Et tu, 5-2? (LAUSD School Board Meeting, August 20, 2013)
Special to K12NN from Karen Wolfe. Karen is an LAUSD parent leader and activist in support of public schools.
While corporate education reformers take every opportunity during this week’s anniversary of the March on Washington to co-opt civil rights rhetoric, I was fortunate to bear witness as Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, the feisty, African American septuagenarian on LAUSD’s board out-did any scripted talking points.Steve Zimmer had put everyone on notice that a new five-to-two board majority was convening. During a contentious discussion about a co-location at Lorena Street Elementary School, Zimmer announced a plan to seek comprehensive Prop 39 relief from the state. His Lorena Resolution seeks three forms of redress: He wants the state board of education to redo Prop 39 implementation guidelines based on the havoc they’ve caused in the state’s largest school district (which are only beginning to show up in smaller districts); the state legislature to start regulating the solicitation of families on school property by other schools; and finally to explore a class action lawsuit on behalf of students disproportionately impacted on co-located Prop 39 campuses.
As the board struggled over whether the Lorena Resolution should be voted on at this meeting or the next, LaMotte attempted to settle the debate. “Sometimes we have to do things dramatically rather than right. OK?” She went on, “and those of you who have seen [the film] ‘The Butler’ will understand why we got to do some things sometimes! And I mean that.”
With legal counsel recommending that the board wait until next month to vote on the Lorena Resolution, the fight moved on to another school.
The next item was a new charter school petition, targeting students in LaMotte’s beleaguered inner city district.
Exasperated that anyone would rationalize yet another school in the area, LaMotte laid out the context. “There are 31 elementary schools within the five-