George McKenna

And when he does, it often turns into a life story, a history lesson or a smart anecdote from his teaching days ranging back to when he started at LA Unified in 1962.

Here are a few choice McKenna-isms we’ve observed at the school board.

On successful teachers . . .

“I don’t feel sorry for you because you chose to do this. You are putting together something that you must sustain. You are like the land. We can devastate everything else, but the land remains. That’s how we plant the seed, and the fruit is our children.”

On bad teachers . . .

“A lousy teacher is a bad thing to have, it’s like having a lousy doctor: you’re not going to make it.”

On ethnic teachers . . .

“The ethnicity of a teacher has nothing to do with their ability to relate to children. It does not require a black teacher to teach a black child, it does not require a Hispanic teacher to teach a Hispanic child. Melanin does not protect you from racial prejudice. It only protects you from sunburn, that’s about all. I have never found anybody that protected a child against prejudice just because they are black.”

On celebrating successful schools . . .

“We don’t need to celebrate successful schools, that should be expected. It’s like when you take an airplane. You expect it to land; you don’t celebrate that, you expect it. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”

On picking a superintendent . . .

“We can have Sleepy, Bashful, Dopey and all of them stand before us, but we are picking a Snow White.”

On the process of picking a superintendent . . .

“We can have all the forms and surveys and input in the world, but what’s going to tell it to me more than anything is when I look the person in the eye and ask them, ‘Why do you want to be superintendent of this district?’ And that’s how I will decide.”

George McKenna on a school visit with new Superintendent Michelle King.

On community input . . .

“You know, I’m all for community involvement and engagement and such, but the community is who picked us to represent them. No one invited me to sit on the board of their organization to give input. The community gave us this responsibility, let us do it.”

On fellow board member Monica Ratliff . . .

“Miss Ratliff is psychic as well as bright. … I appreciate everything she asks about, especially when it concerns the budgets. No one else is going to read through all these papers like she is.”

On unanimous decisions . . .

“That, we all agree, would be a flawed assumption, especially with the bizarreness of one or two of us.”

On a motion to close a charter school in his district . . .

“These are my children, I walk with them to school, they’ve been there since 1965. I’ve been there and know what they are doing. The objections are bureaucratic, not because of instructions. I will not vote for this.”

On teaching . . .

“One of the best ways teachers need to learn is to observe other teachers, and I hope we implement that. You watch someone; don’t interfere, just watch. It’s like reading about swimming. You can’t learn how to do it by reading, you need to jump in the water and swim.”

On educating girls and boys . . .

“Are females demonstrating their superiority [over] males, or are males not as competitive as they should be? Or maybe being smart is not machismo?”

On writing . . .

“Do girls still keep diaries? That may help them write, and writing is a most complex process. I do not know many boys that keep diaries.”

On public schools . . .

“Schools are tough, and public schools are the heart and soul of the country. They shape the minds and values of the country — not the military, not the government, not politics, but schools.”

On keeping kids in school . . .

“We can’t give up on your children. It’s about sacrifice. Children I don’t even know need us first. The thing we do in any district is take care of employees, I got that, but the children get what’s left. What are we going to do to keep the teachers being magnetic and keep the kids’ attention?”

On taking too much time . . .

“People say, ‘Wait, that takes time, George, and you’re kind of crazy anyway.’ Takes time? Time has run out. What if your Mama has cancer? You say you have to do something and go in there now and give it a try, you can’t wait. If you love the people you work with, the children — and they absolutely are innocent — you do it now.”

On fighting structure . . .

“The structure may say don’t have school in the summertime, you’re supposed to pick crops. Well, the affluent love the summer. They go to Europe. They recreate and educate and dominate. But what do we do? We vegetate, procreate and deteriorate! That’s what happens. You need to say no to those kind of structures.”

On calling an initiative bold . . .

“I know a lot of bold teenagers who make reckless decisions. Sometimes bold is reckless and they do things out of impulse.”

On teaching math . . .

“Math is one of the easiest things to learn and the hardest thing to teach. You have to wait for that ‘aha’ moment, and that’s when the student gets it.”

On voter apathy . . .

“I know not many people vote, look at how bad it was as far as people voting for the school board. I know it’s not that they don’t like me— a lot of people say they do— but there’s not much that compels them to go out to vote for me.”

Thelma Melendez

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

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

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

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

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

George McKenna

George McKenna, one of the seven candidates running for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat, picked up a strong endorsement today as the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the union representing principals and their assistants, said it would support him in the race.

The endorsement means that AALA will contribute $1,100, the maximum allowed, to his campaign.

“George McKenna demonstrated that he understands the needs of students and how to work with principals, assistant principals and teachers in meeting student needs,” said Judith Perez, president of the union. “From his background and experience as a teacher, a principal and a superintendent, he has a knowledge of educational issues and leadership, and he’s not afraid to speak up on behalf of students.”

AALA interviewed nine of the original 13 candidates for the board seat, including the seven who have qualified for the ballot. Each candidate was asked the same 11 questions, Perez said. The endorsement represents approval by two panels of AALA members.

