Headlines
FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.
Sep 30, 2022
Robert Meszaros, spokesman for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, said the office received allegations of “fiscal improprieties” from the Fairfax district in June 2021. The following month, it asked the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team to conduct an audit that ultimately found Moland may have committed fraud.
Sep 30, 2022
The new law was authored as a bill by California Assemblymember James Ramos of Rancho Cucamonga, the only Native American member in the state Legislature. This law would require task forces to submit annual reports to the California Department of Education, which would then submit a report to the Senate and Assembly Education Committees. Legislators would use these reports to inform future policies. ... And while the law doesn’t require districts to form task forces, Hernandez says it’s a step in the right direction.
Sep 29, 2022
Stockton Unified School District Facilities Director Armando Orozco has threatened to sue the district if not given $800,000 to leave his job.
Sep 29, 2022
The money for the project comes from a $213 million facilities bond passed by voters in 2018. The Measure I bond provides funds for repairing and updating school facilities, including athletic facilities.
Sep 29, 2022
The state eventually agreed to a 2020 settlement that created $50 million in Early Literacy Support Block (ELSB) grants for 75 of the state’s lowest-performing schools, those with the lowest scores on Smarter Balanced tests administered in the spring of 2019. At some of these high-poverty California schools, fewer than 10% of the children were reading at grade level.
Sep 29, 2022
Under pressure from the teachers union, Los Angeles school officials have changed their plan to create four optional “acceleration days” to boost student learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. ... Under the announced agreement, the original four acceleration days will revert to regular school days and the school year will end four days earlier as a result. ... The district had set aside up to $122 million to cover fully staffed acceleration days, as well as three extra training days for teachers.
Sep 29, 2022
Six adults were shot at a high school in East Oakland on Wednesday afternoon in a mass shooting that left two victims with life-threatening injuries.
Sep 29, 2022
Public institutions in California will have to opt for American-made food products starting Jan. 1, 2024 under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Senate Bill 490 states that public institutions, including schools, need to budget for and purchase American-made foods unless they are more than 25% of the cost of imported ones.
Sep 28, 2022
Palmer Moland was arrested and charged with seven felony counts, including the misappropriation of public funds, violating conflict of interest statutes, falsification of election documents and voter fraud. A DA's news release notes the charges were the product of an investigation by the DA's Public Integrity Unit, after allegations of misconduct were reported by the Kern County grand jury, as well as an audit conducted by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team.
Sep 28, 2022
Sacramento Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby is calling on the city to ban homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and childcare centers, a proposal supported by some parents but opposed by area homeless advocates. ... Her proposal follows reports last week that a man who appeared to be homeless had harassed children on their way to Sutter Middle School.
Sep 28, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered an average 10% cut to Marin’s public and charter school student enrollment countywide since its start in the 2019-20 school year, new data indicates. The county had a total enrollment of 32,374 students on opening day of the 2019-20 school year. By the first day of the current school year, 2022-23, that enrollment was at 29,288 — a drop of 3,086 students over three years, according to new data released by the Marin County Office of Education.
Sep 28, 2022
This $50 million plan is set to also remove portable classrooms to create 2,000 square feet of natural shaded spaces at 150 schools identified in LAUSD’s Green Index.
Sep 28, 2022
Some of the campaigns have a noticeable GOP tilt, reflecting conservatives’ frustration with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 policies. Those candidates, like Tarbox, felt children would have been better off if they returned to school earlier.
Sep 28, 2022
The district superintendent announced last week he is reviewing the background check process to ensure no one else with a questionable past can “slip through the cracks and work with children.”
Sep 28, 2022
Changing its earlier position, the California Department of Education will release Smarter Balanced test scores next month and not wait to incorporate them into other data as planned, a department official said Tuesday.
Sep 27, 2022
Kern High School District officials reported Narcan, the name for a nasal spray given to those suspected of suffering from an opioid overdose, has been administered five times on district campuses this school year, according to a news release Monday evening.
Sep 27, 2022
In 2019-20, kindergarten enrollment statewide was 523,009 and it dropped 11.6% in 2020-21 to 462,172. The decrease was even greater — 14% — in Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school system.
Sep 27, 2022
The governor, who has touted his commitment to early education with universal pre-kindergarten, said in a Sunday night veto message on Senate Bill 70 that the cost of requiring kindergarten starting in the 2024-25 school year — up to $268 million annually — means the issue should be dealt with during budget talks.
Sep 27, 2022
A large-scale survey this past summer of California teachers confirms what has emerged as a byproduct of two-plus years of a pandemic: Large numbers of teachers characterize their work as “stressful” and “exhausting.” And nearly twice as many teachers than in the past say that job conditions have changed for the worse.
Sep 27, 2022
The school district is moving forward with the $105 million development with 134 units hoping to retain and recruit teachers by providing affordable housing for district staff in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.
Sep 26, 2022
Paso Robles students must get parents’ permission to participate in on-campus clubs in a newly enforced policy that critics say is discriminatory.
Sep 26, 2022
In a hotly contested move, the Ross Valley School District has set a deadline — backed up by an eviction notice — for a deal to sell the area’s only subsidized child care center back to its operators. If the process is not completed by Aug. 31, the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center will have to vacate the complex at Deer Park in Fairfax.
Sep 26, 2022
As of the latest data in 2018, the state had 747 dual-language immersion programs, according to the California Department of Education. That’s an increase from 407 in the previous year. The current number of programs is likely more than 800, given department projections.
Sep 26, 2022
Leaders and staff at the schools and in Clovis Unified School District have been using a new notification system to reduce security response time on top of its other safety measures, including a new requirement to lock all classroom doors during the school day. The Catapult Emergency Management System, new this school year, facilitates an immediate response to emergency situations, speeding up the district’s action, according to the district.
