“We’re in uncharted waters”- LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner
As the year began, it appeared that the dominating story within the LAUSD would be the school board elections. All four of the seats that would appear on the ballot were held by public school supporters, meaning that a clean sweep was needed for them to keep their narrow majority over the block supported by the charter school industry. The campaigns were complicated by the fact that these would be the first elections held under new rules that moved them from off years so that they would be on the same ballot as the presidential race.
Leading up to the March primary the charter school industry spent over $6.5 million trying to regain the majority that they lost with the resignation of convicted felon Ref Rodriguez. This included the mailing of anti-Semitic flyers against Board Member Scott Schmerelson in Board District 3. Even Schmerelson’s opponent, Marilyn Koziatek, described these mailings as “crude”, “inappropriate” and “unacceptable.” She never did reject the endorsement of the California Charter School Association (CCSA) Advocates, the organization that mailed them out.
When the votes were counted, all three incumbents had survived, along with the candidate supported by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Patricia Castellanos, for the open seat in Board District 7. Jackie Goldberg and George McKenna won outright by winning a majority of the votes. Schmerelson and Castellanos earned less than half the vote and, therefore, faced Koziatek and Tanya Ortiz Franklin respectively in the November general election.
Later that same month, the LAUSD was turned upside down along with every other aspect of our public life as COVID-19 took hold. With 40 confirmed cases in Los Angeles County, the district shut down its campuses on March 16. The transition to distance learning got off to a shaky start, with significant technical issues and many students from low-income CONTINUE READING: The LAUSD’s 2020 Report Card. The COVID-19 pandemic upended the… | by Carl J. Petersen | Age of Awareness | Jan, 2021 | Medium
