School Boards

Sexual misconduct allegations at Miramonte Elementary School sparked a surge of investigations of Los Angeles teachers, pushing the ranks of those in "teacher jail" to more than 300 - and prompting officials this week to consider the rights of accused employees. On Tuesday, the Board of Education will weigh a proposal designed to speed up and improve investigations, in hopes of quickly ousting the guilty and exonerating the innocent. "You don't need 300 days to figure out who's a monster," said Carpenter Elementary parent Julia Bricklin.

The bile flowed freely in the first round of L.A.'s school board elections in March, fueled by unprecedented sums of campaign money. To what end? Listening to the ads of the self-styled reformers, you'd have thought that charter schools were the elixir for every ill and teachers were slackers who needed a kick in the pants. For its part, the teachers union dismissed those who disagreed with it as corporate takeover artists. The school board campaign, which isn't over yet, is a fight over power - how to hire and fire teachers, for example - not a debate over education.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti picked up the backing of school board member Tamar Galatzan on Friday and responded to criticism over his statements on a measure targeting low-achieving schools. Standing outside a school in Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley, Galatzan - who has been on the school board since 2007 -- praised Garcetti as someone who would work closely with Los Angeles Unified School District. Minutes before Galatzan spoke, rival Wendy Greuel's campaign sent an email asserting that Garcetti had given mixed messages on the so-called “parent trigger,” which allows parents at a low-performing school to force aggressive changes, such as handing it over to an outside operator.

TUCSON - Arizona is advancing legislation that would allow schoolteachers to arm themselves in class. The proposal cleared the state Senate this week and now heads to the state House. Several other states have introduced measures to let teachers carry guns. The movement came after the National Rifle Assn. called for such legislation in light of the mass shooting last year in Newtown, Conn., where 20 first-graders were killed. This month, South Dakota became the first state since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre to pass a law that specifically allows teachers and school employees to carry weapons on campus.

A Moreno Valley school board member who was convicted of running a prostitution ring out of his home - once flashing his district business card to recruit a young woman - was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison. Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Brusselback said Mike Rios' actions and his total lack of remorse called for a stiff prison sentence. Rios continues to insist he was the victim of a political vendetta, which Brusselback said was evidence of a "warped sense of reality.

In a school board election that attracted national money and attention as a referendum on the reform policies of Supt. John Deasy, candidates who favored his agenda were leading in two of three races, according to early returns Tuesday evening. If those results hold up, Deasy would maintain a fragile majority in support of his policies, which emphasize holding teachers more accountable for student achievement in the nation's second-largest school district. The Board of Education race is "the sleeper of this election," said Raphael J. Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State L.A. "It matters a great deal.

Outside spending is dominating campaigns for three seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education, surpassing $4.4 million through Friday. The outcome of Tuesday's primary is expected to shape the path of improvement efforts in the nation's second-largest school system. The costliest race is in District 4, which spans the Westside and the western San Fernando Valley. There, one-term incumbent and former teacher Steve Zimmer faces parent and attorney Kate Anderson. The pro-Anderson and anti-Zimmer effort has spent more than $1.1 million.

BOARD DISTRICT 2 Monica Garcia, 44, incumbent, elected in 2006 Details: Previously a school board staffer and school counselor The record: Board's closest ally to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Will not oppose his wishes; he also takes guidance from her. A power broker: Helped engineer the firing of former Supt. David Brewer, the hiring of his successor, Ramon C. Cortines, and the hiring of the current superintendent, John Deasy. Sometimes uses her authority to bypass district procedures, as when she engineered the handover of a high school campus to Villaraigosa's nonprofit group.

In Texas, more than 10,000 people joined a recent rally to protest it. In Seattle, high school teachers launched a boycott over it. And in Los Angeles, school board candidates are arguing over it - a debate considered so crucial to the future of education reform that outside donors have poured millions into the campaigns. The growing use of standardized tests to assess students and teachers is sparking a push-back nationwide in what has become one of the greatest divides in educational policy.

Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy isn't on the ballot Tuesday, but you'd hardly know it, based on the undercurrent of the school board election. A coalition of local organizations, wealthy donors and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have decided that the election is all about keeping Deasy on the job and accelerating the aggressive policies he's putting into place. This group has come together for the campaign through a political action committee called the Coalition for School Reform.