"Many parents... said administrators bungled the rollout of the new admissions policy, which was confusing, did not include their input, caught them by surprise, and stirred deep concerns about the future direction of the popular honors programs."
-- - Los Angeles Times, 11/11/24
In LAUSD's BD1, Sherlett Hendy Newbill beat her opponent convincingly by 76,737 votes (as of November 15th) earning 71.35% of the vote. Karla Griego's margin of victory was 35,691 votes in her 61.09% to 38.91% rout. When the final votes are counted, it appears Scott Mark Schmerelson will win reelection, but by a much smaller margin. As of November 15th, Schmerelson is leading 51.77% to 48.23%. His lead is only 8,422 votes.
The results should not have been this close as Schmerelson is the far superior candidate. He is likable, has an extensive career in public education, and is a role model for Los Angeles students. His opponent, Dan Chang, bullied his way through the debates. His resume shows a history of jumping from one anti-public education job to another and lying about his record at Green Dot charter schools. Yet, Schmerelson is on track to have the smallest margin of victory of any School Board member in this election cycle.
Some of the lack of enthusiasm for Schmerelson can be traced back to self-inflicted wounds like being the one supporter on the LAUSD Board for the scandal-plagued North Valley Military Institute as it tried to evict an LAUSD school from its campus. His refusal to stand up to the entrenched bureaucracy, even for causes he cares deeply about, also contributed to a lack of energy around his candidacy. Perhaps most damaging was his repeated failure to hold Superintendent Carvalho accountable. The recent controversies at Walter Reed Middle School and Mark Twain Middle School provide an example:
The special needs of highly gifted students in the LAUSD are often misunderstood. To the underinformed, this group would seem to be the easiest to educate as they have the intellectual ability to learn easily what other students struggle with. However, without being sufficiently challenged, these children become bored and tune out. Set up for failure, they are at risk of being lost in the education system.
To properly serve these students, Walter Reed and Mark Twain have programs that include some of the District's "most rigorous academic programs." To ensure that students are "prepared for fast-paced studies well beyond their grade level", both programs require applications, teacher recommendations, and an eligibility exam.
Contrary to repeated promises to move the LAUSD towards local control, the District announced that it was removing these schools' ability to control the admission process. Instead, District bureaucrats would take control and just require that students meet its designation of gifted. Like Primary Promise, this decision was made without input from stakeholders.
Playing to his strong suit, Schmerelson was quick to react to complaints from his constituents. He called for the new process to be postponed a year and "took the issue up with Carvalho's office."
In a major victory for students at both schools, the LAUSD has announced that the new process will not go into effect this year. But while they have won this battle, they still have a war to fight.
The fact that Schmerelson's demands included the words "postponed for a year" should be very concerning to parents as this fits with the District's propensity to bury controversial actions until they can be enacted out of the spotlight. Similarly, the Board forced Carvalho to backtrack on the purge of members in the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) because the system used to select members did not conform to the committee's bylaws or state law. The following year they used the same procedure and got away with it.
Another example of the postponement strategy can be found in the repeated attempts to close the Lokrantz Special Education Center. Schmerelson has been an advocate for this school and has intervened successfully on several occasions. However, he has never addressed the conditions that allow the bureaucrats to set their sights on a school that serves the LAUSD's most vulnerable students. This leaves them at risk in the future.
Schmerelson is a nice guy who supports public education, but students need him to move beyond his comfort zone. He must take on the Superintendent and the bureaucracy Carvalho leads to get to the root of issues like interference in a school's admission process. Students need long-term solutions not temporary band-aids.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
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