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...

After the sudden death of LA Unified school board member Marguerite LaMotte nearly six months ago, her District 1 constituents have rallied inside and outside district headquarters, demanding representation on the board. Some wanted an immediate appointment to fill her seat. Others called for a special election. The latter group won out and tomorrow, residents...

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...

    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...

*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...

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...

Delegates of the LA County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, which represents 600,000 workers in the Los Angeles area, decided last night not to endorse any of the seven candidates for LA Unified school board after a motion to endorse candidate Alex Johnson failed to carry a required two-thirds majority vote. The decision mirrors that of...

Winning endorsement is one thing. Winning financial support is quite another. 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...

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...

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...