LASD Board Highlights

First grade students from Oak presented what they are learning in social studies this year by reporting on a patriotic document, song or landmark. With the librarian, students chose a book to research their chosen document, song or landmark to determine why it was important. They made a poster about their item, which they used to help them teach their peers in class about it. Students were encouraged to memorize their presentations so they could make eye contact with the students in class.

Four first graders shared their report with the board, and others shared one of the songs. Students presented about Yellowstone, the Statue of Liberty, the US Constitution, and the Golden Gate Bridge. The students then sang "The Grand Old Flag" for the Board. To check out their very impressive presentations, please view the Board meeting video.

The Special Education Department presented information about the Allyship Project in the District. The project aims to help strengthen relationships between students in general education and special education.

Programs to build allyship vary by school based on each school's needs. For example, at Blach, The Peer Tutors elective class trains general education students for one month to become peer tutors to one student in special education for the remainder of the semester. At Egan, students who are receiving additional academic support through the AVID program, led their own parent-teacher conferences this year. Egan will expand student-led parent-teacher conferences to English Language Learners and students in special education in the coming school years.

At the elementary level, Covington has a new CHAMPs (Children Helping and Mentoring Peers for Success) buddy program, which has resulted in great emotional growth and compassion, as well as excellent leadership skills in the general education students who are participating. At Almond, students participate in The Game Club, which has been overwhelmingly positive with a record of 45 fourth-and fifth grade student participants! Gardner Bullis' Project Empathy provides lessons to 6th graders to help students see things from the perspective of others and build empathy. Loyola hosts lunch clubs where special ed and general ed students hang out together, in addition to Board Game Besties and a dancing club called Dancing Paw Chums. Oak, Springer and Santa Rita all host lunch clubs for weekly activities and games, where all students can engage in an activity together during their unstructured school time.

For more information on these Allyship Programs, please check out item C.1 on our online agenda.

By law, LASD is required to provide school facilities for Bullis Charter School (BCS) students who reside within LASD boundaries. With 10 schools on 9 sites, over the years this has resulted in significant encroachments on the Blach and Egan school campuses, with resulting impacts on the operations of those schools. LASD has been working diligently towards a solution to the challenges of school site sharing that will protect its high quality academic model.

Board members Jessica Speiser and Vaishali Sirkay provided an update for the Board and community regarding their meeting with representatives from Bullis Charter School around a long-term facilities solution to house the charter school.

Following several meetings where Trustees Speiser and Sirkay discussed BCS moving to the new 10th school site with representatives from the charter school, the conversation has come to a halt.

Following their most recent meeting in April, the Bullis Charter School representatives requested that further facilities discussions with LASD be held under a confidentiality agreement, but offered no specific explanation for the request. Given the public's interest in the future of the 10th site, in addition to overcrowding at the junior high school sites where the charter school is currently located, the LASD Board felt that such an agreement was unnecessary and would conflict with their obligations to keep the public informed in advance of major decisions. In response, BCS canceled the next scheduled meeting. As a result, absent an extension of the current facilities agreement with BCS, the default facilities allocation process (Prop 39) for the 2025-26 school year will begin this fall.

The Board will continue to discuss the matter of facilities, the 10th site, and the space to be allocated to BCS in the coming months. For more information, please check out the board meeting video.