Sep 26, 2022
In Sanger Unified, the school district will be training its students using a video that instructs them to “Run, Hide, Fight.” The video helps kids gain the tools, understanding and confidence needed in those situations to ensure they are prepared, Coleman said. The district researched over 20 videos to find the most appropriate one. The eight-plus-minute video will only be shown to secondary school grades of 7-12 at middle and high schools, but not seventh and eighth graders at K-8 schools. K-8 schools will follow the elementary curriculum.
Sep 26, 2022
Capistrano Unified School District will put before voters in November a bond measure seeking up to $114 million to fund building and tech upgrades at aging elementary, middle and high school campuses in Aliso Viejo.
Sep 26, 2022
November’s elections promise to be an especially competitive affair for school board races, which are supposed to be nonpartisan, as conservative groups in San Diego County and nationwide have collaborated to recruit and train such parents and campaign for their election to local school boards.
Sep 26, 2022
César Chávez, in the city’s Mission neighborhood, had one of the highest chronic absentee rates in the district last year, with 70% of the 449 students missing at least 10% of the 180-day school year, compared to 29% two years earlier.
Sep 26, 2022
Kneeland Elementary is one of California’s smallest public schools. Two years ago, the school, which was built in 1880, was on the verge of closing. It had an average daily attendance — for the entire school, transitional kindergarten through eighth grade — of 12 students. Since 2020, enrollment has more than doubled, to 33 students. The school got more funding.
Sep 26, 2022
Half of all students were chronically absent last year, meaning that they missed 15 or more days of school. Not including those quarantined because of Covid-19, the figure was still at nearly 30%. According to the attendance analysis, many of those absences have been attributed to a variety of health, family and social factors, including illnesses, mental health issues, family needs and disconnection from school.
Sep 26, 2022
Despite a tenure that has focused on early education, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Sunday that would have made kindergarten mandatory in California. In his veto message, Newsom said that though the intent to make kindergarten compulsory is “laudable,” it would cost the state up to $268 million each year.
Sep 23, 2022
Workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s downtown headquarters have failed at least one public health inspection in recent weeks as a COVID-19 outbreak among employees has forced officials to reimpose mask-wearing rules on five floors of the building.
Sep 23, 2022
A student with special needs at Fresno Unified’s Ahwahnee Middle School went missing briefly last week, managing to get off campus and across a street. District employees say the incident highlights the need for more support staff in Fresno-area schools, especially in high-needs classrooms.
Sep 23, 2022
Nowadays, the state promotes proficiency in two languages and even passed a 2016 initiative that led to immediate growth in the number of bilingual programs. Meanwhile, parents increasingly seek out opportunities for their children to communicate in multiple languages — an asset in the global economy.
Sep 23, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic surfaced a youth mental health crisis that was surging throughout California. In Sacramento County, the Department of Public Health says it worked with almost 12,000 kids with mental health-related concerns between 2021 and 2022.
Sep 23, 2022
L.A. Unified has reached a $9.5-million settlement with the parents of a 12-year-old boy who died after running laps at Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, the attorneys representing the family said Wednesday.
Sep 23, 2022
Los Angeles public schools will stock campuses with the overdose reversal drug naloxone in the aftermath of a student’s death at Bernstein High School, putting the nation’s second-largest school system on the leading edge of a strategy increasingly favored by public health experts.
Sep 22, 2022
More than 95% of the members of Valley of the Moon Teachers Association voted to strike, if needed, after impasse mediation over salary negotiations with Sonoma Valley Union School District was unsuccessful.
Sep 22, 2022
The board then voted unanimously to increase salaries by 7.02% for all certificated staff, which includes teachers and counselors as well as classified staff and administrative staff. This will go into effect beginning with the staff’s October paychecks and staff will receive a retro check dating back to August.
Sep 22, 2022
A shortage of school bus drivers in Oroville has led school districts to consolidate bus routes, limiting the number of students able to get a ride on the bus and leaving the burden of transportation to their families.
Sep 22, 2022
Beginning Jan. 1 prospective substitute teachers will not have to prove they have the basic skills needed to teach, at least temporarily. Senate Bill 1397 waives the basic skills proficiency requirement for an emergency 30-day substitute permit through July 1, 2024.
Sep 22, 2022
In a significant departure, the California Department of Education is withholding the release of the results of the Smarter Balanced tests that students took last spring until an undetermined date later this year.
Sep 22, 2022
The teacher shortage at MLK Middle School, and staffing challenges in districts across the state, comes at a time when unprecedented state and federal education dollars have been sent to districts to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss.
Sep 22, 2022
At least seven teenagers, including the 15-year-old Bernstein High School girl who died last week, have overdosed in the past month from pills possibly containing fentanyl, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Sep 21, 2022
The California School Boards Association has a new report with a wide-ranging survey of superintendents and financial staff from local education agencies (LEAs) that serve more than 1.3 million K-12 students across the state.
Sep 21, 2022
According to the lawsuit, Marchus School had used extreme tactics — such as physical restraints and isolation — to punish students and control their behavior, in violation of their individualized education programs.
Sep 21, 2022
An Elk Grove High School student was recently diagnosed with active tuberculosis, Sacramento County health officials announced this week. Parents of all students potentially exposed have been notified via mail, the county health office said in a Monday news release.
Sep 21, 2022
San Francisco schools saw about 1,000 more students than expected this fall, a slowing of a financially devastating decline in enrollment and bolstering hopes that fewer families will flee the district in the wake of the pandemic.
Sep 21, 2022
The hackers who targeted the Los Angeles Unified School District have made a ransom demand, officials confirmed Tuesday, an indication that the attackers have extracted sensitive data or believe they can bluff the district into thinking that they have.
Sep 21, 2022
The superintendent of public instruction is the only nonpartisan statewide office in California, but it seems impossible to separate politics from the race between Democratic incumbent Tony Thurmond and Republican challenger Lance Christensen.
