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 20, 2019
Senior Montebello school officials misled investors about serious financial and management problems in the district when they marketed $100 million in school construction bonds, federal investigators said in charges announced Thursday.
Sep 20, 2019
As of September 9, about a quarter of California schools now report detectable levels of lead in school drinking water but it appears many schools in our area still haven’t submitted the results.
Sep 20, 2019
Fresno Unified trustees on Wednesday night discussed adopting two new bylaws that would set the way censures are handled.
Sep 20, 2019
Students found locked classrooms at lunch Thursday at Arcata High School and will continue to do so. Certificated staff members agreed to a restricted work policy after the most recent union meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Teachers will work only contractual hours until the current salary and benefit negotiations are completed.
Sep 20, 2019
Two days after schoolyard punches by two 13-year-olds hospitalized a classmate Monday, Sept. 16, there were few answers but many emotions. Parents demanded action on a campus where six months ago sheriff’s deputies fired pepper balls to stop a fight involving 50 students.
Sep 20, 2019
Parents have pressured some Bay Area school districts to excuse kids to attend a youth climate rally Friday. The march has sparked debate about whether Bay Area schools should sanction student involvement in Friday’s march or keep kids in the classroom.
Sep 19, 2019
Kern High School District rolled out the protocol over the summer and other school districts in the county are in various stages of implementation.
Sep 19, 2019
The California Charter Schools Association has expelled the Inspire home charter school network from its membership and is now calling for a third-party investigation, citing concerns about the network’s operational and governance practices.
Sep 19, 2019
A Bear Creek High School student was arrested on suspicion of weapon charges after allegedly being discovered with a handgun on Wednesday.
Sep 19, 2019
The bill, which is awaiting approval by Governor Gavin Newsom, seeks to improve campus climates for LGBTQ students. These students often get bullied or shunned, and teachers often don’t know how to react when the students report problems.
Sep 19, 2019
As California this month expanded a statewide ban on suspending younger students for defiant behavior, lessons on how this increasingly sweeping school discipline reform may play out can be found in Los Angeles, which barred such suspensions on an even broader scale six years ago.
Sep 19, 2019
A shortage of bus drivers is costing one Northern California school district a lot of money. Marysville Joint Unified School District Superintendent Gary Cena said without buses, students might not make it to school.
Sep 19, 2019
Local TV in Fresno, California, now features two public service announcements created by the Fresno Unified School District aimed at educating students and parents on social media threats.
Sep 19, 2019
More than three weeks into the school year, several hundred Sacramento City Unified School District students are being taught by substitutes as school officials continue to look for teachers to staff classrooms.
Sep 18, 2019
Just two months on the job in the small Northern California district between Clearlake and Calistoga, the new superintendent of Middletown Unified struggled against gusting wind to open the door of her office. Inside at her window, Stone called the Red Cross and peeked outside.
Sep 18, 2019
Sweeping natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, especially wildfires, are causing California schoolchildren to miss more school days than ever before, according to a new report.
Sep 18, 2019
March Mountain High School in Moreno Valley will be re-evaluated on Tuesday after receiving a B rating and score of 89 According to the Department of Environmental Health, food vendors must score at least a 90 to pass.
Sep 18, 2019
San Diego Unified School Board Trustee Kevin Beiser and the political consultant who sued him for sexual assault settled a civil lawsuit Friday morning and are keeping terms of the settlement confidential.
Sep 18, 2019
Tony Thurmond, the state’s schools superintendent, announced plans Monday, Sept. 16, to revise and improve a proposed curriculum model that earlier this year was criticized as politically biased, misleading and anti-Semitic.
Sep 18, 2019
Hundreds of high school students and others from across San Diego County are preparing to join the international climate strike on Friday — in what promises to be the largest event of its kind in the region’s history.
Sep 18, 2019
More than 100 members of the Redlands Teachers Association and the Redlands Education Support Professionals Association in red shirts held signs at a school board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 10, calling for better pay.
Sep 17, 2019
Gov. Gavin Newsom defended his actions on the newly enacted vaccine law Monday, downplaying questions about why he demanded additional changes to the contentious legislation after agreeing to sign it.
Sep 17, 2019
California has a new vaccination law on the books. It cracks down on inappropriate use of medical exemptions that allow kids to skip some or all vaccines and still enter school.
Sep 17, 2019
Monday State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced a plan to revise the proposed ethnic studies curriculum and to bring it back to a vote of the State Board of Education in 2020.
Sep 17, 2019
The first significant state funding to test and remove lead from drinking water in California’s schools is included in a state construction bond that will appear on the March 2020 ballot if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill that the Legislature passed on Friday.
