Headlines
FCMAT provides links to California TK-12 news stories as a service to the industry. Some stories may require a newspaper subscription.
Jul 10, 2025
On Tuesday, prosecutors disclosed to the jury for the first time the total amount of fraud and misuse they’re accusing Flores of: $669.86 for her “personal benefit” and $538 in combined charges for meals Flores purchased for Stockton Unified parents and students during a Long Beach conference and a Monterey field trip.
Jul 10, 2025
The first class of 25 students in a new program in San Rafael will graduate Thursday after exposure to potential careers in heath care. The free three-week program, dubbed the Future Healers Academy, was taught by instructors at Dominican University of California in a partnership with Sutter Health.
Jul 10, 2025
Former Rialto Unified School District Superintendent Cuauhtemoc Avila has filed a long-anticipated lawsuit alleging he was fired earlier this year because he publicly accused district officials of engaging in unethical and illegal conduct.
Jul 10, 2025
When Samantha Muñoz was a second grader at Fancher Creek Elementary in Clovis, her teacher told her she “wasn’t that bright” and needed extra help with schoolwork. He’d make her stay in the classroom at recess, or tell her to sit on his lap while other students were busy with assignments.
Jul 09, 2025
President Donald Trump's administration sued the California Department of Education on Wednesday for allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams, alleging the policy violates federal law.
Jul 09, 2025
Joshua Schultz has big shoes to fill — but no one on the Napa County Board of Education seems to doubt he’s ready. On Tuesday, the board voted to appoint Schultz as Napa County’s next superintendent of schools, succeeding longtime schools chief Barbara Nemko, who is retiring after 28 years in the role.
Jul 09, 2025
The Redlands school board is taking a second look at two policies, one to ban most flags and a second to make it easier to remove explicit books from library shelves.
Jul 09, 2025
A controversial bill that would require public schools to print an LGBTQ+ specific hotline phone number on student identification cards is set to face its next hurdle in the Senate Education Committee Wednesday.
Jul 09, 2025
The state-financed California School for the Deaf will pay $14 million to a former student who suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of a dorm attendant, whose history of complaints the boarding school allegedly ignored.
Jul 08, 2025
The Board of Education of the Covina-Valley Unified School District fired its superintendent Monday and appointed an interim leader without characterizing the termination publicly.
Jul 08, 2025
A man who rose from working as a bilingual special education teacher to become deputy superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District has been appointed interim superintendent of the Bakersfield City School District.
Jul 08, 2025
The defense also called two Stockton Unified officials to the stand to provide insight into Flores’ meal purchases made with her district-issued credit card in Long Beach and Monterey, which have been scrutinized by prosecutors.
Jul 08, 2025
Over $5 million is at risk for schools in Sonoma and Napa counties under a move by the Trump administration to freeze nearly $7 billion in education grants nationwide, imperiling training programs for teachers and extra help for students who are English learners, low-income, in foster care or homeless, local officials said.
Jul 08, 2025
The California Serves grant is administered in collaboration with California Volunteers, a state office focused on engaging people in civic action. With the grant, districts are tasked with supporting students to earn the State Seal of Civic Engagement.
Jul 08, 2025
Amid catcalls, racial slurs and heckling from the audience, Tamalpais Union High School District’s board of trustees cemented its position not to pursue private funding to renew consultant contracts for Black student support at Tamalpais High School.
Jul 08, 2025
California Department of Education officials on Monday refused to comply with a Trump administration demand to bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, in response to a July 7 deadline following a federal civil rights investigation.
Jul 08, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of California’s low-income children and their families will likely see federally funded food support and health care shrink or vanish in the coming years under the mammoth budget and tax law that President Donald Trump rammed through a divided Congress and signed last week.
Jul 07, 2025
More than 60% of Ojai Unified School District employees who responded to a December 2023 survey had a colleague who quit their job because they couldn’t afford local housing.
Jul 07, 2025
More than 60% of Calistoga Joint Unified School District employees live outside the city they serve. Now, the district hopes to change that — by turning a long-unused, 16.4-acre property into a workforce housing development.
Jul 07, 2025
It was celebrated at the time as a major milestone for progressive education. In 2021, California became the first state to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement, mandating all high schools teach the subject by fall 2025.
Jul 07, 2025
The teachers’ union for Grossmont Union High School District is demanding the board reverse job cuts based on what it says appear to be trustees’ violations of public meeting law in communications reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Jul 07, 2025
Grossmont Union High School District teachers, parents and community members are raising concerns about records they say suggest some board trustees and their allies manipulated last year’s board election, including a pay-to-play transaction and an effort to run fake spoiler candidates to pull votes away from their political rivals.
Jul 07, 2025
For months, the leaders of Bay Area schools already dealing with budget deficits and declining enrollment have been pinching pennies, trimming staff and wringing their hands, hoping the federal funding allocated to them months ago would land in their bank accounts as promised in early July.
Jul 07, 2025
As the U.S. splits into divisive camps over racial issues, transgender rights, the war in Gaza, women’s health and more, the teaching of ethnic studies is among the most contentious educational fights in California and other states, dividing communities and turning formerly friendly PTA parents into adversaries.
