The latter group won out and tomorrow, residents from southwest LA will get a chance to translate their passion into action — by electing a new representative from among seven candidates for the remaining year of LaMotte’s term.

Ordinarily school board elections don’t generate much public interest, the eagerness to fill LaMotte’s seat not withstanding. With approximately 300,000 registered voters in District 1, fewer than 44,000 cast a ballot — under 15 percent — when the seat was last contested, in 2011. That could change in this race because it is scheduled on the same day as a statewide primary.

“School board races are often held on off-years during the LA City elections, but since this one is tied to the state primary race, the turnout is going to be extremely high for an LA Unified special election,” Fernando Guerra, who directs the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University told LA School Report.

He expects about a quarter of District 1 voters will weigh in on the next school board member.

But in a race with so many candidates, Guerra says, the increase in civic participation is like mutually assured destruction. “It just makes it almost impossible for one candidate to get more than 50 percent of the vote,” he added.

If a single candidate fails to capture the support of a majority of voters, the top two contenders face off in a runoff election in August.

And that runoff, he predicted, will produce one of lowest turnouts in recent memory because it will be a stand alone election in August and voters will have no other reason to head to the polls.

“I think only about 5 percent of voters will get out for that, and that’s when really, anything can happen,” Guerra said.

Candidates viewed as frontrunners spent their final weekend before the election doing what they could to drum up more votes. George McKenna held a fundraiser dinner Saturday evening and used Sunday “walking, knocking and talking” to what he hopes will be victory. Alex Johnson was in and out of local churches Sunday morning, then spent the afternoon making door to door visits to voters. Sherlett Hendy-Newbill kept up her Saturday “weekend blowout” tradition, walking the precinct.

With LaMotte’s passing, the teachers union lost one of its most ardent supporters and a staunch critic of Superintendent John Deasy. But UTLA has invested little capital or manpower supporting any one candidate. Instead, the union voted to back all three union members in the race – Kindergarten teacher, Rachel Johnson, former teacher and school counselor, Hattie McFrazier, and high school teacher and coach, Hendy-Newbill. The union donated $1,100 to each campaign.

It is the same strategy UTLA deployed in the District 6 race last year, in Monica Ratliff‘s surprise victory over Antonio Sanchez.

“We believe in all of the teachers we’ve endorsed,” Marco Flores, the head of UTLA’s political action committee, PACE, told LA School Report back in April.

He said UTLA will step in “with boots on the ground” only if one of the three UTLA candidates makes it to the runoff, but he doesn’t expect the union will kick in much money because “the truth is,” he said, “whoever gets elected won’t be there very long.”

Hendy-Newbill , a popular teacher at Dorsey High School, has emerged as the front-runner among the union contenders. Last week, she gained the endorsement of the Network for Public Education, an advocacy group led by Diane Ravitch, one of the strongest voices in the country opposed to standardized testing and charter schools.

An outright win by Hendy-Newbill would be a major upset in the race, which polls say is largely between McKenna and Alex Johnson, the leading money raisers.

Johnson, who has been championed by L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, has out-raised all of the competition, with $208,000 in individual contributions and another $80,000 from three political action committees, including one that has received major funding from the California Charter Schools Association Advocates Independent Expenditure Committee.

McKenna doesn’t have as much money — he’s raised $122,533 — but he has been a beloved figure in south LA since the 1980s when he turned a gang-riddled high school in the area into a high-achieving academic preparatory. His efforts were later dramatized into a made-for-TV movie starring Denzel Washington.

The retired educator was the leading choice for parents who were advocating for an immediate appointment by the board.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes also has name recognition within the community. She is the only candidate who has actually served on the school board, representing the same south LA district.

She won a narrow victory in 1999 against an incumbent, sweeping into office with a reform slate that was backed by then-Mayor Richard Riordan. Her tenure lasted four years, until she was defeated in 2003 by LaMotte. But by many accounts, her term in office, including the first two years as board president, Hudley-Hayes won a reputation as a leader with record of success.

