Turnarounds: Green Dot Gets Part Of Another High School

Four long years after Locke High School teachers signed petitions to convert their school (and three years into the Locke turnaround effort), charter operator Green Dot Public Schools is finally moving to expand its efforts on the turnaround front.  This time around, however, it's not a teacher petition or even parent signatures that are triggering the process but rather an abbreviated district-level decision process.  On Wednesday the district approved a plan for Green Dot and a second charter operator (Alliance for College Ready Public Schools) and Mayor Villaraigosa's Partnership for LA Schools to break Jordan up into three different schools. Read below for more details and links and commentary.    

Teachers will have to reapply for their jobs (Los Angeles Times).  Less than half of the teachers are expected to be rehired (GOOD) and the fate of the principal brought in two years ago is also uncertain.  In addition, Green Dot has applied to run Clay through the two year old Public School Choice program that's being governed by the elected school board for LAUSD. That decision has yet to be made.   The LA Times' editorial board notes that the decision is only justified by how bad things still are at Jordan and the relatively strong records of the providers being brought in to manage the school (Rescuing Jordan).  This is either a tough but good thing that needs to happen or a wasteful and hasty thing that will destroy public education, depending on your views on turnarounds, charters, Green Dot, and the current status of things at places like Jordan.  Feel free to comment but please say something new or interesting rather than things we already know.