Jul 03, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security was investigating late Wednesday after El Rancho Unified School District Board of Education leaders released video footage they say shows several federal immigration agents trespassing on one of its campuses and allegedly urinating in public view.
Jul 03, 2025
Over $7 million in federal funds is being withheld from Fresno Unified School District, the state’s third-largest school district, the district announced Wednesday evening.
Jul 03, 2025
The administration said the proposal would simplify the way $15.5 billion is distributed to educate and support the nation’s 8.4 million infants, toddlers, children and young adults with disabilities, K-12 Dive reported.
Jul 03, 2025
Testimony continued Wednesday in the trial of Stockton Unified School District Trustee AngelAnn Flores as prosecutors called two witnesses: Christina Alejo, the superintendent’s executive assistant, and former Interim Superintendent Traci Miller.
Jul 02, 2025
Fresno Unified chief communications officer Nikki Henry resigned on Monday. Her departure from the district comes weeks after a tense private meeting between the new superintendent, Misty Her, and Fresno Teachers Association president Manuel Bonilla.
Jul 02, 2025
The longtime head dean of students at St. Hope Public Schools has for years spent his free time posting YouTube videos where he discusses his views on masculinity, dating and sex.
Jul 02, 2025
After being forced to resign from the board of St. Hope Public Schools last year, Cassandra Jennings has returned to leadership within the charter school — serving in an interim “triumvirate” alongside two other administrators following the former superintendent’s recent death.
Jul 02, 2025
A substitute janitor at Ruby Bridge Elementary School’s campus was arrested Tuesday morning, after authorities suspect he was drunk on the job and made a sexual comment to a student, according to the Alameda Police Department.
Jul 02, 2025
The San Francisco Unified School District announced Monday that it will continue its ethnic studies program next school year, but with an interim curriculum while its existing curriculum is being reviewed and audited.
Jul 02, 2025
The Vallejo City Unified School District regained local governance Monday after 20 years of state oversight. The district went into state receivership in 2024 after a financial collapse that required a $60 million bailout from the state, according to the district.
Jul 02, 2025
Largely as a result of better identification methods, Kern County saw its homeless student population jump 10% last year, to 7,200. Those students received transportation to and from school, free school supplies, tutoring and other services intended to help them stay in school.
Jul 02, 2025
California school districts are short hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant money they had already budgeted for this year. While Congress approved the funds as part of its 2025 budget, the Trump Administration today refused to release them, sending districts across the country scrambling.
Jul 02, 2025
Prosecution witnesses have given conflicting testimony about Stockton Unified School District spending policies and procedures in the trial of Trustee AngelAnn Flores, raising questions about inconsistent enforcement of the rules.
Jul 02, 2025
The Trump administration is withholding more than $6 billion in federal grants for afterschool and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more as part of a review to ensure grants align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
Jul 01, 2025
St. Hope Public Schools is rejecting the terms of an agreement that its charter authorizer put forward last week. The two main sticking points surround its fiscal relationship with its related nonprofit and its contract with a controversial attorney.
Jul 01, 2025
The district said Friday it had passed the required financial audit and paid off the last of its loan, wrapping the 2024-25 fiscal year Monday by finally ending state receivership and fiscal oversight under the Alameda County Office of Education.
Jul 01, 2025
California school leaders will face a new reality when students return next month following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday that parents have a constitutional right to remove their children from classes that conflict with their religious beliefs.
Jul 01, 2025
Kern’s compensation will now make up more than 8% of Pope Valley’s total expenditures for 2025-26. Roughly a quarter of that will be paid through a $712,500 grant the district received this year from the state’s Community Schools Partnership Program, designed to support whole-child services through community collaboration.
Jun 30, 2025
In a move driven by student activism, the Los Angeles Unified board earmarked $5 million in its $18.8 billion budget to help fund support centers for undocumented students in district schools.
Jun 30, 2025
About 1 in 3 students in California’s K-12 schools speak a language other than English at home and were not fluent in English when they first started school — 1,918,385 students — according to data from the 2024-25 school year.
Jun 30, 2025
Education will remain mostly shielded from the pain of weak projected state revenues in a 2025-26 budget compromise between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature.
Jun 30, 2025
Fresno Unified had only 40 students enrolled in its online eLearn Academy before 2020. Now, the district of 70,000 pupils enrolls more than 800 students from kindergarten through 12th grade at the rebranded Farber School of Online Learning, which has become one of the largest online programs in California.
Jun 30, 2025
According to a press release from the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, on May 25, 2024 the Salinas Police Department received a report that Alfaro had been sexually abusing three children who were members of his family.
Jun 30, 2025
California officials must rewrite state policy in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday supporting families that wish to opt their children out of lessons with LGBTQ+ characters and pro-LGBTQ+ themes.
Jun 30, 2025
The Sonoma Valley Unified School District board of trustees have unanimously approved an agreement with the Sonoma County Office of Education to provide consulting services for the selection of a new superintendent.