Sep 20, 2022
An attorney for the Wolters Elementary student who was struck by ex-principal Brian Vollhardt in the June 7 incident caught on camera has filed a claim for damages with Fresno Unified.
Sep 20, 2022
The San Francisco school board voted just over a month ago to add two Muslim holidays to the instructional calendar, but will reconsider that decision Tuesday, following significant backlash and the threat of a lawsuit.
Sep 20, 2022
More than one in four California parents have switched their child’s school during the pandemic with most transferring from traditional public to charter schools, according to the 2022 PACE/USC Rossier Poll.
Sep 19, 2022
The school district has made little progress in contract talks with its teachers and classified employee unions, both of which have been jointly negotiating over the past few months.
Sep 19, 2022
In disagreement with San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools Troy Brown, the Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees did not acknowledge former Superintendent John Ramirez Jr.’s “superintendent emeritus” position as one of employment.
Sep 19, 2022
MONTEREY — Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is considering implementing a safe parking program for families experiencing homelessness.
Sep 19, 2022
Dominic DiGrazia has been an educator for 30 years and has been with Glendora Unified School District for the past 25 of those, so he’s paid his dues. On Aug. 5 he was named interim superintendent for the district.
Sep 19, 2022
Paramount’s local school district will soon make the switch to by-district board elections — as opposed to at-large elections — joining several other local education agencies and allowing it to proactively avoid potential discrimination lawsuits.
Sep 19, 2022
After controversial back-to-back firings of the previous two people to hold the job, Fresno County’s West Park Elementary School has a new superintendent — their fourth in less than a year. Brian Clark, who has over 24 years experience in California schools, was appointed late last month by the West Park school board.
Sep 19, 2022
In California’s largest school district without a teacher’s union, educators failed to meet their petition deadline to unionize, but organizers alleged the Clovis Unified School District’s decades-long influence and support of another group is unfairly impeding efforts to unionize.
Sep 19, 2022
San Diego Unified School District is asking voters to approve a $3.2 billion bond measure that would be the district’s fourth in 14 years. The bond, on the November ballot as Measure U, would pay for many of the same kinds of facilities projects being funded by three existing bonds.
Sep 19, 2022
The Los Angeles Unified School District no longer plans to suspend Daniel Pearl Magnet High School journalism teacher and magazine adviser Adriana Chavira as originally planned following an outpouring of support from media associations and the family of the slain journalist whose name adorns the school.
Sep 19, 2022
Salinas City Elementary is one of nine California school districts that's sharing a $1.78 million, two-year grant for multilingual students. More than three million students in California are multi-language learners, the largest of any other state.
Sep 19, 2022
A bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk could require California public institutions — including schools — to purchase food produced in the United States, as long as it doesn’t cost 25% more than imported products.
Sep 16, 2022
A few topics of discussion — aside from teacher pay — are how the landscape of teaching has changed post the COVID-19 pandemic, how classrooms have become political sources of tension, what is being done to recruit new teachers, and how diversity plays a role in the classroom.
Sep 16, 2022
A bill that would have created a program to let California students ride public transit for free passed the state legislature with bipartisan support, but was ultimately rejected by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.
Sep 16, 2022
Longtime farm-to-school proponents received a boost from California’s first couple, particularly First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who’s made the movement one of her priority issues. After years of slow progress, millions of dollars are flowing toward locally sourced school lunches.
Sep 16, 2022
Public employee unions and organizations representing school districts, school boards and school business officers are pitted against each other on legislation spelling out how to protect students and school adults from lead in water.
Sep 16, 2022
A second former student at a San Francisco public high school has accused the school’s then-athletic director of sexually abusing her on campus, as new records obtained by The Chronicle show the district was moving to fire the director — but instead allowed him to quietly resign.
Sep 16, 2022
Two high school boys were arrested Thursday, one on suspicion of manslaughter for allegedly selling what is believed to be a fentanyl-laced pill that led to the overdose death of a student at Helen Bernstein High School.
Sep 15, 2022
SALINAS — Just like any other high school in Monterey County, students at the Bob Hoover Academy attend classes, chat with friends and complain about homework. But instead of dissecting frogs, students deconstruct and rebuild airplanes. And instead of learning to drive a Toyota Prius in driver’s education, they learn how to fly a Cessna 152 airplane.
Sep 15, 2022
The heat wave that finally broke in recent days, but seared Southern California for more than a week, caused concern across the region, from power grid operators to health officials.
Sep 15, 2022
The San Francisco school board voted Wednesday to spend more than $2.8 million to fix a new $14 million payroll system that has resulted in eight months of frustration and errors in paying staff.
Sep 15, 2022
Last year, George Clooney pushed an idea that could help make Hollywood production crews more diverse. That dream became a reality this year in the Roybal School of Film and Television Production Magnet.
Sep 15, 2022
Tuesday State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón rescinded a public health order requiring that all school employees show proof of vaccination or be tested at least weekly. The new policy is effective Sept. 17.
Sep 14, 2022
The Siskiyou County Office of Education is helping the Weed Union School District stay in a fiscally safe place after it told the district last spring it wouldn't be able to meet its financial obligations in 2022.
Sep 14, 2022
Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Cathy Parker will leave office early at the end of October, before her current four-year term officially expires at the beginning of next year.
Sep 14, 2022
For many American teenagers, high school means trying desperately to understand algebra or chemistry in the 7am hour, fending off the urge to use your books, or your neighbor, as a pillow. But for kids in California, things may be looking up.
Sep 14, 2022
Teacher candidates have many choices. They can take the traditional route — attend a teacher preparation program and complete student teaching — or they can take part in a teacher residency or internship program that allows them to complete required coursework while teaching.
