Community Board High Five
There are five candidates — including two. Brandt believes in continuing district's high-quality leadership. Another priority on the board would be to 'keep the community as involved as. Austin Beutner and the school board: Beutner needs to do a better job connecting with the community, Valdez says, but he would work to build a partnership with the schools chief if elected.
A Los Feliz resident, Bajracharya has worked in recent years in leadership positions in charter schools or pro-charter organizations. Her children attend a district-run neighborhood elementary school. Unified, she says, has failed to create “a culture of excellence and high expectations for all students.” She wants the district to move as quickly as possible to require students to earn a C or better in courses required for admission to a four-year state college.
She strongly opposed the teachers’ strike but also says it helped galvanize support for better funding for public education. • The state of the district: She says the low number of district students who graduate from college is “outrageous” and says she would give the district a grade of C- at best. But she also says that L.A. Unified is recognizing the need to be more responsive to the community by adding new magnet schools and thinking in a more innovative way about the progression of students from kindergarten through 12th grade. She believes the district makes it far too hard for parents to have input.
• Charter schools: She opposes a moratorium but also doesn't think the solution for the school system is to “charterize” it. • Austin Beutner and the school board: Beutner, she says, “came in to make some really tough financial decisions, but I think he has not demonstrated an ability to build trust in the public with parents and teachers and also with the school board.”. The former senior L.A. City Council aide, who once finished second in a race for the council, also heads a nonprofit that organizes an annual three-day leadership training program for young Latinas. She emphasizes the needs of low-income Latino students: “The fundamental issue is social justice and equity. Until you address needs of Latino students, the school district will continue to have some failures.” She supports higher teacher salaries and better education funding, but believes in holding problem teachers “accountable.”.
• The state of the district: Lack of budget transparency has contributed to distrust and budget problems, she says. She wants to set up a special budget committee that would enlist outside experts to provide the school board with advice on a regular basis. • Charter schools: She supports a pause in approving new charters while state law on charters is updated. • Austin Beutner and the school board: She says Beutner hasn’t successfully provided fiscal oversight. She wants a new superintendent with education experience as well as management skills. After establishing herself as a teacher in the Compton school district, Goldberg, who lives in Echo Park, served two terms on the L.A. School board, ending in 1991.
She later served on the L.A. Rukovodstvo po remontu renault premium 420 dci. City Council and in the state Legislature. In her current job, she oversees efforts to help former inmates and the formerly homeless find city jobs. Goldberg says the district should do much more to raise revenue but also can find ways to make change without more funding, such as by moving more authority to parents, teachers and administrators at schools. She also says that more thoughtful effort is needed for the reform of student discipline policies — which emphasize counseling over punishment — to be successful.
• The state of the district: She believes it is reasonably strong “given that it is so underfunded” and that the district’s budget is further challenged by declining enrollment, for which she holds charters substantially responsible. She says more work needs to be done to ensure that all children graduate from school knowing at least two languages. • Charter schools: She supports a moratorium on new charters and says existing charters need more stringent monitoring — fiscally and educationally — at the state and local level. • Austin Beutner and the school board: She opposed hiring Beutner: “I’m old-fashioned. I think educators should run school districts, not finance managers.” She also says that he’s been too secretive and did not do a good job managing events leading up to the teachers’ strike. All the same, she says, “I’m not coming on the board to fire him. My goal is to see if we can all work together.”.