News updates

Stockton Unified is seeing an uptick in its graduation rate, and district officials say summer school programming deserves some of the credit for the increase.

The district graduate 85% of its seniors last year, up from 76.6% in 2020, according to The Record. Brian Biedermann, the district’s director of Educational Services, told the district’s board of trustees that 117 seniors who were at risk of not graduating were able to get their diplomas last year because they took their final high school classes over the summer.

“We’re lucky to have adults that believe in this program willing to work extreme hours over the summer and during intersession,” Biedermann said, according to The Record. “They’re connecting with the kids, I have adults going to houses literally dragging them out of bed to complete coursework, because we don’t want them to be five or 10 credits away and just give up.”

Fresno Unified’s middle schools will all get new washers and dryers by next month, The Fresno Bee reported.

The district’s leadership announced the new initiative this month, but it may not have happened if not for the efforts of Eric Calderon, a middle school teacher in the district. According to the Bee, Calderon brought attention to the issue when he began fundraising for new laundry machines.

Calderon told the Bee that when he and other staff began calling families of chronically absent students to find out what they could do to help, they learned that one of the top reasons those students weren’t attending was because they didn’t have clean clothes.

“What I would call a basic human need was affecting attendance for our student population,” Calderon said.

Calderon later engaged with district leadership about the issue, and they agreed to the cover the costs of new laundry machines not only at Calderon’s school, but at all middle schools across the district, according to the Bee.

Three small schools in San Francisco that serve predominantly Black, Latino and low-income students are preparing for steep budget cuts, Mission Local reported.

June Jordan High School, Cleveland Elementary and John O’Connell High School are each facing cuts of about $200,000, or the equivalent of three teacher positions. The cuts are related to declining enrollment districtwide; San Francisco Unified has lost 10,000 students since 2019. In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced cuts to statewide K-12 education funding totaling $1.5 billion.

The potential cuts, which some educators said impact small schools disproportionately, could result in fewer teachers, more combination classes, larger class sizes or reductions in class preparation time. The school board will make its final budget decisions by July.

Gunn Marie Hansen, whom Orange Unified fired in January because she allegedly focused “too much on social politics,” starts next month as the new superintendent of nearby Westminster Unified, the Orange County Register reported.

Hansen begins work April 1. She will earn $335,000 annually.

“(Westminster) is quickly becoming a destination district in Orange County sought by discerning parents, staff and teachers, school board president David Johnson said. “Now we will also boast one of the best Superintendents in the entire state and she is in alignment with our goals for excellence. … We are so fortunate to have (her) take the lead at WSD.”

The Orange Unified board fired Hansen Jan. 5, with no explanation. Later, board president Rick Ledesma said that under Hansen, the district was “focusing too much on the social politics of education” and the board planned to revisit policies related to sex education, student equity and ethnic studies.

David Goldberg, a bilingual teacher at Murchison Elementary in the Los Angeles Unified School District, will be the next president of the California Teachers Association.

Currently the 310,000 member CTA’s vice president, Goldberg, 51, will succeed current president E. Toby Boyd and assume the first of two terms as president on June 25. A life-long resident of Los Angeles and graduate of UC Santa Cruz, he is also the nephew of Jackie Goldberg, who is president of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education.

The CTA’s State Council of Education elected the new slate of officers on Sunday. Current CTA Secretary-Treasurer Leslie Littman,  an AP US History, Economics and Government teacher in the William S. Hart Union High School District, will become vice president. Erika Jones,  44, an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles Unified, wills serve as secretary-treasurer.

“Students and their needs are at the center of everything we do as educators and as union leaders. It’s a core value that drives the work we do in our schools and colleges and at the bargaining table,” Goldberg said in a statement.

Kenneth Brown, the president of El Camino College’s board of trustees, died Thursday.

“The sudden loss of our friend and colleague has sent shockwaves throughout our campus community, and no doubt throughout the many networks and circles that Trustee Brown traveled through,” the college said in a statement. “He was tirelessly dedicated to the mission of providing quality educational opportunities to students. He will be dearly missed.”

Brown has served on the board at El Camino, which is near Torrance in Los Angeles County’s South Bay, since 2010. Since 2016 he was also a member of the board for the California Community College Trustees, including a stint as president from 2021-22. He was also an adjunct professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he taught physics and math courses.

“He inspired those who knew him to think critically about solutions and act definitively to improve opportunities. He was a truly amazing man who spoke from the heart and gave from the depths of his soul. No one knew that more than his family, including his wife Karla and his two sons,” said Larry Galizio, president of the Community College League of California, in a statement.

Daisy Gonzales, the interim chancellor of California’s community college system, said in a statement that Brown “was a champion for students in everything he did” and that his “legacy and commitment will empower generations of leaders to come.”

Hundreds of Oakland teachers joined a picket line Friday morning, striking in response to reduced staffing and low teacher pay. The one-day strike was not authorized by the teachers’ union, according to reporting by the S.F. Chronicle.

The middle and high school teachers are asking for a 23% raise in wages. By contrast, the Oakland Unified School District proposed an 11% raise for teachers and 8% for other staff.

The Oakland teachers are striking just as Los Angeles Unified teachers return to their classrooms after a three-day strike by the district’s lowest-paid workers brought classes to a halt for 420,000 L.A. Unified students.

More Black and Latino children are being diagnosed with autism, the result of improved screening and awareness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Historically, white children have been more likely to be diagnosed with autism — 30% more likely than Black children and twice more likely than Latino children.

