As voters head to the polls today, candidates running for LA Unified District 1 board seat were making last-minute pushes to reach voters and promote their message.

Seven candidates are competing for a seat that has been vacant since December, and only an outright winner, with more than 50 percent of the vote, can assume board duties right away. Otherwise, the top two voter getters will face off in an August final.

Before heading off to work this morning, teacher Sherlett Hendy-Newbill was at the polls to vote, and later, hit the campaign trail before class to drum up support.

Hendy-Newbill walked the streets and encouraged folks in the community to make sure they vote. She asked them if they knew the location of their polling places and offered them rides. About 35 volunteers are helping her spread the word.

Alex Johnson, an education aide to LA Country Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, voted this morning at the Tom Bradley Youth Center on Pico Boulevard. He was also using the closing hours to get votes as he made his rounds in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles.

He greeted parents at Castle Heights Elementary School as they brought their children to classes this morning. He urged them to vote and support his candidacy.

Later, Johnson greeted patrons at Pann’s restaurant in Ladera Heights, reminding them to vote and joining them for coffee. Next, he was planning visits to his campaign headquarters to join volunteers and staff on his phone bank, his alma mater, LACES High School, to visit with parents as they arrive to pick up their children; and later at the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters to thank them for their support and endorsement.

Among the other candidates, teacher Rachel Johnson cast her vote early this morning and headed to teach class during the final week of school before summer break. She said she plans to watch the election results tonight surrounded by her friends and family.

The other candidates running are George McKenna, Hattie McFrazier, Omarosa Manigault and Genethia Hudley-Hayes.

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.

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/lausd-candidates-agree-on-value-of-public-charter-schools/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/lausd-candidates-agree-on-value-of-public-charter-schools/#comments Thu, 15 May 2014 17:51:31 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=23527

 

 

The latest forum for candidates running in a special election to fill the vacant seat in South LA’s District 1 produced unexpected agreement last night on some of the most volatile issues in public education.

The four contenders who participated — Alex Johnson, Rachel Johnson, Genethia Hudley-Hayes and George McKenna — saw eye to eye on nearly every core issue involving charter schools, including those that have been particularly contentious for the Los Angeles Unified school board.

The consensus could be partially attributed to catering to the crowd: the event was sponsored by CCSA Families, an advocacy group affiliated with the California Charter School Association, and more than 200 parents and teachers, many of whom were wearing CCSA Families t-shirts, filled the room at at Mount Moriah Baptist Church.

But the area has long been plagued with low-performing schools in a high-needs population, and charters have proven popular with parents.

Even the sole candidate endorsed by the teacher’s union, Rachel Johnson, was unabashed in her support of charters – despite the union’s fierce criticism.

“We [must] move past that adversarial ‘oh, the charter schools are taking us over’ idea” she said. “No. Charter schools are educating our students.”

Seven candidates are competing in the June 3 special election. The four last night agreed that charter schools are higher performing than traditional public schools and should be used as models; that there should be no cap or limit on charter growth; that ‘co-location’ between public charter schools and traditional public schools should be supported.

Perhaps most surprising was consensus that charter school operators should be allowed to takeover failing traditional school – a privilege that the board stripped from charter operators in its agreement with the teachers union three years ago.

The event was marked by polite restraint and only the slightest sign of criticism.

“We can’t keep doing the same old things that we were doing [30 years ago],” Alex Johnson, an aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, said to much applause. “We just can’t. It is ineffective, and it is unacceptable and our children deserve change here and now.” Two of his opponents, McKenna, and Hudley-Hayes are more than twice his age, 33, and have been involved with LAUSD for decades.

If there were buzzwords of the evening, they were “accountability,” mentioned by every candidate numerous times; “choice” and “scale.”

“If they (charter schools) are doing a better job, we need to figure out what they are doing, find out what can be brought up to scale,” said Hudley-Hayes.

In a rare divergence, McKenna, a recently retired administrator, broke rank with the others on the question of his support of current LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. While his three adversaries voiced support for Deasy, McKenna said the issue of whether the superintendent is doing a good job and whether he would support re-opening Deasy’s contract, “is a question I have no interest in, whether the superintendent’s contract is reopened or not.”

