That was quite a board meeting yesterday, with more emotion on display than Nixon or LBJ ever showed in announcing their decisions to leave the White House.

The first wave came in The Long Goodbye to Bennett Kayser, whose bid for a second term was thwarted by a member of the group he most detests, a charter school executive.

For more than 90 minutes, a parade of admirers praised Kayser as the conscience of the board — for standing up to former superintendent John Deasy, for supporting teachers no matter what, for opposing charters no matter what, for holding to his principles and for demonstrating how a neurological challenge, Parkinson’s disease, is no barrier to public service.

All well and good — although spending more than a third of a four-hour meeting on good-byes seemed a tad excessive, even for this board.

Maybe the farewell would not have seemed so gaudy were it not for the polar-opposite manner in which his colleague Tamar Galatzan finished her day.

She, too, lost last month, ending eight years of service on the board, twice as long as Kayser. She had requested no public ceremony, due in part, perhaps, to the lingering animus of members who could not abide by her loyalty to Deasy. She was as faithful to him as Kayser was to UTLA, the teachers union.

But political sympathies aside, it was stunning to see her disappear without anyone at least acknowledging her public service over the years, if not for holding to her principles.

No one from the board, including the other Deasy acolyte, Mónica García, said a word. Nor did anyone else in the room.

Poof . . . Gone . . . What was her name, again?

The other passion play was Superintendent Ramon Cortines’s weepy, halting speech — about the 2016 budget!

Conceding that the board can no longer pay for everything it wants — which it was willing to do under Deasy — he choked up through his remarks and bawled openly at the end after reminding listeners, “There are no more presents under the Christmas tree.”

It was odd in a way. This was the district’s most robust spending plan in years, nearly $8 billion worth, with thousands of teachers and other employees getting a raise for the first time since the Big Bang. Abandoned and neglected programs would be blooming back to life. New money to spruce up schools. More than 125 countries don’t have that much to spend annually. 

Yet the prospect of looming deficits and scores of unavoidable layoffs left him visibly shaken, so much so that he suggested he could serve only another six months, not the year he had agreed to.

More than a few observers watched him break down at the end, dabbing his eyes with tissue, and wondered if he were ill. Discrete questions brought an answer: No, he wasn’t suffering; he had just worked so hard on the budget and he really felt bad about the inability to rescind more layoff notices and the possibility, however remote, that the budget would not be approved.

The members loved him for it. Cortines, after all, is the district’s protector, the father figure, the un-Deasy. They missed no opportunities to thank him for his hard work, his collaborative management style, his willingness to take on the hard issues of running a bureaucracy as large and unwieldy as LA Unified is.

Imagine how long his farewell will be. Better bring a sleeping bag. And tissues.

Steve Zimmer

Drinking too much at a work dinner or hitting on a co-worker’s spouse can make things truly uncomfortable at the office. But what about publicly damning a future colleague before his first day on the job?

That’s the situation LA Unified school board Vice President Steve Zimmer faces, now that Ref Rodriguez has defeated his good friend, Bennett Kayser, for the District 5 board seat.

“If there ever was a relationship there with Rodriguez, it has been seriously damaged,” Zimmer said a day before Tuesday’s election, piqued by the tenor of Rodriguez’s campaign.

Zimmer accused Rodriguez and his backers of crossing “new frontiers of depravity” and “using a type of lies and distortion, that lowered the entire moral climate of political discourse” throughout the campaign, even if much of the nastiness was orchestrated by groups working on Rodriguez’s behalf, not the candidate himself. Anyway, Zimmer said, the candidate ultimately bears the responsibility for the tone and scope of the campaign.

His position now?

“I meant what I said, and I stand by it,” he told LA School Report today.

Despite issuing a statement congratulating Rodriguez following his victory, Zimmer said, “My feelings of personal hurt and disappointment and injury will not go away. I’m not going to pretend that these feelings don’t exist.”

“But,” he added, “the urgency of the moment demands that we figure out a way to be professional and ultimately there is a responsibility to have a professional relationship on whatever level that we can.”

“I expect that there will be areas of agreement and areas of profound disagreement,” he said. “But I hope he will approach the work with the same level of seriousness and focus of mission that I do.”

Rodriguez did not respond to requests for comment.

Throughout the campaign Zimmer criticized Rodriguez and the California Charter Schools Association’s political arm for a slew of negative attack ads directed at Kayser, who was seeking a second term.

CCSA spent several million dollars in mailers and radio and television advertisements boosting Rodriguez’s qualifications and assaulting Kayser’s character. One mailer called Kayser a “slumlord millionaire” who “forces tenants to live in filth.” Another, featuring a group of brown-skinned children, declared “Bennett Kayser tried to stop Latino children from attending schools in white neighborhoods.” And a television commercial equated the former health teacher with a 90s movie villain, also named Kayser.

“Our campaign’s goal was to elect a candidate,” CCSA Advocates, the groups’s PAC, said, in response to Zimmer’s recriminations. “As part of our campaign, we highlighted incumbent Kayser’s voting record, which has been marked by ideological extremism and a failure to understand and serve his constituents, particularly low-income families who want more and better public education options for their children.”

In declining to participate in more public debates, most of which were hosted by charter school groups, the charter group said Kayser failed to engage the community in a meaningful way.

“Mr. Kayser was, quite possibly, his own worst enemy in this campaign,” it said.

Whatever their differences, Zimmer and Rodriguez will never have to guess how the other feels. Their seats at the board meetings are side-by-side.

Ref Rodriguez

In the most of expensive and vitriolic of all three LA Unified board races, Bennett Kayser lost to Ref Rodriguez in the battle to represent District 5.

Shortly after polls closed Rodriguez cemented an early lead, and Kayser, who had hoped for a second term, was never able to catch up.

“This is a historic victory, as Los Angeles embraces positive change for our schools,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

“The message of transforming middle schools and supporting innovation really resonated with voters,” he wrote, adding words of gratitude for the “community victory.”

The win is a game changer for the California Charter Schools Association, which contributed several million dollars to Rodriguez’s campaign through its political action committee. The organization paid for television, radio and direct mail advertisements championing the charter school founder and railing against Kayser. It marks the first time the CCSA successfully turned over a pro-union seat.

But it is only a partial triumph for the education reform group which was counting on Tamar Galatzan to hold on to her seat in District 3. In that scenario, charter school supporters would have regained control of the board with a 4-3 majority.

That is not what happened.

Scott Schmerelson, a former teacher, counselor and school administrator beat Galatzan by more than 10 percentage points. And although, Schmerelson resists the pro-union label, he acknowledged that he couldn’t have won it without UTLA’s support.

While UTLA campaigned aggressively for Kayser in the March primary races, the teachers union changed strategies for the general election.

“It became a different kind of race at that point,” Marco Flores, a member of UTLA’s political action committee told LA School Report.

“We were just trying to fend off racist and toxic accusations,” he said, referring to the attack ads directed at Kayser. “If we had more money maybe we could have been more effective.”

Kayser is expected to release a statement later today, according to his campaign manager Susan Burnside, who spoke to LA School Report from Schmerelson’s party. Burnside also worked on his campaign.