If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the June 3 special election, Perez said AALA would interview those heading into the Aug. 12 runoff and consider another endorsement.

Superintendent John Deasy: Little time for vacation

Superintendent John Deasy works too much.

So much so, that he rarely takes time off for vacation. As a result, the Los Angeles Unified School board voted at its monthly meeting yesterday to pay him for up to 24 days of unused vacation time, the equivalent of nearly $30,000 added to his annual salary of $330,000, according to Megan Reilly, the district’s chief financial officer.

School board member Bennett Kayser alone objected to what he said is a salary increase for Deasy, who threatened to quit four months ago. Kayser said it was inappropriate especially, “while we have employees who have not gotten a raise in years.”

It is the kind of perk that is sure to anger union leaders on the eve of contract negotiations after years of drastic budget cuts. Warren Fletcher, president of the teachers union, along with many of his nine challengers in UTLA’s current election campaign, are making pay raises for teachers a big part of their campaigns.

“I know a lot of teachers who would love to get their vacation days paid out. It’ll be interesting to see if they can get the same thing,” a union insider told LA School Report.

In one of its shorter meetings — under five hours — the board covered a lot of other territory, with discussions on Cesar Chavez, Armenian genocide, water conservation, Women’s History Month, National Library Week and figuring out a way to encourage district employees to get health coverage. The members also spent a few hours deliberating the future of a handful of schools, based on their fiscal viability.

Conditional charter renewals for Magnolia Science Academy 6 and 7 were approved in a five to one vote, with Kayser, again, as the only dissenter.

An audit conducted in 2012 revealed “a risk of fraud, waste and abuse” at the two schools – located in board District 1, which is currently unrepresented, and Tamar Galatzan’s District 3. But Jose Cole-Gutierrez, Director of LA Unified’s Charter School Division, said Magnolia Public Schools, the company behind the science academies, has rectified the deficiencies in their financial systems.

Board member Steve Zimmer had other misgivings about the approval, given that the school’s declining enrollment and plans to downsize even more.

He asked Deasy, who supported the charter approval, to justify his position after calling for the closure of a small, traditional public school in Boyle Heights.

“I remain concerned that we are saying there is a level of fiscal viability that we need to be very vigilant about when it comes to LAUSD schools and then as authorizers we don’t need to show the same level of vigilance,” Zimmer said.

The other school in question is the Academy of Environmental and Social Policy, one of seven schools originally operated by the Partnership of Los Angeles Schools at Roosevelt High School, though it’s located off-site at the East LA Skill Center.

Last week , ESP school officials received notice that declining student enrollment made it too expensive to operate in its current location. As a result, the school is facing the prospect of being disbanded or relocated to Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights.

A group of about 40 students protested the district’s plans outside of LA Unified headquarters.

Students and faculty say moving, especially to Lincoln Heights, is not an option. They say gang rivalries between the two schools would jeopardize student safety. And it doesn’t appear that they would be welcome by Lincoln High faculty either.

Marisa Crabtree, a teacher at Lincoln, said the reorganization required would be disruptive. “I’m afraid moving another small school onto our campus will create upheaval,” she said.

It would also be a tight squeeze on campus. There are currently three schools and approximately 1,500 students located on the site.

Crabtree said teachers should be focusing on “shifting our attention to the new Common Core standards rather than shifting classrooms and offices and redistributing bodies unnecessarily.”

*Corrected to clarify language of the 2012 audit regarding the Magnolia Academy Science schools.

Previous Posts: The LA teachers union is set to ask for 17.6 percent salary increase; UTLA Teachers Demand LA Unified Teacher Salary Increase; LAUSD reports increase in charter school co-location.

Sylvia Rousseau, USC
Credit: Steve Cohen

In a closed session meeting — meaning, it was closed to the public — the LA Unified School Board named Sylvia Rousseau, a professor at USC,  as the “liason” to board District 1, starting in March.

The board seat has remained unrepresented at school board meetings since Marguerite LaMotte died in December.

The appointment is not totally official yet, nor is the position fully defined. The board will take the next two weeks to outline Rousseau’s duties and responsibilities and will vote to ratify her appointment at the next school board meeting, on March 4.

“It was not the most elegant process,” school board member Steve Zimmer told LA School Report.

Zimmer has been the most outspoken advocate for an interim representative for the district until the outcome of a special election in June.

“I don’t think it was anyone’s first choice for how this would be done, but it is quite a compromise,” he said. “In the end, everybody compromised.”

The decision comes just one week after the school board voted down two measures to appoint a temporary representative: One came from Zimmer, to have a non-voting “virtual board member,” who would report to the school board sit and on the horseshoe. The other was an effort from board president Richard Vladovic, directing Superintendent John Deasy to select and appoint an “executor” for the seat.

This will be a return to LA Unified for Rousseau. Now a professor of clinical education and urban scholar for the USC Rossier School of Education, she previously served as the Superintendent of Local District 7 from 2001 to 2005. She was also prinicipal of Santa Monica high school during the 1990s.