Sep 16, 2019
Baldwin Park School Police Department Chief Jill M. Poe has been placed on administrative leave while officials investigate a blogger’s allegations that she was convicted of felony insurance fraud nearly a decade ago.
Sep 16, 2019
In a letter to the district, Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools David Gordon said that while the district will meet its minimum reserve requirements in the next two years, it will fall short by $27 million in the 2021-2022 budget year.
Sep 16, 2019
Chico Unified School District has released all enrollment data reports for the 2019-2020 year for all schools from grades K-12. The data shows an overall major increase in 2018, with some minor variations in students’ distribution at several schools due to the Camp Fire.
Sep 16, 2019
After taking in millions of dollars in charter school oversight fees over the years, the Board of Trustees for the tiny Dehesa School District met Thursday to discuss the proper way to handle their watchdog role.
Sep 16, 2019
The San Bernardino City Unified School District official who was arrested on suspicion of possession and distribution of child pornography in August has not been charged as the Sheriff’s Department continues its investigation.
Sep 16, 2019
The California State Board of Education unanimously sided with the Denair Unified School District on Wednesday in a boundary dispute involving the neighboring Turlock school district.
Sep 16, 2019
Senate Bill 328 was crafted based on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations that delaying middle and high school start times will improve student sleep schedules and decrease health concerns like obesity and mental health illnesses.
Sep 16, 2019
Teachers and parents in the city of Sacramento are on both sides of a debate as to whether police officers should be on school grounds full time. But right now, the number of officers employed by the district is zero.
Sep 16, 2019
The legislation, Assembly Bill 197, introduced by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, would require every public elementary school, including charter schools, to offer at least one kindergarten class the same length as 1st grade, beginning in the 2022-23 school year.
Sep 13, 2019
The same charter school concept Montebello Unified School District denied nearly a year ago is back again applying to open a ninth- through 12th grade campus.
Sep 13, 2019
More than $2 million in state funds will power programs to help English-language learners, lower-income students and foster youth in the Pomona Unified School District.
Sep 13, 2019
Dozens of students at El Modena High School held a rally on campus Thursday morning, Sept. 12 in support of a 15-year-old special needs student who died in a golf cart crash earlier this week.
Sep 13, 2019
The Oakland School Board voted to approve two school mergers at a meeting Wednesday night, an unpopular decision that sparked outrage from many parents, teachers and students.
Sep 13, 2019
A student was shot in the jaw on Aug. 27 at Hollenbeck Middle School in Boyle Heights, possibly struck by a bullet fired from off campus, an incident that Los Angeles school officials publicly acknowledged for the first time Tuesday.
Sep 13, 2019
Kaiser Elementary School and the School of Language dual immersion middle school will close at the end of the school year, the Oakland school board decided at a packed meeting Wednesday.
Sep 12, 2019
Kaitlyn Osbourne, a senior at Clovis High who is on the water polo team, said on Sept. 3 the girls were informed by an assistant coach of a new rule — that girls would have to wear shorts before the game, while on the pool deck and right after the game.
Sep 12, 2019
As it prepares to launch $247 million in school bond construction, the Vista Unified School District board will consider adopting a project labor agreement requiring local, unionized labor for the work.
Sep 12, 2019
A West San Fernando Valley homeowners group is calling on local officials to discuss the future of five Los Angeles Unified School District properties that the neighbors believe might be used to house homeless students.
Sep 12, 2019
After intensive down-to-the-wire negotiations, legislative leaders and staff from the governor’s office have agreed on legislation to place a $15 billion preschool, K-12 and higher education construction bond before voters in March 2020.
Sep 12, 2019
Three women who stood on chairs to interrupt a state Capitol hearing on vaccine legislation are trying another route to stop newly enacted school immunization laws: California’s statewide election next November.
Sep 11, 2019
Student enrollment has declined steadily at the region’s largest public school district in recent years. The district taught less than 103,000 students last year – 7,700 fewer than just five years ago and 14,700 fewer than 10 years ago, according to district records.
Sep 11, 2019
Dr. Reyes Gauna is the superintendent of Byron Union School District in Northern California. He may have a big title and a ton of responsibilities, but Gauna says he never forgets his humble beginnings.
Sep 11, 2019
Eliminating the bus lines would leave students in the Crown Heights community without transportation to school, protesters said, and would abandon assurances that that Oceanside Unified School District made 10 years ago, when it closed down the neighborhood school, Ditmar Elementary.
Sep 11, 2019
California high school graduates may soon be able to show off their academic success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, with a new seal on their diploma.