McKenna later told LA School Report that as a private citizen, he doesn’t “know enough about the Superintendent’s performance” to evaluate him and refused numerous times when pressed to answer.

McKenna also got the closest to touching controversy by bringing up teacher and principal effectiveness, the third rail of education.

“We cannot have effective schools if we don’t have effective teachers…the performance of the schools is based on the teachers and the most critical person in any school is the principal,” he said. “You cannot have an effective school with an ineffective principal.“

The room expressed approval of his position, and that might have been because the teacher’s union, a vocal opponent to evaluations and charter growth in general, was not represented in the crowd or on the stage.

Two other candidates endorsed by UTLA did not appear at all: according to a CCSA staff member, Sherlett Hendy-Newbill canceled due to a scheduling conflict, and Hattie McFrazier,  did not respond to the invitation.  Omarosa Manigault canceled due to a last minute illness.

Graciela Martinez and Himelda Gonzalez, both mothers at a charter school in South LA, said they came to the forum unsure whom they would support.

They went home saying they would vote for McKenna, impressed with his views on accountability of principals.

“The principal is the most important,” said Martinez, pausing to find the right phrase in English. “if the head is not working, the school is not working.”

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/lausd-candidates-agree-on-value-of-public-charter-schools/feed/ 3 https://www.laschoolreport.com/lausd-school-board-candidates-finance-disclosure-laws/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/lausd-school-board-candidates-finance-disclosure-laws/#respond Wed, 07 May 2014 21:32:34 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=23224 *UPDATE

At least two candidates running for the LA Unified school board may be skirting campaign finance laws by sending campaign literature to voters without proper disclosure.

The candidates, George McKenna, a retired administrator, and Rachel Johnson, who serves on the city council of Gardena, are competing in a large field to fill the open school board seat representing South LA (see map here), left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte.

Voters in South LA have reported receiving literature from both those candidates, a source told LA School Report.  (See Rachel Johnson’s flyer here, and George McKenna’s here).

However, neither candidate has yet disclosed any campaign activity to the City Ethics Commission as required by law. According to ethics laws, candidates who send out literature to more than 200 voters must file disclose their activity within 24 hours.

Among the 7 candidates vying for the seat only Alex Johnson, a staff aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, has reported campaign activity so far.  He has filed seven campaign communications, including emails, literature and a “call script” used by the campaign to talk to voters by phone.

Response from McKenna campaign:
Jewett Walker, McKenna’s campaign manager, said he recognized the problem with the two flyers and one mailer sent out last week and the campaign is now rectifying it with the City Ethics Commission.

Response from Rachel Johnson via email:
“This is not a mail piece. It was created by my husband on his laptop. I give them out at various community forums if someone wants to know more. I usually write my phone number or email on the back if they want to talk with me further. I only printed 150 on a color copier!!
Other candidates give out flyers or cards at community forums also. Can you speculate why mine was singled out (in addition to McKenna)?”

 LA School Report could not reach the City Ethics Commission to verify whether distributing flyers or cards at a community forum triggers disclosure laws.

 

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*Update clarifies from McKenna’s and Johnson’s campaign.

 

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/lausd-school-board-candidates-finance-disclosure-laws/feed/ 0 https://www.laschoolreport.com/rachel-johnson-using-experience-to-boost-district-1-chances/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/rachel-johnson-using-experience-to-boost-district-1-chances/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2014 16:33:57 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=22459

Rachel Johnson

Beginning today, LA School Report is taking a longer look at each of the seven candidates running for LA Unified’s vacant South LA, District 1 board seat. The series starts today with Rachel Johnson and will continue over the weeks ahead.

After three decades as a LAUSD elementary school teacher and nine years as a member of the Gardena City Council, Rachel Johnson is hoping her extensive teaching and fiscal policy-making background will help her secure a seat on the LA Unified school board.

As one of three teachers among the seven candidates running for the District 1 board seat, left open by the passing of the board’s only African American member, Marguerite LaMotte, Johnson, 54, believes she has the practical and administrative expertise to make a difference.