LaMotte’s former staffers were unaware of the development. District 1 Communications Director Vicki Phillips told LA School Report she did not know the board planned to make a decision today, nor that the board was considering Rousseau for the job.

Still, she is pleased District 1 constituents will have a voice again.

“This will provide us with the opportunity of having someone in the horseshoe who will represent us and our needs,” she said.

Previous Posts: The LA Unified board twice voted against a caretaker for vacant seat Steve Zimmer might have a ‘virtual’ solution to vacant board seat.

President Vladovic: His vote doomed caretaker

The LA Unified school board on Tuesday quashed any chance for temporary representation for the 110 schools and nearly quarter million students in board District 1, twice defeating measures that would have appointed a non-voting caretaker.

It was just the latest example of the inability of a school board, paralyzed by the absence of a potential tie-breaking vote, to push past personal differences for sake of unity.

The decision means that the seat, which has been vacant since Marguerite LaMotte died more than two months ago, will remain empty through a special election scheduled for June 3 or through mid-August if a runoff is needed.

The path to failure began when board president Richard Vladovic delayed action on a proposal from Steve Zimmer with an an idea of his own, which he called an amendment — directing Superintendent John Deasy to select and appoint an “executor” for the seat. Before the vote, Monica Ratliff asked Deasy if he knew whom he would appoint.

“I don’t,” he said.

The amendment failed on a 3-3 vote.

That brought the members back to Zimmer’s proposal, a carefully worked measure that would have allowed residents of District 1 to participate in the appointment process by nominating candidates for the position.

Zimmer had led the campaign to appoint a non-voting advocate, devising a set of duties and responsibilities that might “walk right up to the line of what’s legal,” as he said. But the board failed to pass it, again at 3-3.

Oddly, Vladovic, who considered himself a good friend of LaMotte’s who had spoken passionately about making sure that District 1 students and families had an interim voice on the board, voted against Zimmer.

That spurred a strong reaction from Ratliff, who cried when the board met for the first time after LaMotte’s death.

She referred to the board’s agreeing to have Zimmer lead an ad hoc committee to find a way to bring a District 1 caretaker to the board. Zimmer held a public meeting last week, and no other board member attended.

“He was sent on a task and nobody supported him,” Ratliff said before turning to the three who voted against his solution — Vladovic, Tamar Galatzan and Monica Garcia. “Why did you vote against his report when you voted for the process to find a caretaker?”

She pressed them for an answer, saying “Constituents in District 1 deserve to know.”

But Vladovic insisted, “They only have to justify their votes to their constituents.”

Garcia said she voted against ZImmer’s proposal “because of my respect to the process and the people.” Yet she had voted in favor of Vladovic’s approach.

Minutes after the second vote, Garcia told LA School Report that one reason she opposed Zimmer’s motion is because “I don’t have the confidence in the ability of the board to select a caretaker.”

Previous Posts: Clarifying role of ‘caretaker’ for LaMotte’s school board seat; Steve Zimmer might have a ‘virtual’ solution to vacant board seat; LA Unified board votes against filling vacant seat.

Tamar Galatzan: She was not happy

Today’s LA Unified school board meeting may have been brief, but it was just as acrimonious and confusing as some of the longer ones.

While problems contributing to the appearance of dysfunction usually focus on content or process. This one focused on both.

The big issue was over Bennett Kayser’s resolution to expand Title I funding to schools with only 40 percent low-income student population, rather than the current threshold, 50 percent.

As it appeared on the meeting agenda, it was virtually the same as a measure that came before the board two months ago from Tamar Galatzan and Monica Ratliff that was defeated in a 3-3 deadlock, with Kayser abstaining.

“Maybe this is the lawyer in me,” said Galatzan, who was clearly piqued. “But this seems substantially similar to me.”

Other members seemed confused about how the item ended up on the agenda, to start with. The board’s Rule 73 blocks members from initiating a motion that is “substantially similar” to one that has been voted on within the previous six months. That’s meant to promote stability and also prevent the board from repeatedly dealing with the same issues.

However, the rule can be waived by a majority vote. If that happens then the resolution can be discussed at the subsequent board meeting. Not this time.

Board President Richard Vladovic said he found the timing of Kayser’s resolution “inappropriate.”

“You take a vote and then you move on,” he said. “Otherwise we will always be dealing with history and never move on.”

Kayser, who remained quiet throughout the discussion, did not call for a waiver of rule 73, leaving big questions hanging over the room. And for another day, neither he nor his staff was available to explain what’s going on.

It was unclear, for example, why he would offer such a similar resolution if he knew about rule 73. Or maybe he didn’t know about 73. Or maybe it’s different enough in the details to make it different — never mind, that any details were not revealed publicly. Or maybe it was his way of seeking input from other members before he returns next month with an updated version.

In any case, the morning seemed to pose more questions than answers, leaving the board with additional uncertainties to consider at the Feb. 11 meeting. For openers, it has to decide if his resolution is dissimilar enough to Galatzan’s that the board will consider it.

