Newly elected Los Angeles school board members say they are united in a mission to protect the district’s most vulnerable — immigrant or LGBTQ+ students and staff — following victories that are generally a plus for the superintendent. Alberto Carvalho and the teachers union and a setback for private charter schools.
The three newly elected or re-elected board members focus apprehensively on President-elect Donald Trump, who has declared his intention to deport immigrants, end diversity programs, limit the teaching of history that he considers “woke” and unpatriotic, and to restrict rights recently. expanded to transgender students and closed the U.S. Department of Education.
“I think there will be a lot of attacks on our most vulnerable students and our most vulnerable populations,” said Karla Griego, who was recently elected to replace outgoing board member Jackie Goldberg. “So we have to stand strong and lead as a district in defending our most vulnerable students, defending everything we’ve made progress on and continuing to fight for more.”
The bigger picture is that the seven board members of the nation’s second-largest school system will continue to define themselves as caretakers for local families, which include many immigrants. Their stance could make Los Angeles Unified a target for Trump, who has pledged to deny federal funding to school systems that oppose his agenda.
“With such a large population of immigrant families,” districts need to “assure families that we are here to support them, that we are going to do whatever it takes to educate them, whether it’s through immigration clinics immigration into our communities. , through faith-based organizations,” said Sherlett Hendy Newbill, who will succeed the seat held by George McKenna, who is also retiring. “I think that’s going to be a critical part, just to help our families feel supported, especially with the threats from the new administration that’s coming in.”
The newcomers’ defensive posture against Trump is in line with that of the school board members they will join next week. Two weeks ago, the board, without opposition, declared the school system a sanctuary for immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, while also calling for more politically informed civics education.
The closest race was in District 3, which covers most of the western San Fernando Valley. In that contest, two-term incumbent Scott Schmerelson won a third and final term, winning 51.6 percent of the vote against middle school math teacher Dan Chang, who received 48.4 percent.
Declining enrollment is a major problem
In an interview, Schmerelson cited declining enrollment as a key issue going forward.
“Without better enrollment, the school system cannot survive, and I am constantly beating the bushes, talking to neighborhood councils and making sure people are aware of the quality of our LAUSD schools,” Schmerelson said.
Enrollment peaked at 746,831 in the 2002-03 school year and has been declining since. Current enrollment is approximately 409,500 – and that includes the recently added transitional kindergarten class for 4-year-olds.
Reversing declining enrollment is a daunting challenge given Los Angeles’ high cost of living and slowing immigration.
Commitments to Keep the Black Student Success Program Strong
Schmerelson also spoke about ensuring that the school system’s special efforts to support Black students remain on track through its Black Student Success Plan.
“This is the first time I can remember that our black and African American students stood up with everyone else,” Schmerelson said, citing recent standardized test scores. “And I really attribute that to the BSAP program — the experiences they have visiting colleges and having extra social and emotional support, making sure the core curriculum includes all the classes they need and the things they like to follow. And you see this increase in the number of scholars because of all of this.
Activists criticized the district for recently moving away from the program’s exclusive focus on black students. After facing legal pressure, LA Unified made the program race-neutral – to comply with Supreme Court rulings against race-based programs. The district has not changed the name of the program even though race no longer determines who will be helped.
Despite this change, district officials insisted they could still reach all black students with significant needs.
“I’m so proud of the BSAP program and want to make sure it stays strong,” said Schmerelson, who represents an area with relatively few black students but spent much of his career as a director in a part of the neighborhood with a large black population.
All board members spoke in similar terms to ensure BSAP elevates black students.
Super expensive shopping
Schmerelson’s campaign for District 3 nearly was the most expensive local school campaign ever, with more than $7.84 million spent by outside groups on both candidates.
Outside spending for Chang came from a political action committee led by retired businessman Bill Bloomfield, who alone invested about $4.9 million of the more than $5.4 million dollars, according to recent documents. The California Charter Schools Assn was allied with Bloomfield, but spending much less.
The Los Angeles teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, invested almost all of the $2.4 million in outside spending on Schmerelson’s behalf.
The candidates’ campaigns combined to raise an additional $670,000.
Charters are public schools within LA Unified that are mostly outside of district control. They enroll approximately 109,000 students within district boundaries. Most charters are not unionized. Their supporters fear that the school system will impose additional limits on where and how they operate. If the election had gone differently, charter supporters likely would have pushed to roll back some restrictions currently in place.
Griego will represent District 5, which includes areas north and northeast of downtown, including Eagle Rock, Glassell Park and Echo Park. To the southeast, it includes the towns of Huntington Park, Maywood and South Gate. Helped by big spending by the teachers union, Griego was elected with 61% of the vote.
Charter advocates did not mount a campaign in District 5, but they generally favored Griego’s opponent, Graciela Ortiz, who benefited from a big-budget outside campaign funded by Service Local 99 Employees International, the district’s largest non-teaching union.
Griego, a longtime teacher of students with disabilities, said she intends to advocate for these students: “At the federal level, they haven’t funded special education the way they should, and so we have to make sure we do it.
There were no charter-favored candidates in District 1, which covers much of the southern and southwest portion of the school system; Hendy Newbill won handily over Kahllid Al-Alim, obtaining 71% of the vote.
Hendy Newbill said the majority of the board is “pro-public school – from public schools, worked in public schools” – and that “changes the dynamic” of future decisions related to charter schools.
Such wording worries charter operators, who are quick to point out that their schools are also free and open to the public.
The teachers union won two clear victories with Schmerelson and Griego, but Hendy Newbill won without union support and considers herself pro-teachers but independent. The teachers union recently endorsed her but has not funded any campaigns on her behalf.
Hendy Newbill has worked as a teacher, dean and coach and, most recently, as a senior advisor to McKenna.
Superintendent. Carvalho may view the election results with some relief. Hendy Newbill defeated an opponent who strongly criticized him. And Schmerelson was a member of the board that unanimously hired him.
In a rare move, the majority of board members — Hendy Newbill and Griego, along with holdovers Rocio Rivas and Kelly Gonez — will be parents of the district’s current students. There may never have been so many district parents on the school board.
“It’s a little different perspective if the parents are on the school board,” Hendy Newbill said.