Sep 11, 2019
The measure approved by the Assembly on a 56-16 vote would no longer let the state authorize charter schools, leaving that responsibility to school districts and county governments. The legislation also would require that all charter school teachers be credentialed, while giving existing teachers five years to meet that requirement.
Sep 11, 2019
All of the bills have passed one branch of the Legislature. Gov. Gavin Newsom must sign or veto all bills by Oct. 13. We’ll be updating our list as the bills work their way through the process.
Sep 10, 2019
The Stockton Unified School District has partnered with nonprofits with ties to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch new grant-funded curriculum, instruction, and professional learning improvement project.
Sep 10, 2019
In a rare moment of unanimity, the El Rancho Unified school board voted 5-0 on a multitude of measures, all aimed to increase mental-health services for El Rancho Unified students, during last week’s board meeting.
Sep 10, 2019
Legislation that could determine the future of charter schools in California introduces questions that school districts have been barred from asking for three decades.
Sep 10, 2019
It will soon be illegal in California for both public and charter schools to suspend disruptive students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Sep 09, 2019
Should California public schools teach ethnic studies? If so, how should they approach such a sensitive topic with the most diverse student population in human history?
Sep 09, 2019
A coalition of nonprofit advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against the Sacramento City Unified School District, alleging that the district discriminates against students with disabilities, especially black students.
Sep 09, 2019
Negotiations over the next few days between the Newsom administration, the Department of Finance and legislative leaders will determine whether there will be a California state bond for K-12 and community college construction on the March 2020 ballot, as well as the size of the bond and how the money will be distributed.
Sep 09, 2019
Four elementary school teachers who were placed on leave after a photo of them smiling and holding a noose circulated on social media were not motivated by racism and were unaware of the pain and hurt it would cause the Palmdale School District community, an investigator concluded in a new report.
Sep 06, 2019
The first few weeks of school are in the books for Chico, and the numbers of students enrolled has all but stabilized despite changes post-Camp Fire. As of this week, total enrollment in Chico Unified School District is at 12,400, according to student information coordinator Jennifer McCall.
Sep 06, 2019
Administrators at Castlemont High School are alleged to have manipulated grades and graduation requirements on an online system, Oakland Unified School District officials confirmed Wednesday.
Sep 06, 2019
The Oakland Unified School District Thursday announced plans to hire an investigator to look into allegations by two former teachers that grades were changed for courses, including those taught online, to allow students to graduate.
Sep 06, 2019
Negotiations over the next few days between the Newsom administration, the Department of Finance and legislative leaders will determine whether there will be a California state bond for K-12 and community college construction on the March 2020 ballot, as well as the size of the bond and how the money will be distributed.
Sep 05, 2019
It was the second time the Democratic governor sought to change the measure aimed at doctors who sell fraudulent medical exemptions for students, a proposal vehemently opposed by anti-vaccine activists.
Sep 05, 2019
The proposed ranking system may never go into effect, especially after newly elected school board member Jackie Goldberg introduced a harshly critical resolution this week effectively calling on the district to abandon the idea in its current form.
Sep 05, 2019
The Press-Enterprise reports Wednesday that California Highway Patrol officers will be aboard school buses in San Bernardino on Sept. 9 to observe when vehicles pass when the buses are stopped and signaling with flashing red lights or a stop sign.
Sep 05, 2019
The historical Kendall Building in downtown Stockton — though desolate and has seen better days — will soon be brought back to life and thrust into the 21st century.
Sep 05, 2019
The numbers are in and Kern High School District is continuing to grow in terms of student population. At the end of the first week of school, the district had 40,370 students, according to Roger Sanchez, director of research and planning for the district, who presented numbers during Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting.
Sep 04, 2019
Pasadena Unified is inching closer to proposing a construction bond measure that could make it to a ballot next year.
Sep 04, 2019
After three years of declining school bus pass sales, Mill Valley officials are hoping to find a way to boost the program to financial stability.
Sep 04, 2019
A California bill that passed the Legislature would prohibit schools, including charter schools, from suspending students for willful defiance. Here are things to know about Senate Bill 419.
Sep 04, 2019
Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will be required to conduct two lockdown drills per year starting in 2020-21, doubling the number of such mandatory drills in the wake of a particularly grim year of gun violence in U.S. schools.
Sep 04, 2019
As a result of an agreement reached last week between Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders, California charter school teachers will have to get the same background checks and the same credentials, certificates or permits as teachers in regular public schools.
