News updates

Alfred McQuarters, a community college administrator in Oregon, has been appointed as the next president of Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.

McQuarters is currently the vice president of instruction at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon and will take over as the president at LATTC on July 1. LATTC is one of nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District.

“Los Angeles Trade-Tech College has a strong student diversity and a legacy of preparing students for trades and technical careers. It is an honor to be part of the LACCD family, as I serve in my new role as LATTC president,” McQuarters said in a statement.

Francisco Rodriguez, the district’s chancellor, in a statement called McQuarters “a proven leader who is committed to equitable student success and academic excellence.”

Education Trust-West has updated its resources aimed at helping students and families navigate dual enrollment and advocate for equitable resources.

An increasing number of high school students are earning college credit through programs local community colleges, but dual enrollment often fails to reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of high school communities.

Ed Trust-West, an education nonprofit that advocates for justice in education, created a set of bilingual resources called A Jumpstart on College: Dual Enrollment Resources aimed at families, advocates and school leaders.

The resources include a brief guide for families, questions students and families should ask, a resource guide curated by Career Ladders Project, a guide to public comment and a slideshow presentation for advocates that can be adapted to each school community.

Los Angeles County has been granted additional time to come up with a detailed plan that would prevent California’s oversight board from shutting down two juvenile halls. During a board meeting Thursday, the board voted that L.A. staff return a more detailed plan of action that provides solutions for each of the issues the board has found present in the halls.

Since 2021, the Board of State and Community Corrections has found Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall and Central Juvenile Hall, two out of three juvenile halls in the county, “unsuitable for the confinement of minors,” with problems ranging from insufficient staffing to youth being confined for too long in their rooms to lack of proper training on the use-of-force policy.

The state board received a corrective plan from L.A. County on March 14. The plan, however, “does not provide enough detail about the specific plans that will be relied upon to correct the items of noncompliance and does not provide a reasonable timeframe for resolution,” according to a letter from the board to the L.A. County Probation Department’s interim chief, Karen Fletcher. Fletcher became interim chief last month after the previous department chief, Adolfo Gonzales, was fired.

During the board meeting Thursday, the board voted to grant an additional month for L.A. County to return a more detailed plan. The county will then have until mid-June to comply with the plan.

“I think the clear message is this change is going to have to be expedient, definable, measurable and inspectable,” said Linda Penner, chair of the state board.

The decision comes on the heels of a violent incident at Nidorf, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. A probation officer was stabbed Monday night by a young person housed in the hall’s unit for youth adjudicated for serious crimes such as assault and homicide.

Students from Western High School in Anaheim are rallying to save the only Arabic language public school program of its kind in Orange County, the Voice of OC reported.

The program, which was created in the 2017-18 school year, has helped Arab American students feel included by learning about their language and culture, Western High teacher Lina Mousa told Voice of OC. District officials say they don’t have enough money to keep the program going because of low enrollment, since emergency pandemic funding is running out.

However, supporters of the program believe Covid impacted the enrollment numbers, according to the Voice of OC.

Despite growing polarization between political parties in the U.S., Californians are in broad agreement that the state should put more funding towards K-12 education and that California should strengthen its high school civics education, according to a poll conducted by UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and Stanford University’s Center on Democracy among others.

The poll presented a representative sample of more than 700 Californians with different backgrounds and long-term policy ideas, according to a UC Berkeley news release. The participants were first surveyed on 56 policy proposals on housing, homelessness, education, and other issues. After the initial survey, the participants read background materials and held online discussions with experts and other participants. Afterward, they were re-surveyed to see how their opinions had changed.

On that poll, about 80% of respondents agreed California should “strengthen its high school civics education and include experiences with participation, negotiation and compromise in a democracy,” according to the news release. The poll also found that 73% of responds agreed “the state should increase support for K-12 education enough to move California into the top third of student achievement scores nationwide.”

Edgar Aguirre, 38, a junior majoring in communications at California State University, Los Angeles, was shot and killed April 1 near the Golden Eagle apartments near campus.