LA Unified board member Steve Zimmer

* UPDATED

If Ref Rodriguez wins election tomorrow, he’s got no friend in Steve Zimmer.

Rodriguez is the challenger in the race for LA Unified school board District 5 against Bennett Kayser, easily the most heated of the three board elections. A loss by Kayser could shift the ideological balance of the seven member board from pro-union to pro-charter.

While Zimmer, a former teacher and teachers union advocate who represents board District 4, has been a reliable and long-time Kayser supporter, he recently railed against Rodriguez’s “reformer” agenda and campaign tactics, as well as his most powerful and generous supporter, the California Charter Schools Association political action committee.

“Damn them! Damn them!” Zimmer exclaimed during a fire-and-brimstone speech at a Kayser fundraiser last month, about 7 minutes of which is on YouTube.

The remarks came in response to a series of campaign attack ads against Kayser that Zimmer said portrays the incumbent as a racist slumlord whose Parkinson’s disease makes him unfit to serve a second term.

In an interview with LA school Report today, Zimmer doubled down on his scathing criticism of Rodriguez and CCSA.

“They have crossed new frontiers of depravity in this campaign,” Zimmer said. “This is the most amoral type of campaigning, using a type of lies and distortion, that lowered the entire moral climate of political discourse.”

After acknowledging “far too much polarization in the discussion around our schools” based on Zimmer’s remarks at the fundraiser, Rodriguez declined to comment on Zimmer’s remarks to LA School Report.

Over six years on the board Zimmer has strived to take on the role of peacemaker/conciliator/mediator on a number of divisive issues — even under former Superintendent John Deasy who embraced charter schools, fought to tie teacher evaluations to test scores and put record numbers of teachers in “teacher jails.”

But, Zimmer says, those days are over.

“I come to them with olive branches, they respond with napalm,” he said in the interview referring to the interests that would align with Rodriguez.

CCSA has spent several million dollars in mailers, radio and television advertisements boosting Rodriguez’s qualifications and assaulting Kayser’s character. One mailer calls Kayser a “slumlord millionaire” who “forces tenants to live in filth.”

Another flyer featured a group of brown-skinned children below Spanish that translates to: “Bennett Kayser tried to stop Latino children from attending schools in white neighborhoods.” On the other side, it says, “He’s not for us.” An LA Times editorial following the release of the ad accused CCSA of engaging in “slimy tactics on behalf of children.”

And, a commercial equating Kayser to a 90s movie villain — Kayser Soze — ended with the shattering of a coffee cup. Kayser allies argue it is a thinly veiled allusion to his Parkinson’s disease.

“Where is the middle ground when people are trying to destroy a human being?” Zimmer asked.

Although most of the anti-Kayser campaigning has been paid for by CCSA and, therefore, is technically not part of the official campaign, Zimmer says Rodriguez, as a charter school founder, bears ultimate responsibility for the tone of his campaign.

Like Kayser, Zimmer was in a contentious re-election race just two years ago and his opponent, Kate Anderson, was heavily financed by CCSA and other reformers with deep pockets, including Michael Bloomberg, who contributed $1 million to Anderson and candidates in two other races.

“I’ve been a candidate, and candidates make decisions about the parameters that they will allow and associate with their campaign,” Zimmer said. “Ref is absolutely responsible.”

Should Rodriguez defeat Kayser, as he did in the March primary, relations on the board will become even more strained, at least for Zimmer.

“If there ever was a relationship there with Rodriguez, it has been seriously damaged,” Zimmer said with an air of finality.

Zimmer, an educator for more than 20 years, said the attacks against Kayser amounted to attacks against him. “They’re against everything I stand and everything I’ve tried to do,” he said. “They’re saying I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”

Board meetings are already pretty testy, a result of multiple personal and political beefs between members. Tamar Galatzan and Monica Ratliff, for example, rarely see eye to eye. Galatzan and Monica Garcia are often on the opposite side of an issue with George McKenna. And board president Richard Vladovic is a bit of a wild card, especially recently while he’s been running for re-election.

But neither Galatzan’s race tomorrow against Scott Schmerelson in District 3 nor Vladovic’s against Lydia Gutierrez in District 7 has played out with the same degree of vitriol.

“I talk about re-humanizing teachers and the district and that includes board members,” Zimmer said. “We are human… how can we not take these attacks personally?”

* Adds Rodriguez response.

Andrew Thomas

Andrew Thomas, who finished third behind Ref Rodriguez and Bennett Kayser in the District 5 school board primary election, has complained to Kayser that an invitation to a Kayser fundraiser this afternoon incorrectly says Thomas is supporting him in the May 19 runoff.

An email from Kayser’s campaign circulated yesterday describes Kayser as “The choice of students and community leader Andrew Thomas for LAUSD School Board, District 5.”

Wrong, said Thomas, calling the assertion “a breach of good will.”

“Unfortunately, your choice to send this announcement, which uses my name without my permission and suggests that I endorse you, puts me in a difficult position,” he wrote to Kayser and his board chief of staff, Sarah Bradshaw. “I now need to re-assure my supporters and Ref Rodriguez that I, in fact, am not supporting you. Of course, I’ll do that right away.”

Thomas stated his neutrality in the runoff shortly after the primary, in which he won 26 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Rodriguez and 35 percent for Kayser.

In his email, he said, “I continue to argue that the interests of the students and parents need to have direct representation on the school board. I have also said I wouldn’t do anything to oppose your efforts to win re-election and, by the same token, I extended the same courtesy to your opponent.”

As his chief of staff, Bradshaw has nothing to do with campaign efforts. Kayser’s campaign manager, Susan Burnside, said in an email to LA School Report today, “It is clearly a fundraising invitation and no way implies endorsement.  Bennett has spoken to Andrew many times and he and the campaign are clear that Andrew is staying neutral in the race.”

Thomas asked that a subsequent invitation be circulated to the same people who received the first, indicating that he “is not endorsing, supporting, or choosing Bennett Kayser.”

Scott Schmerelson

Despite only modest spending on behalf of Bennett Kayser in the race to represent LA Unified’s board District 5, the teachers union said today it’s not abandoning him in the May 19 run off against reform darling, Ref Rodriguez.

According to the latest data from the LA City Ethics Commission, the political action committee connected to the California Charter Schools Association has spent $468,126 and a student canvassing group, Students for Education Reform Action Network, has spent $38,126 in support of Rodriguez. That total — $506,252 — dwarfs the amount spent by UTLA and SEUI Local 99, the service workers union, for Kayser. They have invested $13,893 and $33,105 respectively, for a total of $56,998.

Overall, the pro-Rodriguez groups have outspent the pro-Kayser groups by almost 9-to-1, with the charter group outspending the union by nearly 34-to-1.

Union officials say they believe Kayser is well known enough as an incumbent that they can shift their spending away from District 5 and use funds to back Scott Schmerelson, the long time administrator opposing incumbent Tamar Galatzan in the valley race for District 3.

“The decision to spend in District 3 was made from a strategic standpoint,” Oraui Amoni, UTLA’s political director, told LA School Report.