Jun 30, 2025
The Tamalpais Union High School District has adopted a $124.2 million general fund budget for 2025-26 that indicates a need for about $2 million in cutbacks next fiscal year.
Jun 30, 2025
The grants were meant to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers, especially in rural areas. ... In California, West Contra Costa Unified School District will lose nearly $4 million in funding.
Jun 27, 2025
The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education late Thursday, June 26, approved the 2025-26 fiscal year budget along with a fiscal stabilization plan. The latter’s passage was a product of ongoing financial troubles that caused the district to be required, by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, to submit a plan of how to address its more than $30 million deficit.
Jun 27, 2025
The two-year irrevocable option agreement means the district can sell 8 acres of the property only to the state in this period for a California Highway Patrol headquarters. It sets the purchase price at $4 million and involves the state paying $253,100 to the district each year of the agreement, which would later go toward the purchase price if CHP goes through with it.
Jun 27, 2025
Five women are suing Clovis Unified, alleging the school district disregarded accusations of sexual abuses by their teacher while they were students at Fancher Creek Elementary School.
Jun 27, 2025
A Temecula student’s request for a record change will now trigger an automated message to parents, following the school board’s vote this week to bring back a revised parent notification policy.
Jun 27, 2025
A San Francisco journalism teacher has sued the city’s school district, claiming he was illegally reassigned and removed as the student newspaper adviser for a controversial article published by students and another piece that was proposed, but had not run.
Jun 27, 2025
As a school nurse in a rural district in Livingston, California, Lori Morgan's job usually involves scraped knees and vision tests. But she couldn't help putting one more task on her to-do list: attendance.
Jun 27, 2025
During the school year, kids attending schools in the Tahoe region are served cafeteria meals of ground turkey tacos, chicken or tofu bowls with brown rice, a salad bar filled with locally grown produce and other healthy items.
Jun 26, 2025
The Tamalpais Union High School District has turned down an offer of $250,000 in private funding for two consultants to help Black students at Tamalpais High School.
Jun 26, 2025
Lorraine Perez, who has worked in education for more than two decades and currently serves as the district’s deputy superintendent of educational services, will officially step into the role on July 1, district officials said.
Jun 26, 2025
The board approved the promotion of the district’s assistant superintendent of business services, Andrew McGuire, 5-0 at a meeting where members of the community cited their concerns over his qualifications and the board’s process.
Jun 26, 2025
The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that California and the California Interscholastic Federation violated the civil rights of female students on the basis of sex by allowing transgender athletes to compete in school sports according to their gender identity.
Jun 26, 2025
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved an $18.8-billion budget that postpones layoffs for a year but pays for higher spending in part by reducing proposed contributions to a trust fund for retiree health benefits.
Jun 25, 2025
California leaders reached a tentative agreement Tuesday night on the state budget, which hinges on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s demand that the Legislature pass a housing reform proposal.
Jun 25, 2025
Longtime Clovis Unified superintendent Eimear O’Brien came out of retirement to lead Central Unified after the West Fresno district parted with its superintendent during the school year.
Jun 25, 2025
Santa Ana Unified School District has suspended all summer field trips for a third consecutive week due to ongoing federal immigration raids in the area.
Jun 25, 2025
Modesto City Schools trustees voted 5-2 Monday night to approve the proposed fifth-grade sex education curriculum with the addition of contracting with community organizations to provide information on human trafficking and internet safety.
Jun 25, 2025
With school out for the summer, some students may no longer have access to crucial support and services available during the academic school year, as fear and anxiety rise in their communities from ongoing immigration raids.
Jun 25, 2025
A state audit found that a Sacramento area charter school received more than $180 million in funding it was not eligible for, engaged in wasteful spending, and assigned teachers to classes they did not have the credentials to teach.
Jun 24, 2025
The option agreement the Eureka City Schools board will consider this week surrounds eight acres of the property and sets the purchase price at $4,000,000.
Jun 24, 2025
The $350,000 Count Play Explore Professional Learning and Coaching Grant will provide districts with funding to deepen early mathematics and science education, what are considered to be foundational areas for early childhood.
Jun 24, 2025
Next week, the unpopular teacher licensure test, the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment, will be officially retired and replaced with a literacy performance assessment to ensure educators are prepared to teach students to read.
Jun 23, 2025
Kristina Pine was elected to a four-year term in November 2022. Two years ago, the district hired her husband as a teacher while she was serving on the board — a violation of state law.
Jun 23, 2025
Flores has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Her defense claims she is a victim of political retaliation for her role as a whistleblower who provided the FBI with information about the district’s $7.3 million contract with IAQ Distribution, Inc.
Jun 23, 2025
But the excavation work, which tears up concrete and play fields, comes at an undeniably inopportune time for Sonoma County’s largest school district, which is undergoing a massive physical and educational transformation in the face of an estimated $20 million budget shortfall.
Jun 23, 2025
The Trump administration said Friday it has given California 60 days to remove all mention of gender identity from its federally funded sexual education curriculum or the state risks losing grant funding.
