Three people in the last 10 days have filed with the city Ethics Commission an intent to raise money to challenge Monica Garcia for school board in District 2, and one person has entered the race for the vacant seat in District 6, which is held by Monica Ratliff, who is running for City Council.

Manuel Aldana Jr., Walter R. Bannister and Berny Motto have joined Carl Petersen in challenging Garcia.

Araz Parseghian will run in District 6 and is the only candidate to declare an intent to do so.

Campaign finance reports show Garcia dominating in early fundraising. She raised about $120,000 in the first six months of this year. Petersen, who ran unsuccessfully in 2015 for the District 3 seat, raised $805 in the same period.

District 2 covers East LA, Pico-Union, downtown Los Angeles and its surrounding neighborhoods and is heavily Latino. Garcia, who was board president for an unprecedented six consecutive years, was first elected in that district in 2006.

District 6 covers the east San Fernando Valley. Ratliff was elected in 2013. She filed an intent to run for a City Council seat in March.

Parseghian filed an intent to run for the seat on Aug. 2.

The primary election will take place on March 7. Also running are Board President Steve Zimmer in District 4, who is seeking re-election against challenger Nick Melvoin. Melvoin has raised about $124,000, compared to Zimmer’s $7,300, according to city filings.

School board candidates officially file for the race in November, but they can begin to raise money and declare their intent to do so with the Ethics Commission.

If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes in the March 7 primary, the top two vote-getters go on to compete in the May 16 general election.

Bennett Kayser

*UPDATED

Four years after playing a major role in Bennett Kayser’s election to the LA Unified school board, an Encino-based political consulting firm is now working to defeat him.

Shallman Communications in 2011 was paid more than $60,000 by the LA teachers union, UTLA, to help shape Kayser’s image. Through the union’s independent expenditures, it produced campaign material that exalted him as an ideal candidate at a time of enormous challenges and dismissed his opponent, Luis Sanchez, as a wasteful bureaucrat and a tool of “billionaires” and Republicans, such as former President George W. Bush and Sarah Palin.

Now, as Kayser is seeking reelection on March 3 against two challengers, Shallman has been hired by a political action committee affiliated with the California Charter Schools Association, which has which has no stronger opponent on the LA Unified school board than Kayser.

In one of its first efforts for the committee, Shallman helped create a flyer that says Kayser has worked against the interests of Latino children, an assertion that some have interpreted as racist.

John Shallman, owner, president and chief consultant of the firm that bears his name, said it was disillusionment with Kayser’s accomplishments that drew him to the other side.

“I have always been proud to work on behalf of classroom teachers to elect candidates who will put our children first,” Shallman said in an emailed statement to LA School Report. “In 2011, I was convinced that Bennett Kayser would do that. He hasn’t. School board members who fail, don’t get second chances because our kids only get one chance at a good education.”

The flyer was part of a $40,000 spend to benefit one of Kayser’s challengers —  Ref Rodriguez — a charter school executive who has since renounced the message of the flyer, saying it was using “race in a reprehensible and divisive way.”

The committee also said on the flyer it was supporting three other board members — George McKenna, Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic. McKenna and Galatzan have also criticized the flyer.

The Charter Schools Association did not respond to a request for comment.

Shallman Communications has worked on dozens of national, statewide and local campaigns, either for the campaigns, themselves, or for political action committees that want to influence the outcomes.

Those who have benefitted from the firm’s work have included included Alan Cranston, Loretta Sanchez, Tom Torlakson, Wendy Greuel, Karen Bass, Steve Cooley, Tom LaBonge, Herb Wesson and seven who have run for the LA Unified board, among them current members Monica Garcia and Steve Zimmer.

While it’s rare that a political consulting firm would represent clients from opposing political parties, it’s less uncommon that a firm would take on non-governmental clients that have opposing objectives. In the LA Unified universe, no two entitles have more divergent aims than UTLA and the California Charter Schools Association.

Nor is the firm’s work for and later against Kayser unique. Several times it has worked against a former client.

After working for Greuel’s unsuccessful mayoral bid in 2013, Shallman took on author and spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson in a Congressional race that also included Greuel.

In 2012, after then-City Attorney Carmen Trutanich‘s lost in his bid to become LA County district attorney and decided to jump back into the City Attorney race, Shallman had already signed on with an opponent, former Assemblyman Mike Feuer.

* Corrects amount paid to Shallman by UTLA.