The one asterisk to her campaign has been the references on her resume that suggest she has academic degrees that she doesn’t have.

Omarosa Manigault is the wildest of wildcards in the group. The former reality-TV star turned special ed substitute teacher certainly is recognizable, but it’s unclear if she will be taken seriously by voters or if her message — District 1 “needs a representative who will propel our young people into the future. District 1 needs new energy, new ideas and fresh leadership” — will resonate.

She has raised very little money, about $25,000, and spent only about half of that. She has not reported any additional contributions since mid-March.

Manigualt participated in only a few of more than a dozen community forums leading up to the election.

Regardless of who wins tomorrow or in an August runoff, the whole process starts anew in less than a year when this seat, plus three others – Districts 3, 5, and 7  – are up.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes

This is the final profile of candidates running for LA Unified’s vacant District 1 board seat. The election is scheduled for June 3, with a possible runoff in August. Genethia Hudley-Hayes is the only candidate who declined to be interviewed for the series. Numerous attempts to reach her and her campaign failed to get a response. 

Genethia Hudley-Hayes has one thing none of the other seven candidates running in the special election for LA Unified District 1 seat can claim: she has actually served on the school board, representing the same south LA district.

She won a narrow victory in 1999 against an incumbent, sweeping into office with a reform slate that was backed by then-Mayor Richard Riordan. Her tenure lasted four years, until she was defeated in 2003 by Marguerite LaMotte. But by many accounts, her term in office, including the first two years as board president, Hudley-Hayes won a reputation as a leader with record of success.

“She demonstrated good judgement, independence and leadership during her time on the board. I saw her in action,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who took office after her tenure. “She didn’t just do a public service, she did it well. She was a change agent focused on accountability and results.”

Caprice Young, who came into office as a school board member the same year as Hudley-Hayes, says she made every decision based on what she knew was right for children, especially students who were under-served. Young had high praise despite launching a successful campaign to replace her as board president after just two years.

“She fought for the rights of foster children, English language learners, gifted kids, special needs students and, especially, African-American students,” Young told LA School Report.

Hudley-Hayes took leadership of the school board at a time it appeared paralyzed in the face of enormous district-wide problems.

Overcrowding was chronic, more than 300,000 students rode polluting diesel buses to far away schools to help alleviate it; test scores were falling; and LAUSD was facing a movement to break up into smaller districts.

One of the biggest crises facing the school board had been a $200 million Belmont high school construction project located on an oil field near downtown which was under investigation for not securing a proper environmental review. A symbol of dysfunction at the school board level, the project had been in perpetual limbo.

Young said Hudley-Hayes led the board in a vote to abandon the Belmont project, at the risk of alienating Latino groups.

Later, in an effort to unite the board majority to start solving problems, Hudley-Hayes helped bring in Colorado’s out-going Governor Roy Romer as superintendent, impressed by his ability to raise money and lead large organizations.

When the state legislature failed to allocate LA Unified’s fair share of construction dollars, Hudley-Hayes leveraged her relationships with the social justice community to sue the state and worked with then Assemblyman Tony Cardenas to get nearly $980 million in state bond money set aside for construction projects.

Over the next decade, the funds helped build 150 new schools and renovate 350 more in the most high-needs neighborhoods, easing overcrowding and extending the school year by more than two weeks.

Despite heavy criticism of back-room politics, Hudley-Hayes not only helped the district restore arts, expand after-school programs and purchase clean-fuel buses, she also helped make sure early childhood and dropout programs were protected and new, more effective reading and math programs were adopted. She helped pass a Healthy Beverage Resolution, the first school board policy in the country to ban sugary drinks from school vending machines.

“She was effective because she didn’t get caught up in district politics,” Young said. “She didn’t just bring people to the table, she made them sit down and do the right thing together.”