Jun 23, 2025
The board approved a resolution ordering Isai Nicodemo Rodas, 22, to “refrain from and suspend all business associated with his role as a board member pending the outcome of the criminal allegations.”
Jun 23, 2025
Although the budgets do not signal an immediate crisis, the elementary budget expenses exceed revenues by $6.8 million, while the high school budget expenses exceed revenues by $1.8 million.
Jun 23, 2025
In January, the Marin County Public Financing Authority, which was created by county supervisors and the Marin County Office of Education in 2023 to finance and manage the project, announced a $17.4 million budget shortfall.
Jun 23, 2025
Last fall semester, Fresno Unified teacher Alejandra Garcia-Diaz grew concerned about a chronically absent student who fell far behind his classmates.
Jun 23, 2025
The CEO of Elite Academic Academy charter schools, Meghan Freeman, stepped down last month, two days after The San Diego Union-Tribune published an investigation into Elite’s organizational and financial practices.
Jun 23, 2025
The Riverside school district will be audited by a state panel investigating the alleged misuse of dollars from Measure O, a bond measure voters approved in 2016.
Jun 23, 2025
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday is slated to vote on an $18.8-billion spending plan for the next school year that officials say will keep cuts and layoffs at bay for exactly one more year.
Jun 23, 2025
Michael Olenick has spent his life pondering the preschool years. His mother, a childhood development professor, was one of the first Head Start teachers back in the 1960s, so he started preschool at age 3.
Jun 20, 2025
A proposal to audit the Coachella Valley Unified School District over its $60 million budget shortfall failed to pass Wednesday, falling short of the votes needed before the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee — though the request could return for reconsideration when the committee meets again in August.
Jun 20, 2025
Immigration raids in California’s Central Valley earlier this year caused enough fear to keep nearly a quarter of the students in five districts home from school, according to a report released Monday by Stanford University.
Jun 20, 2025
The result of the school’s alleged conduct could result in layoffs of 80% of its staff, potentially cutting student enrollment by about 6,000.
Jun 20, 2025
Fabiola Bagula is now San Diego Unified’s permanent superintendent, and the first Latina to serve in the role, nine months after she took on the job on an interim basis when Lamont Jackson left amid sexual misconduct accusations.
Jun 20, 2025
Five California women sued a Fresno County school system Wednesday, alleging officials brushed aside claims they were being sexually assaulted by a second-grade teacher who was later convicted of similar abuse.
Jun 20, 2025
A Fontana businessman is suing the Rialto Unified School District, alleging a culture of corruption perpetuated by a laissez-faire school board allowed one of its members to publicly defame him and prevent his company from getting work at the district.
Jun 20, 2025
This week the Public Policy Institute of California issued a timely reminder that there’s been little progress — and some regression — in such basic skills as reading and mathematics, with wide gaps among students tied to family income, ethnicity and other socioeconomic factors.
Jun 20, 2025
Prosecutors kicked off the trial by outlining allegations that Flores filed a false insurance claim related to a minor car accident and used a district-issued credit card for personal expenses.
Jun 20, 2025
A Paso Robles Unified School District staff member was placed on administrative leave May 30 due to “inappropriate communication” between the the staff member and a student, the district said Thursday.
Jun 20, 2025
More than 100 teachers and residents rallied at the Tamalpais Union High School District board of trustees meeting on Tuesday to pressure the board to rescind its decision not to renew the contracts.
Jun 20, 2025
The project is being funded with proceeds from the $41.6 million Measure P bond approved by district voters in 2020.
Jun 20, 2025
In light of new information, the Sonoma Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees will postpone making a decision on which elementary school to close until the fall.
Jun 18, 2025
A recently released report has criticized the effectiveness of California’s teacher preparation programs, specifically when it comes to training new elementary school teachers in math education.
Jun 18, 2025
It takes something big for a doctoral program graduate to forgo her hooding ceremony. For Corrin Rivera, the principal of three Patterson schools, it was the graduation of her own students.
Jun 18, 2025
Amid a national reckoning over learning loss and chronic absenteeism deepened by the pandemic, arts education may be one of the keys to boosting children’s engagement in school, research suggests.
Jun 17, 2025
The Novato Unified School District is poised to adopt a stable $131.5 million budget, but the fiscal future is uncertain, officials said.
Jun 17, 2025
The El Segundo Unified School District must pay $1 million to a former El Segundo Middle School student after failing to intervene when the teenager was bullied for almost a year.
Jun 17, 2025
The Rialto Unified Board of Education has extended the employment contract of interim Superintendent Judy White for one year as an investigation continues into allegations of misconduct by top managers in the district’s Nutrition Services department.
Jun 17, 2025
The longtime head dean of students at St. Hope Public Schools has for years spent his free time posting YouTube videos where he discusses his views on masculinity, dating and sex.
Jun 17, 2025
The Los Angeles Unified School District board has quietly approved borrowing nearly $900 million — including interest — to settle decades-old sexual assault cases involving former students.
