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The Los Angeles Unified School District ( the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. As of 2005, LAUSD serves over 710,000 students.

The school district serves Los Angeles and all or portions of several adjoining California cities. The LAUSD is so large that it has its own police department. The Los Angeles School Police Department was established in 1948 to provide police services for LAUSD schools.

The LAUSD has a local reputation for extremely overcrowded schools and poor maintenance. A significant number of the schools do not exhibit such conditions and the LAUSD has renovated some schools in recent years.

A recent attempt at reform led to the creation of 11 minidistricts with decentralized management. Due to the cost of this additional bureaucracy, Superintendent Roy Romer called for merging the minidistricts to cut overhead. United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing teachers, supported the plan to cut the number of minidistricts. In 2004, the number of minidistricts was reduced to eight. After his election to mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa advocated bringing control of the public schools under the mayor's office, a move that resulted in considerable protest from teachers, LAUSD board members, and residents of communities served by LAUSD but not in the City of Los Angeles. The mayor has had to backtrack from this plan.

Every LAUSD household or residential area is zoned to an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.

Governance

The current superintendent is former Colorado governor and Democratic Party chairman Roy Romer.

The current members of the Board of Education are Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte (District 1), José Huizar (District 2), Jon Lauritzen (District 3), Marlene Canter (District 4), David Tokofsky (District 5), Julie Korenstein (District 6), Mike Lansing (District 7)

LAUSD cities and unincorporated areas

Source: Los Angeles Times

All of the following communities:

and portions of the following communities:

List of schools and properties

Secondary schools

4-12 schools
6-12 schools

Continuation High Schools

High schools

Middle schools

Elementary schools

  • Academia Semillas del Pueblo (K-8)
  • Cahuenga Elemenatry School
  • Castle Heights Avenue Elementary School
  • Chapman Elementary School
  • Commonwealth Elementary School
  • Corona Avenue Elementary School
  • Coeur d'Alene Avenue Elementary School
  • Cowan Avenue Elementary School
  • Delevan Drive Elementary *
  • Echo Horizon School
  • Euclid Avenue Elementary School
  • Fairburn Elementary School
  • Ford Boulevard Elementary School
  • Glen Alta Elementary School
  • Grant Elementary School
  • Harbor City Elementary School
  • Hobart Elementary School
  • Kester Elementary School
  • Liggett Street Elementary School
  • Lockwood Elementary School
  • Normont Elementary School
  • Overland Avenue Elementary School
  • Ramona Elementary School
  • Roscomare Road Elementary School
  • Sherman Oaks Elementary School
  • Shirley Avenue Elementary School
  • Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School
  • Warner Avenue Elementary School
  • Westport Heights Elementary School
  • Westwood Charter School
  • Westminster Avenue Elementary School
  • Woodland Hills Elementary School

Properties

The LAUSD is almost certainly the largest property owner in Los Angeles. Three recent development projects have generated controversy.

Belmont Learning Center
The Belmont Learning Center, in the densely populated Westlake district just west of downtown, was originally envisioned as a mixed-use education and retail complex to include several schools, shops and a public park. After more than a decade of delays stemming from the environmental review process, ground was broken for construction in 1995. Midway through construction it was discovered that explosive methane and toxic hydrogen sulfide were seeping from an old underground oil field. Later, an active surface fault was found under one of the completed buildings, necessitating its removal. The LAUSD had spent an estimated $175 million dollars on the project by 2004, with an additional $110 million budgeted for cleanup efforts. The total cost is estimated by LAUSD at $300 million. Critics have speculated that it may end up costing closer to $500 million.

The Ambassador Hotel
Another controversial project has been the development of The Ambassador Hotel property on Wilshire Boulevard near densely populated Koreatown. The LAUSD fought over the defunct landmark with among others Donald Trump, who later walked away from it, with the legal battle dating back to 1989. In 2001, the LAUSD finally obtained legal ownership of the property. Plans to demolish the building, site where Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot, met with strong opposition from preservationists. (Kennedy's family, however, supported the demolition plans.) In August 2005, LAUSD settled a lawsuit over the matter that had been filed by several preservationist groups: most of the Ambassador complex would be destroyed, but the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop and the Cocoanut Grove nightclub would be preserved, with the Grove serving as the auditorium for a new school to be built on the site. Demolition began in late 2005, and the last section of the hotel fell on January 16, 2006. The first new school on the site is scheduled to open in 2009.

Santee Dairy
In 2005, soil samples taken at the LAUSD-owned site of a former Santee Dairy facility in South Los Angeles found high levels of carcinogens in soil used as foundation fill for a high school then under construction. A small controversy brewed on the matter, with some neighborhood activists and LAUSD critics claiming a repeat of the Belmont Learning Center fiasco. State scientists determined that the contaminated soil was sufficiently deep to pose no threat to students on the site, and the school opened its doors in September 2005.

Notable staff members

Teachers

Other

  • Fabian Núñez, a politician who served as the government affairs director for LAUSD

See also

External links

School districts in Los Angeles County, California | Los Angeles Unified School District

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Los Angeles Unified School District".

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