Sep 14, 2022
The staff member broke up the fight, but some of the people involved shot back toward the scene as they fled into a vehicle. Three males fled, the Vallejo City Unified School District said in a letter to the campus community.
Sep 14, 2022
While police were on the way to the school, they received a report of a yard supervisor possibly overdosing after coming into contact with the pills, authorities said.
Sep 14, 2022
Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho on Tuesday received rare emergency powers to deal with the ongoing crisis caused by a massive Labor Day weekend cyberattack on the nation’s second-largest school system.
Sep 13, 2022
The Stockton Unified School District says the Board of Trustees did not violate the Brown Act when granting former superintendent John Ramirez Jr. full salary and benefits in closed session because he is not an employee, despite placing him “on leave” last month when he was arrested on DUI charges.
Sep 13, 2022
A project that includes building a new multipurpose room at Woodland Star Charter School has been suspended as the Sonoma Valley Unified School District reviews its funding priorities.
Sep 13, 2022
MARINA — Olson Elementary School has partnered with Littera Education to bring free tutoring services to nearly 400 students and improve their reading skills.
Sep 13, 2022
California saw record-breaking temperatures during last week's heat wave and the stretch of high temperatures had some school districts realizing they will eventually need to install more air conditioning systems.
Sep 13, 2022
The data management system for California’s K-12 schools has been on the fritz for months after it was updated in April then rolled out with minimal testing, potentially jeopardizing school district funding.
Sep 13, 2022
The defense attorney for Brian Vollhardt, the Fresno Unified ex-principal caught on video three months ago striking a student with special needs, said that what he knows about his client and the video released to “the world” don’t line up.
Sep 13, 2022
In the wake of an unprecedented recall, nearly half of San Francisco residents said the city’s controversy-plagued school board is doing an abysmal job, according to a new San Francisco Chronicle poll.
Sep 13, 2022
More than 100 students in Lodi Unified School District spent part of the summer running relays and braiding jump-ropes from plastic bags, all while learning more complex writing and reading skills in English.
Sep 12, 2022
Marin officials say some guidance regarding COVID-19 in schools might relax slightly, even though the county’s overall rate of infections remains high. Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s public health officer, said the biggest change could come if Marin shortens the recommended isolation time from 10 days to five after a student or school staff member has tested positive for the virus.
Sep 12, 2022
After long-standing research showed the devastating impact of early classes on teens’ health, California’s district middle schools will start no earlier than 8 am; and high schools will start no later than 8:30 am. Rural district schools are exempted from the state mandate.
Sep 12, 2022
Aftershocks reverberated around Fresno schools this week following the release of a disturbing video showing a former elementary school principal striking a student with special needs.
Sep 12, 2022
Dozens of journalist organizations are calling on the Los Angeles Unified School District to rescind a decision to suspend the adviser of the school’s student-run publication for her refusal to remove the name of an unvaccinated librarian from a student’s article.
Sep 12, 2022
Afirst-of-its-kind dual enrollment program in California’s third-largest school district will guarantee admission to a historically Black college, giving students in the Central Valley a pathway to experience an HBCU.
Sep 12, 2022
Parents and teachers are upset with Elk Grove Unified School District over a sudden change in special education programs that separated dozens of specialists from students who trusted them.
Sep 09, 2022
A 34 year-old Stockton man with four handguns was arrested by Stockton Police on Thursday after he climbed a fence and went onto the campus of the Merlo Institute.
Sep 09, 2022
San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools Troy Brown has demanded the Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees rescind their action to employ former SUSD Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. as "superintendent emeritus."
Sep 09, 2022
The Paso Robles district could fill a whole second bus with kids from San Miguel, but it has no one to drive it.
Sep 09, 2022
The California Mathematics Framework (C.M.F.) is an arguably obscure but extremely consequential document informing the educations of millions of children, from transitional kindergarten to twelfth grade, which is revised every eight years.
Sep 09, 2022
The Coachella Valley Unified School District will apply for a $1.5 million federal grant to buy five electric school buses. If CVUSD receives the grant, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will fund the entire cost of the buses, except for special options such as lift chairs and upgraded air conditioning.
Sep 09, 2022
Brian Vollhardt, the Fresno Unified ex-principal accused of striking a student at Wolters Elementary, was placed on leave Wednesday from his new job as the vice principal of Tranquillity High School in Golden Plains Unified.
Sep 09, 2022
As California’s record-shattering heat wave blankets the state, members of the Newsom Administration and state lawmakers, along with local leaders and environmentalists, gathered at a school in the East San Fernando Valley on Thursday, Sept. 8, to promote a historic state investment to expand school greening projects.
Sep 09, 2022
With climate change resulting in longer and more common heat waves, researchers and parents say more is needed to equip school buildings and those within them to keep communities safe and cool during the hot season.
Sep 08, 2022
Some school districts are better prepared than others for potential cyberattack. Ultimately, experts urge having detailed plans in place to deal with such attacks.
Sep 08, 2022
The Riverside County Department of Environmental Health and Desert Sands Unified School District are investigating possible food contamination at Colonel Mitchell Paige Middle School in La Quinta.
Sep 08, 2022
In November, the student-run news website of Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Lake Balboa published a story naming a faculty member who had refused to comply with the district’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Sep 08, 2022
The private data of more than 400,000 students could be at risk as federal and local investigators assess the damage wreaked by a massive cyberattack against the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Sep 08, 2022
Weeks into the school year, about 250 teachers were needed across the 13 public school districts in Sacramento County, according to the Sacramento County Office of Education.
Sep 08, 2022
Two staff members at a Northern California junior high school have been placed on administrative leave after students there were sent outside to eat lunch Tuesday as a lengthy heat wave created dangerous conditions throughout the region.