Or maybe he’ll just withdraw it.

Previous Posts: Two months after he killed one plan, Kayser has his own Title 1 ideas; Governor Brown’s budget pumps billions more into school funding; Kayser Abstention Dooms Effort to Spread Out Title 1 Money.

The six members green-lighted Phase 2 of the iPad plan, ensuring enough tablets for standardized testing in the Spring, and they approved the appointment of a non-voting representative to serve District 1 until later in the year.

In a unanimous vote on the iPads, the board put into action essentially the same plan that was before them two months ago. This next phase will bring the tablets to 38 new campuses, provide high school students at seven schools with a laptop, acquire keyboards for Phase 1 and 2 schools and equip all schools with enough iPads for all students to take the Smarter Balanced field test in the spring. The cost is estimated to be $115 million.

The decision went against the advice of the Bond Oversight Committee, which recommended that the board limit the number of devices it procures through the end of the year.

“I suggest we be very careful about buying more than we need,” , chair of the BOC, cautioned the board.

A study by the oversight committee had determined the district would need 38,535 tablets to implement the standardized test, not 67,500 as the district had sought.

English explained this was due to a change by the state to shorten the test by half.

“The difference between buying 37,000 and 67,000 in interest alone for one year is half a million dollars,” he said.

But in approving the measure the board eliminated language specifying a cap. Instead, as board member Tamar Galatzan said, “We are taking out the conclusion of how many we are buying and are asking the staff to be as diligent as possible to purchase the fewest number of devices it can to ensure students will succeed.”

One bright spot in the iPad discussion — and over which there was no debate — came from Superintendent John Deasy. After numerous efforts to improve the contract with Apple, he got assurances from the company that no matter when the district buys the iPads, Apple will sell it the latest version.

The vote to find a caretaker for the District 1 seat left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte came with high drama.

In their initial vote, the members deadlocked at 3-3, effectively killing a plan from Steve Zimmer that would create a committee to define the job description, set an application process and identify one or more candidates to be appointed to the position.

But minutes later, Bennett Kayser, who had voted against it, interrupted a discussion that had begun on something else to say he was changing his mind. That made for a 4-2 vote to get a non-voting person into the seat by March 4, a date beyond the filing deadline for the June 3 primary election for a permanent – and voting – interim.

Zimmer, who was appointed chairman of the new committee, said the March date was selected to take politics out of the caretaker selection process.

The winner of the primary – or an Aug. 12 runoff if it’s necessary – will serve out LaMotte’s term, which ends June 30, 2015.

The most contentious part of the debate leading to the first vote focused on whether the caretaker would have the same voting rights as the other six members.

Board President Richard Vladovic made it clear that the person named would not. He said the district had received six legal opinions, including one from the district’s own legal counsel, “and they all say the same thing,” that a temporary, non-elected person sitting in a board chair is legally barred from voting.

“There’s no ambiguity from any of the legal opinions we’ve received,” he said.

Perhaps ironically, Kayser was part of a commission years ago that wrote the LA City Charter that set the rules deny caretaker appointments a vote once a special election to fill a vacancy has been scheduled.

In the first vote, he joined Monica Garcia and Monica Ratliff in opposing the measure, with Vladovic, Galatzan and Zimmer, voting in favor. He changed his position, he said, to give District 1 constituents at least a symbolic presence on the board.

“It seems to me,” he said, suggesting the Charter is ill-serving the school district, “this is a perfect example of why we should have an appointed representative take the seat.”

Previous Posts: The LA Unified board faces bid decisions on open seat and iPads; Analysis: Zimmer takes center stage in LAUSD drama; LA Unified Board Votes to Reshape iPad Program.

Monica Garcia, at a more talkative time

For all the passion and discord over how to fill a vacant seat, two of the six LA Unified board members were silent during the board’s hour-long debate last night. Neither the current president, Richard Vladovic, nor his predecessor, Monica Garcia, weighed in, apart from their votes.

Before a 4-2 decision to hold a June 3 special election — with Vladovic and Garcia in the majority — Vladovic spoke only in keeping the trains moving — welcoming speakers, chastising hecklers, asking the audience to keep things civil. He had almost nothing to say about the issues at hand.

Mike Trujillo, his spokesman, said he was committed to facilitating a healthy discussion.

“Dr. Vladovic’s core belief is that democracy was the right thing to pursue and he really didn’t feel as though taking up more time when it was clear every argument from A to Z was laid out,” Trujillo said. “When you take into account those who advocated for an election, all of those arguments that were used encapsulated what Dr. Vladovic was feeling when he made his vote.”

When asked about her lack of participation, Garcia told LA School Report today, “There has been a lot of conversation, done in public over the last five to six weeks. I have said a lot about what I believed and what I thought should be done.”

Given all of the emotion in the room, she added, “I thought the most helpful thing I could do was to keep quiet and support the process.”

Another figure conspicuous by his silence was UTLA president Warren Fletcher, who is running for reelection this year. While two of his challengers addressed the board – Alex Caputo-Pearl and Gregg Solkovits – Fletcher remained in the audience and spoke only through a release issued after the matter had been settled.