“Since we didn’t endorse Schmerelson in the primary, we knew we needed to get his name out there sooner rather than later,” Amoni said. “Whereas with Kayser we’ve been campaigning for him all along, so the need to get his name out there isn’t the same.”

Spending for Kayser and against Ref in the primary election was significantly less lopsided, though by no means even, with Rodriguez backers outspending Kayser supporters by $815,000 to $562,000.

Amoni says UTLA plans to unleash it’s greatest asset — good old fashioned manpower — against all of the candidates the union is opposing, including Lydia Gutierrez who is running against school board president, Richard Vladovic in District 7.

“That’s tried and true and we’ve seen it work over and over again,” he said. “We will have thousands of teachers making phone calls; we will have thousands of teaches knocking on doors; and we will have thousands of teachers delivering our message about the schools children deserve.”

As tested as the strategy may be for UTLA, banking on Kayser’s name-recoignition and reputation, it’s a risk shifting money away from him. He’s the union’s strongest ally on the seven-member board and losing him would be a blow to union-supported issues that come before the board. Schmerelson, on the other hand, has promised to be a more independent voice on the board, not necessarily aligned with the union on all issues.

Amoni declined to comment on UTLA’s plans to spend $400,000 that was recently reallocated from the union’s strike fund, now that the union and the district have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract.

“If we spend it and how we spend it is confidential,” he said, adding, “we’ll report what we are legally required to report.”

LAUSD school board candidate Ref Rodriguez and his mother outside a polling station March 3, 2015. (Via Twitter @DrRefRodrguez)

Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the race by supporters, voter turnout in the District 5 LA Unified school board primary in March was pretty dreadful, with only 12 percent of registered voters coming to the polls.

But now a nonprofit dedicated to getting more Latinos to the polls seems to think a little more money — $25,000 to be exact — will be enough to increase turnout in the upcoming May 19 runoff when incumbent Bennett Kayser faces challenger Ref Rodriguez.

If this sounds like a lottery, it is because it is. The organizers of the giveaway, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, are calling it a “voteria,” a play on the Spanish term “lotería,” for lottery, according to the Los Angeles Times, with one lucky vote voter pocketing the winnings.

And if this sounds as if it might be on shaky legal grounds, that’s because it is — sort of. Giving away money to voters simply for voting would violate federal law, but is legal in California, according to the sponsors.

The primary became a proxy war between two big political action committees — the teachers union’s, for Kayser, and the California Charter Schools Association Advocates, for Rodriguez.

Rodriguez won with 10,355 votes, while incumbent Bennett Kayser finished second with 9,510. A challenger with no outside support, Andrew Thomas, finished third with 6,946.

With a Latino population of 74 percent in District 5, both Rodriguez and Kayser worked hard at getting support from the Latino community, and the battle for votes turned very nasty at times.

CCSA produced a campaign flyer that accused Kayser of preventing Latino children from attending schools in white neighborhoods, and the flyer was so poorly received, Rodriguez even had to distance himself from it. UTLA, in turn, produced a flyer that referred to Rodriguez by his full legal first name, Refugio, which the charter group said had “racial undertones.”

As far as a cash giveaway to increase turnout, Rodriguez supporters seem to support the idea.

“If overall turnout is higher, it’s hard to say what the effect would be,” said Dan Chang, executive director of Great Public Schools: Los Angeles, which supports Rodriguez, according to the Times. “If there is higher turnout among Latinos, the conventional wisdom is that Ref Rodriguez will do better — a Latino candidate with a Latino surname.”

Ref Rodriguez

With the May 19 runoff elections five weeks from tomorrow, Ref Rodriguez has opened a huge money lead over incumbent Bennett Kayser for the District 5 school board seat.

Rodriguez, a charter school official, has built a nearly 3-to-1 edge in individual contributions, raising $26,896 to Kayser’s $9,575 through April 4, the latest figures from the LA City Ethics Commission, and the edge in money spent by outside groups, which candidate campaigns do not control, is even greater.

The California Charter Schools Association and a New York-based student canvassing group, Students for Education Reform Action Network, have combined to spend $141,839 for Rodriguez. SEIU Local 99, the service employees union, has accounted for all the outside spending so far for Kayser, $8,545.

No doubt, much more money will be spent to help Kayser, who finished second to Rodriguez in the primary. He has been endorsed by the teachers union, UTLA, which has promised to mount a robust campaign to help him win a second term.

Between them, the charter group and UTLA spent nearly $1.5 million for the two candidates in the primary.

In the other two elections for board seats, the incumbents have the advantage.

In District 7, where President Richard Vladovic is seeking a third term, he has out-raised his challenger, Lydia Gutierrez by about 9-to-1, $30,205 to $3,650, and SEIU Local 99 has spent $8,349 on his behalf. Gutierrez has no outside support so far.

Vladovic has been endorsed by both the charter group and UTLA.

In District 3, Tamar Galatzan has raised $15,850, nearly double the total of her opponent, Scott Schmerelson, $6,862. And SEIU Local 99 has spent $8,313 for Galatzan, with no outside spending yet for Schmerelson, who has also been endorsed by UTLA.

* UPDATED

Could a deal between LA Unified and its teachers union, UTLA, be close at hand?

The answer is a definite maybe, judging by the accelerated schedule of meetings with the mediator trying to bring the sides together. Two more sessions are scheduled — today and tomorrow. 

If that’s a sign of progress leading to an agreement before the May 19 general elections, it suggests there might be a connection to the District 5 school board race between incumbent Bennett Kayser and the challenger who beat him in the primary, Ref Rodriguez.

OK, so it’s just a theory. But let’s play it out:

Here’s the working assumption: An agreement in the next few weeks reflects the possibility that the union wants to play it safe with the election, that it might view Kayser as vulnerable, unable to pull off the victory as he did four years ago when he won the seat after a second-place finish in the primary.

Kayser is the union’s strongest ally on the board. More than any other member, he has held the line against the rapid growth and popularity of charter schools in LA Unified. In whatever ideological split there may be among the board members on such issues as charters and reform efforts, Kayser has been UTLA’s best friend. He has also been a champion for early education and special needs education, which require additional instructional assets.

But he has run up against a muscular foe in the California Charter Schools Association, which spent more than $600,000 for Rodriguez, a charter schools executive, in the primary campaign and has already begun spending for Rodriguez in the runoff. A review of Kayser’s votes on charter applications and renewals shows that he has voted against two of every three since 2011, making him the least supportive of charters among all seven board members. 

Gary Borden, executive director of California Charter Schools Association Advocates, a political action committee, said defeating Kayser is a priority for his group. “His voting record over the last four years is diametrically opposed to everything we’ve worked on,” he said.

While UTLA spent almost as much for Kayser in the primary, it’s entirely conceivable that the union does not want to roll the dice on the outcome of the runoff, based on a calculation that any final agreement with board member Kayser would be better for teachers than any deal with board member Rodriguez, or even board member-elect Rodriguez.

Kayser’s current term ends June 30, but lame duck status over his final few weeks could dilute his strength and influence.