Sep 04, 2019
That 85.1%, which pays for a rental priced at $2,836, far outpaces the nationwide average where 46.8% of a starting teacher’s pay will go toward a median rent of $1,483.
Sep 03, 2019
Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) announced that his bill to close a loophole in schools’ abilities to deny food for or otherwise shame children with school lunch debt, along with a handful of other key bills, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week.
Sep 03, 2019
Assembly Bill 493 would require teachers of grades 7-12 to attend the training at least once every two years. Classified employees would also need to undergo training.
Sep 03, 2019
The 161-student district has hired an external auditor to audit all of its current charter schools, Dehesa Interim Superintendent Larry Perondi said last week. Dehesa’s oversight changes follow scandals involving some charter schools the district authorized.
Sep 03, 2019
A member of the board charged with overseeing the school bond that Riverside Unified voters approved in 2016 is alleging that several major projects planned for the funds aren’t legal uses of the money.
Sep 03, 2019
California schools are suspending fewer students for unruly behavior, and advocates are hoping to bring that number down even lower with a proposed law now on the governor’s desk.
Sep 03, 2019
A major agreement aimed at setting stronger standards for charter schools stands to intensify power struggles for seats on the Board of Education in Los Angeles.
Sep 03, 2019
A former teachers’ union treasurer pleaded not guilty in federal court in San Francisco Thursday to charges of stealing $31,611 from the union.
Sep 03, 2019
Oakland Unified School District took one more step this week toward a very contentious plan of closing campuses to save funds that can be redirected to improve all schools.
Sep 03, 2019
A landmark agreement on charter school reform legislation reached in Sacramento Wednesday would ban new non-classroom-based charter schools for two years, require charter schools to use credentialed teachers and allow districts to deny charters to schools that would negatively affect their own schools.
Aug 30, 2019
A Rocklin-based organization is mobilizing Sacramento-area parents, hosting an event Wednesday night to share material they say indicates California’s comprehensive sex education curriculum goes far beyond what students need.
Aug 30, 2019
San Diego Unified School District conducts surveys each year to find out just how safe its students are feeling in their schools. At some elementary schools, as many as 100 percent of students feel safe. At others, the percentage dips to 50 percent and below.
Aug 30, 2019
The California School Boards Association is exploring whether to place a $15 billion tax for K-12 schools, early education and community colleges before voters, creating the possibility of dueling tax initiatives on the statewide ballot in November 2020.
Aug 29, 2019
El Rancho Unified administrators have filed a list of grievances against three members of the school board with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, alleging interference, discrimination and retaliation against members that resulted in forced reassignments and a firing earlier this year.
Aug 29, 2019
The presence of lead at so many schools is particularly alarming because lead is especially toxic to children, even at low levels. There may also be more contamination than the testing reveals.
Aug 29, 2019
After two recent high-profile child molestation arrests and convictions, lawsuits filed Wednesday against the Sacramento City Unified and Elk Grove Unified school districts accuse them of failing to train their employees to recognize signs of child abuse.
Aug 29, 2019
School districts for the first time would be able to consider the financial and academic impact on the district or neighborhood of a new charter school or a charter school that wants to expand. Districts like Oakland Unified that could show they are under fiscal distress will be able to deny any proposed charter from opening.
Aug 29, 2019
The deal, announced Wednesday, gives public school districts more authority to reject petitions for new charter campuses, phases in stricter credentialing requirements for charter school teachers and places a two-year moratorium on new virtual charter schools.
Aug 28, 2019
Deasy’s salary now stands at $283,000 to lead San Joaquin County’s largest school district. When he was first hired by SUSD in May 2018, Deasy’s initial salary was $275,000 for three years.
Aug 28, 2019
The California Assembly approved a bill on Monday that would let school boards vote on whether parents can administer medical marijuana to their children during school hours. Only non-smoking marijuana would be allowed.
Aug 28, 2019
A community transportation service that helps teens get sexual and reproductive health services has recently come into question by Fresno Unified Trustee Terry Slatic.
Aug 28, 2019
The Oakland Unified School District’s radical plan to downsize by closing and merging schools includes a key component to making sure displaced students end up in better schools. It’s a policy change that could result in diversifying some of the city’s most in-demand schools.
Aug 27, 2019
Each Marin household is shouldering between $1,000 and $24,000 — or more in overlapping areas — in school district pension debt, according to a new report from Stanford University.
Aug 27, 2019
The California Assembly approved a bill Monday that lets school boards decide whether parents can administer medical marijuana on school campuses. It would allow the use of marijuana in non-smoking form.
Aug 27, 2019
The FBI and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department are investigating a fake image of a racist post on the Rio American High School website, which was sent via phone to some students last week.