Jun 16, 2025
McMahon told a U.S. House committee last month she rehired 74 employees out of the roughly 2,000 who were laid off or agreed to separation packages.
Jun 16, 2025
At Palms Middle School in Los Angeles, the aggressive immigration crackdown that is dominating the city loomed over a joyous middle school commencement ceremony on June 10.
Jun 16, 2025
The Sausalito Marin City School District board of trustees canceled a vote this week on a controversial one-year contract extension for its superintendent.
Jun 16, 2025
Moreno Valley Unified has warned its employees that sensitive information may have been shared with someone outside the organization.
Jun 16, 2025
Superintendent Maria Su on Friday released what she called a “balanced” budget of $1.3 billion for the 2025-26 school year, the culmination of her monthslong effort to thread the needle between preserving jobs while saving the district a near-unprecedented amount of money and preventing a state takeover of its finances.
Jun 16, 2025
The Clovis Unified School District plans to run a $14.4 million deficit for the 2025-26 school year, budget documents show. The $997 million budget adopted by the governing board Wednesday night is 35% less than the previous year’s $1.5 billion expenditure plan.
Jun 16, 2025
Trustees of the Grossmont Union High School District board have been regularly discussing district business and planning board decisions in private text and email conversations, their messages show.
Jun 16, 2025
The Rialto Unified Board of Education has extended the employment contract of interim Superintendent Judy White for one year as an investigation continues into allegations of misconduct by top managers in the district’s Nutrition Services department.
Jun 16, 2025
The Los Angeles Unified School District board has quietly approved borrowing nearly $900 million — including interest — to settle decades-old sexual assault cases involving former students.
Jun 16, 2025
Maywood Academy High School’s graduation Thursday was classic in a county where nearly half its population identifies as Latino. Students decorated their caps with photos of loved ones and messages of gratitude to God and their immigrant families.
Jun 13, 2025
Investigators arrested 22-year-old Isai Nicodemo Rodas on Tuesday. His arrest occurred after he joined the San Rafael Board of Education in December following his election.
Jun 13, 2025
Napa Valley Unified is rejecting a civil grand jury’s call to stop using school bond funds for staff salaries — a move the jury warns could erode public trust as $230 million in new bond spending begins.
Jun 13, 2025
For the second time this month, dozens of teachers at Tamalpais High School rallied in front of the Mill Valley campus Wednesday in protest of the decision not to renew contracts for two consultants providing support for Black students.
Jun 13, 2025
The Marin schools superintendent has intervened in a controversial board of trustees decision not to renew consultant contracts to help Black students at Tamalpais High School.
Jun 13, 2025
Marcus Funchess was formally named the next superintendent of Palm Springs Unified School District at its June 10 board meeting, and he took the opportunity to publicly share his vision for the district’s future.
Jun 13, 2025
The soon-to-be Maywood Academy High School graduates processed, beaming, into an auditorium at East Los Angeles College to a recording of Pomp and Circumstance.
Jun 13, 2025
The day before final exams started at Granada High School in Livermore, special education teacher Laura Brown got word that a student’s father had been detained by immigration officers.
Jun 13, 2025
The Berkeley Unified School District broke ground recently on a 110-unit affordable apartment complex for teachers and staff. The six-story complex will occupy a portion of the Berkeley Adult School parking lot at 1701 San Pablo Ave. when it opens in 2027.
Jun 12, 2025
At Palms Middle School in Los Angeles, the aggressive immigration crackdown that is dominating the city loomed over a joyous middle school commencement ceremony on June 10.
Jun 12, 2025
A former Capistrano Unified School District superintendent was confirmed as the next leader of Grossmont Union High School District at a Tuesday evening board meeting.
Jun 12, 2025
The San Diego Unified Board of Trustees is expected to vote next week to name interim Superintendent Fabiola Bagula to the role permanently.
Jun 12, 2025
Several weeks after students returned to Canyon Charter Elementary School following the Los Angeles fires in January, a second grade student at the school cried as his teacher packed up an absent friend’s belongings.
Jun 12, 2025
Hundreds of eighth-graders in freshly ironed button-down shirts and flowing dresses filed into Andrew Carnegie Middle School with their families Tuesday morning in high spirits.
Jun 11, 2025
Immigration protests in Los Angeles and President Trump’s military response are dominating the news cycle, but it’s Trump’s threat to decimate California’s federal funding that has education experts worried.
Jun 11, 2025
Despite a social-media post and a similar threat a few days earlier to withhold “large-scale” federal funding from California, Trump lacks the authority to change the state’s policy toward transgender athletes without an act of Congress or a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jun 11, 2025
The room was overpacked at Monday night’s Modesto City Schools board meeting as community members arrived with signs and strong opinions about the district’s proposed fifth-grade sex education curriculum.
Jun 11, 2025
As concerns heighten among officials and educators about possible pending federal funding cuts to California, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Tuesday that the state is at risk, but did not elaborate on when a decision would be made or what the cuts could be.
