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Rain was so not in the San Diego orientation video. Stay in and stay dry with the newsblitz:
- The race to unseat incumbent school board member John de Beck is on. It’s the first time that de Beck hasn’t had the backing of the teachers union. One of his challengers is questioning whether his sharp tongue has translated in getting things done.
- Some Escondido teachers will be spared from layoffs because others retired, the Union-Tribune reports.
- SDNN writes about different efforts to stop hate in schools.
- Eleven struggling schools are undergoing overhauls in San Bernardino, the Sun reports. They’re making the changes because California listed them as persistently low achieving schools earlier this year. This is the sort of thing that San Diego Unified has pledged to avoid unless it makes sense for the schools.
- Class sizes have grown in Sacramento-area schools, the Bee reports. This reflects a statewide trend where school districts have held larger classes to save money on teachers.
- An environmental firm has been accused of overcharging Los Angeles Unified while school district managers looked the other way, the Los Angeles Times blogs. Know of any monkey business like this here? Tell me.
- Arun Ramanathan, formerly of San Diego Unified, argues in the San Jose Mercury News that schools should be able to choose which teachers to lay off based on their effectiveness, not just their seniority. The Associated Press reports on a state bill backed by Gov. Schwarzenegger that would do just that.
- The Orange County Register reports that a teachers strike is expected to begin today in San Juan Capistrano.
- The Associated Press reports that school districts are urging parents to not take their children to work today.
- What if we trained teachers the way we trained doctors? NPR reports that Boston is trying it out.
- At Education Week, Rick Hess blogs that the death of a Florida bill that would have tied teacher pay to test scores should encourage policymakers to be more careful in using new methods of data crunching.
- New Jersey voters rejected school budgets that would mean higher property taxes, The New York Times writes. Bruce Baker blogs that unemployment rates show that isn’t a big surprise. San Diego Unified is planning to seek a new tax this fall.
— EMILY ALPERT