“Since I put in the time in LAUSD, and I saw how policy that school board members implement and how it directly affects my practice, I said ‘you know, I think I can do better, I think I can contribute, I think I have a voice that would be valuable,’ ” she said in an interview with LA School Report.

Johnson, who teaches kindergarten at Purche Avenue Elementary school, wants to empower educators by raising awareness on several issues impacting District 1, such as why there are so many charter schools in the district.

Johnson believes low-performing traditional schools would greatly benefit if they were allowed to invest in a similar teaching model used by charter schools, giving administrators the flexibility to craft an innovative curriculum that she says would invigorate learning and motivate students to achieve.

“Let’s give those schools more independence, more time and investment and let’s see if these kinds of innovative programs will turn the tide,” she said. “We need to demand excellence from our schools, but in order to get that, we need to give them all the tools that they need.”

Another hot-button issue is seniority-based layoffs. Johnson, who benefitted from the policy, says a more comprehensive structure is needed that facilitates the replacement of ineffective teachers and supports the mentoring of young teachers.

“There is value in experience, but let that just be one variable in how a teacher is evaluated and laid off,” she said, echoing a central theme of the recently-argued Vergara case. “I would challenge UTLA as a board member to come to the table and to have that kind of discourse.”

Even though Johnson has been endorsed by UTLA, she says she will stand her ground and do what she feels is right when it comes to voting on policy issues.

“What’s good for the children is good for me,” she said. “You have to have a more comprehensive view when you’re making policy, but if our children are going to achieve, our teachers have to be supported.”

But, she says, what is best for students may not always complement initiatives that impact learning. Johnson said some of Superintendent John Deasy’s ideas are disconnected from the actual practice and implementation at the ground level because “he doesn’t hear or value teacher input,” she said.

If elected, Johnson says her policy-making decisions would be fair and transparent and would involve all parties concerned. She plans on visiting school sites and talking to instructors who will be directly impacted by the policy.

She believes in standing behind every decision she makes through “transparency, accountability, integrity and being consistent with every decision.”

But while her vision is clear, she says the road to getting elected has been a bumpy one.

So far, Johnson is running a grass-roots campaign, relying on volunteers, family and friends going door to door. Campaign funding has been a major challenge and donations have fallen short of expectations. Many of her past supporters have decided to support another candidate. She raised no money through the first reporting period, leaving her more than $100,000 behind the leader, Alex Johnson, who is no relation.

Despite having no political support, she remains focused and determined to reach as many voters as possible and hopes her background and experience will help her stand out from the rest.

The decision mirrors that of SEIU Local 99, the LA Unified support staff union, which also voted not to endorse anyone in the special election for the South LA seat, left vacant by the death of longtime school board member Marguerite LaMotte.

The vote was a reversal of sorts. Last week, the County Fed’s political action committee, COPE had voted to recommend “no endorsement” in the race, a decision made after interviewing four candidates: Alex Johnson, and the three teacher union-backed candidates, Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Rachel Johnson and Hattie McFrazier. But a day later, that recommendation was trumped by the Federation executive board, which recommended Alex Johnson’s name be put before the delegates for a vote.

Johnson, an aide to County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, and a product of the LAUSD school system and American University Law School, is the top fundraiser in the election but has little name recognition.

The other three candidates, including George McKenna, considered by insiders to be a front-runner, were not involved in any round of the process because they failed to obtain a required letter of recommendation from any one of the 300 labor affiliates in the federation.

McKenna, a retired administrator, was the subject of a made-for-TV movie and has the backing of the prinicipal’s union, AALA.

UTLA, the teachers union, has endorsed three candidates in the June 3 special election to fill LA Unified’s District 1 board seat, all three with ties to the union: Rachel Johnson and Sherlett Hendy-Newbill are teachers, and Hattie McFrazier is a former teacher.

The head of UTLA’s political action committee, PACE, said the union will promote all three on the ballot equally, but that support might not come with a lot of union financial support.

“We believe in all of the teachers we’ve endorsed,” Marco Flores told LA School Report. “But the truth is, whoever gets elected won’t be there very long.”

