SOUTH L.A. PARENTS EXPRESS DISCONTENT; OFFICIALS HEAR REASONS FOR LAUSD BREAKUP.Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer Echoing concerns expressed the day before by San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. parents, South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. parents said Saturday that they too were angry about proposed regulations that they see as an effort to thwart a school district breakup. About 100 parents and district officials attended the second state Board of Education public hearing on the proposed reorganization of LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) in the Grand Theatre at Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Trade Technical College in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or . Supporters of splitting up the 667,000-student school system - the second largest in the nation - charged the regulations proposed by the state Department of Education are designed to make it impossible to place the measure on the ballot. Echoing the sentiments of San Fernando Valley parents at a Friday hearing at Valley College, parents from South Los Angeles charged the schools in their neighborhoods got the least attention and the most inexperienced teachers. ``In the present system we are graduating kids and they aren't able to get into college because they need remedial help in reading and math,'' said Clint Simmons, a member of the Inner City Unified School District A unified school district is a school district which includes both primary school (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high school (grades 9-12). In Illinois, these districts are called unit school districts. Formation Committee, a group of parents who were among the earliest supporters in the growing movement to split up the district. Simmons said inner-city schools are a ``cesspool cesspool: see septic tank. for the worst teachers in the district.'' LAUSD officials, instead of focusing on improving the schools in low-income neighborhoods bus the children to fill classrooms in the West Valley. While the regulations are supposedly aimed at making sure the newly formed school districts would be socioeconomically diverse, Simmons says he senses a ``condescending'' attitude that district officials know what is best for their children. ``They are saying we are not strong enough to determine what kind of education we want for our kids,'' Simmons said. ``The regulations are not protecting students' rights. It's benefiting the teachers' rights.'' Still other parents, less concerned with the intricacies of the bureaucratic wrangling, spoke to register their support of splitting up the district. ``The parents in the inner city feel that their children have been notoriously underserved, and they are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a panacea,'' said Barbara Boudreaux, a member of LAUSD school board whose district is in the inner city. ``I guess they feel the same as parents in the Valley, that they can better serve their students.'' |
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