Los Angeles Unified School District

With six months to go before all 649 Los Angeles schools open their classrooms year-round, many questions remain about how the district plans to coordinate a range of academic and extracurricular activities. Administrators say they don't know how many schools will be able to offer special courses during the eight-week winter break that runs from late December into February for students at some schools.

The large field of candidates for four seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education includes two close allies of retiring board President Jackie Goldberg and two former board members aiming for a political comeback, according to election documents filed last week. A former member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees also wants his old job back and will be competing in one of four races for seats on that board.

They are not luxuries, these things the schools request. They are functioning locker locks and watertight roofs, sound electrical systems and fresh coats of paint, working water fountains and adequate classroom space. But in the 660-campus Los Angeles Unified School District they add up to a $2.4-billion bill that the public school system has been unable to cover out of its normal budget. So voters must decide Tuesday whether they want to help by approving Proposition BB.

A day after pandemonium erupted in the streets following the stunning acquittals in the Rodney G. King police beating case, thousands of parents throughout Los Angeles kept their children out of San Fernando Valley schools Thursday, apparently out of fear for their safety. All Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will be closed today in a city under siege by rioters and looters.

In the wake of the Los Angeles Unified School District's plan to charge youth sports groups as much as $600 a day to use any of the district's playing fields on weekends, a Valley Youth Conference spokesman said Wednesday the conference will stage a massive demonstration against the district on Monday.

At Northridge Middle School, a leading school in California's middle-grade reform movement, teachers are becoming students to learn a different kind of mathematical theory. When it comes to education, say the reformers, one is indeed the loneliest number.

Eleven years ago, the San Jose school district began requiring all students to pass the classes necessary for admission to the state university systems. Educators elsewhere watched with enthusiasm as early results showed remarkable success. But San Jose Unified has quietly acknowledged that the district overstated its accomplishments. And a Times analysis of the district's record shows that its progress has not, in fact, far outpaced many other school systems' and, more important, that most San Jose students have never qualified to apply to a state college.

A woman who told police her husband was killed by robbers four years ago was charged with his murder Thursday along with her current husband. Jennifer Fletcher, 32, and Matthew Fletcher, 43, each face six counts in the 1998 shooting death of Joel Andrew Shanbrom, including murder, insurance fraud and conspiracy.

The following Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will be open today. They had been closed since the earthquake because of structural or other damage. Blythe Street Elem., Reseda Calahan Street Elem., Northridge Chatsworth Park Elem., Chatsworth Germain Street Elem., Chatsworth Hale Middle School, Woodland Hills Kester Avenue Elem. and Magnet School, Van Nuys Lanai Road Elem., Encino Mayall Elem., North Hills Morningside Elem., San Fernando Napa Street Elem.