LAUSD Board President Richard Vladovic

The political arm of the California Charter Schools Association, CCSA Advocates, is endorsing three of the four incumbents seeking reelection to the LA Unified school board in March.

The exception is Bennett Kayser, a staunch charter opponent who has represented board District 5 since 2011. Kayser is so closely aligned with the teachers union, UTLA, that his political consultants, Burnside & Associates, list his political affiliation as UTLA.

Instead, the charter group’s endorsement for Kayser’s seat is Ref Rodriguez, one of the incumbent’s two challengers. The other is Andrew Thomas. Both challengers are educators.

In the other races, CCSA Advocates is supporting George McKenna, the District 1 member who is running unopposed; Tamar Galatzan, who is facing five challengers in District 3; and Richard Vladovic, the board president, who has two opponents for his District 7 seat.

“At this critical moment in public education when we are seeing the implementation of some of the greatest reforms in how we educate our students and fund our public schools, now is not the time for our elected leaders to blindly obstruct policies that work,” Gary Borden, Executive Director for CCSA Advocates, said in a press release.

“The challenger and three incumbents we’ve chosen to endorse represent the common
sense leadership that families in Los Angeles are counting on to provide equitable access to a quality public education, which includes the 130,000 students who attend 285 independent and affiliated charter schools in the district.”

Rodriguez has long been associated with charter schools. A co-founder of Partnerships To Uplift Communities, a charter school management organization, he currently serves as president and CEO of Partners for Developing Futures, a social investment fund dedicated to investing in leaders of color to start and grow high performing charter schools.

Thomas is a professor of education at the online Walden University and operator of a research company that consults with school districts, including LA Unified.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/charter-group-endorsing-3-of-4-incumbents-for-lausd-board/feed/ 3 https://www.laschoolreport.com/analysis-why-the-school-board-race-attracted-so-few-voters-lausd/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/analysis-why-the-school-board-race-attracted-so-few-voters-lausd/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2014 17:01:33 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=24599 The voters have spoken.

Well, some of them spoke. OK, a handful did.

Turnout for the California primary on Tuesday was routinely disappointing — 18.3 percent statewide, 13.1 percent across LA County and how about that LA Unified District 1 school board race: 10 percent.

Democracy inaction.

Among 338,986 registered voters in the district, only 34,876 cast a ballot for someone to serve on the board of the nation’s second-largest school district, a front-row seat to critical decisions affecting 650,000 school kids.

As Jessica Levinson, an associate clinical professor at Loyola Law School and vice president of the LA Ethics Commission, wrote yesterday about the statewide primary on the Politix blog, “What the what?”

Looking for a reason? Opinions vary.

“The turnout was not driven by a specific feeling about this race,” said Roy Behr, a campaign consultant to Alex Johnson, who finished second to George McKenna to make the August runoff. “Rather, it was by a whole set of races on the ballot, very few of which were interesting or competitive.”

To some degree that’s true. Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Kamala Harris all performed as expected, breezing through their primaries to face much lesser-known challengers in November.

But the school board race was wide open, with no incumbent and each of the seven candidates bringing a unique set of assets, liabilities and political loyalties to the table. Voters had a real choice.

Yet only 1 in 10 took advantage of that.

But there’s another theory out there.

Dermot Givens, a lawyer LaMotte appointed to the 2011 LAUSD Redistricting Commission, says the apathy is a reflection of history, frustration and neglect.

“People in District 1 have heard it, seen it, done it, and nothing has changed,” he said, explaining why so many voters ignored the election. “They fight the good fight, and at the end of the day, they know they’re going to lose.”

From Diane Watson as the district’s board member in the 1970s through Barbara Boudreaux, Genethia Hudley-Hayes and LaMotte, who served a decade before her death in December, district voters have waited and hoped for substantial change, “and it’s always the same issues,” he said, “It’s sad.”

Indeed, as the district has changed demographically from a large majority of African Americans to a more diverse mix with Latinos, local residents raise the same concerns they’ve raised for decades, Givens said — lagging academic performance and graduation rates, even inadequate school supplies.

“If kids go to school in District 1,” he said, “nothing changes.”

Does apathy dissipate in an August runoff? While it depends largely on the programs put forth by the candidates, it’s hard to imagine a more energized citizenry two months from now in a stand-alone election. More likely, half as many people will vote.

A lot could depend on what the teachers union, UTLA, does, if anything. LaMotte was its staunchest supporter on the board, but neither McKenna nor Johnson has given any indication that they have larger loyalties to teachers than to any other group. Through the primary, Johnson was the favorite of the city’s charter school forces — the arch-enemy of unionists.

