Los Angeles Board Of Education

In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses -- including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities -- to charter groups and other outside operators. The plan, approved on a 6-1 vote, gives Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the power to recommend the best option to run some of the worst-performing schools in the city as well as the newest campuses.

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved nearly $1.6 billion in cuts over the next three years that will result in layoffs and increased class sizes and could one day mean the elimination of such key programs as all-day kindergarten and summer school.

Making broad pronouncements about the need to protect the health of children in their care, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday restricted the district's ability to build schools near freeways and other sources of air pollution.

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to slash about $400 million from the state's largest school system by cutting 507 administrative staff and clerical workers and requiring that all employees take a four-day unpaid leave. The board's action avoids the heavy teacher layoffs and class-size increases that are facing smaller school districts throughout the state.

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to place a $7-billion bond on the November ballot. It would be the largest local school bond ever -- by far -- and would allow officials to tax property owners for building and repairing schools for the next 10 years. The funding package enshrined ambitious new goals, but critics questioned the need for the bond -- as well as a price tag that more than doubled in the last two weeks.

A key Los Angeles school board member signaled Friday that she could consider removing L. A. schools Supt. David L. Brewer through a contract buyout and that she hoped to defuse racial politics in discussions of his future. The board member, Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, also expressed anger at the haste with which Brewer's critics have moved against him.

Ben Austin, a front-runner for a hotly contested Los Angeles school board seat, has failed to qualify for the city ballot because he turned in too few valid signatures on a qualifying petition. Austin, a former deputy mayor under Richard Riordan and a longtime political consultant, chose the March school board race to move from behind-the-scenes player to elected official.

The Los Angeles Board of Education met behind closed doors Thursday to discuss potential replacements for Supt. David L. Brewer, with all signs continuing to point to the elevation of veteran educator Ramon C. Cortines, who currently holds the school system's No. 2 position. Board members voted 5 to 2 earlier this week to exercise the buyout provision of Brewer's contract midway through a four-year pact at a cost of at least $517,500.

The biggest confirmed-money "candidate" so far in the March school board elections won't even be on the ballot. Three-term incumbent David Tokofsky has more than $222,000 in his campaign fund, dwarfing all other candidates for the moment -- but he decided late last year not to run again. An actual candidate, challenger Johnathan Williams, estimated Thursday that he had $300,000 in the bank, but his campaign had yet to file its report with the city.

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday postponed a vote on a new discipline policy at the request of the teachers union. United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy told the board that he would like to "go back with my discipline committee and make sure all the Ts are crossed and I's are dotted." Duffy stressed, however, that he had no intention of changing the final document. The board is expected to consider the policy again in two weeks.