Marlene Canter, another former board member who served with Hudley-Hayes, said that her wisdom and experience put her in a position to get things done because she helped bring cohesion to the board.

“She had an ability to work cooperatively with the Superintendent and senior staff to make sure goals were in alignment,” Cantor said.

A decade later, Hudley-Hayes, who is a product of the LA Unified school system, finds herself in a familiar hot seat. One of her opponents, Alex Johnson, has accused her of falsifying her resume and has invited her to drop out of the race.

“I will not be bullied,” she said in response. “My record stands for itself, with 30 years of service in this town.”

LA School Report confirmed the inaccuracies on her resume (see story here), which included claims of several academic degrees, but she has declined interview requests from LA School Report ever since.

Nonetheless, she has maintained a number of high profile endorsements including Villaraigosa, U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass, California State Senator Holly Mitchell and other civil rights activists and groups.

Not all of the seven candidates vying for the vacant seat on the Los Angeles Unified school board are turning up the heat as the special election on June 3 heads to the finish line.

To reach voters in South LA’s District 1, which as been without a board member since Marguerite LaMotte died in December, four of the candidates report they are campaigning by sending out direct mail pieces, knocking on doors, sending out emails or making phone calls. The other three are doing none of the above.

The City Ethics Commission requires candidates to report campaign communications as soon as more than 200 voters have been reached. So far, only four have complied:

• Rachel Johnson a teacher and city council member from Gardena with teacher union support, reports distributing one direct mail piece.

• Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, also endorsed by the teachers union has printed and distributed a flyer and sent an email to voters.

• George McKenna, a retired administrator supported by the principals union reports two walk pieces, a mailer and an email blast.

• Alex Johnson, an education aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas reports 19 communications including mailers, emails and phone calls.

The remaining candidates, Genethia Hudley-Hayes a former school board member, Omarosa Manigault, best known as a contestant on “The Apprentice,” and Hattie McFrazier, a retired teacher who is also endorsed by the teacher’s union, have reported no communication activity at all.  Despite an absence of a campaign, they showed no sign of dropping out of the race.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/tactics-vie-for-seat-on-lausd-school-board-some-with-no-campaign/feed/ 0 https://www.laschoolreport.com/district-1-candidates-flashing-personalities-lausd/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/district-1-candidates-flashing-personalities-lausd/#comments Thu, 08 May 2014 20:08:57 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=23276

Candidates McKenna (at mic), Hudley-Hayes, Johnson, Hendy-Newbill

The Ward A.M.E. Church in South LA was packed for a Wednesday night. But the people filing through doors weren’t there to talk about Jesus (though his name did come up). They were there to talk about the race for LA Unified School Board District 1.

Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Alex Johnson, Genethia Hudley-Hayes and George McKenna — the only candidates among seven running who were invited — put on their “If-I-were-elected-hats” and discussed the district’s funding and resources, improving the school climate, preparing students for the 21st century, school performance, and community accountability.

Over the past three months there have been about 10 of these events. And although each has featured a different combination of school board hopefuls, by now most candidates have their talking points well honed. They also appear to agree on most issues — routing money to the neediest kids, investing in professional development for teachers and administrators, reducing police presence on school campus, boost after-school programs.

So it’s now their style and personality that is beginning to set them apart.

At last night’s forum McKenna, a 30-year veteran educator and who was played by Denzel Washington in a movie based on his life, became everyone’s wise-cracking favorite uncle.

On the issue of school discipline and the disproportionate punishment of African American students over their white counterparts, McKenna told the audience he identifies with today’s young black students because he was a rambunctious student.

“There was a point in my career where I was in charge of corporal punishment and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it,” he said to a laughing crowd. “Because I was once the swat-ee. I was swatted by priests in the name of Jesus.”

Afterward, Christen Hebrand who was wearing a “McKenna for School Board” button, told LA School Report, “You can see that he really knows how to connect with people. But it’s not just that he makes you laugh, he also has the experience for the position.”