“We share the community’s concern that students and parents in District 1 will be voiceless as these crucial votes are taken,” he said. “That said, we look forward to working with parents and the community in supporting a candidate who will represent the area with passion and purpose, as Marguerite LaMotte did for so many years.”

The vote effectively creates a primary for June 3 and a runoff election on August 12, if no one receives more than 50 percent of the primary vote. A vote to fill the seat with an appointment failed, 3-3.

The vote for the election was 4-2, with President Richard Vladovic, Tamar Galatzan, Monica Garcia and Steve Zimmer as the majority, and Bennett Kayser and Monica Ratliff voting no.

The vote followed a lengthy debate by elected officials, community members and board members that included impassioned arguments for an appointment so the seat is not left vacant for months. Because so many felt so strongly about depriving the district of a representative for so long, the board’s vote also included a request to get a legal opinion on whether a caretaker could fill the seat until the election is over.

That request came despite the district’s chief legal advisor, David Holmquist, advising members that the LA City Charter does not provide for an interim appointment prior to a scheduled election. The members asked Holmquist, nonetheless, to examine the issue and report back in a week if there are any options that would allow for one.

Genethia Hayes

A new candidate has emerged for the LA Unified’s vacant District 1 seat, and it’s someone quite familiar with the job.

Genethia Hayes, a former board member and president, told LA School Report yesterday that she would run if there’s an election and would serve if she were appointed. Hayes lost her seat in 2003 to Marguerite LaMotte, whose death last month created the vacancy.

The means by which the board will fill the seat is the subject of tonight’s special board meeting, starting at 6:15. The six members are expected to vote on whether to fill the seat by appointment or through an election, which could require a runoff if no candidate passes 50 percent of the vote.

The decision was postponed from last month to wait until LaMotte’s funeral had taken place.

Until now, George McKenna, 73, a retired LA Unified administrator, has been the most visible candidate expressing a desire to hold the seat. He has won the support of dozens of community groups and civic leaders, including U.S. Representatives Maxine Waters and Karen Bass.

McKenna initially said he would only serve through an appointment. But the LA Times now reports that he said he would run in an election. And, no doubt, others would, too.

One possibility is Alex Johnson, an education aide to LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. Another is Jimmie Woods-Gray, a former LA Unified teacher who was recently appointed as a fire commissioner by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

After leaving the board, Hayes, 68, served served eight years as a fire commissioner, including seven as president of the commission.

In an interview, she said District 1 has changed dramatically since she was on the board, becoming much more diverse than the majority African-American community it was more than a decade ago, in part due to boundary changes that brought in more Latino families.

The result, she said, is a district in which parents care less about ideological divides than quality education.

“Most parents I talk to are not particularly interested in union bashing or union loving, in charter bashing or charter loving,” she said. “They just want a solid school experience, schools run well, faculties well-trained and teachers who understand youngsters and their cultures and the pressure we’re under as familes.”

Previous Posts: Pressures are building on how and when to fill LaMotte’s LAUSD seat; The LA Unified board postponed until January filling a board vacancy; Black Leaders Speak Out on How to Fill LaMotte Seat.

With only one major agenda item at tomorrow’s 6:15 pm special meeting — to fill the District 1 vacancy by election or appointment — the board today removed any limit on the number of speakers addressing the board before action is taken.

Previously, the board was allowing only 14 to speak. Now any number can talk but for only 2 minutes each, 1 minute less than normal.

Even so, it could be a long night.

LA Country Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas

The sides are digging in.

With the holidays offering no break for the forces pushing to fill the vacant LA Unified school board’s District 1 seat, factions have firmly aligned behind US Representative Maxine Waters, for an appointment, and LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, for an election.

Whatever the six board members decide at a special meeting tomorrow night, the eventual replacement for Marguerite LaMotte, who died Dec. 5, will serve out a term that runs through mid-2015.

“A healthy debate underway continued over the holidays,” Ridley-Thomas told LA School Report. “That reflects the intensity of interest in the subject at hand, and that’s appropriate.”

It’s unclear what’s going to happen tomorrow, apart from a lively debate and comment from an unlimited number of speakers. The members could vote for an election or appoint a replacement right away. They could send the matter to a committee for further review. They could delay a decision, pending legal review of the options.

US Representative Maxine Waters

Resolution is further clouded by possible conflicts and scheduling issues involving the California Education Code, the Los Angeles City Charter, the city Election Code and LA County. So uncertain is the outcome that LaMotte’s successor could emerge as soon as tomorrow night through an appointment, or as distant as August 12, a date mentioned in a legal opinion from the county obtained by LA School Report (more on that later).

For now, the board appears split – with three members known to favoring an election – Board President Richard Vladovic, Tamar Galatzan and Monica Garcia — while Monica Ratliff and Bennett Kayser favor an appointment. Steve Zimmer has not declared a position.

Meanwhile, the lobbying and public-support building continues.