The union kicked in a few bucks to help three candidates in the primary but was otherwise a non-player. All three finished a long distance from the top. Maybe the union re-calibrates for the runoff, helping to energize community interest. But it’s doubtful, especially with the District 1 seat and three others up for election next year.

Whatever the union, the charter people or anyone else does, it all comes down to three options for District 1 voters in August:

Vote for McKenna, a long-time school administrator whose turnaround efforts at George Washington Preparatory High School became the subject of a 1986 made-for-TV movie with Denzel Washington playing McKenna (“Older black women love Denzel,” Givens said).

Vote for Johnson, an educational aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose considerable influence helped his colleague raise money and gain endorsements.

Or vote for nobody, a sure sign that the educational issues in LA Unified’s District 1 continue to spur more hopelessness than hope, no matter what changes the two candidates promise.

George McKenna on election night

And now there are two.

LAUSD school board candidates George McKenna and Alex Johnson outpolled five others in yesterday’s election, but neither reached a majority, moving them into an August runoff to fill LA Unified’s vacant District 1 seat.

McKenna, 73, a career school administrator and early favorite to replace the late Marguerite LaMotte, was the clear winner in a low-turnout election, winning 15,442 votes, or 44.28 percent. Johnson, 33, an education aide to LA Country Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, was second, with 8,605 votes, 24.67 percent.

Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, a teacher and one of three candidates endorsed by the LA teachers union, UTLA, was a distant third, with 3,293 votes, just 9.44 percent.

McKenna had been the clear choice for a temporary appointment to the board when board members were debating whether to fill the seat through an appointment or an election. Early on, he said he only wanted the seat by appointment, but when that option faded, he jumped into the race.

His near 2-to-1 margin over Johnson, now gives him a clear edge as they now begin a two-month campaign to a runoff scheduled for Aug. 12.

“Our most heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone who knocked on doors, called neighbors, and engaged friends on social media. Let’s keep it going in the weeks to come!” was the message on McKenna’s Facebook page.

McKenna’s victory came despite Johnson’s overwhelming money advantage in the race. While both candidates piled up dozens of endorsements, Johnson raised more than $244,000 in individual contributions and needed almost every penny of it to prevent McKenna from winning just 2,447 votes more, which would have given him an outright victory.

McKenna raised just $154,000.

Nevertheless, Johnson’s finish was a strong showing for a political neophyte who had none of the name recognition within the district that McKenna had. His runner-up status was a tribute to his campaign tactics, which include a heavy boost from his boss, Ridley-Thomas, and the benefits of money. He spent the equivalent of $28 a vote, compared with McKenna, at $10 a vote.

When it appeared he would finish in the top two, Johnson said last night, “The voters of District 1 have very clearly shown with their ballots that they want an elected school board member who will bring new ideas and new energy to their L.A. Board of Education. They want a school board member who will fight to improve their schools.”

Just how many District 1 voters want all that remains to be seen.

With the school board primary part of the same primary in which voters were choosing candidates in all the statewide offices as well as for federal positions, only 34,876 of the District’s 338,986 registered voters — an almost pathetic10 percent — weighed in on the school board seat.

That’s an unusually low turnout that portends even fewer voters two months from now when nothing else is on the ballot.

Among those who did vote, they showed their preferences for two candidates who are, politically, polar opposites of LaMotte, whose decade on the board was marked by her fervent support for the teachers union. McKenna has stressed his independence on issues, and Johnson had the benefit of $62,000 in campaign spending by a group affiliated with the California Charter Schools Association.

Voters showed little interest in the three candidates UTLA supported with the maximum $1,100 donations — Hendy-Newbill, Rachel Johnson, who was fifth with 1,870 votes, and Hattie McFrazier, who finished last with 1,399 votes.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes, a former school board member and well-known educator whose campaign was marred by her inaccurate resume, was fourth, with 2,431 votes, and Omarosa Manigault, a former TV personality, was sixth, with 1,836 votes.

Aside from its sudden addition to the calendar, the election came at a critical juncture in the school year.

The current six board members are ensconced in negotiations over the 2014-2015 budget, which needs to be finalized by June 17, complete with a spending plan to help English learners, foster youth and students from low-income families. The state must approve it.

Beyond that, there are a myriad of other issues before the board that have been impacted, one way or another, by having only six members vote.