Flores says the timing of the special election in June is too close to the regular school board elections in 2015, when four seats will be up for grabs, including District 1 again. And campaigning for those races, he said, will begin on Labor Day — just shortly after the new District 1 member would take a seat on the board if the election goes to an Aug. 12 runoff.

The question before UTLA and PACE, he said, is: “How much are we going to ask for, from our friends, from our affiliates, from the different groups that we get money from, for this particular race when nine months from now we’re going to be having another four races?”

Next year’s elections will be for board districts 1, 3, 5, and 7.

So far two board members have declared their intention to run as incumbents: Board president Richard Vladovic (7) will be seeking a third term and Bennett Kayser (5) is going after a second.

Barbara Jones, Chief of Staff for board member Tamar Galatzan (3), told LA School Report last week, “She hasn’t announced yet whether she is running.”

Rachel Johnson

In keeping with the start of the baseball season this week, let’s use a baseball analogy: Rachel Johnson has a Hall of Fame batting average in running for office.

Since 2001 when she was first elected as the City Clerk of Gardena, Johnson has run four successful campaigns for elected office — a second term for City Clerk, then three separate races for Gardena City Council. Her only loss came last year, running for mayor of Gardena.

Her next at-bat, if you will, is for a seat on the LA Unified school board, representing District 1.

“Running in a big race is not new to me,” she told LA School Report. “I’ve done this before, but I know I’m up against some formidable candidates, and it’s not going to be easy.”

In addition to sitting on the Gardena City Council, Johnson is a full-time district kindergarten teacher with 30 years on job. That helped her secure one of the three endorsements from UTLA, the teachers union. But it has left her little time to do major campaign fundraising before the June 3 special election.

As of March 17, the most recent campaign finance filing deadline from the City Ethics Commission, Johnson reported raising zero dollars, putting her dead last among the seven candidates running.

She acknowledges that has put her at a disadvantage. “Politics is money and man power,” she said. “I’m well aware of the power of the dollar in political campaigns.”

Johnson explains she has received campaign contributions but just hasn’t deposited the checks. So far, she says, she has about $7,000 and hopes to have $10,000 by the weekend.

That would put her ahead of Hattie McFrazier and Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, the two other candidates with UTLA endorsements, who have raised about $3,500 and $5,000, respectively.

But it is a long way from the two candidates whose coffers runneth over: Alex Johnson, who leads the field with $113,000 in donations, and Genethia Hudley-Hayes, who reported just over $93,000.

While Rachel Johnson says she never expected to lead the pack in fundraising, what “makes it a struggle,” she said, is watching previous supporters have move on to Alex Johnson in the school board race.

“Some of the financial support that I have enjoyed in the past, or have had the advantage of using and utilizing in the past, are now focused on Alex Johnson,” she said, and that includes the endorsement of LA County Board Supervisor, Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is supporting Alex Johnson in the school board race. That Johnson works for Ridley-Thomas as a staffer.

“I’ve always enjoyed the support of [Ridley-Thomas] in all my races,” she said.

But even without the big bucks or the big names she’s not deflated.

“Monica Ratliff is my new poster girl!,” she says enthusiastically.

Ratliff, who won a seat on the school board last year despite being outspent four-to-one, is often cited by UTLA members as the avatar of door-to-door stumping over the well-financed  political machinery of billionaires.

Johnson says Ratliff showed LA that grass-roots campaigns do work.

“You just have to get out there and share your vision and trust the voters can tell the difference.” she said.

Previous Posts: 3 teachers get UTLA endorsements; Alex Johnson opens wide lead in fundraising; LAUSD District 1 election still open to write in.

Last night’s vote

By voting to endorse three candidates last night for the LA Unified’s District 1 board seat, the UTLA House of Representatives chose to back two teachers and a former teacher who have raised a combined $8,440 for their election efforts.

While that honors Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Rachel Johnson and the former instructor, Hattie McFrazier, their meager financial support so far, compared with the money leaders, Alex Johnson ($113,051) and Genethia Hudley-Hayes ($56,070), could mean an even greater disadvantage for the union. Hendy-Newbill raised $4,836; McFrazier, $3,604; Johnson, $0.