She said McKenna also has name recognition. “When I go out to campaign for him one out of two already know him,” she said. “Their kids went to one of his schools, their cousin, their nephew. Somebody they know, knows him.”

Johnson’s performance didn’t elicit many laughs, but he proved to know his facts and figures. He was the only candidate to consistently site specific numbers in almost every answer:

“District 1 has a higher rate of students being pushed out of school and into probation camps. It’s 2.9 percent higher.”

“LA Unified has $7.8 billion in Measure Q bond funds that are still available to use for construction projects.”

“70,000 computer science jobs in California are unfilled because we don’t have enough students going into that field.”

“The district should award 30 percent of it’s building contracts to minority owned companies.”

On the other hand, Hendy-Newbill was every bit Coach Taylor from “Friday Night Lights”: “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t  lose!” She was the only candidate at the forum who still works in a school — Dorsey High School — as a teachers and basketball coach, and her day-to-day experiences appeared to resonate with parents in the audience.

A theme to which she constantly returned was the importance of parent engagement.

One of the loudest cheers she got from the audience was when she said, “We have students who want to be at Dorsey all of the time. It is their second home, their home away from home. And that’s what I want schools to be: family centers.”

Finally, Hudley-Hayes, who, like McKenna, is another life-long educator and former school board president, came across a bit more austere and lacked McKenna’s warmth, according to a few attendees.

“It’s clear she has the experience but she doesn’t speak to me,” Gloria Martin told LA School Report.

Martin explained that Hayes’ “When I was on the board” attitude turned her off. As a mother of LA Unified graduates and now grandmother of LA Unified students, Martin wondered, “If [Hayes] was on the school board then what did she do?”

Alex Johnson

The money chase is on.

Through the first reporting period for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat, Alex Johnson has opened a wide margin over the other six candidates in the race.

Johnson, an education aide to LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who has backing from his boss, as well as former congresswoman Diane Watson and retired LA County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, raised $113,051 from Jan. 1 through March 17, according to the LA City Ethics Commission.

Second was Genethia Hudley-Hayes, at $93,070, but her total includes $37,000 that she loaned her campaign. Without that, Johnson has more than a 2-to-1 fundraising advantage over her, with about two months before the June 3 special election.

“I’m very pleased and gratified by the strong showing of financial support I have received from a broad cross section of people, groups and organizations from throughout our city and its communities,” Johnson said in a statement today. “The backing I’ve received is heartwarming and encouraging. I intend to work hard to build upon the trust placed in me by elected officials, civic leaders, educators, business executives and religious leaders.”

George McKenna, a former LA Unified administrator who has won the support of U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, LA City Council member Bernard Parks and former Council member Jan Perry, ranked third in the money standings with a total of $57,825. But he, too, loaned his campaign money, $10,000, and accepted $1,876 in non-monetary contributions, putting his real fund-raising total at $45,948.

The other candidates are far behind.

Omarosa Manigault registered $21,340, but her total includes a $7,500 loan and non-monetary contributions of $9,390, reflecting a fund-raising total of just $4,450.

Sherlett Hendy-Newbill raised $4,836, putting her ahead of Manigault in dollars raised. Hattie McFrazier raised $3,604, and Rachel Johnson raised nothing.

Among the leaders, Johnson has the most cash-on-hand, $105,093, followed by Hudley-Hayes ($83,951) and McKenna ($39,530).

Johnson also leads with 54 contributions of the maximum individual amount allowed, $1,100, and another 15 of $1,000. Hudley-Hayes had 28 contributions at the maximum, and McKenna had 20.

Hudley-Hayes’ contributors seemed to tail off a bit after Johnson accused her of dishonesty on her resume. Prior to when the charges emerged, on March 6, she had raised $32,370. Since then, she has raised $23,700.

In a possible hint of where union backing may go, Hendy-Newbill received $200 from Josh Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers.