In recent weeks, Sylvia Rousseau, a veteran educator, has been serving as a liaison to District 1, largely to serve as a conduit between local residents and the board. But she has no voting rights nor even permission to sit with other board members in their meeting seats.

Before and during Rousseau’s involvement, District 1 residents have been pressing the board to provide more assets and support for students in the district, historically the city’s lowest-performing.

Part of the challenge has been addressed with new money from the state to fund areas of greatest need. But just how that money will be distributed, and for what, remains part of budget negotiations that have proceeded without a District 1 vote.

The conclusion of this year’s election ends a prelude, of sorts, to a much larger election season next year, when this same seat and three others will be contested.

While it’s unclear whether this year’s winner in District 1 intends to try again next year, two other candidates — Daymond Johnson and Rodney Robinson — have registered to run for the seat. District 3’s member, Tamar Galatzan, is facing two challengers — Elizabeth Badger and Carl Petersen; and District 5’s Bennett Kayser is facing an SEIU official, Kathryn Torres.

Only Board President Richard Vladovic, of District 7, is so far running unopposed.

Alex Johnson

Overall, Johnson, 33, an aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, has outraised McKenna, 72, a retired administrator with a national profile, by about $100,000.

But in the last 10 days both candidates had effective fund-raising efforts and almost evenly matched, with Johnson raising almost $36,000 and McKenna almost $32,000. The reporting period, which covered just 10 days between May 18 and May 28, came with few surprises but also a few mysteries, according the City Ethics website. Here are the top three fundraisers:

CANDIDATE                       3rd Period             TOTAL

Alex Johnson:                       $35,801              $244,426

George McKenna                 $31,906              $154,439 ($10,000 self-financed)

Genethia Hudley-Hayes       $950                  $106,040 ($40,000 self-financed)

The remaining four candidates are far behind on the fundraising front (see full report here).

Seven candidates are competing in the special election to fill the vacant seat in District 1. Johnson’s advantage may help prevent McKenna from taking more than 50 percent of the vote outright tomorrow, thus setting the stage for a “top two” runoff in August.

Two mysteries linger. Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, a coach and teacher, who has gotten the attention and endorsement of the anti-reform education crusader, Diane Ravitch and is one of three candidates to have the support of UTLA, the teachers union. Hendy-Newbill’s activity had not been posted to the City Ethics website by the May 28 deadline.

And Omarosa Manigault, a TV personality-turned-pastor-turned educator, has not updated her finances since March 17, in an apparent violation of City Ethics law.

“There should be updated numbers by midnight from all the candidates,” said a staff member at the City Ethics Commission. Most candidates are filing their required disclosure forms online, which will be available on the Ethics website, here.

One candidate, Omarosa Manigault, has already missed a previous deadline, on May 18.

According to City Ethics, candidates who have expenses connected with an election are required to file in the period the campaign activity occurred, and those who don’t meet the deadline face late filing penalties. 

Coinciding with the California statewide primary on June 3, the special election was called to fill the District 1 board seat, left vacant by death last year of longtime member Marguerite LaMotte.

We asked Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, whose expertise in local politics helped steer Mayor Eric Garcetti, among many others, to victory, for his armchair analysis based on the number of candidates in the field — although not on the specific candidates themselves.

Carrick concedes, “It’s tough to get to ‘fifty-plus-one,’ ” the magic majority for an outright win.

Tough but not impossible.  Here’s what he says the potential winner needs:

Great name recognition: “In a large field, with lots of challengers name recognition is especially important. Running up a huge margin in a race without an incumbent is hard. The kind of name ID a candidate would need usually doesn’t come easily with a non-incumbent.”

A robust campaign operation: The idea, he says, is to generate enough community support that the second-place candidate stays below 40 percent. It’s harder in such a larger field, he says, making the campaign operation all the more important.

Hope the lesser-known candidates don’t ‘pop’: “If the lowliers add up to more than 10 percent combined, it gets much harder.”

Fingers-crossed for a high turnout: It helps the frontrunner in a crowded field; low turnout magnifies the power of each vote cast.

What could all this mean for the presumed front-runner, George McKenna?

McKenna may have what it takes to avoid a runoff, but the math is not in his favor.

A familiar, well-liked figure in the district and a retired LAUSD administrator, he does have name recognition. He was the subject of a made-for-TV movie about turning around a failing school in the 1980s called the “George McKenna Story,” starring Denzel Washington. He’s also well-funded, with $122,000 raised (including $10,000 of his own) through the last reporting period, according the the City Ethics website.

