Pass / Fail: Tagged 'pilot'

Educators 4 Excellence event mayor, board president

Tami Abdollah / KPCC

About 40 L.A. Unified pilot school educators gathered Monday night to talk about their challenges, worries and hopes with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

A meeting with about 40 pilot school educators from a couple dozen L.A. Unified schools yielded some interesting discussion points on teachers' hope for longterm investment in the program and the huge toll budget cuts have taken on these small themed schools.

The teachers and principals spoke with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and school board president Monica Garcia Monday evening at an event hosted by Educators 4 Excellence. Here's some more of what they said:

"I came here tonight because this is my first and honestly probably last year at a pilot school," said Audrey Greene, a frustrated math teacher at South Region High School #2. "I came to hear what other teachers said about what made their schools successful and how long, why."

Greene has taught at LAUSD for seven years. She said it was important for pilots to provide "differentiated roles and compensation for teacher leaders."

Tami Abdollah / KPCC

About 40 pilot school teachers sat down with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and L.A. Unified board president Monica Garcia to talk about challenges they face.

About 40 educators from dozens of L.A. Unified pilot schools gathered Downtown Monday night for an intimate discussion with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and school board president Monica Garcia that was hosted by Educators 4 Excellence.

For more than an hour, teachers and some principals spoke about their challenges working at pilot schools. Pilot schools have some charter-like autonomy over curriculum, budget and staffing, but participate as full members of the district.

Each educator received a "clicker" and sent in their responses to various multiple-choice poll questions that were then used as discussion points. On the whole teachers were frustrated with the preliminary pink slips and budget cuts, which in most cases affect relatively large porportions of the staffs at these schools that are often theme-based and rely on specialized teacher skills.