Thelma Melendez

Commencement season is upon us and with it, the rush to find moving speakers to lead graduating students through the expensive right of passage.

Sometimes schools get lucky, such as UC Irvine, which this year reeled in President Barak Obama by sending 10,000 postcards from students, staff and alumni, inviting him to be the guest of honor.

Other times, schools look to their own past grads for inspiration.

Such is the case with USC’s Rossier School of Education which recently announced Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, PhD ’95, will be the keynote speaker at its May 16 Masters Degree Commencement Ceremony.

“Meléndez de Santa Ana is one of USC Rossier’s most distinguished alumni,” says the announcement.

It goes on to list her work under U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and as Education Deputy for Mayor Eric Garcetti. Only problem is, she’s no longer there. Melendez  left her post at the Mayor’s office in mid-March to become second-in-command at LA Unified’s Beyond the Bell program.

Via KPCC

In his first State of the City speech, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti laid out a plan to boost job creation, safety and the city’s ability to compete in a global economy.

Noticeably absent, however, was any mention of the vast education challenges facing the city.

The Mayor’s vision of Los Angeles was notable for its optimism and his passion. And the half-hour speech (transcript here) was heavy on specifics — including a focus on neighborhood improvements, DWP rates and carpool lanes. He cited how he “pushed and prodded” the feds to open a lane on the 405 earlier than expected, and he pledged to “pave more streets and fix more sidewalks.”

But wait, is he talking . . . potholes?

I couldn’t help but flash back to my home town, Chicago, where the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, ran the city with an iron fist for more than 20 years in the 60s and 70s. Boss Daley knew how to fill a pothole, but sadly, at the same time he presided over a disastrous decline in the city’s pubic education system.

Mayor Garcetti’s goal, of “building a better city,” while admirable, is ultimately not achievable without addressing the elephant in the room — education — and his hands-off approach is bad for students, parents and ultimately the economy. The recent departure of Thelma Melendez, who carried the title of education deputy but in practice was almost invisible makes matters worse. And, so far, he hasn’t named a replacement.

Granted, the mayor’s office in Los Angeles officially exerts very little control over the vast LA Unified School District, run by an often fractured seven-member elected board. But that didn’t stop Garcetti’s predecessors from using the bully pulpit to try and enhance the educational opportunities for city students. The outgoing Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who considered improving public education his mission, devoted a large portion of his 2013 State of the City address to education and saw it as vitally linked to job-growth and the economy.

The district is slowly improving, but challenges like high dropout rates and low student achievement are so profound that it’s hard to argue that all hands should not be on deck, especially those of the mayor.

And the excuse of not having mayoral control? Well, the last time I looked, the mayor doesn’t have much influence on the 405 federal highway project, either.

Thelma Melendez

The LA Unified Board meets this morning, with much of their business scheduled for a closed door session.

In private, the six members will discuss various legal cases involving the district as well as updates on labor contracts and student discipline matters.

At some point, in open session, they will consider an interim financial report headed to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, with the usual notation that based on current projections that the District may not be able to meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and the two years to follow.

Also expected: An announcement that Thelma Melendez, until last week Mayor Eric Garcetti‘s liaison to the district, will join the district as second-in-command overseeing Beyond the Bell, LA Unified’s after-school program.

Previous posts: At School, Melendez Talks Computers, Garcetti Jobs Agenda; Thelma Melendez, Mayor Garcetti’s education deputy, remains out of view. 

Thelma Melendez, Mayor Garcetti’s education deputy

Eight weeks ago Mayor Eric Garcetti named his new education deputy, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana. In that time, only a few people have any idea who she is what she does or how she’s going to do it.

She has met with various board members and some community groups in her official capacity as director of education and workforce, but all efforts to interview Melendez have been ignored or denied.

Marie Lloyd, a press assistant in Garcetti’s office, told LA School Report Melendez isn’t doing interviews.

Melendez has yet to make any public statements outlining goals for herself or staffer Abigail Marquez so it’s difficult to know with any certainty what her priorities are and how she will measure her own success.