Sep 08, 2022
Reclaim Our Schools has called for improvements including: reducing pavement at 10 additional schools each year through 2040 beyond the district’s existing commitments, making all schools 50% green space, using electric-powered school buses and installing EV chargers at every school.
Sep 07, 2022
The Milpitas Unified School District put out the call to families in late August in response to staff losses and sky-high housing costs that have made it difficult for educators to live near where they work.
Sep 07, 2022
A school in Fresno Unified sent students home early Tuesday due to the dangerous combination of the current heat wave and air-conditioning failures. Starr Elementary School, located in northeast Fresno, had started an early release process because of A/C failures.
Sep 07, 2022
The cyberattack that disabled computer systems across the Los Angeles Unified School District school was criminal in nature, but by Tuesday most online services — including key emergency systems — were operating safely,
Sep 07, 2022
A group of 24 school superintendents from districts across the Southern California region want the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to change a portion of its on-campus masking policies.
Sep 07, 2022
Abill that would double the number of health clinics on school campuses is headed to Gov.Gavin Newsom for approval amid objections from anti-abortion groups that claim the clinics would make it easier for students to end pregnancies.
Sep 07, 2022
The investigation into the cyberattack that prompted the Los Angeles Unified School District to disable all of its computer systems over the weekend is expected to be lengthy and involve multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI, officials said Tuesday, Sept. 6, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
Sep 07, 2022
While Los Angeles school officials said Tuesday they have not received a ransom demand since their computer system was hacked over the holiday weekend, experts say blackmail is typically the reason for cyberattacks.
Sep 06, 2022
Two Chino Valley Unified school board candidates have each received donations of $50,000 to their campaign committees, campaign records show.
Sep 06, 2022
Atwater is a prime example of the career training that takes place in high school agriculture departments in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. This involves much more than raising crops and livestock. Students can learn metalwork, engine repair, electrical wiring, woodworking, flower arranging and much more.
Sep 06, 2022
With California’s climate warming — and amid a global pandemic of an airborne pathogen — the current heat wave is only the latest event to highlight a generational problem facing many California schools: fixing inadequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Sep 06, 2022
Sanger Unified cut multiple school bus stops this year with little notice to parents, many of whom are field workers who said they now must choose between providing for their family financially or getting their children to school. Parents who spoke out to the school board are angry.
Sep 06, 2022
The heat wave scorching California is hitting the Central Valley particularly hard. Leaders of local school districts say they have procedures in place to handle the heat wave, especially as extreme heat is somewhat more familiar to Fresno.
Sep 06, 2022
San Diego Unified used at least $8.2 million of COVID-19 aid dollars on hiring new teachers. It spent at least $17.4 million on employing substitute teachers. But it spent a larger, $122 million sum on payroll where it’s harder to tell exactly how it related to the pandemic or learning recovery.
Sep 06, 2022
Some education leaders sounded the alarm about a teacher shortage long before COVID-19 came into the picture. But the stress that came with the global health crisis proved the final straw for many.
Sep 06, 2022
California is investing billions of new dollars, on top of state and federal pandemic relief funds. Bridges Academy at Melrose, which is a public school, found a way to leverage the money to maximize impact, pivoting from crisis management to prevention.
Sep 06, 2022
California was the last state to resume in-person learning after school closures in 2020 and among the few to impose and last to lift statewide school mask mandates. But this year, desks aren’t spread apart, students aren’t summoned for random COVID-19 tests and masks at most schools are optional.
Sep 06, 2022
A cyberattack brought down the computer systems of the Los Angeles Unified School District over the weekend, but officials said late Monday night that schools would open as scheduled Tuesday morning.
Sep 02, 2022
Old Adobe Union School District is anticipating a budget shortfall for the 2022-23 school year and that’s expected to continue for the next two years, according to school officials, making it the only district in Petaluma to fall short in over a decade.
Sep 02, 2022
California parents are asked to go the extra mile this year in the Milpitas Unified School District. In addition to preparing their children to return to school, the district is asking parents to open their homes to teachers.
Sep 02, 2022
One school district is trying something new: A 122-unit apartment complex was approved by local voters and built for teachers and staff on property owned by the Jefferson Union High School District.
Sep 02, 2022
After making controversial budget cuts last school year, San Marcos Unified School District earned a “stable” credit rating outlook from a major rating agency, which district officials say reflects a significant improvement in the district’s finances.
Sep 02, 2022
The declines and wide equity gaps come as Los Angeles Unified Supt. Alberto Carvalho said he has reviewed unreleased state tests scores in the nation’s second-largest school district that “show devastating loss."
Sep 02, 2022
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said Wednesday that he would reconvene a Task Force on Early Literacy he appointed a year ago to continue work on addressing early literacy. The task force hasn’t met for seven months.
Sep 02, 2022
As extreme heat days spurred by climate change increase, as schools begin in mid-August, and as educators stress the importance of outside play and exercise, hot schools are prompting parent demands to “de-asphalt” campuses.
Sep 02, 2022
A highly contentious bill intended to allow some California teenagers to be vaccinated without parental consent has been shelved by the author, who said there were not enough votes to get it through on the final day of the legislative session.
Sep 02, 2022
The sponsor of legislation that would have provided $400 million in additional funding to raise the academic achievement of Black students pulled the proposal hours before likely passage Wednesday, after Gov. Gavin Newsom raised objections.
Sep 01, 2022
The Long Beach Unified School District’s approximately 67,500 students, along with their teachers and other LBUSD employees, returned to campuses on Wednesday, Aug. 31, kicking off the 2022-23 academic year. LBUSD is one of the largest public school districts in the state, with a $1.2 billion operating budget and 85 campuses in Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill and Avalon.
Sep 01, 2022
Amid an apparent investigation by the state Department of Justice, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has suspended a disciplinary program that addresses minor offenses committed by students ages 10 through 17. The Sheriff’s Department said it sent a letter to all participating schools this week, ordering that they immediately stop all activities with the CleanSWEEP program.
