"I thrived in our public schools. Now, as a mother and public school parent, I want nothing more than the best education for ALL our children so they can thrive." -Rocio Rivas
Term limits have spared the voters of LAUSD Board District 2 from having Monica Garcia on their ballot again. The resulting open seat leaves outsiders the best chance in years to bring new visions to the board. However, they must first defeat Maria Brenes, the heir apparent to the Jose Huizar/Monica Garcia dynasty.
Brenes claims that she is not the "charter candidate," but reports are floating that she has already received the endorsement of the charter school industry. Her refusal to answer questions about PROP-39 and overallocation fees makes it impossible to say how her views would differ from that of the Waltons of Walmart and Netflix's Reed Hastings.
Charter school accountability is not the only area where Brenes will not spell out her views to the voters. In fact, she is the only candidate in the race to not answer any of the questions about topics facing the district including forced mainstreaming for children with severe special education needs, community engagement, and ethical issues. How are voters supposed to make an educated choice without this information?
With just over a week until mail-in ballots drop, Brenes and her opponents had one last chance to express their opinions for the benefit of voters in my candidate series. The May installment of this series is a lighting round consisting of 20 questions about a variety of issues. While these were designed to be "yes" or "no" questions, the candidates were invited to go into more detail if they felt the need to do so. They were also given the opportunity to provide a closing pitch to the voters. This was limited to one paragraph.
Once again, Brenes passed on the opportunity to connect with voters. In fact, in the field of five candidates, only Rocio Rivas and Erica Vilardi-Espinosa responded.
The candidate's closing pitches follow the answers to their questions. The candidate order was determined by when their response was received.
- 1. Do you have children who are enrolled in LAUSD district schools?
Rocio Rivas: Yes!
Erica Vilardi-Espinosa: Yes, a 9th grader and a 6th grader.
- 2. Do you commit to ensuring that your staff includes parents with children enrolled in district schools?
Rocio Rivas: As a board member, I will have advisory committees composed of all stakeholders, most importantly LAUSD parents.
Erica Vilardi-Espinosa: Absolutely
- 3. Is lowering the student-to-staff ratio essential for increasing outcomes?
Rocio Rivas: Yes, very important. Teachers will be able to provide more individualized attention to students and develop a constructive holistic relationship.
Erica Vilardi-Espinosa: I believe lowering the class size in elementary grades allows for more attention for each student helping them to become a better independent student for the future.
- 4. Do you support having a nurse assigned full-time to every school?
Rocio Rivas: Absolutely, every single school MUST have a full-time nurse. I will work hard to make sure that becomes a reality.
Erica Vilardi-Espinosa: Yes
- 5. Do you support having either a librarian or a library aid assigned full-time to every school?
Rocio Rivas: Yes, absolutely. Teacher librarians and library aides are an essential resource component that ALL schools must have. Schools should not have to choose if they can afford a librarian or library aid, because as fully staffed schools, librarians must be a given. Updated books in all languages must also be provided on a yearly basis.
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