Some things are known about her: she resigned from her previous post as Superintendent of Santa Ana Unified School District in Orange County rather abruptly and amid scandal. Before that, she served as an Assistant Secretary of Education under Arne Duncan, and she headed Pomona Unified for about three years.

Her ties to LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy go back to 2006 when both attended the Broad Superintendents Academy. Former superintendent Ray Cortines tried to lure her to LA Unified several years ago.

Through interviews with a few LA Unified school board members, it’s possible to sketch out only a rough picture of what she’s been up to.

It seems her resume has appeal across the ideological spectrum. School board members pushing for Deasy-style reforms, like Monica Garcia, and those against them, like Bennett Kayser, are excited to work with Melendez.

Garcia, who has known Melendez professionally for years, said she is thrilled with the idea of working alongside her even if Melendez’s role remains amorphous.

The two had one private meeting during which Garcia says Melendez outlined the need to raise graduation rates for Hispanic and English Language Learner students throughout the district.

According to Garcia, Melendez gave no indication she plans to meet with the school board as a whole or with any regularity.

“I think there’s a lot she’s trying to learn and catch up on, but I see her as a strong ally for the children of Los Angeles,” Garcia told LA School Report.

Similarly, Sarah Bradshaw, Kayser’s chief of staff, agrees Melendez is “taking this time to ask all the right questions.”

Bradshaw attended a brief meeting between Kayser and Melendez last week. Much of their time together was spent talking about improving “cradle to gainful employment” strategies, a reflect of Garcetti’s interest in job creation and economic development.

“The impression she gave us is that her focus is going to be on linking adult education, community colleges, and workforce programs to the district,” Bradshaw said. “I don’t think she’s going to be hands-on when it comes teaching strategies in the classroom or changing education policies.”

Kayser, who recently took part in an education funding conference in Oakland and San Francisco, is hoping Melendez will look at cross-services programs implemented in the Bay Area as a model for Los Angeles and LA Unified, Bradshaw said. For instance, the city of San Francisco pays for school police, not the local school district as is the case here. Students qualify for free transit and they have free access to the city’s museums in San Francisco.

“We want to work with her to get some of those types of services for our kids here,” Bradshaw said.

It’s unclear to what extent Melendez or Garcetti will be involved in the Partnership of Los Angeles Schools, which manages 22 schools within LA Unified and was founded by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2007.

“Every mayor will make the position their own,” said Joan Sullivan, CEO of Partnership of Los Angeles Schools, who served as education deputy under Mayor Villaraigosa.

Garcetti’s decision? Maybe some day Melendez will explain it.

Previous Posts: Melendez to Be Hired Under Unusual Salary Arrangement; The Buzz: Thelma Melendez Likely to Run Garcetti’s Education Team.

Abigail Marquez

When the LA Unified board meets in open session today, only one agenda item is listed for discussion: Abigail Marquez as Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nominee to the 15-member district Bond Oversight Committee.

If approved, which is expected, she would replace former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s representative on the board, Joan Sullivan, who also served as deputy mayor of education.

Marquez’s full time position with the city is as a member of Garcetti’s Education and Workforce team, working with his chief education appointment, Thelma Melendez.

The function of the committee, an all-volunteer group, is to advise the school board on how to spend voter-approved construction bonds. Usually that’s been limited to building projects, repairs, and modernization, but the committee recently approved $30 million for 47 schools in Phase 1 of the district’s iPad program.

A committee consultant, Tom Rubin, said Marquez’s appointment should go through without a hitch; candidates are thoroughly vetted by the district’s ethics committee before they come before the school board for approval.

Once Marquez is approved, Rubin said, he’ll get her up to speed on the issues before the bond committee, including the budget proposal for Phase 2 of the iPad program. The bond committee meets next on Oct. 30, when it will consider spending about $250 million in Phase 2, which would distribute iPads to another 300 LA Unified schools.

“She will definitely have the opportunity to weigh in on the final decision, if she so choses,” Rubin told LA School Report. “We have a lot of key questions, primarily about finance, that we have asked of the district that we are expecting to get answers next week.”

Previous Posts: The Buzz: Thelma Melendez Likely to Run Garcetti’s Education Team; Garcetti Makes First Education Appointment (updated)