LA Times: Mayor gets closer to deal on a role in schools

We (Westchester and Orville Wright) along with a few elementary schools are that "cluster of schools" the Mayor alludes to in the article below. Read and become informed and most important, BECOME ACTIVE!

Villaraigosa hopes new board majority will be open to alliance, but details are under wraps.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and top officials from the Los Angeles Unified School District expect to announce a new alliance this month that would give the mayor a role in running a cluster of campuses, most likely around Roosevelt High School.

The emerging partnership between these onetime adversaries comes as a new school board majority allied with Villaraigosa takes office today. At least four of the seven school board members, who were elected with the mayor's backing, are sympathetic to his desire to have an instrumental role in the schools.

But some key obstacles could still thwart the mayor's ambitions: He must win the approval of teachers and community leaders who want a say in the oversight of their schools and who feel betrayed in some cases by what they believe have been broken promises of reform in the past.

The president of United Teachers Los Angeles, for example, said any discussion about changing the union's contract to clear the way for a partnership would be premature until teachers are guaranteed a prominent voice.

Read the entire article here ==> http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-cluster3jul03,1,4541953.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california