prop 39 overrules everything,” Goldberg claimed on Tuesday. “And the enormous amount of money that the California Charter Schools Association is willing to spend suing districts … .is a design for them to contain power in Sacramento.” 

    Meanwhile, Scott Schmerelson, vice president of the LAUSD school board, who voted in favor of the policy, said that while he sees the policy as a step forward, he also recognizes that some do not feel it is enough to protect the district’s most vulnerable students. 

    “I hear you, I want to say that I understand you don’t feel we’ve done enough,” he said. “But we have made progress. And for now, I am willing to say OK, we will approve this, but we will keep the conversation going.” 

    ‘A substantial risk of litigation’ 

    A letter released by Latham and Watkins LLP on behalf of the California Charter Schools Association, claims that the newly adopted policy is illegal and places the district at “a substantial risk of litigation.” 

    “By prioritizing public school students attending District-run schools over public school students who attend charter public schools, the policy violates Proposition 39’s mandate that ‘public school facilities should be shared fairly among all public school pupils, including those in charter schools,’” the letter reads. 

    According to the letter, there are currently 13 co-locations on the district’s priority schools this academic year — as well as seven on community schools and 19 on BSAP campuses.  

    “I just hope that as we walk out of this building today,” Carvalho said, “we recognize that at the end of the day, that the only thing that matters, the only thing that should matter…. is what we do for kids, how we do it for kids despite our positions as adults.”





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  • LAUSD condemns immigration raids as one unfolds next to a school

    LAUSD condemns immigration raids as one unfolds next to a school


    A rumor spread quickly on Monday morning that Huntington Park High School in southeast Los Angeles might be the site of a raid after federal immigration agents were seen at a Home Depot nearby.

    Credit: Betty Márquez Rosales, EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • LAUSD assures students’ and families’ safety during graduation ceremonies.
    • Huntington Park schools activate emergency protocols amid ICE activity.
    • More summer school locations, plus virtual option, made available to students who fear ICE raids.

    Los Angeles Unified School District’s superintendent and board members condemned the raids and arrests of undocumented immigrants on Monday during a press conference at the district’s headquarters in downtown L.A. Meanwhile, 7 miles away, another raid was unfolding next to a high school, creating new tension and apprehension.

    Around 8:30 a.m., videos posted on social media platforms showed what appeared to be immigration agents chasing and arresting day laborers by the city’s Home Depot, which sits behind and in sight of Huntington Park High School.

    Simultaneously, a graduation ceremony for a local elementary school was taking place in the high school’s auditorium. Many people online began speculating that the ceremony might be the target of an immigration raid. It wasn’t, but the fear was real.

    “These are communities of resilience and hope — places where generations have worked hard to build a better life, and yet our families are now forced to live in fear, looking over their shoulders on the way to school or their child’s graduation,” Rocio Rivas, vice president of L.A. Unified’s school board, said at the press conference. “This is just simply wrong.”

    Huntington Park’s residents are predominantly Latino, immigrant and working class, a demographic that has been the target of many of the known immigration raids in recent days.

    A protest was organized within hours of immigration enforcement activity next to a high school in the city of Huntington Park, commonly known as HP.
    Credit: Betty Márquez Rosales, EdSource

    ‘Perimeters of safety’

    The district’s protocol, which includes offering families the option of remaining on school grounds and notifying the district of immigration enforcement activity so they can determine the appropriate response, kicked into gear. An alternative exit door on the side farthest from Home Depot was opened.

    A Huntington Park High official later confirmed that immigration agents made no attempt to enter the school, though a public statement addressing the rumor was not shared online until hours later. An attendee at the graduation ceremony, who declined to share her name, confirmed via a TikTok message that at the end of the ceremony, a school official announced the presence of immigration agents in the area and confirmed the agents were no longer next door.

    Amid the uncertainty, district officials discussed the importance of centering students’ needs: Graduation ceremonies should continue undisturbed, and families should feel assured their children would be safe attending summer school.

    L.A. Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho stressed that the graduation season, with more than 100 ceremonies taking place Monday and Tuesday, should remain celebratory and joyous. He said the district has directed its police force to establish “perimeters of safety” around graduation sites to help “intervene and interfere” with federal agents if they arrive.

    “Every child has a constitutional right to a public education,” he said. “Therefore, every child and their parent has a right to celebrate the culmination of their educational success.”

    An estimated 1 in 10, or 1 million, children in California have at least one undocumented parent, and about 133,000 children in California public schools are undocumented themselves, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

    Carvalho also said principals have been instructed to minimize entry lines to limit the risks of waiting on the street. And parents will be allowed to stay at the venue as long as they need if there is immigration enforcement outside.

    District police will also stay on-site for as long as necessary, he added.

    Meanwhile, the possibility of ICE officials storming graduation ceremonies would be a “preposterous condition,” Carvalho said.

    “I hope a situation like that will not occur,” he said. “But then again, I certainly would have hoped that militarized equipment would not be seen on the streets of an American city.”

    And as the district transitions from this year to the next, Carvalho said L.A. Unified will expand the number of campuses offering summer school to shorten travel times; provide transportation, and add virtual learning options for students who do not feel safe attending in person.

    “I want to be very clear to those who may seek to take actions that transcend our beliefs and our policies. We’re not just talking about our schools,” Carvalho said at Monday’s press conference. “We’re talking about our schools, places where kids wait for the buses, the bus itself.”

    When immigration enforcement activity occurs near schools, educators and staff are at times simultaneously communicating the information with the district so they can confirm what response may be needed, and calming their students’ and families’ fears.

    Communication flows the other way too — top-down from district officials to teachers, parents, and students regarding activity, and about any false rumors.

    Rapid response network

    On Monday, educators like Marcela Chagoya, a middle school teacher at L.A. Unified’s Stevenson College & Career Prep, reassured students, many somber and tearful after a weekend of raids and protests, that school remains the safest place for them to be. As she talked with students, her phone lit up with constant notifications from a Rapid Response Network about nearby ICE sightings.

    “Our school district is a sanctuary district, and we’re definitely not going to put any of our students or their families, if they’re on our campus, at risk,” Chagoya said. “We’re going to defend them as much as we can.”

    Chagoya is also one of many teachers who have gone through training by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, and is tasked with reporting any notification of ICE activity to their principal, who would then inform the district. She also carries a bullhorn in her car to alert the community.

    She reminds the students that ICE agents won’t be allowed inside the classroom and quizzes them on what they learned about potential interactions with a federal agent.

    “This is a lesson that we’re learning in real time,” said Chagoya. “And we will all just roll with it and be as proactive as we can.”





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