Aguirre was also a part of Project Rebound, which supports formerly incarcerated individuals as they complete their college degrees.

A campuswide email sent April 3 from Cal State LA President William Covino said Aguirre was shot while riding a scooter. The university also issued a statement: “This is devastating news. Our hearts are with Edgar’s family, friends and those in our community who knew him. … Edgar’s death is a tragic loss for his family and our University.”

LAPD said they are investigating the case.

Trustees at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in Orange County want to vet books before they go to students — a move that some worry will lead to book bans and stop educators from choosing curriculum materials, the Voice of O.C. reported.

District trustees voted  3-2 Tuesday to introduce a revision to their book selection and evaluation policy that requires them to vote on books before they get tested with students. They rejected a literature review committee that would have been made up of educators and parents.

Trustee Todd Frazier, who called for the policy revision, and trustee Leandra Blades have said the change will bring more transparency and accountability to the book selection process. “There’s no oversight up till this point in the process. There has been none,” Blades said.

But Trustee Carrie Buck said the elected trustees are not qualified to make decisions about what books should be taught. “We’re not experts in this field,” Buck said at the meeting. “We should not be the five that are determining this.”

The Los Angeles Community College District will begin offering adjunct professors health insurance based on them working one-third as much time as full-time employees, the district announced Wednesday.

Adjuncts previously had to work half-time to be eligible for district health care coverage.

“We’re proud to announce that, together, we’ve reached an impactful and historic (contract) with our faculty colleagues,” Chancellor Francisco C. Rodriguez said in a statement.

The district is taking advantage of  $200 million in state funding passed last year that increased reimbursement for health coverage to part-time academics, district Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Teyanna Williams said in the statement.

Health coverage for part-time academics varies widely across the state, EdSource reported last year, with some districts providing no coverage at all.

“I am extremely pleased with the District’s decision to offer these benefits for our hard-working adjunct faculty, ”said A. James McKeever, president of the district’s Faculty Guild,  the union that negotiated the contract.

Black students from around California gathered at the state Capitol on Tuesday to protest a proposed school spending plan they say shortchanges Black students, the Sacramento Bee reported.

“We have been demanding change for too long without seeing change,” said Hannah Canada, a senior at Cosumnes Oaks High School and president of Black Students of California United. “If we want equity, we need to start seeing direct solutions instead of trying to slap a Band-Aid.”

The proposed spending plan, put forth by Gov. Newsom, would allot additional school funding based on how many students at a school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Because many Black students do not attend low-income schools, they would miss out on that funding despite persistently low scores in math and reading, advocates said.

Protesters also spent part of Tuesday at an Assembly budget subcommittee hearing, promoting their alternative budget plan. Their plan would adjust funding so more Black students would benefit.

At the rally, students toted signs that read “70% of Black kids are below grade level in reading” and “84% of Black kids are below grade level in math.,” the Bee reported. They also danced, marched and sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

“In California, equity means everyone but Black students,” Margaret Fortune, president and CEO of Fortune School of Education, said at the rally. “It’s time for our students to be seen, heard and funded.”

Newsom will release his revised budget in May.

The schools board overseeing Pacific Grove Unified in Monterey County launched its search for a replacement for Superintendent Ralph Gómez Porras, who resigned effective June 30, the Monterey Herald reported.

Porras announced his resignation March 31 after 16 years as superintendent of the 1,812-student K-12 district south of Monterey. He told the board he was resigning to pursue another job, but didn’t elaborate.

The board is sending requests for proposals to three executive search firms, and plans to announce its next steps at its April 20 board meeting.

Meanwhile, members of the public and the board thanked Porras for his leadership.