A coalition of organizations and individuals, led by Waters and her Congressional colleague, Karen Bass, has organized rallies, launched a website and circulated emails promoting George McKenna, a former administrator, for appointment to the seat. The surprise here is Bass. Last month she co-signed a commentary with Ridley-Thomas and City Council President Herb Wesson, urging the school board to choose a successor by election.

But in a statement four days later, she explained her change of heart. Noting the big issues looming for the district, she said, “These decisions will impact students—especially students from South Los Angeles—for years to come. Although I supported an election, it appears an election cannot be held in time for these important funding deadlines, and there is no way that District One cannot have a representative in these critical decisions.”

Bass’s change in position suggests that anything could happen — even an appointment who is not McKenna.

A petition drive has been underway for weeks to urge the board to consider Jimmie Woods Gray, a former teacher and UTLA activist. She would have strong support from the teachers union, UTLA, which might view McKenna less energetically because of his stated support for policy positions advocated by Superintendent John Deasy.

Those pushing for an election have been joined by six of the nine members of the California Legislative Black Caucus, who have circulated a letter urging the school board to hold a special election. The signatories include Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, the supervisor’s son, who recently won a special election for a seat in the state Assembly.  A competing petition drive is also underway.

The pro-election forces may have gotten some encouraging news through Mark Ridley-Thomas, who asked the LA Board of Supervisor’s counsel’s office to analyze the options. In his response, County Counsel John Krattli said the school board has 60 days from the time the vacancy occurred to decide how to fill the seat, putting the deadline at February 3.

But without action by then from the board, the memo says “the county superintendent of schools must order an election” in accordance with the California Education Code and the California Elections Code.

Thus, any 3-3 vote that leaves the board deadlocked on appointment or election would default to an election.

The memo also says consolidating the election with the statewide election schedule for June 3 would pose an estimated cost of $623,000.

LaMotte, the only African-American on the board, held her seat for a decade, representing a district in which blacks now hold only a slim majority over a growing Latino community. The groups aligned with Waters and Ridley-Thomas are largely composed of African Americans.

No comparable coalitions have emerged from the Latino community.

*This version reflects a board decision today to remove limits on the number of people who can address the board prior to any action.

Previous Posts: Morning Read: LA Unified board waits until mourning; LA Unified board postponed until Jan. 7 a vote to fill LaMotte seat; Ridley-Thomas and Waters duke it out to fill LAUSD seat.

A 3-3 vote to consider the options effectively killed the motion to take up the matter four votes were required for passage. President Richard Vladovic, Tamar Galatzan and Monica Garcia voted to waive a rule that would have opened the door to immediate consideration, while Bennett Kayser, Monica Ratliff and Steve Zimmer voted against the waiver.

The board then voted unanimously to take up the issue at a special meeting on Jan. 7.

US Representative Maxine Waters

Just a day after US Representative Maxine Waters was actively pressing the LA Unified school board to appoint a candidate she favored to fill the vacant school board seat, she reversed herself today and is now urging the board to delay any action until next year.

As a press conference she said she is doing so out of respect for Marguerite LaMotte, the long-serving school board member, who died suddenly earlier this month.

In a statement she said if the school board acted today it is a “violation of African-American custom… before the conclusion of services and interment” of Marguerite LaMotte. 

The change of heart appears to be a signal that Waters and the groups that joined her in lobbying for the appointment of George McKenna (see story here) are facing the possibility they do not have the votes to win at today’s board meeting.

Here is the her full statement:

“In every way, Marguerite LaMotte was a model educator, advocate and dear friend. Our community is still coping with the loss of this important leader, who fought especially hard for students in underserved communities.

“That is why today, we are respectfully requesting that the LAUSD delay any action to determine how Ms. LaMotte will be replaced. Moving forward at this sensitive time is premature and would be hurtful to her family, friends and community, all of whom are still grieving.

“It is a violation of African-American custom and practice to replace, substitute or eliminate any position before the conclusion of services and interment. We have come here today out of respect for these traditions – and for Ms. LaMotte’s family – to ask the board to delay any motion until its next meeting.

“Marguerite LaMotte truly left her mark on all who knew her. Her presence in this building – and across Los Angeles – will be missed. I believe that after giving generations of our children so much, the very least we can do is properly celebrate her extraordinary accomplishments by delaying this vote.”

Foremost is the discussion and probable vote on how to fill the vacant District 1 seat. Marguerite LaMotte’s death on Dec. 4 has left the board with the options of filling the seat by board appointment or working with the city to hold a special election.

There are rational arguments for and against either choice, but with six people deciding, the prevailing side needs four votes. A 3-3 deadlock would require the board to keep voting until someone is persuaded to break.

Efforts by LA School Report last week to learn where members stand found that they appeared to be split, with President Richard Vladovic, Tamar Galatzan and Monica Garcia favoring a special election and Bennett Kayser and Monica Ratliff favoring an appointment. Steve Zimmer was said to favor an appointment, but he told the LA Times he’s undecided.