Sep 01, 2022
School mental health professionals describe a troublesome reality: Countless children are in pain as they begin the third year of school amid the pandemic. Students and parents confront waits that are too long and counseling time that is too short.
Sep 01, 2022
A California school district is vowing to reform its discipline practices after a federal investigation revealed it was giving harsher punishment to Black students compared to White students who displayed similar behavior.
Sep 01, 2022
As climate change makes extreme heat an increasingly regular part of life, school leaders consider air conditioning essential to keeping students safe and healthy at school.
Sep 01, 2022
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s budget for this fiscal year has grown by $1.4 billion due to extra funding from Sacramento following approval of the state budget by the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom over the summer.
Sep 01, 2022
Falling childhood vaccination rates during the pandemic meant that thousands of students were unable to start the school year on a campus because they did not have the immunizations required by the state.
Sep 01, 2022
A state appeals court on Wednesday restored voting by noncitizen parents in San Francisco school board elections, at least for now, putting a judge’s ruling on hold that said the California Constitution allows only U.S. citizens to vote.
Aug 31, 2022
A week into school, the Eureka City Schools district has all the teachers it needs, but a few other key positions are still vacant.
Aug 31, 2022
A Los Angeles jury ordered the El Segundo Unified School District to pay $1 million to a former El Segundo Middle School student after failing to intervene when the teenager was bullied for almost a year.
Aug 31, 2022
At the Aug. 24 board meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Ryan Stanley said decreasing enrollment is something that the district is continuing to monitor and that there are a few factors contributing to the lower numbers of students.
Aug 31, 2022
San Francisco’s public schools will add two holidays next academic year. The school board voted to close all schools on two of the holiest Muslim days. This is not sitting well with some people who say we need more instruction not less.
Aug 31, 2022
A bill advancing in the state legislature would prohibit California public schools, colleges and universities from purchasing agricultural products for student meals not grown, packed, or processed in the United States.
Aug 31, 2022
Even within the same district, some schools — particularly those in wealthier neighborhoods — experienced less teacher turnover and were more likely to start the school year with a full staff.
Aug 30, 2022
Smart watches, cell phones and headphones are no longer welcome in classrooms in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
Aug 30, 2022
Larkspur-Corte Madera schools have been awarded a $900,890 grant to support efforts in preventing school violence.
Aug 30, 2022
The Montebello Unified School District is going to spend millions of dollars on making its schools safer, including contracting with the cities of Bell Gardens and Montebello for police officers on three high school campuses.
Aug 30, 2022
CHICO — Two weeks after schools within the Chico Unified School District opened doors for the 2022-2023 school year, some certificated and classified positions remain vacant.
Aug 30, 2022
School districts across Southern California are taking steps to protect students ahead of a blast of extreme heat that will hit the region this week. Temperatures are expected to climb into the mid-and-upper 90s across the Los Angeles area by midweek.
Aug 30, 2022
A Sacramento school board member was reprimanded by her colleagues Monday and ordered to undergo ethics training after a Southern California hotel employee accused her of trying to steal a decorative red vase from the hotel lobby.
Aug 30, 2022
The new school year kicked off Monday for San Diego Unified School District’s roughly 95,000 students as schools still grapple with problems posed by the pandemic, from their own struggles to hire enough staff to students’ struggles with their mental health.
Aug 30, 2022
Clovis school psychologists are pushing the district to invest millions more in student mental health staffing and programs as Fresno County’s second-largest school district negotiates with unionized workers.
Aug 30, 2022
California is one step closer to mandating that children attend kindergarten, a requirement that would come after droves of the state’s youngest students skipped the grade during the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened learning gap concerns.
Aug 30, 2022
A Senate bill awaiting the governor’s signature would change California’s education code to align with how Los Angeles Unified pays its school board members, allowing for compensation more than five times the code’s initial cap.
Aug 30, 2022
A former San Francisco high school student says the school’s athletic director sexually abused her on campus for years, and that school officials allowed him to “quietly resign” after she reported the abuse.
Aug 30, 2022
On Monday, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes won a major victory when a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the club be reinstated as an official student group for the current school year while litigation between the parties continues in the lower district court.
Aug 29, 2022
Three days before Ventura County Christian School was due to start its school year Aug. 22, school officials got a message from their Ventura Unified School District landlords: The century-old property the private school had inhabited for two decades had been deemed unsafe.
Aug 29, 2022
The Lodi Unified School District could receive as much as $56 million in new grant funding through California's 2022-23 education budget, officials said Tuesday night.
Aug 29, 2022
The Paradise Unified School District is holding a special meeting Monday night at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting will have 10 action items that the trustees may act on.
Aug 29, 2022
The Sacramento City Unified School District recruited outside help last year to investigate and resolve a string of race-related incidents on campuses that outraged parents and upset students.
Aug 29, 2022
The mother of a middle schooler who died following an asthma attack has sued the Yucaipa-Calimesa school district, alleging the district failed to follow its own policies and protocols, leading to her daughter’s death.
Aug 29, 2022
For the second time this month, a South Bay elementary school sent grade-schoolers home for refusing to wear COVID masks in class. San Jose’s Alum Rock School District is among the few in the Bay Area that still requires students to wear face masks in an effort to reduce spread of COVID-19.
Aug 29, 2022
With classes back in session for the new academic year, some parents are seeking relief, particularly on campuses that lack enough trees, plants or shade coverings to help lower the temperature in the school yard.
Aug 29, 2022
Dual-language immersion programs, which teach all students in English and another language, are so much in demand that some school districts have been able to stop declining enrollment or even grow enrollment in a school by beginning a dual-language program.