Of the 13 candidates who originally filed papers to run for the recently vacated seat, only seven submitted sufficient petitions with enough valid signatures to qualify.

The District 1 seat, left open by the death of longtime trustee, Marguerite LaMotte, covers much of South LA, stretching from Hancock Park to Gardena and has attracted a big cast — from little known teachers to a high-profile reality TV personality. One glaring omission on the final list of seven is absence of a Latino candidate: while the district is now predominately Hispanic, more black residents are active voters and the seat has been held by African American women for decades.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes

A seasoned educator and civic leader, Hudley-Hayes has come under increased scrutiny recently after one of her opponents, Alex Johnson, uncovered inconsistencies in her resume. (For more on that story read here).  She served on the LA Unified school board from 1999 to 2003 and lost her bid for re-election to LaMotte. She has attracted the early support of former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Congresswoman Karen Bass.

Alex Johnson

Johnson, Assistant Senior Deputy for Education and Public Safety to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, is expected to show both fundraising and field muscle with powerful backing of Ridley-Thomas, former congresswoman Diane Watson and retired LA County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.  Johnson, a product of a LAUSD education, says it is now his turn to give back to the district.

Rachel Johnson

Johnson, a 30-year veteran teacher, is currently a kindergarten teacher at Purche Avenue Elementary School, one of many schools in District 1 that is outside of Los Angeles but part of LA Unified. She is also currently a Gardena City Councilwoman.

She said she had to “break rank with many of my political colleagues” in deciding to run.

Omarosa Manigault

Bringing unusual visibility to the special election, Manigault is a former TV personality best known for her contentious role on The Apprentice.

A teacher at Howard University, an ordained pastor, and a newly minted special education substitute teacher in LA Unified, Manigault says she was urged to seek office by concerned parents, community leaders, friends and family.

George McKenna

McKenna, a retired LA Unified administrator and former area superintendent, built support from the community on the issue of appointing a school board member, and he has a dedicated cadre of grassroots supporters who helped him become the first to submit his petition signatures to the City Clerk. He also has strong political backing:  Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Council member Bernard Parks and former Council member Jan Perry are among his supporters.

Hattie McFrazier

An LA Unified district lifer, McFrazier spent 31 years with the district, retiring in 2012. She held a variety of positions including teacher, counselor, School Attendance Review Board Chair and Health and Human Services Director.

She also held leadership roles in the National Education Association and California Teachers Association, and she continues to sit on UTLA’s board of directors.

McFrazier is expected to get the support of the UTLA SuperPAC called PACE, traditionally a big player in the school board elections.

Sherlett Hendy Newbill

Newbill, a teacher for 15 years and girl’s basketball coach at Dorsey High School, grew up in District 1. She has been the teachers union (UTLA) co-chapter chair at Dorsey for seven years.

She told LA School Report, “This community needs strong representation because our schools have been under-served and under-resourced for too long.” Newbill is also well positioned to get the backing of the teachers union political action committee, PACE.

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Alex Johnson

In her first public comments since a rival in the LA Unified school board race accused her of falsifying her resume, Genethia Hudley-Hayes told LA School Report today she considers the allegations to be “mudslinging” in an effort “to bully” her out of the race.

“I will not be bullied,” she said, of the charges from Alex Johnson. “My record stands for itself, with 30 years of service in this town. I consider this to be mudslinging, to change the conversation. I believe this was an effort to get me to drop out.”

The accusations intensified earlier today when Johnson, also commenting publicly for the first time, posted a statement on his campaign website, saying she “allegedly established, maintained, allowed and concealed a pattern of academic falsification.”

Hudley-Hayes and Johnson are considered among the frontrunners in a campaign to fill the District 1 board seat left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte in December. The field for the June 3 special election includes five other candidates who have qualified and may include two more if the LA City Clerk’s office certifies them.