“Over the past sixteen years in the Pacific Grove Unified School District, Dr. Ralph Gómez Porras has served our staff, students, families and community with his time and talents. We are grateful for Dr. Porras’ leadership and dedication over these many years, especially during the pandemic. With his announcement this week that he is moving on to a new opportunity, we honor and respect his decision and wish him the very best in his future endeavors,” the board said in a prepared statement. “(The district) will continue its focus on providing high-quality education programs while prioritizing the health and safety of our students and staff. We believe our wonderful district is heading in the right direction and want to continue on our current trajectory.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a guidance document Tuesday spelling out school districts’ legal obligations and best practices for closing, merging and consolidating schools.

The guidance comes at a time when many districts are facing the prospect of closing, merging or consolidating schools due to declining enrollment.

It explains how districts must follow new state laws under AB 1912, which requires school districts to engage the community and conduct an “equity impact assessment” before closing schools. Under AB 1912, an Equity impact assessment analyzes the “disparate harms” that a closure may cause and makes sure the closure is alleviating, not maintaining school segregation, according to the guidance. The document recommends districts work with experts to create community advisory groups to participate in the assessment.

“These impacts are serious and can cause educational harm,” Bonta said in the guidance. “When these harms affect one group of students more than others, they may also be unlawful.”

The Attorney General’s Office was asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to investigate Oakland Unified’s plan to close schools last year. The decision to close sparked outrage among staff, students and families, and a hunger strike by two Oakland Unified educators.

The guidance also explains the California civil rights laws that apply to districts considering closures.

“The statewide guidance issued today presents clear standards and procedures on how school districts should determine school closures, mergers and consolidations to meet their legal requirements and to establish a mindful community engagement process with local school communities,” Bonta said in a statement. “We must proactively mitigate harm and ensure equity in our school system to help navigate this difficult process.”

Los Angeles Unified union workers have voted to ratify their new contract following last month’s three-day strike, according to LAist.

The contract, which was tentatively agreed to in March, will give a 30% raise to bus drivers, custodians and other support staff represented by Service Employees International Union Local 99. It also includes a higher minimum wage of $22.53 an hour and guarantees more hours for special education assistants.

The contract must still be approved by the district and will be taken up by the school board, which next meets on April 18.

San Diego State University plans to build its first-ever income restricted apartments and has selected Chelsea Investment Corp. as the developer, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

SDSU announced Monday that the Carlsbad-based affordable housing developer has been tapped for the project, which will be on the university’s Mission Valley campus. The building’s units will be reserved for families making between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income, according to the Union-Tribune.

“SDSU has always been committed to the inclusion of affordable housing on-site at Mission Valley. In partnership with Chelsea, which has strong experience and success in developing similar projects, we are taking a big step toward fulfilling our long-standing commitment,” Gina Jacobs, an associate vice president at SDSU, said in a statement.

The state Department of Education’s Digital Divide Innovation Challenge, a $1 million contest announced during the pandemic to deliver high-speed internet access to all Californians, has not resulted in any winners or significant inroads in solving a long-standing problem, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The contest, launched in 2020, was intended to spur innovation that could provide broadband to the 20% of California’s student population who lack high-speed internet access at home. Several private tech companies, as well as the Tulare Office of Education, spent money and time on their contest entries.

But two years later, the state has yet to award a winner.

“We see that it was too big of a lift,” Mary Nicely, chief deputy to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, told the Chronicle. “We were pretty much trying to figure out anything” to provide internet access during the pandemic.

One company, Bay Area-based Dalet Access Labs, spent more than $700,000 on its contest entry.

The Innovation Challenge is now slated to become a $2 million grant program, the state said, although the timeline is unclear.

Ojai Unified’s board voted unanimously to hire Sherrill Knox, a former assistant superintendent, teacher and principal, to serve as interim superintendent of the 2,300-student district in Ventura County, the Ventura County Star reported.

Knox had been serving as acting superintendent since mid March, when the board fired Tiffany Morse amid financial troubles in the district. Initially, the board wanted to hire a former superintendent of Oxnard Union High School District to replace Morse, but that candidate withdrew her application. Around the same time, two members of the five-member board resigned.

Knox will earn $185,000 annually and will serve indefinitely.