There’s another way to look at the advantage of a pre-election deal for UTLA: it could serve as a potential boost for Kayser’s campaign efforts.

Thousands of happy teachers, whose views carry a lot of weight in their school communities, would solidify his base. A deal would also give him a new front in the campaign, enabling him to claim that he played a major role in delivering teachers their first new contract — with raises! — in nearly eight years.

The wildcard in all this, of course, is turnout. For the District 5 primary in March, just 9.7 percent of registered voters cast ballots, and that was a day when voters had other races to on the ballot to consider. The District 3 race that sent incumbent Tamar Galatzan and Scott Schmerelson forward, drew 10.5 percent of registered voters. The District 7 race, which sent board President Richard Vladovic and Lydia Gutierrez into the runoff, attracted only 4.6 percent.

This time for District 5 voters, there’s only a school board seat at stake, which may not be enough to bring out more than the most fervent supporters of either candidate. Given Kayser’s large base of support, low turnout could prove to be his greatest advantage. But the teachers union might not want to take the chance.

That’s the theory, anyway.

* Corrects title for Gary Borden.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/analysis-a-deal-with-the-teachers-soon-may-carry-a-kayser-message/feed/ 3 https://www.laschoolreport.com/charter-group-makes-initial-spend-for-rodriguez-lausd-board-seat/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/charter-group-makes-initial-spend-for-rodriguez-lausd-board-seat/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2015 21:34:42 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=34188

Ref Rodriguez

They’re off… and spending.

Over the last 10 days the California Charter School Association political action committee has resumed pumping in money to help Ref Rodriguez win the District 5 seat on the LA Unified school board in the May 19 runoff.

The group has spent $18,347 on two flier mailings and one phone banking session. It is the first spend in the three board runoff races so far and the start of what is sure to be a high-dollar showdown in District 5, given the hundreds of thousands of dollars the charter group spent to help Rodriguez win the March 3 primary and the hundreds of thousands the LA teachers union, UTLA, spent to help its most trusted ally on the board, Bennett Kayser.

Rodriguez, a charter school operator, is trying to deny Kayser a second term. The winner will represent the interests of a district that includes parts of Bell and Maywood in the south, Los Feliz, Eagle Rock and parts of El Sereno in the north. The winner will also serve an extended 5 1/2 year term since voters passed a city charter amendment to align school board and state elections.

The race for District 5 is considered a potential game changer for so-called education reform advocates who favor charter school expansion, merit pay for teachers and teacher evaluation systems partially based on student test scores. A victory by Rodriguez would shift the balance of the board to a pro-reform majority from what is now, a consistently pro-teachers union majority.

Kayser faced the same challenge four years when he finished second, only to rebound in the general election to win the seat by less than three percentage points.

In the other May runoffs, board president Richard Vladovic is facing teacher Lydia Gutierrez in District 7, and District 3 incumbent Tamar Galatzan is up against retired school administrator Scott Schmerelson.

After providing heavy financial support for newcomer Ref Rodriguez, winner over District 5 incumbent Bennett Kayser last night, the charter group is weighing how much to spend for Rodriguez in the weeks leading to the May 19 runoff.

“We absolutely consider this a success,” Gary Borden, Executive Director of California Charter Schools Association Advocates, a political action committee told LA School Report, stepping away from the Rodriguez celebration late last night.

The next step, he said, “is to assess what we end up doing for the general election.”

The charters pumped nearly $800,000 into the primary’s three contested races, also backing Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic, who won their respective primaries and are headed for a runoff. But the vast majority of the spend, nearly $600,000, went to support Rodriguez, whose election in May would change the political leanings of the seven member board if the other two incumbents prevail.

Rodriguez finished slightly ahead of Kayser in the primary vote, 38.6 percent to 35.8 — a virtual tie that almost certainly means the teachers union is gearing up for a battle with the same intensity.

And why not? While it is not uncommon for the charter school group to outspend union-backed candidates by millions, it seldom guarantees success.

Last year, for example, the charters outspent forces helping George McKenna by three-to-one in the District 1 special election, yet McKenna prevailed. And two years ago, union-backed candidates Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff overcame the same kind of charter and reform-based financial onslaughts.

The charter group has succeeded in helping pro-charter incumbents retain their positions, but it has failed in defeating a pro-union candidate.

When asked if CCSA Advocates planned to change tactics for Rodriguez moving into the general election, Borden responded, “We feel that the public needs to know the facts about his record, and we will keep telling those facts.”

As the only candidate in any contested race that UTLA supported, Kayser had benefit of more than $541,000 in union spending. Marco Flores, chair of the teachers union political action committee, PACE, told LA School Report, he anticipates that the union will be outspent again in the general election.

“They always outspend us two-to-one or more,” he said, referring to titans behind CCSA, including the Michael Bloomberg, Eli Broad and the Walton foundation. “But if you look at the results and who gets elected, we’re even.”

Flores is not unnerved by Rodriguez’s triumph in the primary, comparing it with events of four years ago.

“When Kayser ran against Luis Sanchez, he came in second but then he won,” Flores said. “We are not going to overreact.”

UTLA knows how to allocate its resources well, he said, adding, “We spend our money wisely and our teachers go out there and spread the word.”

He said he expects Kayser will draw voters from Andrew Thomas’s camp in the general election. Thomas, a self-described centrist, came in third against in the District 5 election.

UTLA also has a big decision to make in District 3, where Galatzan has strong support from charters — in all they injected nearly $240,000 into pro-Galatzan efforts — but Scott Schmerelson, the second-place finisher, received no financial support from the teachers union.

Schmerelson is a former teacher and administrator, who was backed by the administrators union, AALA. He is also a Republican.

Flores contends the union is keeping an open mind and plans to meet with Schmerelson soon. “We didn’t interview him,” for the primary, he said. “We’re going to sit down with him and see what he says.”

A union press release today said, “our members will continue the work necessary to remove Galatzan from the school board.”

* UPDATED

LA Unified’s election season moved into runoffs last night with no candidate in the three contested races winning a majority of votes for a board seat and the 5 1/2 year term that voters approved yesterday.

A low turnout of 8.2 percent sent three incumbents — Tamar Galatzan in District 3, Bennett Kayser in 5 and board President Richard Vladovic in 7 — into the May 19 general elections and gave two of them, Galatzan and Vladovic, Republican opponents.

George McKenna, running unopposed, won the District 1 seat.

Galatzan and Vladovic finished first in their races as expected. But it was a victory by Ref Rodriguez, a charter school executive, over Kayser that raised eyebrows the highest last night and made it a big night for the California Charter Schools Association.

In his first run for public office, Rodriguez won 38.6 percent of the vote to Kayser’s 35.8, assuring another 11 weeks of the proxy war between the charter association and the teachers union, UTLA, for greater control of the seven-member board.

“We are going to change LAUSD for the better,” Rodriguez said in a statement this morning. “Our children deserve high quality schools, and we are on our way to achieving that. I am very proud of the campaign we are running, and I’m looking forward to fighting and winning the general election.

The charter group worked mightily to deny Kayser a second term, spending almost $600,000 (through last month) for campaign material, including harsh attacks that suggested Kayser was a racist.