Hudley-Hayes said she has been the victim of unfounded accusations before in a school board race when she ran more than a decade ago. “This is 1999 all over again” she said.

In response to specific accusations about her academic record, she said, “There is no pattern here. There is a typographical error.”

Johnson has focused on four instances in which he claims she falsified her resume. They involve what his campaign has described as misleading characterizations of two degrees, her role on a state teacher credentialing commission and her claim to be a state-certified mediator — all supported, they claim, through research into her background.

In response, Hudley-Hayes said she stands by her MBA degree awarded in a joint program with Cal State San Jose (now San Jose State University) and the Center for NonProfit Management in the mid 1970s, and she said she has not listed her honorary degree from American World University, an unaccredited program, in recent memory.

The Johnson campaign has provided LA School Report two documents that include resumes for Hudley-Hayes that mention she received a doctorate degree from American University with a speciality in public education. The Johnson campaign also said it was told by San Jose State that the school has no record of her receiving an MBA — LA School Report has not independently confirmed that with school officials.

In response to Johnson’s saying she was never a member of the the California State Teacher Credentialing Commission (CTC), as her bio on the LAUSD website showed, Hudley-Hayes said she never would have represented that she served on that commission.

“I don’t know how it got there,” she said. “I never looked at it. Maybe I should have.” Instead, she said she worked on a teacher credentialing task force as part of her job with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

In his website statement today, Johnson said:

“I was shocked and disheartened to learn that the findings from research undertaken in reference to one of the candidates in the race for L.A. School Board revealed a clear case of alleged academic falsification involving candidate Genethia Hayes, a former L.A. School Board President. The research was conducted because my campaign had received unconfirmed information regarding that candidate and there was a need to determine whether the unconfirmed information that had been provided was true or false.

“The research demonstrates that Genethia Hudley-Hayes allegedly established, maintained, allowed and concealed a pattern of academic falsification. I respect Genethia Hudley-Hayes and wish the facts were untrue. However, these are serious allegations. Genethia Hudley-Hayes is the only person who can fully answer the troubling questions involving the credibility of her academic background. Voters want and deserve to know.”

In Hudley-Hayes’ defense, her political consultant, Parke Skelton, accused Johnson of “character assassination and “extortion” for using disputed allegations to drive her out of the race.

“I am shocked that Alex Johnson is engaging in a campaign of character assassination in his campaign for School Board,” Skelton said in a statement to LA School Report. “He hires a private investigator to comb through his opponent’s past for the sole purpose of trying to extort Mrs. Hudley-Hayes into dropping out of the race. All he uncovers is one typo in an old resume. And a statement in some extinct document put out by the LAUSD stating that Hudley-Hayes was a member of a Commission, when in fact she was a member of a Task Force convened by the Commission.

“Mr. Johnson falsely claimed Mrs. Hudley-Hayes did not have a Masters’ Degree and falsely claimed she was not a mediator. Extortion is not pretty. If Mr. Johnson had what he believed was damning information, he could have released it, or called us up for a response. Instead he chose to threaten and bully. And our schools should have a no tolerance policy for bullies.”

*Adds details about doctorate degree.

This report is based on reporting by Jamie Alter Lynton and Michael Janofsky

Genethia Hudley-Hayes, Candidate for School Board

The race for LA Unified’s open board seat took a dramatic turn today as Alex Johnson’s campaign accused a rival, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, of “deliberately falsifying” her academic credentials.

Roy Behr, Johnson’s political consultant, said research into her background found discrepancies in her resume and, in a meeting yesterday with his counterpart in the Hudley-Hayes campaign, Parke Skelton, Behr said he told Skelton, “we have this information, and in the course of a campaign, people would find out about it.”

