Education Teachers

Physical education teachers are pointing to the rising number of overweight children to protest a proposal to lay off 10 from their ranks and reduce the time students spend exercising. The Bakersfield City School District board was trying to reduce a budget shortfall when it approved a proposal to lay off 50 permanent teachers and 50 teachers working on one-year contracts.

A female teacher at Corona's Centennial High School is facing charges of having sex with five teenage boys over the last year. Summer Michelle Hansen, 31, a special education teacher, was charged Tuesday with 16 felony counts involving sex acts with five teenagers younger than 18, none of whom were her students. Riverside prosecutors allege that from May 2012 to May 2013, Hansen committed sexual acts with the teenagers - who were as young as 16 - in her classroom, in a campus utility room, in her vehicle parked near a teenager's home and at the home of another teenager.

What a great way to start my Sunday morning (May 19)! Two headlines, "Wilson to Propose Cutting Class Size in 1st, 2nd Grades" and "Able to Be Included at School." How wonderful to see education in a positive way. Thank you! CARRIE PARTRIDGE Los Alamitos Re "Able to Be Included at School" and Johnny Palacio, the Down's syndrome child: I believe that special education children should receive just that, "special education." It is obvious to me that a child with an IQ of 50 could not possibly compete with children that have IQs that fall within normal ranges.

A leading online course provider announced Wednesday that it will offer free professional training and development courses to prepare teachers worldwide for Web-based classes. Coursera, a for-profit clearinghouse for online and videotaped courses developed and taught by professors at well-established colleges, created a “teacher professional development” category, offering K-12 teachers and parents the courses in subjects such as content development, the common core curriculum and blended learning strategies.

Legislation requiring sex education teachers to stress sexual abstinence to their students as the only way to avoid unwanted teen pregnancy, venereal diseases and sexually transmitted AIDS was passed by the Senate on Thursday. The bill by Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale), supported by anti-abortion and religious organizations, went to the Assembly on a 27-4 vote over the protests of one Democrat who argued it constituted "Democrat bashing" in an election year.

It is refreshing to see an article covering physical education in the 1990s instead of having to rely on historical stereotypes which tend to cloud our vision and images of school physical education programs ("School Gym Club Works Out Well," Nov. 3). At a time in history when we know that the No. 1 killer, cardiovascular disease, is preventable through exercise, nutrition and healthy habits, it is encouraging that the public and press are beginning to recognize the many contributions of physical education.

Re "School Space Crunch Hits Special Education," Aug. 26: As parents of a special education student, it was disheartening to learn that once again his resource specialist classroom was moved to make room for a "regular" education class. The rush to make space for the primary grades (all over California) at the expense of the most vulnerable of our learners is truly despicable! PAULA GERSHOY DAVID LEVY Malibu Thank you for your excellent story on the plight of special education teachers who are scrambling for classroom space now that primary class size has been reduced to 20. I am a resource specialist, and have just learned that my classroom will be used for a first-grade class, and I will be sharing a room with ESL (English as a Second Language)

Sex education courses in America's schools often are based on either an "abstinence only" curriculum or a more comprehensive program that also includes contraception. But a study released Tuesday found that the line between the two approaches increasingly has blurred.

It is discouraging to realize that there are otherwise highly educated people who fail to comprehend the enormous importance of a good physical education program to any school system's curriculum. Case in point is the letter written by Jolly F. Griggs, a retired Ventura College teacher, which appeared June 7. Griggs maintains that physical education is a "very expensive sacred cow" which ought to be slaughtered in order to save school district money. In making this statement, Griggs obviously fails to consider the basic composition of human beings.

I just finished reading "Fledgling Instructors Try to Ease Staff Shortage" (Sept. 4). I was surprised to find that so many vacancies were filled by unqualified teachers. One month ago I called the Los Angeles Unified School District to request an application for special education teacher. I have three California teaching credentials and have taught in all areas of special education. I was told that there were no available positions, not even for substitutes. If "the district anticipates needing more than 300 special education teachers and probably will have substitutes fill most of those positions," why was I so easily dismissed?