Kayser had almost equal support from the teachers as the only candidate running in the primaries that the union supported. UTLA spent more than $541,000 to help Kayser, its strongest ally on the board.

Andrew Thomas, a third candidate running as a moderate in District 5, won 19 percent of the vote.

Rodriguez’s victory by no means assures that he wins the seat in May. Kayser finished second in the primary four years ago and rebounded to win his first term, over Luis Sanchez.

In seeking a third term on the board, Galatzan won easily, with 39.4 percent of the vote. But there are two ways to look at the results: Five candidates opposing her combined for the other 60 percent of the vote, which foretells an upset in the runoff if voters coalesce behind the second-place finisher, Scott Schmerelson, a retired principal.

Schmerelson won his spot in the runoff with 20 percent, well ahead of the third-place finisher, Ankur Patel at 13. percent.

“This was a bumpy a ride but I’m so happy,” Schmerelson told LA School Report this morning. “One of the things that all of us running against Tamar spoke about was that no matter who wins we would be nice to each other so we could work together for the general election. So that’s what we’re doing now; we are discussing what strategy we’re going to use to have their backers now back me.”

Schmerelson’s finish poses another challenge to UTLA, if it wants to mount a serious fight for the seat. While Galatzan also benefited from spending by the state charter group ($94,000 through last month) and another reform organization, Great Public Schools: Los Angeles ($143,000), UTLA spent nothing on any of her challengers, and now faces a decision on whether to support a Republican in Schmerelson.

“It is a non-partisan election; what does it have to do with the kids at school?” Schmerelson said. “I may be registered as a Republican but what does that have to do with the kids of LA Unified?”

Addressing possible UTLA support for Schmerelson, Flores said,  “We never sat down and interviewed him so that still needs to happen. We’re going to sit down with him and see what he says.”

UTLA has the same decision to make in District 7, where Vladovic won an unusually close race. As a board member since 2007 and president since 2013, he had 42.9 percent of the vote to 37.7 percent for Lydia Gutierrez, another Republican, who had a strong third-place showing last year for State Superintendent of Public Education, winning nearly a million votes.

In challenging Galatzan, the union might get some political cover from Diane Ravitch, a former assistant Secretary of Education and staunch opponent of reform efforts and charter schools who endorsed Schmerelson in the primary. He also had the support of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the principals’ union.

Vladovic, who did little campaigning, had the benefit of the charter schools association, which spent about $75,000 on his behalf. The runoff could boil down to which candidate appeals to the 19.3 percent who voted for a third candidate in the race, Euna Anderson.

What makes any runoff speculation dangerous is the utter lack of interest voters showed in selecting school board members. Galatzan’s total votes, 12,029, was the most any candidate received — in a district where more than 364,000 people are registered. Rodriguez’s total was 8,217 in a district of 274,000 registered voters and Vladovic got 4,554 of the 286,00 registered in his district.

Voter approval — by 76 percent — of aligning school board elections with state and federal elections was promoted as a way to increase voter turnout for board seats. It remains to be seen.

* Adds quotes from Kayser, Schmerelson and Flores

Bennett Kayser (L), Andrew Thomas and Ref Rodriguez at last night’s LA Unified District 5 candidate forum

Together for the final time before Tuesday’s elections, the three candidates for LA Unified’s Board District 5 seat were determined last night to set themselves apart from each other.

In a small church in a residential neighborhood in South Gate, incumbent Bennett Kayser, and his opponents, Andrew Thomas and Ref Rodriguez, spoke only to the small crowd, rarely acknowledging the others’ statements or accusations. Another forum is scheduled for tonight at the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Sandra Cisneros campus in Echo Park, but only Thomas and Rodriguez have agreed to participate.

In last night’s forum, Thomas sharply criticized his opponents for the financial support their respective campaigns have received from outside interests, either the teachers union, UTLA, (Kayser) or the California Charter Schools Association (Rodriguez). Thomas’s campaign has received no outside support.

“The interests that have put people on the school board have spent over a million dollars so far beating each other up,” Thomas told the audience of about 30 southeast LA residents. “And they’re going to continue that fight onto the board when they’re elected.”

Later in the debate he returned to the same theme, arguing “The priorities of the other two candidates are not the same as the priorities of people who are funding their campaigns.”

Thomas also accused Kayser of supporting inefficient spending of new state money available to the district. Looking ahead at future growth, Thomas said, “I’m worried that money is going to be frittered away on programs that already exist and aren’t very effective.”

Kayser’s attacks were primarily directed at charter school advocates, easily interpreted as attacks on Rodriguez, who founded a network of charter schools in northeast LA and the San Fernando Valley.

“The time for charter schools has pretty much passed,” Kayser said, adding that the district can not afford to approve charters at the current rate for much longer. “We will go bankrupt.”

He also promised to “undo Prop 39” if reelected, citing a voter-approved measure that included a provision allowing charter schools to take over empty classroom space in traditional public school campuses.

“They tricked us into that land grab,” he said. Kayser admitted he, too, was bamboozled, voting in favor of the proposition.

While they all agreed that the iPads-for-all program was an utter debacle, differences emerged on the role of technology in schools.

“Our kids need to be able to learn with technology and through technology,” Rodriguez said. He added that the district is at least partially responsible for bridging the digital divide between rich and poor communities and insisted that the district’s current moratorium on buying new devices should be reversed. He also called computers the “new text books.”

Thomas disputed the dire imperative to include the “shiny objects” in every day teaching. “I don’t think computers are what are students need,” he said. Students need great math and science instruction, he explained. “It’s not about the tools, it’s the skills they’re learning.”

Kayser repeated his assertion that he never voted to approve the iPad program “because the superintendent [John Deasy] never had a plan.” In one 2014 resolution before the board Kayser voted to approve iPads for testing purposes as well as others for instructional use.

They also took different tacks discussing special education. Kayser accused charter schools of shirking their responsibility to students with special needs, often dumping them back into the traditional public school system because they don’t have resources to serve them.

Thomas said school principals are too overwhelmed to develop Independent Education Plans for special needs students. The solution is to hire more assistant principals. And Rodriguez, said charter schools refusing to enroll special needs students should be shut down.

Bennett Kayser

While the LA Unified’s District 5 board incumbent, Bennett Kayser, did not make himself available for an interview with LA School Report as part of our candidate profile series, he has nonetheless played a high profile role on issues before the school board during his term in office.

With strong support from the teachers union, UTLA, Kayser is running for reelection against two challengers, Andrew Thomas and Ref Rodriguez, in what has become the nastiest of the school board races, heading into next Tuesday’s elections.

Here is what we know about Kayser, based on his voting record on major issues and his stated positions since he was first elected to the board in 2011:

Charter Schools

Kayser and his wife co-founded one of LA Unified’s charter schools, but over the years he has turned his back on them. When once they were akin to scrappy start-ups launched by community members with an interest in pioneering new teaching and learning techniques, he now contends they have become cookie-cutter, money-making operations run by corporations.

Additionally, he insists that they drain the district of desperately needed funds that would benefit the greater good if kept in house. As a result, he generally votes against charter school applications and renewals.