Skelton said in a separate interview today he interpreted Behr’s remarks as a threat and insisted that Hudley-Hayes would stay in the race. Hudley-Hayes, an LA-area public servant for decades, is a former president of the LA Unified School Board and president of the LA Board of Fire Commissioners, appointed by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In a press release today that first brought attention to the controversy, Skelton said Behr told him in their meeting, “there was still time for Mrs. Hudley-Hayes to withdraw from the race” but if she chose not to, the Johnson campaign “would be forced to ‘use’ the material they had uncovered.”

Skelton also used the news release to refute the specific issues that Behr cited in their meeting, saying Behr misinterpreted the facts and in one case, the discrepancy was “a typo.”

Hudley-Hayes and Johnson are regarded among the front-runners in the June 3 special election to to fill the board seat left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte in December. As many as 9 people are vying for the seat.

The race has taken on an unusually high profile, given that national figures as U.S. Representative Karen Bass and former Los Angeles mayors Richard Riordan and Villaraigosa have endorsed Hudley-Hayes. Johnson works for LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as an aide on education although Ridley-Thomas has not endorsed anyone in the race.

In his interview with LA School Report, Behr insisted that the apparent discrepancies uncovered by his campaign research reflect intentional efforts designed to embellish Hudley-Hayes’ credentials.

He said he showed Skelton a document in which Hudley Hayes claimed she received a doctorate from American University in Washington, D.C., which the Johnson campaign said it was actually from American World University, an unaccredited institution that has no physical campus. Skelton said in the release said the reference came from “an old resume” that Hudley-Hayes no longer uses and the absence of the word “world” reflects a typographical error.

A news release from Mayor Villaraigosa’s office on May 19, 2010, carried by States News Service announcing the reappointment of Hudley-Hayes as a fire commissioner, said “she was awarded a doctorate from American University in Public Policy.”

Behr said he also questioned the legitimacy of her claims to have an MBA from San Jose State University. He said the school told the Johnson campaign that no one ever received an MBA in Hudley-Hayes’ name. LA School Report is awaiting verification from SJSU. Behr also questioned whether Hudley-Hayes is a “certified mediator.”

Skelton, in his written response, said Hudley-Hayes received an MBA from the Center for Nonprofit Management in 1976 by attending courses at its downtown Los Angeles facility at a time, nearly 40 years ago, that the Center worked in conjunction with the Cal State University San Jose as it was known then.

Skelton also refuted the Johnson campaign’s claim that she is not a “certified mediator,” saying in the release that while serving as Executive Director of the Southern California SCLC, she completed an 18 month course in mediation at the McConnell Law School at Pepperdine University “and has all the requisite training to be a mediator.  She registered with the State of California to serve as a mediator and in fact has worked as a mediator.”

Behr said he went to see Skelton “on the basis of this information” and “out of respect” for Hudley-Hayes’s many years as a public servant.

“We both knew this would be a daily substantial problem when the candidate for the school board falsified credentials,” Behr said. “These were not inadvertent mistakes or typos.”

Skelton said in the release, “I was somewhat taken aback.”

“In over 30 years of campaign consulting I had never been approached by a rival campaign in this manner,” he said, adding, “It is truly disturbing to me that Alex Johnson and his campaign have nothing better to do that hire private investigators to dig up dirt on their opponents in an effort to attempt to bully them out of the campaign. With LAUSD facing so many crises, our children deserve better. A whole lot better.”

*Clarifies that Mark Ridley-Thomas has not yet endorsed anyone in the race.

To view Genethia Hudley-Hayes’ current resume click here.
To view the press release issued by her campaign, click here.
To view her resume from the LA Unified School Board site click here.

An experience gap is emerging as an election issue — that’s one of the takeaways as south LA residents got an early look yesterday at some of candidates in the highly contested race to fill the vacant LA Unified school board seat.

A candidates’ forum is scheduled as an opportunity for the ministers and members of the public to meet the candidates and ask questions. All 13 candidates have been invited to attend, and so far, George McKenna, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, Alex Johnson, Hattie McFrazier and Omarosa Manigault have accepted.

For more info click here.