Among all children, the diagnosis rates of autism were 1 in 36 in 2020, up from 1 in 44 in 2018, the L.A. Times reported.

Despite the increase, it’s unclear if access to autism services are more widely available for all. A recent study involving over 530,000 children with autism in the U.S. found that those from racial and ethnic groups face greater disparity in access autism services.

Note: This post was updated to reflect a change made to the diagnosis rates statistics. The original post mistakenly said the rates were one in 44 in 2020, up from 1 in 36 in 2018.

A student at South El Monte High School in Los Angeles County allegedly stabbed another student during an argument on Wednesday, authorities said, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.

The victim was, who suffered three stab wounds, was initially treated by an on-campus nurse. The other student had a cut on his ear, the newspaper reported.

It is unclear what caused the argument. The school went on lockdown, and then classes were let out early, according to the Tribune.

It was the second report of an alleged attack with a knife at a California high school this month. A student died after a stabbing at a high school in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, on March 1.

Stanford has suspended the associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at its law school after he participated in a student-led disruption of a speech by a conservative federal appellate judge at the university earlier this month, Reuters reported.

The students who protested 5th U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan will not be disciplined, Reuters reported. Duncan was appointed to the court by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.

The length of the suspension of Associate Dean Tirien Steinbach was not disclosed. Steinbach, who addressed Duncan and students during the event, said the judge’s presence was painful for some students.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Duncan defended calling the students “appalling idiots,” “bullies” and “hypocrites.” Two other Trump appointees, Judges James Ho of the 5th Circuit and Elizabeth Branch of the 11th Circuit, wrote last week in the National Review that law schools should discipline and punish students who participate in “disruptive tactics.”

In a 10-page letter obtained by Reuters, law school Dean Jenny Martinez wrote that Stanford Law administrators had not enforced the school’s speech policy, which prohibits shutting down speakers through heckling.

Sacramento City Unified School District held an event this week to raise the transgender pride flag over its headquarters in advance of the Trans Day of Visibility on March 31.

The Sacramento Bee reports that the event was held to show support for transgender students, especially during a time when schools have become the focus of hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills across the country.

“We are all here today in solitary and understanding that every student deserves to be seen, every student deserves to be supported, and that every student deserves to be loved,” said school board President Chinua Rodes. “This is especially important for students who are historically most vulnerable.”

Schools across the country are facing a shortage of crossing guards.

San Jose Spotlight reports that 30% of its crossing guard positions still remain unfilled. It has 80 out of 262 positions vacant. That has broad ramifications for the safety of children on their way to school.

“Our crossing guards are essentially the eyes and the ears of this department because they’re out there on a regular basis,” Michelle Barte, the program manager for San Jose Police Department’s School Safety and Education Unit, told the Spotlight. “They get to know their children, the parents, the guardians. They typically see who belongs there and who doesn’t, so they’re also tasked with looking out for the greater safety of the children.”

Oakland’s Department of Transportation has faced trouble filling crossing guard positions, and so has Los Altos and East Bay schools.

Nationwide schools have faced a crossing guard shortage that parallels the broader labor shortage. Crossing guards typically work an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. That makes it perfect for someone retired or a stay-at-home parent looking for extra income, but it is not a job that others with a part-time position can easily take on, notes The Los Altos Crier.

The Clovis Unified School District has named Corrine Folmer as its next superintendent, the district announced Monday, according to The Fresno Bee.

The Fresno County district’s school board voted unanimously to appoint Folmer, who is currently associate superintendent for the district. She starts in her new role on July 1, according to the Bee.

“There is so much emotion,” she said Monday. “I am humbled and honored to serve as superintendent.”

Folmer graduated from Clovis Unified and has spent 20 years working in the district, having served as a teacher, instructional specialist, learning director, principal and an assistant superintendent.

Jeff Freitas has been re-elected as president of the California Federation of Teachers, the teachers union announced.

Delegates for the state’s second-largest teachers union re-elected Freitas, who has been president for the past four years, to a third two-year term.

“As public education in the U.S. faces unprecedented attacks, it is more important than ever for our educators and classified professionals to come together, united in our commitment to our students and our communities,” Freitas said in a statement, adding that his top priority will be to “address the education staffing crisis.”

CFT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and represents teachers and classified staff at public and private schools and colleges in California.

Students who have dropped out of California’s community colleges did so because they needed to prioritize work, couldn’t afford college or had to take care of dependent family members, among other reasons, according to a survey.

The RP Group, which conducts research for California’s system of 116 community colleges, surveyed about 76,000 prospective and former students in the summer and fall of last year. The survey’s preliminary findings were shared with the system’s board of governors last fall and, without many changes, a final version of the survey was presented to the board Monday.

Among former students, 33% of them said their need to prioritize working was a major barrier preventing them from returning to a community college. Another 29% said they couldn’t afford college, while 22% said they had dependents to care for and 18% said they needed to prioritize their mental health.

Prospective students cited similar reasons affecting their decisions to not yet enroll at a community college. Nearly one-third of them said they can’t afford college, while 29% said they were prioritizing work and 18% said they had to care for dependents. Another 29% said they were considering a college or university outside of California’s community colleges.

California’s community college system, which includes 116 colleges across 73 local districts, suffered dramatic enrollment declines during the pandemic, dropping by about 18%. As of last fall, enrollment has begun to stabilize, however, with most colleges reporting that their declines had leveled off. Some even saw their enrollment increase in fall 2022.