Families who are charged by their public schools for elective classes, course materials, uniforms or school activities could soon have a way to file a complaint and get their money back — without going to the courts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Most people I’ve spoken to about California’s school finance system, regardless of their political views, seem to agree that it’s a mess. The researchers on the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence described it as “the most complex in the country, lacking an underlying rationale and transparency,” inequitable, inefficient, unpredictable, unstable and inadequate.

Mike Kirst, the Stanford University education professor emeritus I interviewed today, said he wouldn’t even call it a system. He did call it ”an accretion of incremental actions that don’t fit together and that make no sense.”

Will the courts finally force the deadlocked state Legislature to overhaul the complex, arcane formulas that dictate how California allocates money to its schools (and how much)? The nonprofit Public Advocates law firm hopes so. It filed suit today in Alameda Superior Court on behalf of a coalition of advocacy groups, students and parents, saying the status quo denies students the right to a meaningful education. (They also released a video to explain and promote the plaintiff’s case.)

The suit is very similar to an Alameda Superior Court case filed in May by the California PTA, California School Boards Association and an Alameda High School student, Maya Robles-Wong. Read the rest of this entry »

Tribune file photo

The legal dispute between the Oakland school district and the Bryant & Brown law firm is over.

I’m still waiting to hear how much money OUSD paid in legal expenses to pursue this case in federal court. What I do know is that the district won $325,000 from Bryant & Brown. The settlement, which was entered last month, did not include any admission of wrongdoing.

DIY court research, anyone? If you want to see the documents for yourself, just click here, then click on the ”Case Summary” link and enter this case number: RG09440971

Update: A judge denied the Oakland school district’s request to order a temporary halt to the transfer of funds to charter schools. One reason? The school board might not have the legal authority to file such a lawsuit, since it doesn’t have all of its governing powers back.

The scoop: The Oakland school district has filed suit against State Schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it: The more I learn about the Bryant & Brown law firm controversy, the more confused I become.

As I reported in today’s Trib, the Oakland school district filed a federal lawuit against the small Oakland law firm (pictured here), alleging racketeering, fraud, theft of public funds — you name it.

What I didn’t realize until recently was that Deb Cooksey — who led the Bryant & Brown investigation for OUSD until she resigned (her last day was Friday) – was once a close friend of Meredith Brown and Guy Bryant. Read the rest of this entry »

California’s bold new algebra plan has a new variable.

Today, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang ruled that the state board of education would have to temporarily delay the eighth-grade Algebra I testing requirement that it approved in July. (You know, the one that Schwarzenegger pushed for in the 11th hour, over State Superintendent Jack O’Connell’s strong objections?)

The ruling was made in response to a lawsuit to stop the new requirement. It was filed in September by the California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators.

Chang has ordered the state board to hold off any any decisions on the algebra test until a court hearing on Dec. 19. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, I lugged a tall stack of papers out of 1025 Second Avenue. In response to a public records request, the school district released hundreds of documents related to its investigation of payments to the Bryant & Brown law firm (most of which came from construction bond money, for work with facilities projects).

Among them was a letter written by Deborah Cooksey, the district’s general counsel, to Meredith Brown, of Bryant & Brown. It accuses the firm of a number of things, including:

• charging OUSD multiple times for the same work ($50,929)
• mismanaging a “routine” case with an electrical company by taking it to court, rather than negotiating — and losing ($722,268)
• copying and pasting City of Piedmont forms, making minor changes for a Waste Management contract, and billing OUSD $51,000 for the drafting work
• refusing to cooperate with the General Counsel’s office

Cooksey also writes that Brown tried to get school board president David Kakishiba to call off the investigation, and that she contacted Gary Yee as well. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to filling teaching vacancies, the Oakland school district relies heavily on “interns,” college graduates who are still working to complete their certification. About 40 percent of new OUSD hires in recent years fall into this category; they come through “alternate route” programs such as Teach for America and Oakland Teaching Fellows.

Andy Kwok, the teacher we’ve been following at EXCEL High School, is one of them. He majored in biology, the subject he teaches, but jumped straight into the classroom after a short summer preparation program. He took education classes at night.

Kwok and other intern teachers are considered “highly qualified” by the U.S. Department of Education. But Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm, challenged that definition in a lawsuit last year. They argued it violates the spirit of the No Child Left Behind law, and that it lets school systems get away with hiring less experienced teachers. Read the rest of this entry »

It may have been prompted by the threat of a lawsuit — and then, indeed, a lawsuit — but the Oakland school district has plugged the gaping holes in its state mandated “School Accountability Report Cards.”

Now, you can see how much money each school (including charters) spent per student, how many teachers were teaching out of their areas of expertise, what the safety situation is like, and so on.

Si usted habla espanol, se traduce la informacion. The report cards are translated into other languages, too.

All of this has been required for almost 20 years, but the district acknowledged in a legal settlement signed today that it had failed to provide it all.

The only catch is Read the rest of this entry »

Some high school kids had hoped to eliminate California’s exit exam through a lawsuit filed last year, but it looks as though it’s here to stay. 

State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, a champion of the two-part test, announced today that a settlement has been tentatively approved by a judge: The exit exam stays in place, but those who fail the test are entitled to two years of free academic help from their respective school districts.

The settlement won’t take effect unless the Senate and the governor approve it. The bill is AB 347, and the full text can be found on this site.

The summary of the resolution was pretty vague on what this academic instruction would look like. Students who need exit exam help already can enroll in community college, adult school or for an extra year of high school, so I’m not clear how they will benefit from the legislation. Maybe it’s supposed to provide more of a safety net for them.

I’m guessing that private pre-algebra tutoring at home is not in the works.