Former Mayor Villaraigosa

Former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has thrown himself into the District 1 special election race by endorsing Genethia Hudley-Hayes, one of 13 candidates running to join the LA Unified School Board.

Hudley-Hayes, who served as school board president until she lost her seat to the late Marguerite LaMotte in 2003, released a list of endorsers this morning.

The election is scheduled for June, with a runoff, if needed, on August 12.

In addition to Villariagosa, the list includes Mayor Richard Riordan, U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass, California State Senator Holly Mitchell, civil rights activist Connie Rice, former LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, retired pastor of First AME Church, Cecil Murray and Carolynn Martin, a regional leader of the National Council of Negro Woman and member of the board of Parent Revolution.

Bass’ support is notable in that she had been an early backer of George McKenna, who is also running for the seat.

Previous Post: 13 candidates for LAUSD special election.

Here is a rundown of the line up so far:

Sherlett Hendy Newbill

Newbill, a teacher for 15 years and girl’s basketball coach at Dorsey High School has also served as the teachers union (UTLA) co-chapter chair at Dorsey for seven years.

She told LA School Report, “I grew up in Board District 1, came back to teach in Board District 1, and worked closely with board member LaMotte on projects to improve schools in this community.  This community needs strong representation because our schools have been under-served and under-resourced for too long.”

Rachel Johnson

Johnson, a 30-year veteran teacher, is currently a kindergarten teacher at Purche Avenue Elementary School and a Gardena City Councilwoman. At the school board meeting last week, she asked for a swift appointment to the seat, explaining,” I’ve always deferred to the side of election because that is our bread and butter but this situation is very complex.”

She said she had to “break rank with many of my political colleagues” in deciding to run.

Alex Johnson

Alex Johnson, Assistant Senior Deputy for Education and Public Safety to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, is close to declaring.

His name was floated by Ridley-Thomas’ office the day after LaMotte’s death, and his political advisor, Frederic MacFarlane, told LA School Report today, “He has not made a final decision but it’s close, it’s very close.”

MacFarlane says Johnson “still has some key people he feels it’s important to touch base with before he reaches a decision.”

Prior to his work for Ridley-Thomas, Johnson worked closely with school instructional leaders in the New York City Department of Education. He also worked for the late noted attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

George McKenna

If Johnson runs, he’ll compete against George McKenna, the first choice for the seat among the pro-appointment camp at the school board meeting last week. (They even had their own t-shirts made.)

McKenna, a retired LA Unified administrator and former superintendent, has built up a broad support base in the weeks since the seat became vacant. And since his announcement last week, he told LA School Report, “it has grown exponentially. Every day there are new organizations encouraging me to run.”

U.S. Representatives Maxine Waters and Karen Bass have been key in rallying support around McKenna.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes

Hayes is looking to make a comeback to the school board. She served from 1999 to 2003, then, as president, lost her seat to LaMotte.

She told LA School Report she’s eager to address all of the changing needs of area schools, not just those of the black community.

“This is not about this being a seat for black people; if you look at a map of the district, there’s a lot of diversity in District 1,” she said. “There are Latinos, Asians, there are Anglos – if you look at the map it goes all the way up to Hancock Park, so I think you need to be talking to all of those communities.”

Hudley Hayes hopes to gain the support of UTLA and says she’ll be reaching out to them “today or tomorrow.”

Jimmie Woods-Gray

Woods-Gray is in the running, according to the LA Times. Recently appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti as a Fire Commissioner, she is a former LA Unified teacher, union activist and chair of the union’s political action committee (PACE), who ran for a State Assembly seat in 2012.  LA School Report has been unable to reach Gray for comment.

Photo Credit: Jimmie Woods Gray by Marta Evry

Previous Posts: LAUSD cannot appoint an interim board member; The LA Unified board sets June 3 election to fill vacant LaMotte seat; Editorial boards agree on special election for LAUSD seat.