Los Angeles school officials took action on major issues Tuesday during their first public board meeting after the an FBI raid of the home and office of Supt. Alberto Carvalho: denying the renewal of one of the nation’s better-known charter schools, approving four significant union contracts and passing a resolution that seeks to end business with vendors who have ties with federal immigration enforcement.
The meeting took place as Carvalho issued his first statement since the raid, asserting his innocence and expressing hopes to return to work as soon as possible.
There was no public discussion related to Carvalho, whom the board placed on paid leave Feb. 27, two days after FBI raids linked to an investigation of a failed artificial-intelligence project propelled him and the school district into the national education spotlight and threw district into a leadership crisis.
Federal investigators have not charged Carvalho with wrongdoing, although sources have confirmed he is one target of their investigation into Boston-based AllHere, the now-bankrupt start-up behind the failed initiative.
Acting Supt. Andres Chiat, a veteran district administators, presided over his first public meeting, but rarely spoke.
Green Dot Locke High charter denied
In the most heated issue of the day the board rejected the charter renewal for Locke High, operated by Green Dot Public Schools.
The denial, if not overturned at the county level, means the school would have to shut down at the end of the school year.
The board vote was 4 to 3 in favor of denial — in line with the recommendation from district staff, but a disappointment to well more than 100 Green Dot backers who cheered on speakers in support of the school.
Locke High, located in Watts, re-opened as a charter school in 2008 after a political battle between forces for and against charter schools, which are privately managed public schools, most of which are non-union.
Locke was one of the district’s lowest performing schools based on academic proficiency — and remains so — in large measure because it serves families dealing with deep socio-economic challenges: extreme poverty, uneven healthcare and limited family education.
Green Dot took over Locke during a time when charter advocates wielded considerable political power — which is no longer the case.
Green Dot styled its education mission differently than many other charters. Charter founder Steve Barr insisted that employees would be unionized — and they remain so, despite periodic tensions. The Green Dot employees are affiliated with the California Teachers Assn. rather than UTLA.
The charter also embraced a mission as the neighborhood school — automatically accepting all who showed up at its doors. In contrast, while many standard charters serve challenging school populations, they typically appeal to motivated families who make the choice to attend, which can give these charters an advantage in terms of student performance, in the view of some experts.
Charters must be renewed every five years or so. On this round, the district’s oversight division recommended against renewal based on data looking at the scores of about 250 of Locke’s students who would have attended other schools if they’d stayed in their neighborhood of residence. Students at those other schools are doing better on some key measures than their neighbors who decided to enroll at Locke. About 1,000 students attend Locke, 750 of them from its immediate neighborhood.
Green Dot did not make excuses for low achievement. Instead the charter pointed to substantial progress made by Locke students. In other words, students arrived with low achievement scores and improved markedly — much faster than L.A. Unified and state — even if the absolute scores remain below state averages, according to data presented by Green Dot.
“Today was not the outcome we expected,” said Cristina de Jesus, president and chief executive of Green Dot, “but I think Locke and all of the community showed up in the way they always do, which is full of strength. We’ll see at the county board in a month, and we’re ready to fight.”
Progress with some labor groups
The school board on Tuesday approved four labor contracts with some of the district’s smaller unions — as negotiations continue with the teachers union and service workers that together represent more than 60,000 employees.
The terms of the deals vary and provide limited insight into what the district final offer could be for the remaining unions. Deals have been reached with:
- Teamster Local 572, which represents cafeteria managers, office managers and plant managers — who supervise maintenance at schools;
- Local 500 of California School Employees Assn., which represent elementary school library aides and school clerical staff
- Two unions that represent school police — the rank-and-file officers union and the senior officers union.
Members of both United Teachers Los Angeles and Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, have approved strike authorization resolutions — meaning that their leadership has the authority to call a strike at their discretion.
Another union still in negotiations is Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents principals, other school administrators, many middle managers and some central-office workers.
Pro-Immigrant Resolution
One area of speculation in the Carvalho investigation has been whether his strongly pro-immigration stands made him a target of the Trump administration.
If Trump officials were trying to send a message to L.A. Unified leaders, that message was ignored on Tuesday.
The school board approved — by a 7-0 vote — a resolution seeking to end business ties with vendors who cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“This resolution ensures that the district has the information needed to understand those kinds of relationships when evaluating vendors,” said board member Rocio Rivas.
The resolution does not ban vendors or disrupt essential services,Rivas said. Instead, senior administrators must develop guidelines to evaluate vendor disclosures to determine any business ties with immigration enforcement actions.
The resolution names no specific vendors, although some board members and public speakers made accusations against specific businesses.
The resolution is strongly worded but also filled with caveats — noting that the district will comply with contracting and procurement laws. The superintendent’s office is supposed to return with a plan to carry out the intent of the resolution.
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