Candidates Alex Johnson and George McKenna are vying for election to the District 1 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.  The seat, formerly held by the late Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, has been vacant since her sudden death last December.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's Curriculum and Instruction Committee met this morning to explore, among other topics, the plan to distribute arts education throughout the district.

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced yesterday it would hire Rory Pullens to serve as the executive director of the district’s arts education program.  Mr. Pullens has previously served as the principal of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.  His appointment is set to take effect July 1.

President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) co-chairs George Stevens Jr. and Margo Lion today announced the expansion of PCAH’s successful Turnaround Arts initiative – a program designed to help turn around low-performing schools, narrow the achievement gap, and increase student engagement through the arts.  The program is expanding to 6 additional states this year including ten California schools.

Arts for LA has launched an Action Alert inviting LAUSD parents and community members to ask Board of Education members to lead the charge on having an arts education budget produced this month.  

The LAUSD Board of Education approved by a 5-2 vote a resolution to bolster district support for arts education as an extension of last year’s “Arts at the Core” resolution.

This story has been updated from the version released in last week's issue of Relay.

Los Angeles Unified School District officially released its plan to restore arts education throughout the district yesterday.  The “Arts Education and Creative Cultural Network Plan” will bring funding for arts education back to pre-recession levels by 2017.

Arts for LA has published the results of its semiannual Arts & Culture Candidate Surveys for races in Los Angeles, Burbank, and Pasadena.