Aug 26, 2022
The work comes in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting and will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Aug 26, 2022
The Ross Valley School District will bring on an appraiser to evaluate the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center as part of a plan to transfer ownership to the center’s operators. Trustees voted 4 to 0, with board member Ryan O’Neil absent, on Tuesday in favor of spending up to $17,000 to secure a professional appraisal of the property, located in Deer Park in Fairfax.
Aug 26, 2022
Two assistant principals at Rialto’s Wilmer Amina Carter High School will stand trial on charges of child abuse and violating California’s mandated reporter laws in what prosecutors say is the first-of-its-kind criminal case in San Bernardino County.
Aug 26, 2022
In the wake of Bullard High School’s controversial move to ban student cellphones, the community still has many questions with the 2022-23 school year already underway. When does the ban actually start? How will it work? How will parents contact their students in an emergency?
Aug 26, 2022
About 150 people jammed a room at S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside on Thursday night, Aug. 25, to hear what educators are doing to improve safety nearly a week after an intruder attacked a girl in a campus restroom.
Aug 26, 2022
California fourth graders trail the nation in reading, and half of its third graders, including two-thirds of Black students and 61% of Latino students, do not read at grade level.
Aug 26, 2022
Though both the state of California and Sacramento County announced a state of emergency in response to the ongoing monkeypox outbreak in early August, neither has yet issued guidelines for how schools should address potential spread of the virus.
Aug 25, 2022
The Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 5-2 to accept their formal response to the San Joaquin County Grand Jury report disputing nearly half of the grand jury’s findings at the Aug. 23 board meeting.
Aug 25, 2022
Food services directors hope that good food means that more students will sign up for the free meals, which means more funding from federal and state governments. Local schools gets a higher reimbursement from the government for each free lunch when compared to reduced-priced or paid meals.
Aug 25, 2022
Old Adobe Union School District started the 2022-23 school year Aug. 17 with two new co-superintendents, following a monthslong search to fill the role that has now seen five people at its helm since the start of the calendar year.
Aug 25, 2022
In defiance of a government mandate that does not exist, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District’s Board of Trustees voted 4-3 at its Tuesday evening meeting to protect the use of “traditional” gender-specific language in its schools.
Aug 25, 2022
The Alhambra City Council this week unanimously approved an agreement with the Alhambra Unified School District to continue the district’s school resource officer program. The previous contract expired on June 30. But this week’s renewal states that the district will reimburse the city for services in an aggregate amount of $215,000 annually.
Aug 25, 2022
A jury on Wednesday, Aug. 24, awarded $26 million in damages to a former Pasadena Unified School District special-education student who was sexually assaulted by three male classmates at Focus Point Academy in 2016. The verdict in Los Angeles County Superior Court follows a 2018 lawsuit accusing the district of negligence and having dangerous conditions at the school.
Aug 25, 2022
“Chain link is like a ladder,” said Ron Stephens, executive director for the National School Safety Center in Agoura Hills. “It’s one of the easiest fences to climb.” Stephens recommends that schools shift to fences fashioned of wrought iron or a similar hardened material that is more difficult to scale, if districts can afford it.
Aug 24, 2022
“Stockton Unified needs some champions right now,” Interim Superintendent Traci Miller told a small group of community leaders. “It’s going to take each one of us really working together, and I am confident we can turn this ship around.”
Aug 24, 2022
At its Tuesday evening meeting, the Paso Robles school board will discuss a resolution to reject any mandate that would require the district to replace “traditional gender-specific names” — even though no such mandate has been suggested here.
Aug 24, 2022
Reed Union School District trustees have given formal approval to extend an inter-district transfer agreement with Larkspur-Corte Madera School District involving families who live in a special section of East Corte Madera.
Aug 24, 2022
LOS ANGELES — The former superintendent of the Bassett Unified School District in La Puente and the head of a construction management firm appeared in court Tuesday on charges alleging they engaged in a scheme to bilk more than $1.4 million from the district.
Aug 24, 2022
According to a Chronicle analysis of student demographic data from the most recent school year, SFUSD schools remain highly segregated along racial lines. Of the 99 non-charter schools analyzed, nearly two-thirds have “highly segregated” student populations.
Aug 24, 2022
California schools reopened for the fall semester with loosened COVID-19 protocols and low student vaccination rates among younger children, presenting a new test for the trajectory of the pandemic as some experts expect another rise in cases when winter arrives.
Aug 24, 2022
The new rule allows a person overseeing a public meeting to remove someone who is disruptive. This includes those who disturb, impede, or render “infeasible the orderly conduct” of the gathering.
Aug 24, 2022
s LAUSD moves into its second week back, attention is on ensuring all students return to the classroom and on addressing the gaps in learning made evident by the district’s most recent round of testing.
Aug 23, 2022
SUHSD Assistant Superintendent Hector Galicia said the district hopes to do its part in addressing the shortage of educators seen throughout the state and the nation.
Aug 23, 2022
A garden program that was cut from the Sausalito Marin City School District budget earlier this year has been almost fully restored through contributions from school parents and staff, individual donors, businesses and nonprofits.
Aug 23, 2022
Los Angeles County Office of Education has revoked a 2017 order assigning a fiscal adviser to oversee district finances of the Montebello Unified School District, despite looming serious concerns about the district’s business operations.
Aug 23, 2022
Parents of students at a school in Riverside, concerned about the assault by an intruder on a girl in a school restroom, on Monday, called for new security measures as officials grappled with the realities of a school built 35 years ago that leaves the campus vulnerable in today’s world.
Aug 23, 2022
Despite an enrollment decline that is leaving thousands of seats empty in San Francisco schools, the city’s school board is forging ahead with a plan to build a $95 million elementary school to open in three years.
Aug 23, 2022
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County, states the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District, Sunset Elementary School and the former superintendent were negligent in their care of Moises Murillo.