A chorus of voices that includes state and federal elected officials have expressed support for an election. Rep. Maxine Waters, whose Congressional district overlaps the LaMotte district, campaigned for an election at the First AME Church of Los Angeles last night. LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is urging people to show up at district headquarters tomorrow to rally for an election.

The most persuasive argument for appointing someone, as Kayser wrote in a commentary last week, is that staging an election would leave the seat empty for months. Also, an election that might require a runoff would cost the district more than $1 million.

One plan under discussion last week among state, city and union leaders was a compromise of sorts, in which the board would appoint an interim replacement to serve until an election could be scheduled in mid-2014 or when the next regular election for District 1 is scheduled, mid-2015. One name that has surfaced in such an arrangement is George McKenna, a former administrator in LA Unified and Inglewood Unified.

He was quoted in Sunday’s LA Times saying, “If the community indicates their support for me to replace a board member with whom I had a long relationship, I would consider that strongly.”

Unions tend to favor an appoint over an election as a safeguard against outside groups spending large sums to elect a pro-reform candidate – especially for a seat held by someone as close to the union as LaMotte was. Through Friday, the local teachers union, UTLA, did not respond to several messages seeking comment.

A second big issue before the board is the start of a debate that could make iPad discussions sound like child’s play.

The board will consider how to spend $7,852,970,000 that will become available for school repairs and safety upgrades.

That’s billions, not millions.

The money will come available through voter-approved Measure Q, a bond sale passed in 2008 but wasn’t begun as a consequence of the nation’s economic downturn.

With the financial landscape improving, the district’s Bond Oversight Committee has recommended starting the sale to address what was estimated in 2008 to be “more than $60 billion of needs” among district schools.

Superintendent John Deasy and his staff have developed “guiding principles” for how the money should be spent – the bulk of it, $4.3 billion, for renovations and repairs and $1.4 billion for specific programs, such as $402 million for charter schools, $324 million for network upgrades and $212 million to renovate cafeterias.

Developing those priorities was the easy part. The real fight begins when board members start competing for the dollars.

For now, the district’s Facilities Services Division is asking the board to approve the guiding principles, after which board members would begin their lobbying.

Finally, what’s an LA Unified board meeting without an iPad debate?

This time it arises through a resolution from Galatzan and Garcia urging the board to fast-track the latest board-approved plan — to start Phase 2 with 38 more schools receiving iPads and seven high schools receiving laptops to determine whether they are a better option than iPads for high school students.

An affirmative vote would keep the program moving.

Previous Posts: Commentary: To honor LaMotte, empower her community; In Replacing LaMotte on LAUSD Board, Zimmer is Key; Marguerite LaMotte, Long-Serving Member of LA Unified School; $7 Billion for Repairs, But LA Unified to Start With Much Less.

Well, probably not, but it is worth noting that what’s old is new again, as the deliberative process has returned, echoes of a bygone, pre-Monica Garcia as president time.

Back then, in the middle of the last decade, as many as 10 committees met often, some of them monthly and some of them even more. Who could forget the Committee on the Modified Chanda Smith Consent Decree Committee, which convened during the committee high-mark years of 2005 and 2006, when Board President Marlene Canter had 10 and 9 committees at hand.

When Garcia became president in 2006, the committee system waned, only for a rebirth under Richard Vladovic, who succeeded Garcia as president this year. After Garcia cancelled committees, Vladovic created them. Now there are 7, the most since 2007.

Do they make any difference in running the district? Depends whom you ask. Some board staffers argue they are little more than theater, giving members and the public a chance to express opinions that do little to influence policy. There is also the matter of extra work for staff, like finding someone to turn on the KLCS cameras for last week’s regular board meeting.

On the other hand, some regard committees as vital to running a school district second in size only to New York City’s. As chairman of the Common Core Technology Project Committee, Monica Ratliff raised the idea that high school students might be better served with new laptops rather than iPads. Now, district officials are examining the issue to see if she’s right.

The idea of committees is to provide a venue for deep-in-the-weeds policy discussion so that regular board meetings can proceed more smoothly.

Ever notice how long board meetings are going these days?

Maybe they need more committees.

Previous Posts: LA Unified board has another long day ahead for meetings; LA Unified Set for a Busy Afternoon of Committee Meetings; Vladovic Adds Committees, Doles Out Assignments

Only one item at the board meeting is open to the public: a motion to urge the US Army Corps of Engineers to adopt a new plan, called Alternative 20, to revitalize the LA River.

The rest of the session will take place in private, with board members and district lawyers discussing ongoing litigation, union contract negotiations and matters involving student discipline. District officials have declined to elaborate on any of it.

The Committee of the Whole will tackle the future of teacher preparation, training and education. Chairman Steve Zimmer has lined up several speakers including Barnett Berry, founder of the Center for Teaching Quality and author of “Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead but Don’t Leave.”

Finally, the next chapter of the district’s iPad plan continues as Monica Ratliff’s Common Core Technology Project Committee gets another round of updates and questions regarding the progress of the recently modified tablet plan.

Chief Information Officer Ron Chandler has been invited to talk about further funding of the project, Pearson’s curriculum applications, and parent education and liability. The CCTP will also discuss the testing schedule for Spring 2014.