Jun 11, 2025
The Legislature is challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed funding cuts to higher education for next year, while largely leaving intact the relatively more generous TK-12 spending the governor called for last month.
Jun 11, 2025
The new Compton High School, which will open this fall, stands as a pinnacle example: Teachers will not have their own classrooms — but will conduct classes in various spaces depending on topic and availability. The high-tech classrooms themselves are rebranded as “learning studios” and will function much like college lecture halls.
Jun 10, 2025
Los Angeles Unified School District’s superintendent and board members condemned the raids and arrests of undocumented immigrants on Monday during a press conference at the district’s headquarters in downtown L.A.
Jun 10, 2025
The West Contra Costa Unified School District announced its proposed plans to cut 177 staffing positions in February. This was the latest move by the district to cut $32.7 million in costs by 2027.
Jun 10, 2025
Los Angeles school police will set up a safety perimeter around campuses and school events — including graduations — to keep federal immigration agents away from students, employees and families, school officials said Monday.
Jun 10, 2025
The Trump administration’s effort to cut off billions of dollars in funding to California schools for allowing transgender girls to compete in sports is both hateful and illegal, the state asserted in a federal court lawsuit Monday.
Jun 09, 2025
Rena Seifts, the associate superintendent of business services for Sonoma Valley Unified School District, has been selected as its acting superintendent, effective Monday, June 9, and the Sonoma County Office of Education will begin assisting the district’s board of trustees with the process of finding a new superintendent and other compelling matters.
Jun 09, 2025
Ross Valley School District trustees have accepted a preliminary budget with $700,000 in cuts over two years. The reductions to the $32 million budget come in response to the district’s loss in its May 6 parcel tax special election.
Jun 09, 2025
If ratified by the union and approved by trustees, the California School Employees Association agreement would offer 2% increases in salaries effective July 1. In addition, the pact would offer a 2.5% increase in the district’s contribution toward medical benefits.
Jun 09, 2025
Tensions in the longstanding feud between Fresno Unified and the teachers union escalated after the district’s new superintendent confronted the union’s president about its public critiques using a document containing quotes fabricated by artificial intelligence.
Jun 09, 2025
Grossmont Union High School District expects to hire a new superintendent this week, following months of tumult, public outcry over school layoffs and scrutiny of the short-lived hiring of a high-level official with a checkered history.
Jun 09, 2025
Jolene Daly spoke at two recent gatherings, arguing that fifth-graders aren’t psychologically prepared for the content about gender identity and sexual activity. Daly gave a scathing critique of the curriculum Saturday at Celebration Center, a church in Modesto
Jun 09, 2025
In its “State of the States” report on math instruction published last week, the National Council on Teacher Quality sharply criticized California and many of its teacher certification programs for ineffectively preparing new elementary teachers to teach math and for failing to support and guide them once they reach the classroom.
Jun 05, 2025
Teachers held signs saying “We support Tenisha and Paul,” referring to Tenisha Tate-Austin and her husband Paul Austin. The couple had two contracts totaling $250,000 this school year to help Black students at the Mill Valley school with academics, attendance, mentoring and tutoring.
Jun 06, 2025
St. Hope Public Schools’ charter renewal terms will undergo additional negotiation after the Sacramento City Unified School District board voted to table the approval of the charter school’s memorandum of understanding at a meeting Thursday night.
Jun 06, 2025
The Redlands Unified School District has made progress expanding services, staff and training to address student sexual abuse, but has failed to respond to and resolve a large number of complaints in timely fashion over the past year, the state attorney general’s office has concluded.
Jun 06, 2025
Governor Gavin Newsom toured Clinton Elementary School in Compton Thursday, recognizing Compton Unified School District's recent gains in academic scores, while also pushing his statewide education goals.
Jun 06, 2025
“If you were an object, what object would you be?” Chris Gethard, a veteran comedian and improv teacher, posed this question to a group of high school students in Northern California at a Laughing Together workshop he was leading.
Jun 06, 2025
The Trump administration is proposing the biggest cuts in a half-century to federal financial aid by reducing Pell Grant award amounts for low-income college students, plus the government’s contribution to the Federal Work-Study program.
Jun 06, 2025
On Wednesday night, the district’s board unanimously approved a contract with Cheryl Cotton, a Richmond native, a former district administrator and a former student who attended district schools in San Pablo and El Cerrito.
Jun 06, 2025
California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed Thursday that the state budget will include hundreds of millions of dollars to fund legislation needed to achieve a comprehensive statewide approach to early literacy.
Jun 05, 2025
After a highly charged, emotional and, at times, raucous three-hour meeting on Tuesday, the Tamalpais Union High School District board voted 3 to 2 not to renew the two contracts for married couple Tenisha Tate-Austin, a longtime Marin educator, and Paul Austin, founder of the Marin City-based nonprofit Play Marin.
Jun 05, 2025
With summer underway, many students in California are already on vacation — and others are counting down the days until class is out. Since schools across the Golden State will be mostly empty for the summer, do drivers still need to follow school zone speed limits?
