Judy Solkovits has been elected to a second two-year term as president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the only teachers’ local in the nation that is affiliated with both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
The other incumbent officers of the union, which represents 31,000 teachers, also won re-election. They are: Vice-Presidents Michael Bennett, Lorraine Farquhar, Marvin Katz, and Elsie Akita Myers; Treasurer Williamm Zimmerman; and Secretary Roberta Leap. All won by more than the 50 percent needed to prevent run-off elections. There will, however, be run-off elections for the 45-member board of directors, which represents the teachers by geographic areas.
School officials in Chicago succeeded in their campaign to inoculate 90 percent of the district’s more than 450,000 students in time to avert a cutoff of state funds.
The Chicago Board of Education reported on Oct. 15 that 90.47 percent of the students received the requisite immunizations, according to a spokesman for the board. Had the system failed to meet the state inoculation regulations, which require that at least 90 percent of the students be protected against major vaccine-preventable diseases, the district stood to lose approximately $40 million.
However, as of mid-October, about 40,000 students remained out of school because they had not received inoculations or had not undergone the physical examination that the state also requires of school children. Students who have failed to meet either requirement are barred from school, according to Illinois law.
The Los Angeles Board of Education voted recently to give its student representative an advisory vote on most matters coming before it, according to a spokesman for the school system. The student member, however, will not be allowed to attend closed session of the board nor receive confidential memos distributed to elected officials.
Dan Hutchinson, the adviser to the school district’s association of student councils, said the board’s Oct. 26 decision made the district the second in the state to adopt such a policy. The student school board representative in San Francisco was granted advisory voting rights a few years earlier, Mr. Hutchinson said.
An amendment to the state’s school code in the early 1970’s required all local school boards to allow an elected student representative to speak on any issue before the board.
“The board’s vote reflected their opinion that students should have some voice in the business of the district,” said school district spokesman Shel Erlich. “The board felt it was as good a time as any to show students that they valued their opinions.”
