School District

Thousands more California students will have to find their own way to school this fall, as districts slash bus routes to cope with budget shortfalls and high fuel costs. Critics worry that the cuts will increase traffic around schools, shift costs to parents already struggling with rising gas prices and prompt more absenteeism, hurting students' academic achievement. But paramount is the fear that the reductions will endanger students as more walk or drive to school.

As if on cue, all faces turn alertly toward the front of the classroom where Bridget Brownell has set up a slide show at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. They are about to view diseased sex organs. "First," she said, "let me take attendance, and then I will shock you. " Brownell belongs to a declining breed: She's a certified health instructor leading a one-semester health class in a California public high school. The Los Angeles Unified School District nearly killed health as a required course, to focus more on its new mandate that all students complete college-prep classes.

Jill Kinmont Boothe was the national women's slalom champion and on the cover of Sports Illustrated when she set out to win a 1955 race that would help put her on the U.S. Olympic ski team. As she sped down a Utah mountain slope, she lost control on an icy bump, struck a spectator, crashed and tumbled into a tree. When she finally came to a stop, she couldn't feel anything. This must be death, she later recalled thinking. Her neck broken, she was paralyzed below her shoulders, her promising career as a skier over at 18. But Kinmont Boothe became a role model of a different sort, the subject of a book and two Hollywood films, a teacher and a painter who refused to let her crippling injuries turn her into a different person.

California school districts issue more pink slips than necessary and the state should consider alternatives to seniority-based layoffs, according to a report from the state legislative analyst's office. In the report, released last week, the nonpartisan analyst said that because state and local budget information is available only after the initial deadline for districts to send out layoff notices, more pink slips are issued than may be needed. The initial notices are required by state law to be sent out by March 15. This month, the Los Angeles Unified School District sent about 11,700 layoff notices to teachers and other staff.

There was a chorus of crying from some of the small children taking their first plunge into one of the two outdoor pools at Cerritos College. Carlos Hernandez, 3, wanted no part of the water, despite reassurances from his swimming instructor and the presence of his father, Cesar Hernandez, of Norwalk. In a nearby classroom, Tony Borriboonratana, 9, prepared to start his Basic Math II course.

The Los Angeles Unified School District lost its malpractice suit Thursday against the prestigious law firm that advised the district on construction of the Belmont Learning Complex, the $200-million high school still unfinished because of environmental worries. A Superior Court judge said that some of the district's allegations of legal malpractice were unfounded and others could not be proven one way or another.

The superintendent of the Riverside Unified School District was arrested this month on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, and has taken a 30-day sick leave to enroll in an alcohol-abuse-treatment program. The California Highway Patrol reported that Susan J. Rainey, 58, was stopped and then arrested on the evening of Sept. 2 when officers conducted a sobriety checkpoint on the southbound 215 Freeway south of Newport Road near Menifee, said CHP Officer Brad Barksdale.

Trustees with the Castaic Union School District on Friday chose an assistant superintendent from an Antelope Valley school district as their top administrator. Alan K. Nishino, 48, was picked from a field of 25 candidates and is scheduled to begin a three-year contract with the Castaic district April 1. "I'm really looking forward to working with the district and community," said Nishino, currently with Lancaster's Eastside Union School District.

A Stanislaus County school board banned a celebrated but controversial piece of Chicano literature from its high school classrooms this week because trustees and the superintendent believe "Bless Me, Ultima" contains too much profanity. The Newman Crows Landing Board of Education voted 4 to 1 Monday night to strip the coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya from the sophomore required reading list at Orestimba High School.

The school locker, long feared as a repository of drugs and weapons, is making a comeback. Some administrators are returning the metal boxes to campus, figuring it's better than creating a generation of students with back problems. In one Orange County school district, a board member who watched a student wobble and fall over from the weight of her backpack has proposed reinstalling lockers in middle schools.

For the last 10 months, Los Angeles Board of Education member Bennett Kayser has been a bit of a thorn in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's side. First, he beat the mayor's hand-picked candidate for his seat in District 5, an area drawn to favor Latino candidates. Kayser frequently criticizes charter schools, which the mayor strongly supports. And Kayser led the charge for the board to support Gov. Jerry Brown's dismantling of redevelopment agencies, an action vigorously opposed by the mayor.

Students who are sexually abused by school employees may sue public districts if their administrators ignored warning signs or failed to monitor the employees, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday. The state high court's ruling revived a lawsuit against the William S. Hart Union High School District by a student who alleged that a counselor repeatedly abused him sexually. The suit said that school administrators knew or should have known that the counselor, Roselyn Hubbell, had a propensity for sexual abuse when they hired her at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita.

A rash of suicides by gay teens in suburban Minnesota has thrust the Anoka-Hennepin School District into the national debate over anti-gay bullying. The school board voted this week to settle a federal lawsuit, concluding a Department of Justice civil rights inquiry that began in late 2010. The district will pay $270,000 to six student plaintiffs who accused the district of creating a hostile, anti-gay environment. Filed last summer, the suit accused school officials of not doing enough to protect gay students, or students perceived to be gay, from bullying.

When Johnny Young looks at La Tijera School, he sees more than the gleaming new facade of steel and stucco, the technology lab outfitted with 36 desktop computers, the fitness center with spinning cycles, treadmills and weights. The Inglewood school board president sees salvation for his beleaguered district, the most financially precarious in California. Socked by state funding cuts and declining enrollment, the Inglewood Unified School District is expected to go broke by May. Inglewood is one of seven school districts in the state that projects red ink through next year and is closest to the brink of bankruptcy, according to state fiscal management officials who work with troubled schools.

Jill Kinmont Boothe was the national women's slalom champion and on the cover of Sports Illustrated when she set out to win a 1955 race that would help put her on the U.S. Olympic ski team. As she sped down a Utah mountain slope, she lost control on an icy bump, struck a spectator, crashed and tumbled into a tree. When she finally came to a stop, she couldn't feel anything. This must be death, she later recalled thinking. Her neck broken, she was paralyzed below her shoulders, her promising career as a skier over at 18. But Kinmont Boothe became a role model of a different sort, the subject of a book and two Hollywood films, a teacher and a painter who refused to let her crippling injuries turn her into a different person.

We're teachers who believe that teacher evaluation, including the use of reliable test data, can be good for students and for teachers. Yes, yes, we know we're not supposed to exist. But we do, and there are a lot more of us. In February the membership of United Teachers Los Angeles will vote on a teacher-led initiative urging union leaders to negotiate a new teacher evaluation system for L.A. Unified. The vote will allow teachers' voices to be heard above the din of warring political figures.

Charging that "naive" high school students are being pressured into obtaining drugs for undercover police officers, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Thursday to allow students facing drug-related expulsions to present evidence that they were entrapped.

The state is taking over a Monterey County school district that was facing bankruptcy and lending it $13 million, state officials announced Wednesday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed emergency legislation authorizing the loan to the King City Joint Union High School District. A state takeover is required by law once such a loan is granted.

For the first time this year, LAUSD has prepared reports for teachers that rate their effectiveness. When I received an email saying I could now view my own personal "Average Growth over Time" report, I opened it with a combination of trepidation, resignation and indignation. First, the indignation. It is, I think, the key factor that has kept me teaching past the five-year mark, when most new teachers quit the profession. I am in my sixth year of teaching after a nearly 20-year career as a professional writer.