Aug 23, 2022
A bill that would have helped school districts open more dual-language immersion programs fizzled in the California State Assembly this month, crushing the hopes of many advocates of bilingual education.
Aug 23, 2022
Over a quarter of California parents moved their children to a new school during the pandemic, with most saying they wanted a different experience for their child, were dissatisfied with Covid protocols and learning and mental health supports.
Aug 22, 2022
When Emy Flores was hired in December to become the new Superintendent of West Covina Unified School District, she told this newspaper that it was a dream destination for her because of its great programs, facilities, the community and the district’s fiscal stability.
Aug 22, 2022
The governor said California districts should use Fresno’s McLane High School as a role model for building better social-emotional support programs for students. Newsom said the state neglected to adequately invest in mental health in schools for decades.
Aug 22, 2022
Many believe the ban on critical race theory at the Placentia Yorba-Linda Unified School probably represents just the beginning of a “parental rights” movement in California schools that aims to ban discussion of various topics.
Aug 22, 2022
A Bay Area parent is considering suing over his 4-year-old son being barred from his public school classroom after the child refused to wear a mask. Staff called a school-based police officer Thursday when the father declined to leave the campus.
Aug 22, 2022
The Victor Valley Union High School District has hired Carl J. Coles as its new superintendent, replacing retiring Superintendent Dr. Ron Williams. Williams retired from VVUHSD this summer after 10 years with the district, including eight years as VVUHSD’s superintendent.
Aug 22, 2022
The governor said California districts should use Fresno’s McLane High School as a role model for building better social-emotional support programs for students.
Aug 22, 2022
Abill that would have helped school districts open more dual-language immersion programs fizzled in the California State Assembly this month, crushing the hopes of many advocates of bilingual education.
Aug 19, 2022
The SUSD Board of Trustees accepted Battle's resignation at an Aug. 16 special meeting. The district said Battle resigned to pursue other opportunities. He spent just more than a year on the job. Battle’s departure marks a trend of change among high-ranking school district officials since former Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. resigned June 9 after just a year on the job.
Aug 19, 2022
Scheduled to open in early October, the long-sought pool complex is meant to both boost SVHS aquatics programs and be available to the public when the school is not using it. The complex was scheduled to open in early September, but construction delays and unexpected periods of rain postponed the debut.
Aug 19, 2022
The Long Beach Unified School District has unanimously adopted a policy to implement goals aimed at reducing emissions and moving the district toward the use of clean and renewable energy.
Aug 19, 2022
As millions of California students head back to school this month, they’ll get a bit more time before their alarms go off. The most populous state in the country is the first to mandate start times in public schools – an effort to allow teens much-needed winks. Middle schools can start no earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
Aug 19, 2022
Egg white breakfast wraps, vegetarian ramen, gumbo, glazed carrots and organic cheeseburgers aren’t just trendy restaurant offerings — they’re on some of the breakfast and lunch menus at California schools.
Aug 19, 2022
In 2019, two years after FUSD launched its African American Academic Acceleration Department, state records showed the achievement gap for the district’s Black students shrinking on state tests, if only by a few percentage points.
Aug 19, 2022
When word got out that a conservative candidate who opposes gay marriage and supports the presence of Christian principles in public schools was running unopposed for the Morgan Hill school board, phones across the city started ringing.
Aug 19, 2022
After last year’s chaos and uncertainty, this school year looks to be calmer, more productive and — to the amazement of everyone — “almost normal,” teachers and other school staff said at an EdSource roundtable on Thursday.
Aug 19, 2022
The lawyer that already sued the San Francisco school district over its renaming of schools is now threatening another lawsuit after the school board voted to make two Muslim holy days into school holidays.
Aug 18, 2022
Two months after hundreds of conservative protesters and liberal counter-protesters locked horns outside of district offices during a June 21 board meeting, both sides called off plans to turn out in numbers, each citing fear of violence from the other.
Aug 18, 2022
The Duarte Unified School District is working to modernize their athletic facilities at Duarte High by constructing a new gymnasium and tennis courts, while also updating their locker rooms and gymnasium.
Aug 18, 2022
The Hacienda La Puente Unified School District settled for $18 million a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of a special-needs student who died after he fell while in class at Sunset Elementary School in La Puente in 2017.
Aug 18, 2022
There are about 2,500 races for local school board seats in California in November — about half of the total 5,000 seats, according to the California School Boards Association. The filing deadline for candidates was Friday, though it was extended until today for seats held by incumbents not seeking reelection. While no statewide tally exists, of the nine seats up for election in the three largest school districts — Los Angeles, San Diego, and Fresno — three are open seats, where no incumbent is running.
Aug 18, 2022
Students in Oroville began their first day of school Tuesday morning with new changes to schedules, additions to social and emotional learning, and no mask requirement — a first since the outbreak of COVID.
Aug 18, 2022
PARADISE — Students throughout the Paradise Unified School District were welcomed at their respective campuses on Tuesday, Aug. 16. For several students, their educational careers will continue as their campuses grow next to them.
Aug 18, 2022
Across California, parents’ pandemic-era frustrations over everything from COVID school closures and safety protocols to the power of teachers’ unions are driving them to run for school boards.
Aug 18, 2022
The conservative groups that successfully challenged San Francisco’s law allowing noncitizen parents to vote in local school board elections have sued Oakland to remove a similar proposal from the city’s November ballot.
Aug 18, 2022
The family of an 8-year-old La Puente boy with Down syndrome who died in 2017 after falling off a chair at school and severing his spinal cord has reached an $18-million settlement with the district, the family’s attorney said Wednesday.
Aug 18, 2022
As San Francisco students headed back to school Wednesday, there was hope among parents, teachers and education officials that, for the first time in three years, the district would be laser-focused on student learning and free of scandals.
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.