Ramon C Cortines

The Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday announced the settlement of a sexual harassment allegation against retired Supt. Ramon C. Cortines by a senior employee in the facilities division. The district will pay $200,000 plus lifetime health benefits, valued at $250,000 to $300,000 to Scot Graham, the director of leasing and asset management. In return, Graham will resign from his $150,000-a-year job. In a statement, Cortines, 79, denied any harassment, but acknowledged what he called "adult behavior on one occasion," adding that "as the district's former top staff member, I regret allowing myself to engage in such spontaneous, consensual behavior.

After he offended the entire nation of Kazakhstan, the Los Angeles Unified School District was apparently child's play for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen, in his new guise as gay Austrian fashionista "Bruno," appears in a cover story in the latest issue of GQ magazine that includes a photo shoot with the Birmingham High School football team.

Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has moved to shut down a San Fernando Valley charter school over the alleged theft or misuse of as much as $2.7 million by the school's founding principal. The problems at NEW Academy Canoga Park turned up in an audit released Monday by the inspector general's office of the Los Angeles Unified School District. More than "$2 million of misappropriated and unaccounted public funds is egregious," Cortines wrote in a letter to the board of the school.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials Tuesday approved $140.6 million in budget cuts, but postponed a more difficult decision that could have cost thousands of jobs. At a packed meeting marked by demonstrations and impassioned speeches, the Board of Education acted on only one of two measures recommended by Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. The one that passed without dissent balances the books for L.A. Unified's current school year, in part by using new legal flexibility to transfer money originally set aside for other purposes.

Los Angeles school district officials asked union members Friday to agree to four furlough days this year and a future 12% pay cut to help offset a nearly $500-million budget shortfall next year. Without the concessions, the district may have to lay off up to 8,500 employees this summer, according to a letter to employees from Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. L.A. Unified, the nation's second-largest district, faces nearly a $60-million deficit this year and a projected $480-million shortfall next year, and Cortines said he expects future reductions in state funding.

Ramon C. Cortines, 67, a career educator, is interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District: My mother read to me and made me sit still and listen. I was hyperactive, mischievous--I think my mother was developing my attention span. She made me listen, and then would ask questions as it related to comprehension. It's like your first bank book. Then it was the library card, and then it was like piano lessons--you know, "Have you practiced this week? Have you gone to the library?

Ramon C. Cortines, who next week will become interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, on Tuesday unveiled a plan for shifting authority and funds to local schools by dividing the district into 11 sub-districts. The plan, which Cortines hopes to implement by the time a permanent superintendent is selected in July, would decentralize power in the sprawling district and dispatch hundreds of workers from the downtown headquarters to the field.

A senior L.A. school district official who accused former Supt. Ramon C. Cortines of sexual harassment will seek additional damages because the school system publicly disclosed details about the allegations and a settlement approved by the Board of Education. Attorneys representing Scot Graham, 55, also assert that they now want to negotiate directly with current Supt. John Deasy, who has been largely uninvolved in the matter. In a statement, the L.A. Unified School District said that the school board Tuesday "voted unanimously to reject a new counter settlement proposal.

Interim Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines on Tuesday formally presented labor contract proposals that for the first time would tie teachers' and administrators' pay to students' performance. The initial bargaining proposal, scheduled to be voted on by the Board of Education April 11, would establish the Stanford 9 standardized test as the primary measure of teachers' performance.

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.