To no surprise, the California Charter Schools Association has spent heavily to defeat him.

iPads

In recent months Kayser has had to answer for his part in spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the district’s controversial and possibly illegal iPads for all programs. His response has been somewhat John Kerry-esque: that he voted against them until he voted for them. Actually, what he has said is that he opposed former Superintendent John Deasy’s plan all along and only voted to use bond funds to buy the devices in preparation for the Smarter Balance tests. That is partially true.

Initially, Kayser couldn’t participate in discussions concerning the Apple products because he owned Apple stock. Once he sold it, he did raise a lot of questions concerning the tablets’ cost, lifespan and efficacy in the classroom.

But, when he approved the resolution to purchase testing devices in January 2014, he was also voting to approve the acquisition of one-to-one tablets for 38 schools, which were part of the second phase of the program, as well as additional keyboards and laptops that were part of an earlier plan.

Union ties

As former health and science teacher in LA Unified and the only person on the board with a Lifetime California Teaching Credential, Kayser has strong and deep ties to teachers and their union, UTLA. The union spent almost $1.4 million to help Kayser win his Board seat four years ago, and it is backing him again. So far, UTLA has pumped $365,000 into his reelection.

Over the years, he railed against Deasy for policies he said harmed teachers. Under Ramon Cortines’ leadership, Kayser continues to advocate for higher raises on their behalf, class size reductions and accelerating investigations of educators put in “teacher jail.”

Kayser is also benefitting from a new-found friendship with SEIU 99, which has endorsed him for the first time. The district’s service workers union has backed all of the incumbent candidates after the board passed a resolution boosting the minimum wage for its members to $15 per hour by 2015.

Causes

Some of the causes Kayser has championed through many of the district’s most lean years include early and adult education and after-school programs. He is responsible for growing the district’s supper program and retaining a handful of the district’s most unique field trips, including week-long camping trips for students.

Most recently he was a strong supporter of a plan to make Ethnic Studies a high school graduation requirement.

Along the way it reaches parts of Echo Park, Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park, Bell and South Gate.

With an Hispanic population of 74 percent, District 5 was originally carved in 1978 as a Latino seat, but has only been held by an Hispanic school board member four of the last 15 years. The district includes the newish $239-million Sonia M. Sotomayor Learning Academies, as well as Jefferson High, focus of the recent troubled computer overhaul known as MiSiS. The district is home to 37 charters, including US News ranked Alliance Marc & Eva Stern Math And Science. In all, there are 120 elementary schools, 42 middle schools and 41 high schools in LAUSD’s District 5. (See list here).  Three candidates are vying for this seat.

CANDIDATE SNAPSHOT

Bennett Kayser (Incumbent)

A former middle school science and health teacher, Bennett Kayser was first elected to represent District 5 in 2011 in a narrowly won race with help of $1.4 million spent by the teachers union super PAC. He is considered one of the teacher’s union staunchest allies on the board.

Although Kayser and his wife co-founded of one of the district’s earliest charter schools, over the years he’s become reliably anti-charter, voting against new applications and renewals at nearly every opportunity. He was also a relentless critic of the reform policies of former superintendent John Deasy. Kayser had to recuse himself on some of the votes regarding the controversial iPad initiative because of a conflict of interest involving his ownership of Apple Inc. stock.

In his re-election bid he has once again won the support of the teachers union, which is spending big money to defend his seat while the California Charter School Association PAC has spent even more to ensure his defeat. As a result, Kayser has been the target of some odd and arguably racist ads.

Bennett Kayser declined to speak LA School Report about the election.

Organization endorsements: SEIU-99, AALA, UTLA, CSEA – 500, and the local chapter of the AFL-CIO

Cash Raised: $81,121.35 (through 2/14)

Super PAC $: $374,375.25 spent by outside groups supporting Kayser or opposing his challengers (through 2/14)

Age: 69

Education: B.A., Cal State Long Beach (1969); MA, Biology UCLA (1980)

Ballot Designation: Teacher/School Boardmember

League of Women Voters Questionnaire:  What is the single most important issue facing LAUSD today?  Did not respond.

United Way Questionnaire: Did not respond

Website: Bennett2015

Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez

Ref Rodriguez is the founder of 15 Los Angeles-based charter schools called Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC), which have grown to serve about 5,000 students in northeast LA and in northeast San Fernando Valley. (There’s a 16th school in New York state.) Rodriguez officially stepped down from running the charter school network in 2009 to help launch Partners for Developing Futures, “a social investment fund dedicated to investing in leaders of color to start and grow high performing charter schools.”

He’s also an adjunct professor in the School of Education at his alma mater, Loyola Marymount University. Most recently, he was appointed by Governor Brown to serve on the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing.

The California Charter Schools Association has bestowed upon him the crown of ed reform darling this election, footing the bill for more than a half million dollars worth of campaign flyers, phone calls and canvassing on his behalf.

If he is successful in unseating incumbent Bennett Kayser, the balance of power on the board would shift from a majority pro-union to a pro-charter one.

Organization endorsements: CCSA, LA Daily News

Cash Raised: $107,700  [period ending 2/14]

SuperPAC $: $586,717 spent by outside groups supporting Rodriguez or opposing his challengers [as of 2/20]

Age: 43

Education: B.A. Loyola Marymount (1995); Ed.D. Fielding Graduate University, SB (2006)

Ballot Designation: Educator

League of Women Voters Questionnaire: What is the single most important issue facing LAUSD today? The most important issue facing the LAUSD is its failure to help the 30% of students who aren’t graduating from High School. Full answers here.

United Way Questionnaire: here

Website: http://www.refrodriguez.com/

Andrew Thomas

Andrew 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.

Thomas has two children attending LA Unified schools, and throughout his campaign has pitched himself to voters as the missing “voice of parents” on the school board.

In several debates he’s faulted the current board, including incumbent Bennett Kayser, for mishandling of the iPads and MiSiS programs. Thomas argues for the need to retain greater job protections for teachers. His position on charter schools is pragmatic; he acknowledges the negative fiscal impact of charter schools on the district, but says the district must learn to contract to deal with the inevitable loss of revenue.

He was the LA Times’ pick in the race for District 5. The paper chose him over Kayser and Ref Rodriguez for his “expertise in such areas as school software programs and program effectiveness.”

Organization endorsements: LA Times

Cash Raised: $93,000 [period ending 2/14]

Super PAC $: none

Age: 48

Education:  PhD School of Education, UCLA  (Source: candidate bio)

Ballot Designation: Educator

League of Women Voters Questionnaire: What is the single most important issue facing LAUSD today?  Continuing to improve student achievement for all students. We need to 1) adopt zero-based budgeting that allows us to focus on instructional needs, 2) Ensure the common core is implemented and instructional practices improve, 3) support teachers to reach higher   Full answers here

United Way Questionnaire: here

Candidate Website: http://www.thomas4lausd.org

Ref Rodriguez

Ref Rodriguez, the charter school administrator who is challenging incumbent Bennett Kayser for LA Unified’s District 5 board seat, raised the most money of any board candidate since the last reporting period, $51,772, according to the latest figures posted by the City Ethics Commission.