With its three choices long-shots, as measured by donor contributions, the union is in jeopardy of losing the kind of sure support it always had in Marguerite LaMotte, whose death in December created the vacancy.

Both Johnson and Hudley-Hayes and, to an extent George McKenna, the third-place finisher in money raised ($45,948), are not viewed as rubber-stamp voters for the union, which means if any of them wins, key board votes could easily go 4-3 against union interests.

In a final vote by the union reps, the three-way endorsement prevailed, 101 to 31. The remaining candidate, Omarosa Manigault, a substitute teacher, has raised $4,450 but failed to win union backing.

“I am really surprised,” McFrazier said of the multiple endorsements. “This is not the right strategy to take. As a union we should be supporting one candidate and stand behind that person. By supporting three, you don’t really have an advantage at all.”

Some union reps recalled Monica Garcia‘s victory for the District 2 board seat last year after the union endorsed three of her challengers.

“Last year we did a multiple endorsement, and that failed,” said John Paul Cabrera. “This time we have two well-funded candidates. We need a single clear message. We need a viable candidate who can raise money and win.”

Others said the union is in no financial position to back anyone.

“UTLA is broke,” said Francisco Martinez. “We don’t have money. How are we going to pay to endorse a person? Just saying we endorse someone doesn’t get them elected.”

But money does’t always win, as Marco Flores, chairman of the union’s political action committee, PACE, said, recalling Steve Zimmer‘s victory over Kate Anderson last year for the District 4 seat.

“In the Zimmer race, they outspent us four to one and we still won,” he said.

The committee has already discussed a three-way endorsement, but Flores declined to provide details. He said what happens next largely depends on an Independent Expenditure committee to be formed within the week. It will develop a strategy and budget.

Flores contemplated some of the possible matchups, should the June 3 special election fail to produce a winner, and the top two candidates move on to an August runoff. In that case, the union would reconsider its possibilities for an endorsement.

“If it comes down to Hattie McFrazier and George McKenna, then the question is can we live with McKenna’s unfriendly dislike of Deasy?” Flores said, referring to LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy. “I think so. If it’s Hayes and one of our candidates, then I can see it becoming a full-blown multi-million dollar campaign.”

He said Johnson, an education aide to LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, remains an unknown: “He worked with unions back east, and so far we haven’t heard anything from AFT telling us ‘destroy him’ ”

If the race came down to Johnson and Hudley-Hayes, it would be less costly to the union, he said, because they are engaged in a dispute over inconsistencies in Hudley-Hayes’s resume.

“She’s putting out all the trash about him,” Flores said. “We can just sit back and watch, we don’t have to pay for any of that research.”

And an endorsement in that matchup might be easier: “Hayes turned on us after we endorsed her,” he said.

Or, maybe, he said, the union might sit the whole race out, given that a winner in the runoff would remain on the board only through another election next year, when the seats for Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 are up.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from our members saying we should just wait until the 2015 race – that’s only 8 months away from the general election in August,” he said. “They’re saying we should save our money and resources.”

Previous Posts: SEIU Local 99 starting process to endorse District 1 candidate; UTLA board endorses 3 teachers; LAUSD District 1 election still open to write in candidates.

Sherlett Hendy-Newbill

The UTLA House of Representatives tonight voted to endorse a former teacher and two current teachers in the LA Unified District 1 board race.

The vote mirrored the recommendation of the union’s Board of Directors, which voted last week for endorsing former district teacher Hattie McFrazier and the two current teachers,  Sherlett Hendy-Newbill and Rachel Johnson.

The administrators union has previously endorsed George McKenna, and the school staff union, SEIU Local 99, is expected to endorse next week.

In recommending Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Rachel Johnson and Hattie McFrazier, a retired teacher, the board chose to withhold endorsing the fourth teacher in the race, Omarosa Manigault, who is a substitute teacher.

The board’s recommendations now go before the UTLA House of Representatives March 26 for a final decision on whom, if anyone, the union endorses. To win a UTLA endorsement, a candidate needs 60 percent of the representatives’ vote.

If a runoff is needed, the union will reconsider its options.

The other three candidates for the seat are George McKenna, Alex Johnson and Genethia Hudley-Hayes.

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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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.