The Chicago teachers' strike continues. School won't be out for forever, but it'll be out until at least Wednesday. Eight hundred union delegates deliberated for a little over two hours Sunday on whether to end the strike after union and Chicago Public School negotiators came to terms Saturday on a proposed contract. But the delegates weren't ready to approve what they saw - not yet - since  they reportedly still knew little about the deal their leaders had gotten for them. At a televised news conference Sunday evening, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said school district officials still hadn't finalized language on the tentative offer.

Reporting from Sacramento The state Board of Education took up the controversial issue of teacher evaluations Wednesday, unanimously voting to create an online database to share information about local, state and national efforts to measure educators' effectiveness. The board also asked the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Fresno school districts to propose specific ways the state can support local efforts to create more meaningful evaluation tools, including the value-added method of using students' test scores to rate teacher performance.

Adrian Wong is looking for a new job. The fifth-grade teacher has a letter from the Rialto Unified School District, notifying him he might be laid off in a few months. He has two young children and a mortgage on a three-bedroom house in Glendora. He is also finding lots of competitors. "Everyone is laying off teachers right now. I think I can bring a lot to any school . . . but it's a tough market," he said. "I really never thought it would come to this."

Jon M. Lauritzen, a career teacher who proudly championed the views of teachers on the Los Angeles Board of Education, died Monday of cancer, just months after losing a hard-fought campaign for reelection. He was 68. As a Los Angeles Unified School District board member from 2003 until July, Lauritzen was regarded as the closest ally of the teachers' union, United Teachers Los Angeles.

Physical education teachers are pointing to the rising number of overweight children to protest a proposal to lay off 10 from their ranks and reduce the time students spend exercising. The Bakersfield City School District board was trying to reduce a budget shortfall when it approved a proposal to lay off 50 permanent teachers and 50 teachers working on one-year contracts.

"Parents Fight Changes in Special Ed" (Sept. 16) discusses how many parents of children needing special education services are balking at the efforts of the L.A. Unified School District to offer such services at public schools rather than paying for expensive private schools. Parents in West L.A. and the West Valley, in particular, are pursuing litigation because they can afford to and have private schools available to them. I realize that this process of subsidized private education can be abused by the rich and greedy.

The Chicago teachers' strike continues. School won't be out for forever, but it'll be out until at least Wednesday. Eight hundred union delegates deliberated for a little over two hours Sunday on whether to end the strike after union and Chicago Public School negotiators came to terms Saturday on a proposed contract. But the delegates weren't ready to approve what they saw - not yet - since  they reportedly still knew little about the deal their leaders had gotten for them. At a televised news conference Sunday evening, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said school district officials still hadn't finalized language on the tentative offer.

"Parents Fight Changes in Special Ed" (Sept. 16) discusses how many parents of children needing special education services are balking at the efforts of the L.A. Unified School District to offer such services at public schools rather than paying for expensive private schools. Parents in West L.A. and the West Valley, in particular, are pursuing litigation because they can afford to and have private schools available to them. I realize that this process of subsidized private education can be abused by the rich and greedy.

Negotiators for Orange Unified School District and its teachers union reached a tentative contract settlement late Tuesday, officials said. The teachers' executive board and the school board must approve the agreement. The district's 1,400 teachers, who have been at odds for years with the district over salaries, must also ratify the agreement. No terms of the contract were released, but board member Melissa Smith said the raises are "substantial.'' "I am delighted,'' Smith said.

Schoolteachers who have students grade their fellow pupils' papers in class need not fear they are violating federal privacy laws, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. In a 9-0 ruling, the justices said the privacy law was intended to protect the kind of education records that are "kept in a filing cabinet in a records room or on a permanent secure database," not the grades on a classroom paper. It would make for a shocking change in the law, said Justice Anthony M.