Ratliff told board members last week that she had invited representatives from Pearson to answer questions about the company’s software loaded onto the iPads, but permission was denied by Apple, the iPad maker. Apple has the deal with Pearson, not the district.

The Committee of the Whole, which is the entire board by another name, meets at 1:30 p.m. The Common Core Technology Project meeting starts at 5:30 p.m.

And if you just can’t wait until tomorrow, Zimmer’s Adult Education Ad Hoc Committee convenes a session at 6:30 tonight.

Previous Posts: The LA Unified board voted to re-calibrate its push for technology; LA Unified Board will address two controversies, Vladovic and iPads.

iPads — for now.

The LA Unified school board re-calibrated its push for technology in the classroom last night, voting to continue into a second phase of its iPad plan but also to launch a pilot test of laptops among high school students. Further technology plans will depend on the outcome of a study.

The decision — approved by a 6-1 vote with Tamar Galatzan as the dissenter — culminated a long and impassioned debate about how fast to get computer devices in the hands of students who really need it. The 2 1/2 hour discussion, which ended an 8-hour board meeting, reflected sharp divisions between members who think it’s better to move swiftly, with iPads, and members who argue that different students require different devices. Members also expressed discomfort with the district’s deal with Apple and called for a reexamination of terms for future purchases.

The final resolution, adopted at 9 p.m., represented a merger of a plan offered by board member Monica Ratliff, which called for a more thorough evaluation of the iPad program and a delayed rollout of devices, and the scaled down Phase 2 rollout that Superintendent John Deasy submitted to the board several weeks ago.

Over the next several months, the district will distribute about 40,000 tablets across 35 elementary and middle school campuses. Another 30,000 will go to the district’s teachers, principals and administrators. And the administration’s procurement team will purchase keyboards for all elementary and middle school students so they can take the Smarter Balanced assessments in the spring.

And as Ratliff’s motion originally suggested, seven high schools will receive laptop computers instead of iPads, a possible prelude to laptops replacing iPads for high school students.

The meeting was also significant for its style. Board President Richard Vladovic, who survived an effort by Galatzan earlier in the day to censure him for bad behavior, played the Great Peace Maker during the iPad debate, making strong efforts to fashion a compromise whenever exasperated board members appeared ready to throw in the towel or resist budging from a position. Close to 8 pm, Marguerite LaMotte said the board was “trying to do too much” and suggested tabling the discussion for another day.

But Vladovic held firm. “We’re almost there,” he said several times, waving his arms as if to bring wandering children into the sandbox.

Gestures of peace were especially helpful during heated exchanges between Ratliff and Galatzan, who argued against more studies and wanted to pull the trigger on the deployment of more iPads in her own district. At one point Galatzan referred to Ratliff as “Ma’am” and said, “If we wait, it’s going to be insane.” When Galatzan complained that she didn’t understand some of the words Ratliff used in her resolution, Ratliff responded by saying she was “confident in [Galatzan’s] ability to read.”

Both Ratliff and Galatzan are lawyers.

Steve Zimmer also seemed to grow frustrated, bringing up the district’s contract with Apple, after saying “I didn’t want to go there.” But he went there anyway, as the debate delved deeper into intricacies of policy.

“Since the gloves are off and we’re being completely honest about this, I need to say that I don’t feel like we have the best contract,” he said, referring to a deal that is costing the district $678 for each iPad and the Pearson software on it.

“There is to me an inexplicable defense of this contract,” he continued. “I feel like I’m locked into a specific device and locked into a curriculum that may not be, one year from now, where we want to go.”

With Vladovic pushing for members to accept pieces of each other’s positions, Deasy stepped in to stitch the ideas together. It was the first time he participated in an expanded board discussion involving iPads since he sold his stock in Apple.

Deasy asked Monica Garcia to withdraw a resolution that would have given more iPads to schools only within her district—Galatzan had joined her in that approach. And he said he was “intrigued” by Ratliff’s idea to equip high school students with laptops. “If we move forward with that, we will be an industry leader on that piece,” he said.

By the end, the board had at least defined the near future. What lies beyond is uncertain, apart from the promise of more very long and probably contentious board meetings.

Previous Posts: Ratliff is seeking alternatives to using iPads in LA Unified’s future; LA Unified Board will address two controversies, Vladovic and iPads; LA Unified Board sees a digital future without Apple iPads.

At 1 o’clock, it’s the Curriculum and Instruction Committee, chaired by Marguerite LaMotte; followed at 3 p.m. by the Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee, led by Bennett Kayser; and at 5:30 by the Common Core Technology Project Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Monica Ratliff.

No telling how boisterous they might become during the public comment periods, given the number of hot-button issues unresolved, such as the district’s spending plan for the 2014-2015 academic year, Local Control Funding Formula issues and everybody’s current favorite pinata, the iPads, which now might cost an extra $100 each, according to a story in today’s LA Times. Members might also hear from some overwrought, overworked principals.

All in all, it could be quite a show.