Carl Petersen, one of five candidates challenging incumbent Tamar Galatzan in District 3, raised the least, $25.

While not dispositive of anything, the latest figures provide a sense of whose message is resonating with individual donors. The latest numbers reflect money raised from Jan. 17 through Feb. 14.

Clearly the District 5 race, which has been fueled by campaign material many view as objectionable, has energized donors the most. A second challenger to Kayser, Andrew Thomas, raised the second-highest amount of any non-incumbent in the district’s three contested elections, $26,056.

Kayser raised only $10,178. But money spent on his behalf by outside groups, most of it from the LA teachers union, UTLA, increased by another $42,603. An additional $29,464, almost all of it from the California Charter Schools Association, was spent for Rodriguez.

The charter group spent another $25,230 for Kayser attack material.

Among District 7 candidates, board President Richard Vladovic far out-paced his two rivals in raising money for the period. He got $28,897 in donations, compared with $9,125 for Lydia Gutierrez and $6,782 for Euna Anderson. The charter group and SEIU 99, the service workers union, also spent $82,977 to help Vladovic.

In District 3, Galatzan had a clear advantage in fund raising over her opponents, raising $21,409. Next were Scott Schmerelson, $12,780; Filberto Gonzalez, $6,616; Elizabeth Badger, $2,315; Ankur Patel, $1,627; and Petersen.

With the March 3 elections approaching, Galatzan is best positioned for campaign spending with $21,109 in cash remaining, more than twice any of her challengers. Rodriguez has $42,672, about eight times what Kayser has. In District 7, Anderson, who loaned her campaign $45,000, has $25,049 cash remaining, a bit more than twice Vladovic’s $11,218.

LAUSD District 5 school board candidates Andrew Thomas (L) and Ref Rodriguez

No more Mr. Nice Guys.

Last night’s forum for the three candidates in the LA Unified District 5 board race included lots of head shaking, some eye rolling, silently mouthing words (“That’s not true”) and at least one tiff.

Perhaps some of the frustration was due to changing rules. Initially there was no time set aside for rebuttals. Then there was. Then there wasn’t. Or, it could be that it was the third of these debates, with all three present, and it’s likely most voters who are going to cast ballots in what surely will be a low-turn out election on March 3 have already mailed in their choices. Either way, tempers flared on the Mt. Washington Elementary School stage, before 70 or so local residents.

The unease also came in the wake of an on-going battle of attack ads foisted on voters by groups supporting the incumbent, Bennett Kayser, and one of his challengers, Ref Rodriguez, a charter school founder. They have been characterized as racist, nasty and in the case of the latest effort equating Kayser to a movie villain of two decades ago, just plain odd.

Time was a factor, too. Unlike last week’s debate that drone on form three hours, this one was nip and tuck, barely more than an hour.

The first clash last night arose from a discussion about physical education, during which Rodriguez accused the district of doing a poor job of providing quality PE for youngsters. There’s so much focus on testing, he said, “that we don’t value holistic education.”

In a previous debate Rodriguez declared he’d like to abolish all state-wide and federally mandated testing. As for the schools run by Rodriguez, at least one — PUC CALS Charter Middle School — offers PE twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Elementary students at PUC Milagro Charter School get it three days per week.

Kayser took exception to Rodriguez’s criticisms, arguing that often schools are limited in the types of activities they can offer when forced to share campus space with charters under California’s Prop 39 co-location laws.

“We can’t remove bungalows” located on what were once open spaces “if a charter school wants the room,” Kayser explained.

“That’s not true,” Rodriguez mouthed and repeated it aloud, interrupting Kayser. “That’s just not true,” he said.

Kayser’s response: “Don’t tell me I’m wrong about that.”

Andrew Thomas, who has avoided the slings of the others’ supporters, also got into it with Kayser over a question on parent engagement, one of Thomas’ key talking points. Thomas introduces himself as a the only parent of LA Unified students in the race and a candidate not beholden to outside interests. He argues that Kayser’s ties to the teachers union and Rodriguez’s to corporations behind charter schools prevent them from making decisions based purely on what’s best for students.

Thomas said many parents say they feel unwelcome and unwanted by school administrators who look upon them as disruptions to the daily routine. Kayser said district policy requires school administrators to welcome parents on campus and into classrooms.

“Mr. Kayser just said he disagrees with me because the policy is to open doors,” Thomas said. “I think this is a great example of the difference between what schools look like from the top, when you’re reading the policy on paper, and what schools feel like to kids and parents inside the schools.”

Thomas also attacked Kayser for his record on voting against the approval or renewal of charter school applications. While he conceded there are serious issues about managing charter schools, Thomas said, “To vote on principal or ideology to close a parent’s school, it’s beyond the pale for me.”

The debate continues next week, for what is likely to be the final debate for the District 5 candidates, in South Gate on Feb 26.

Hey, remember that 1995 film, “The Usual Suspects?” Come on, it ranks No. 2,745 on the all-time domestic ticket sales list, according to Box Office Mojo.

Anyway, the California Charter Schools Association Advocates, a political arm of the California Charter Schools Association, decided it was memorable enough to reprise a climactic scene as the landscape for a recent 30-second anti-Bennett Kayser television ad during the final weeks leading to the March 3 elections. (See the ad below.)

In the film, a character drops a coffee mug, and it shatters. In the ad, a hand drops a coffee mug, and the mug shatters, only here, the soon-to-be-shattered mug is apparently a metaphor for what Kayser has done as the LA Unified District 5 board member.

Oh, yeah, there’s a reference in the film to someone named Keyser Soze, who is supposed to be the devil, and Keyser sounds a lot like Kayser.

Get it?

The problem is, not a whole lot of people do, let alone remember the film or the coffee mug scene, perhaps leaving some viewers to surmise that the ad is not so much pointing to Kayser’s policies as his Parkinson’s disease.

Diane Ravitch, the education historian and anti-reformist, for one, is clearly among those who never saw the film. In a blog this week she drew a straight line between the shattering mug and Kayser’s Parkinson’s, calling the ad “a shameful hit-piece.”

Indeed, the Kayser campaign, too, took offense and issued a statement, saying, “While not overtly pointing to the Board member’s Parkinson’s disease, the advertisement sure comes close with the imagery. CCSAA has shown itself again to be beyond the bounds of decent, civil discussions about policy and vision for LAUSD.”

To which CSSAA responded, “We’d like to assure Mr. Kayser and his allies that the ad has absolutely nothing to do with his Parkinson’s disease. It is a play on the film ‘The Usual Suspects,’ in which a coffee cup is dropped by a detective, shatters and is the final clue that reveals the identity of the foil, whose name sounds like Kayser.”

Whatever the falling mug suggests, it’s another example of the hard-knuckle politics underway in the District 5 race as the state charter association is doing what it can to remove from the LA Unified board its most anti-charter school member — a member, by the way, who has made no secret of his Parkinson’s.

The CSSAA is operating on behalf of Ref Rodriguez, one of two people challenging Kayser although it’s also supporting George McKenna in District 1, Tamar Galatzan in District 3 and Richard Vladovic in District 7.