Jun 05, 2025
In a recent letter, Superintendent Peter Livingston said as California continues to face a significant budget deficit, school districts across the state are being forced to make painful decisions that directly impact students, teachers and classrooms.
Jun 05, 2025
Hospitals. Schools. Shelters. Those are some of the places that California lawmakers want to shield from immigration arrests and raids. They advanced a package of bills this week as President Donald Trump’s administration continues its ramped-up deportation campaign around the country.
Jun 04, 2025
A 22-year-old Long Beach school aide was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possessing and distributing child pornography, and police in Los Angeles were seeking possible victims of the woman.
Jun 04, 2025
Federal immigration raids could be added to the list of reasons schools can cite when seeking attendance-based funding if a bill from Assemblywoman Dr. Jasmeet Bains is signed into law.
Jun 04, 2025
Dr. Mark E. Marshall of the Los Banos Unified School District was announced as the west Fresno school district’s sole finalist on Monday. Trustees will cement the decision at the June 10 board meeting.
Jun 04, 2025
The California Department of Education on Tuesday weighed in on the escalating controversy over transgender athletes in school sports, advising schools to hold the line in the wake of threats from the federal government.
Jun 04, 2025
Depending on who you ask, charter schools represent either an existential threat to public schools or an innovative model for learning. But for many families, it’s just one of many public school options to consider.
Jun 04, 2025
A new bill by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, would set aside money for school districts to pay would-be teachers while they do their student teaching service.
Jun 03, 2025
Parents at Grant Elementary, upset when Superintendent Matthew Harris passed over their choice for principal, are questioning whether his year traveling abroad is really “unpaid.”
Jun 03, 2025
The Legislative Analyst’s Office is criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spending plan for next year for schools and community colleges. It says the May revision of the 2025-26 state budget would create new debt, rely on one-time funding to pay for ongoing operations, and drain the education rainy day fund to pay for new programs and enlarge existing ones.
Jun 03, 2025
In President Trump’s budget request released May 2, he proposed eliminating the federal funding earmarked for English learners and immigrant students under Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal education law.
Jun 03, 2025
These phonics-based lessons are on the fast track to become law in California under a sweeping bill moving through the Legislature that will mandate how schools teach reading, a rare action in a state that generally emphasizes local school district control over dictating instruction.
Jun 03, 2025
The U.S. Justice Department ratcheted up its efforts to block transgender athletes from competing in school sports in California by warning school districts Monday that they will face legal trouble if they don’t break from the state and bar such athletes from competition within days.
Jun 02, 2025
For the past 18 school years, Kelly Staley has greeted Chico Unified School District graduates as they’re heading across the commencement stage and out into the world beyond high school.
Jun 02, 2025
Tara Taupier, superintendent of the Tamalpais Union High School District, apologized last month “for any harm caused.” Taupier said the district would “redouble our efforts to expand our consciousness and develop a deeper understanding of antisemitism in all its forms.” Last August, the Tamalpais Union High School District approved four such contracts to help ease tensions and support students of color after a series of racial incidents at Tam High during the 2023-24 school year.
Jun 02, 2025
The Mill Valley School District says an independent investigation determined it acted properly last year in the case of a teacher accused of child molestation.
Jun 02, 2025
If approved, the contract would offer teachers and other certificated employees a 2% wage increase for 2025-26. In addition, the district would cover an 8.2% increase in medical benefit premium rates for each employee.
Jun 02, 2025
The Oakland school board has voted to appoint a veteran educator and former president of the teachers union to interim superintendent, the district announced Friday. Denise Saddler will serve as interim superintendent for the 2025-26 school year starting July 1, the district said.
Jun 02, 2025
Unrattled by the controversy around her participation in girls’ track and field events, AB Hernandez, an openly transgender student-athlete, achieved two first-place victories and a second-place win in the state championship on Saturday.
Jun 02, 2025
Inside every governor’s voluminous state budget are items that, while not headline-grabbing, are newsworthy and illuminating. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May budget revision for 2025-26 is no exception, as four examples illustrate.
Jun 02, 2025
Angry parents and a national education organization are pushing back on the San Francisco school district’s ethnic studies curriculum, which they argue is divisive and promotes progressive activism.
May 30, 2025
Public school enrollment in Napa and Sonoma counties has ticked up for the first time in years, offering a glimmer of stability, but the region’s largest districts are still losing students and facing deep budget cuts.
May 30, 2025
Districts in Monterey County have been applying to the California Community Schools Partnership Program for years in the hopes of receiving funding to transform their sites into community schools, focusing on engaging the family unit in order to improve student outcomes.
May 30, 2025
Adam Jennings, the superintendent at the Shoreline Unified School District since 2021, has been hired for a leading position at the Marin County Office of Education.
May 30, 2025
Santa Ana Unified School District board member Brenda Lebsack is facing scrutiny from her colleagues and was recently censured for public remarks about transgender athletes during a discussion about National Arab American Heritage Month.
May 30, 2025
The superintendent of the Oakland schools, who was ousted last month, said publicly Thursday that she and the school board are “not on the same page,” an apparent reference to conflicts over financial management of the troubled district.