Aug 27, 2019
The Oakland School District has unveiled plans for its second round of school restructuring, and it is already hearing from incensed parents who don’t want to see their schools altered.
Aug 26, 2019
As schools open this year, Pasadena Unified officials are once again considering closing more schools.
Aug 26, 2019
As California revamps how it teaches science to K-12 students, teachers are playing a bigger role in vetting the new instruction materials.
Aug 26, 2019
Just as the new school year is starting, dozens of Marin children could be in educational limbo because of recent indictments in Southern California involving online charter schools.
Aug 26, 2019
A doctored screenshot of a Sacramento-area high school website created a buzz on social media Thursday, and prompted an investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.
Aug 26, 2019
More than two dozen San Diego County cities and neighborhoods already have Community Wildfire Protection Plans, and now county officials have provided a template for schools to create similar emergency plans to prepare for the growing threat of fires.
Aug 23, 2019
Kern County Superintendent of Schools Mary Barlow said a new school year is a fresh start, and for those students who have missed several days in the past, this could be the year to turn over a new leaf.
Aug 23, 2019
Beginning this year, the Salinas Union High School District will start building Wellness Centers on nine campuses, the first in Monterey County.
Aug 23, 2019
The author of legislation that would require students to take an ethnic studies course as a requirement for high school graduation has put off a vote on the bill this year amid widespread criticism of a proposed curriculum that would serve as a guide for school districts statewide.
Aug 23, 2019
With Los Angeles schools back in session, parents should find comfort in police statistics showing campuses are getting progressively safer, according to a report released Thursday by a nonprofit news organization.
Aug 23, 2019
The Lennox Board of Education recently selected Scott Price, LAUSD’s chief financial officer, to become its permanent superintendent, according to an LAUSD statement released Thursday afternoon, Aug. 22.
Aug 23, 2019
Each student at four Oxnard Union High School District campuses will get a Chromebook to take home this school year, and the plan is to expand the program to other schools next year.
Aug 22, 2019
A proposal meant to protect kids from unnecessary discipline by banning expulsions for disobedience in California schools passed out of the Assembly this week, moving closer to becoming a law.
Aug 22, 2019
It’s official: El Rancho Unified has a new superintendent. Frances Esparza was confirmed on Tuesday by the district’s Board of Education along its signature 3-2 split.
Aug 22, 2019
Three months after an impasse was declared in contract talks between Kentfield teachers and the Kentfield School District, a tentative agreement has been reached.
Aug 22, 2019
It wasn’t enough to just tell students at San Mateo High School to put their phones away during class, now, officials at the California school have told them to lock them away.
Aug 22, 2019
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which educates about 64,500 students with disabilities, will regain full control over programs that serve their special needs, after decades of costly court-ordered outside supervision, officials announced this week.
Aug 22, 2019
A broad coalition of educators and student groups is defending California’s draft ethnic studies curriculum and expressed concern that substantial revisions could weaken the integrity of the academic discipline.
Aug 22, 2019
School officials in Orange County are reopening an investigation into a group of high school students caught on video with their arms raised in a Sieg Heil salute while singing a Nazi marching song as additional racist images continue to surface.
Aug 21, 2019
Senate Bill 419 bans schools from suspending students in grades 4-8 for disrupting school activities or willfully defying school authorities, including teachers and staff.
Aug 21, 2019
Although the Bonsall Unified School District Board had approved a contract in June that would have raised Superintendent David Jones’ salary from $165,000 to $175,000, Jones decided to leave his salary at the rate he started at two years ago.
Aug 21, 2019
San Mateo High and others across America have begun locking up students’ iPhones and Samsung Galaxies in opaque magnetic Yondr pouches designed to allow students to keep their phones in their possession but remove the temptation, and the opportunity, to break the rules by using them.
Aug 21, 2019
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which educates about 64,500 students with disabilities, will regain full control over programs that serve their special needs, after decades of costly court-ordered outside supervision, officials announced this week.
Aug 21, 2019
District officials heralded a new partnership with city and county housing agencies to provide support to a number of housing insecure and homeless families in the northeast San Fernando Valley.
Aug 21, 2019
Garden Grove Unified School District officials are revisiting the response to a 2018 incident in which students used the Nazi salute and recited a German military song
Aug 21, 2019
California charter school teachers don’t always have a teaching credential or the federal background checks required of teachers in traditional public schools.
Aug 21, 2019
A nonprofit group put together a new report on the plight of teachers trying to make ends meet in the Bay Area, alleging that most educators cannot afford the high cost of housing.