The problem may the lesser-known candidates hanging below 10 percent. While Alex Johnson, an aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, is running second, according to sources, and he, too, has a well-funded campaign, $208,000 as of the last reporting period. It is the rest of the pack that could siphon votes from McKenna.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes, who held this same seat 15 years ago, is also a recognizable name in the district. She has raised $105,000, including $40,000 of her own, and has recently distributed mail pieces, although details have not yet been made clear on the Ethics website.

Another unknown factor is the appeal of Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, a teacher and coach, who is one of three candidates endorsed by the teachers union. While UTLA’s super PAC, PACE, is staying out of the race, Hendy-Newbill got a boost this week with an endorsement from an advocacy group led by Diane Ravitch, one of the strongest voices in the country opposed to standardized testing and charter schools.

District 1, which covers a wide swath of south LA, stretching east to the 110 freeway and west through Mar Vista has over 300,000 registered voters, but the turnout has been historically low for school board elections. Last time, in 2011, the turnout was below 15 percent.

Using those turnout numbers, in order for McKenna to beat Johnson outright, the other five candidates would have to share fewer than 5,000 votes.

Alex Johnson

* UPDATED

Alex Johnson has opened what is likely an insurmountable fund raising lead over the six other candidates running for the open LA Unified school board.

With the June 3 special election just 11 days away, he has raised $208,625 through the reporting period that ended last Saturday, according to the LA City Ethics Commission.

His total puts him far ahead of his closest competitor, George McKenna, who has raised $122,533 through the period, and nearly twice the $105,090 for the next closest, Genethia Hudley-Hayes. 

Of the three others who updated their contributions were the three UTLA-endorsed candidates — Hattie McFrazier ($16,428), Sherlett Hendy-Newbill ($14,927) and Rachel Johnson ($9,650). Omarosa Manigault‘s total of $21,340 from the first reporting period remains unchanged,

Overall, the candidates have raised $430,885.

Alex Johnson and McKenna are believed to be the front-runners in the race, based on two internal polls. But Hudley-Hayes has one advantage over both of them: She has more cash on hand, $66,326, to $45,206 for Johnson and only $4,711 for McKenna, according to the commission, and that could provide her more flexibility as the days count down.

A message left for Manigault to learn why she had not met the reporting deadline was not immediately returned.

* Adds McKenna filing figures.

From left: George McKenna and Alex Johnson

With less than two weeks before the special election to fill a vacant seat on the Los Angeles Unified school board, two candidates appear to be leading the field of seven, suggesting the probability of an August runoff.

People familiar with two separate but consistent polls of likely voters conducted by professional firms said the two leading candidates are George McKenna, 73, a retired administrator with decades of experience who had a turn at stardom when his story of a school turnaround in the 1980’s was made into a TV movie; and Alex Johnson, 33, a senior aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas who grew up in Los Angeles and returned with a law degree and experience working with the Department of Education in New York City.

One poll was conducted for one of the seven candidates, the other for an organization with no affiliation to any of the campaigns. The results have not been made public.

McKenna leads the pack in terms name recognition among voters by a wide margin, the polls said. Johnson comes in second, with another candidate, Genethia Hudley Hayes, an experienced former school board member who has faced criticism over discrepancies in her resume coming in third, sources said.

The other four candidates have gotten little traction in polling, they said.

But McKenna’s lead isn’t strong enough to give him the 50 percent plus one majority necessary to claim victory outright, according to the sources. That would mean he and Johnson would face each other in a runoff, scheduled for Aug. 12.

The election for the District 1 seat, covering much of south LA, is not expected to attract the attention of voters despite the immense challenges facing the school district this year.

Set for June 3, the statewide primary day, it follows the death of Marguerite LaMotte, who had represented the district for 10 years until she died late last year. The vacancy has left the district, home to some of the lowest performing schools in Los Angeles, without board representation as it grapples with a new school funding formula dictated by the state and a fast-approaching deadline to complete the 2015 budget.

In 2011, the last time there was a school board race in District 1, voter turnout was less than 15 percent, with only 40,000 of the more than 300,000 registered voters casting a ballot.

Monday is the deadline to register for any LA Unified District 1 resident who intends to vote in the June 3 special election.

Registrants must be a citizen of the United States, live within the school district, be 18 years old by Election Day and not be in prison or on parole for a felony.

Registered voters who have moved or changed their names since the last election must re-register to vote.

More information is available here.