Saturday, March 31, 2012

®EFORM PLANS PASSED FOR UNDERPERFORMING LAUSD SCHOOLS

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/HFBdIm

3/30/2012 08:32:16 PM PDT   ::  Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy has given the go-ahead to plans to revamp three underperforming schools in the San Fernando Valley, but ordered three other proposals to be tweaked and rejected another outright.

The decisions impact the 37 campuses across LAUSD that were targeted for improvement under the Public School Choice initiative.

This was the third round in the reform program, and the first time that charter operators were banned from bidding to take over the schools. Applicants also were allowed to seek waivers from district policies in order to meet their specified goals.

According to the results posted late Thursday at publicschoolchoice.lausd.net, Deasy approved 19 proposals, gave provisional approval to a dozen others and rejected six of the applications.

His decisions are final and cannot be appealed to the school board.

"These proposals are both comprehensive and driven by teachers," Deasy said in a statement. "We look forward to working with the applicants to provide a quality education for thousands of our students."

Among the applications winning approval:

Maclay Middle School: Renamed the Maclay Academy of Social Justice, the Pacoima campus will utilize standards-based instruction and promote student literacy and English-language proficiency.

Sun Valley Middle School: Social Justice and Environmental Science academies will be added, and underperforming students will be given access to electives. There will be an emphasis on data-driven and personalized instruction and project-based learning.

Sylmar High School: The Youth Policy Institute plan for the Sylmar Promise Academies will integrate technology into the curriculum in an effort to prepare students for careers in the health and media arts industries.

Additionally, Sylmar High's math and science magnets will be expanded and a leadership magnet will open in 2013-14.

A separate plan submitted by the Sylmar High faculty was rejected, and will be rewritten with help from the Superintendent's Office.

Deasy also gave provisional approval to a plan submitted by a partnership between LAUSD and United Teachers Los Angeles for Vista Middle School in Van Nuys. A companion plan for a new elementary school in the area was ordered rewritten, with an April 27 deadline for refiling the bid.

Provisional approval also was given to a plan to create the Sylmar Leadership Academy at a K-8 span school that would feed Sylmar High, although Deasy asked for clarification of some programs.

Finally, Deasy rejected a plan to revamp Fulton College Prep, a grade 6-12 school in Van Nuys. He criticized it as unfocused and lacking detail for achieving student success.

He gave the faculty until fall to come up with an acceptable plan and warned that the district would impose its own structure and staffers would have to reapply for their jobs if they failed.

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