May 30, 2025
The driver, who operated a small van for the Moorpark Unified School District, was picking up a student Wednesday morning when the child’s parent reportedly smelled alcohol on the driver, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
May 30, 2025
A transgender high school student was pushed into the national spotlight this week after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California over her participation in this weekend’s state track and field championships.
May 30, 2025
California schools that have significantly improved student achievement will be honored in a ceremony hosted by the California Department of Education at Disneyland on Friday, but the $500 per person ticket price has some superintendents fuming.
May 29, 2025
The administration and the Sausalito District Teachers Association recently declared an impasse in contract negotiations, and a state mediation session is set for June. Meanwhile, LaResha Huffman, the district superintendent, has been trying to secure a one-year contract extension despite a no-confidence vote from the teachers.
May 29, 2025
According to PUSD, the parties reached agreements on: association rights, hours, leaves, class size, salary, health and welfare benefits, child development programs, teacher on special assignment and special education.
May 29, 2025
The federal government announced Wednesday, May 28, that it has launched an investigation into California school administrators, the California Interscholastic Federation and the Jurupa Unified School District for letting transgender athletes compete in girls’ sports.
May 29, 2025
Multiple community efforts are underway to urge the Sonoma Valley Unified School District board of trustees to reconsider its plan to close Flowery Elementary School at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
May 29, 2025
After several hours of impassioned testimony, board member clashes and tense public outbursts, the Capistrano Unified School District board approved a resolution calling for “fairness in girls’ sports,” and opposed the participation of transgender athletes in women’s athletic competitions.
May 29, 2025
Students had settled into their first class of the day when the president of the Oakland teachers union walked up to the entry gate at Fremont High School on March 17.
May 29, 2025
After President Donald Trump and a chorus of conservative activists criticized California for allowing a transgender teenager to compete in a high school girls track competition, the state’s governing body for high school sports announced an effort to find middle ground on the issue.
May 28, 2025
And then, out of nowhere, BCSD superintendent Mark Luque informed the board and the dwindling audience that he will be leaving the district at the end of August.
May 28, 2025
A 57-year-old Temecula teacher was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of inappropriate contact with a student; and a crisis team was deployed to the involved school to provide counseling and support.
May 28, 2025
Dozens of students, parents, teachers and staff spoke out at a San Jose Unified School District board meeting last week to protest the potential new assistant principal at San Jose High School over allegations he engaged in racist behavior and oversaw a hostile working environment at his previous school.
May 28, 2025
As California continues to face threats from President Donald Trump's administration over state policies allowing trans athletes in girls' sports, the state organization that oversees high school sports announced a change that aims to ensure girls are not displaced from winning a medal.
May 27, 2025
Improvements and changes would have to be discussed by the school board, but there is funding for campus improvements through Measure UU, a $385 million bond passed in November.
May 27, 2025
Yunita Tjhai has always wanted her kids to be able to speak, read and write Mandarin. Unable to speak Chinese, the San Francisco mother of three, who grew up in Indonesia, regretted that she was never able to communicate with her monolingual Chinese-speaking grandparents.
May 27, 2025
The number of students experiencing homelessness who were enrolled in California’s TK-12 public schools has jumped over 9% for yet another year, even as overall enrollment rates continue on a downward trend.
May 27, 2025
For five years, Eric Shirley taught home-school students for a small California charter school network called Elite Academic Academy. He left in 2023, he said, because of several things he found fishy about Elite’s administration.
Increasingly organized groups of parents advocating for an immediate return to class are emerging as a potent political counterweight to teachers unions.
The teachers union in Sacramento City Unified School District released its framework for reopening for in-person learning on Tuesday, and the plan prioritizes offering the COVID-19 vaccine to all of its 4,500 district employees.
Experts have found that remote instruction falls far short of classroom learning. But surveys have shown that a majority of Black and Latino parents in Los Angeles are still hesitant about sending their children back into schools.
Some teachers are reluctant to return to classroom settings as Orange County students resume at least some in-person learning. So substitute teachers might be in demand more than ever before.
Santa Clara County schools have the green light starting Wednesday to usher in a phased return to real face-to-face lessons. But the vast majority are opting instead to stay the course through the rest of the semester.
At Lucerne Valley Elementary in Southern California’s high desert, hundreds of students have returned to in-person learning and a dramatically different school day.
Pleasanton is the latest city to take a hard look at the role of police in the community and schools — and how to respond to mental health calls. The city agreed to revise its police use of force policies and possibly remove school resource officers.
Rescue Union School District, home to 3,700 students at its five elementary schools and two middle schools, is able to open since the county has remained off of the state’s monitoring list and complied with the long list of requirements to reopen.
Masks will be required at every level. In elementary schools, half of students will end their day at lunchtime, before the other half arrives. Middle and high school kids will trade off and spend two days a week on campus.
At the June 23 Oceanside Unified School Board meeting, Trustee Mike Blessing asked staff to present an option for “100 percent return” in the fall, District Communications Director Matthew Jennings said.