Thelma Melendez, Mayor Garcetti’s education deputy

Eight weeks ago Mayor Eric Garcetti named his new education deputy, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana. In that time, only a few people have any idea who she is what she does or how she’s going to do it.

She has met with various board members and some community groups in her official capacity as director of education and workforce, but all efforts to interview Melendez have been ignored or denied.

Marie Lloyd, a press assistant in Garcetti’s office, told LA School Report Melendez isn’t doing interviews.

Melendez has yet to make any public statements outlining goals for herself or staffer Abigail Marquez so it’s difficult to know with any certainty what her priorities are and how she will measure her own success.

Some things are known about her: she resigned from her previous post as Superintendent of Santa Ana Unified School District in Orange County rather abruptly and amid scandal. Before that, she served as an Assistant Secretary of Education under Arne Duncan, and she headed Pomona Unified for about three years.

Her ties to LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy go back to 2006 when both attended the Broad Superintendents Academy. Former superintendent Ray Cortines tried to lure her to LA Unified several years ago.

Through interviews with a few LA Unified school board members, it’s possible to sketch out only a rough picture of what she’s been up to.

It seems her resume has appeal across the ideological spectrum. School board members pushing for Deasy-style reforms, like Monica Garcia, and those against them, like Bennett Kayser, are excited to work with Melendez.

Garcia, who has known Melendez professionally for years, said she is thrilled with the idea of working alongside her even if Melendez’s role remains amorphous.

The two had one private meeting during which Garcia says Melendez outlined the need to raise graduation rates for Hispanic and English Language Learner students throughout the district.

According to Garcia, Melendez gave no indication she plans to meet with the school board as a whole or with any regularity.

“I think there’s a lot she’s trying to learn and catch up on, but I see her as a strong ally for the children of Los Angeles,” Garcia told LA School Report.

Similarly, Sarah Bradshaw, Kayser’s chief of staff, agrees Melendez is “taking this time to ask all the right questions.”

Bradshaw attended a brief meeting between Kayser and Melendez last week. Much of their time together was spent talking about improving “cradle to gainful employment” strategies, a reflect of Garcetti’s interest in job creation and economic development.

“The impression she gave us is that her focus is going to be on linking adult education, community colleges, and workforce programs to the district,” Bradshaw said. “I don’t think she’s going to be hands-on when it comes teaching strategies in the classroom or changing education policies.”

Kayser, who recently took part in an education funding conference in Oakland and San Francisco, is hoping Melendez will look at cross-services programs implemented in the Bay Area as a model for Los Angeles and LA Unified, Bradshaw said. For instance, the city of San Francisco pays for school police, not the local school district as is the case here. Students qualify for free transit and they have free access to the city’s museums in San Francisco.

“We want to work with her to get some of those types of services for our kids here,” Bradshaw said.

It’s unclear to what extent Melendez or Garcetti will be involved in the Partnership of Los Angeles Schools, which manages 22 schools within LA Unified and was founded by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2007.

“Every mayor will make the position their own,” said Joan Sullivan, CEO of Partnership of Los Angeles Schools, who served as education deputy under Mayor Villaraigosa.

Garcetti’s decision? Maybe some day Melendez will explain it.

Previous Posts: Melendez to Be Hired Under Unusual Salary Arrangement; The Buzz: Thelma Melendez Likely to Run Garcetti’s Education Team.

Abigail Marquez

When the LA Unified board meets in open session today, only one agenda item is listed for discussion: Abigail Marquez as Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nominee to the 15-member district Bond Oversight Committee.

If approved, which is expected, she would replace former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s representative on the board, Joan Sullivan, who also served as deputy mayor of education.

Marquez’s full time position with the city is as a member of Garcetti’s Education and Workforce team, working with his chief education appointment, Thelma Melendez.

The function of the committee, an all-volunteer group, is to advise the school board on how to spend voter-approved construction bonds. Usually that’s been limited to building projects, repairs, and modernization, but the committee recently approved $30 million for 47 schools in Phase 1 of the district’s iPad program.

A committee consultant, Tom Rubin, said Marquez’s appointment should go through without a hitch; candidates are thoroughly vetted by the district’s ethics committee before they come before the school board for approval.

Once Marquez is approved, Rubin said, he’ll get her up to speed on the issues before the bond committee, including the budget proposal for Phase 2 of the iPad program. The bond committee meets next on Oct. 30, when it will consider spending about $250 million in Phase 2, which would distribute iPads to another 300 LA Unified schools.

“She will definitely have the opportunity to weigh in on the final decision, if she so choses,” Rubin told LA School Report. “We have a lot of key questions, primarily about finance, that we have asked of the district that we are expecting to get answers next week.”

Previous Posts: The Buzz: Thelma Melendez Likely to Run Garcetti’s Education Team; Garcetti Makes First Education Appointment (updated)

Left to right: Eric Garcetti, Abigail Marquez and her husband, Carlo Marquez (via twitter)

Mayor Eric Garcetti has appointed Abigail Marquez as “the associate director of education and workforce,” his first education-related appointment.

Marquez, an enthusiastic supporter and fundraiser for Garcetti during his recent election, formerly served as East Area director (a sort of community liaison) for Garcetti’s predecessor, Antonio Villaraigosa.  She is also on the board of Legacy LA, a non-profit focusing on “youth development.”

{Update: Garcetti spokesman Yusef Robb said Garcetti plans to hire someone for a position above Marquez to be the Director of Education and Workforce. As for the fusing of those two, Robb said, “One of things Mayor Garcetti has emphasized is streamlining things and bringing things together. We want to see K-through-12 improved, we want to see job training improved. We want to bring people in these various agencies together. We think that [Marquez] is well positioned to that.”}

Garcetti has been in office for more than three weeks, yet he’s made few high profile appointments or announcements and has given no indication of how involved he’ll be in public education — until, perhaps, now. His staff has previously indicated that he’ll have fewer Deputy Mayors than his predecessor.

Villaraigosa’s tenure as mayor included two relatively high profile Deputy Mayors for Education, both with extensive education bona fides — Ramon Cortines, who had served as Superintendent for both the Los Angeles and New York City school districts; and Joan Sullivan, who had founded the Bronx Academy of Letters High School. She was recently named head of Villaraigosa’s Partnership for LA Schools. 

Marquez did not respond to a request for comment. A Garcetti spokesman confirmed the appointment but did not elaborate on what Marquez’s portfolio would include or why she was chosen for the job. The fact that her job title includes “and workforce” suggests she will have more responsibilities than just education and may simply be the Mayor’s designated liaison to the School Board.

Mayor Villaraigosa made influencing school board politics a top priority, raising prodigious amounts of money for board candidates and waging public battles with the teachers union. It’s unclear at this early juncture whether Garcetti intends to follow the same path.

Previous posts: Update: Garcetti Might Change City Hall Education Job; Garcetti’s Education Staffing Plans Unclear; Joan Sullivan to Head LA Partnership Schools