Sandy Banks wrote a new column about what’s happening at Manual Arts today. Yes, the class sizes she reports are accurate; the photo above is from the online attendance system for one of the teachers I work with. I appreciated the conversation I was able to have with her in preparation for this column (and it sounds like there may be a follow-up column next week, too). As we exchanged emails to schedule the interview, I sent her a link to a blog post where I was critical of her analysis of what’s happening at my school. It’s also striking for me to review the timeline of what happened in terms of tumultuous change at the district and at the school level last year.

As several of my colleagues and I continue to develop our plans for the Schools for Community Action, I can’t help but think about the many missteps from school admin, the district, LA’s Promise, and–yes– even teachers in the past year that are making this a very unfortunate beginning to the school year for the more than three thousand students at our school.