In earlier efforts, the CSSAA distributed a flyer calling into question Kayser’s work on behalf of Latino students, which was perceived by some of his supporters as racist; and the political action committee for the teachers union, UTLA, paid for an anti-Rodriguez mailer, using his full first name, Refugio, which the charter school people said was racist.

The charter school people are also pointing fingers at UTLA for using a phone-bank script that says Kayser “led the fight” against LA Unified’s iPad program, when there were instances he voted for it.

And so it goes in District 5, where the combatants have spent more than $600,000, combined — the most in any school board race this year – to sway voters.

Perhaps most amazing of all is that the third candidate in the race, Andrew Thomas, has remained above the fray, campaigning with support from neither side of the Kayser-Rodriguez fracas. Well, there’s this 1949 movie called “The Third Man” . . .

LAUSD District 5 candidates (from left) Andrew Thomas, Ref Rodriguez and Bennett Kayser

Incumbent Bennett Kayser appeared spoiling for a fight last night, sharing the stage with his two challengers for the LA Unified District 5 board seat at a candidate forum in El Sereno.

Right out of the gate, he goaded PUC charter school founder Ref Rodriguez and education researcher Andrew Thomas to state their positions on Prop 39, a state law that allows charter schools to take over empty classrooms at traditional public schools. Kayser, who usually votes against all charter schools, is adamantly against the law.

The answers he got helped illustrate some of the differences between him and the two candidates seeking to prevent his winning a second term on the board. As one of three contested races in the March 3 elections, District 5 is one that carries huge important for the teachers union, which regards Kayser as its strongest ally on the board.

Prop 39 has disrupted life at many of the district’s schools where parents and administrators of the charter and traditional schools have been unable to share a campus amicably, in one case, leading to fist fights at parent engagement meetings.

It is a typically divisive issue for parents that elicits strong reactions regardless of what side they’re on. While Kayser’s voice has been a constant in opposing the law, his opponents’ view were less unequivocal.

Thomas flat out admitted he doesn’t know much about the law and didn’t really pick a side. As a charter school operator, Rodriguez might have defended Prop 39  but he said PUC schools have opted against taking advantage of it.

“We’ve been offered spaces at Franklin (High School), and I’ve said no because Franklin needs the space,” he said. “Because this is my community, I know what’s going on and I don’t want to encroach on our schools.”

However, Rodriguez did not say he’s against it, only that it sometimes leads to community tensions. Additionally, he said, the district is doing a poor job of counting the available spaces on campus.

The forum was hosted by LA-32 Neighborhood Council. It lasted three hours and attracted only about 25 people in the audience, who got to ask questions and, in the case of some, act unruly. A cluster of Rodriguez supporters sitting near the front let out a collective groan any time Kayser spoke.

On a question about Ethnic Studies, Kayser seized the opportunity to boast of his role in getting it passed as a high school graduation requirement, saying “It’s been by far the most popular program that’s been discussed by parent groups and community groups since I’ve been on the school board.”

He was criticized for that as Rodriguez called it another example of an empty district policy that “puts the cart before the horse,” adding, “Policies get passed without any funding and no feed back mechanisms.”

Thomas piled on, calling it a failed policy causing more harm than good.  “When you introduce a new graduation requirement, the first question is what are we giving up?” he said. Students cannot afford to give up valuable class time for subjects that aren’t helping to improve other essential skills, he argued.

As the only candidate of the three with children currently enrolled in an LA Unified school, Thomas pounded his opponents for being out of touch with what is happening in classrooms. In the absence of “the voice of a parent on the board, that’s how decisions can be made that don’t help kids.”

After Kayser pointed out that his sons had attended district schools and he’s now a grandfather, Thomas retorted, “My father is a parent right now, but he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Rodriguez and Kayser battled over the impact of charter schools on the district while Thomas seemed to back down from his previous position that he would seek to curb charter school expansion.

“The district needs to do a better job of learning to contract” in the face of shrinking enrollment due to charter school growth, Rodriguez said. He also said he resents the fact that Kayser and other board member think of the money attached to individual students as the district’s money, whereas “I think of it as the kid’s money.”

Teacher tenure was another issue that set Kayser apart from this challengers, even though it’s an issue settled by the state, not individual school districts. Kayser defended the idea of tenure in its current form, less than two years, and the protections that it provides teachers. But Thomas and Rodriguez said tenure is given too quickly.

“Sixteen months is too short,” Rodriguez said, and Thomas agreed. But, where Rodriguez implied that it’s nearly impossible to fire a tenured teacher, Thomas suggested school principals make it seem harder than it really is to terminate a bad teacher.

Ref Rodriguez

The battle of the political action committees is heating up.

A new mailer sent to voters in LA Unified District 5 accuses one of Bennett Kayser’s opponents in the March 3 board election, Ref Rodriguez, of failing to disclose personal financial information as required by law.

The mailer, paid for by the PAC for the teachers union, UTLA, comes two weeks after an anti-Kayser flyer paid for by a PAC for the California Charter Schools Association accused Kayser of taking positions on issues that were harmful to Latino students. Kayser supporters branded the accusation as “racist.”

The charter PAC responded to the new mailer in kind late today with a statement charging the teachers PAC with using “racial undertones” in its mailer by referring to Rodriguez by his full first name, Refugio.

“Dr. Ref Rodriguez has for decades used ‘Ref’ professionally,” the charter PAC said in a statement. “And while he is undoubtedly proud of his full given name, we are concerned that Kayser and his allies are using it as a campaign tactic in the same way President Barack Obama’s conservative opposition insisted on using his full name, ‘Barack Hussein Obama,’ as an attack in 2008.”

The charter group called on Kayser to denounce the mailer.

It’s all pretty routine stuff in a school board election with so much at stake. A victory by Kayser, who is seeking a second term, would keep in place the teachers union’s strongest ally on the board. A victory by Rodriguez, a charter school executive, would diminish UTLA’s influence on key policy initiatives.

A third candidate in the race, Andrew Thomas, has managed to stay above it all, defining himself as someone who with strong ties to neither side.

The anti-Rodriguez mailer says he “lied & violated the law” while he “lined his pockets” with more than $800,000 since 2009, an average of $133,333 a year. It also says one of the groups he heads has been “Delinquent” in required filings.

A tagline in big red letters says, “Refugio Rodriguez: The more you search, the worse he looks for School Board.”

While the charter PAC statement repeated the assertion that Kayser has acted against the best interests of Latino students and charged his allies of “a history of nasty attacks against his opponents,” it does not refute the allegations that Rodriguez failed to file proper financial paperwork.

A message left for Rodriguez was not returned.

The mailer includes citations that purportedly confirm the allegations although it is misleading in suggesting how the PAC found the information. The top of the mailer shows what appears to be a Google search address that include the words “refugio+rodriguez+financial+disclosures.” But there is no such internet address. 

It appears, too, that the teachers PAC may have skirted a law. According to the City Ethics Commission, a PAC must file independent expenditures within 24 hours of being made or incurred.

As of late today, the commission said the teachers PAC had not done so with its new mailer.