Community College Trustees to Focus on Students, Partnerships

The Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees swore in four newly elected members last week and chose former community college teacher and labor consultant Kelly Candaele as the board’s president.

Candaele, 45, said his priorities for the coming year include building partnerships with businesses, labor and the Los Angeles Unified School District. He also promised to launch a new long-term planning effort for the district’s nine colleges.

The district’s “primary focus is on our students,” Candaele said after he was unanimously voted in as president. “We sometimes lose track of what we are doing in the day-to-day details. The fact is, tens of thousands of people’s lives are changed by what we do.”

Sworn in to four-year terms were newly elected trustees Mona Field, a Glendale College teacher and president of that college’s faculty union; Warren Furutani, a Gardena businessman who has been serving as a senior staff member for Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa; Sylvia Scott-Hayes, a Cal State L.A. professor; and incumbent Georgia Mercer, who was elected vice president of the board.

The ceremony at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College followed a speech by outgoing president Beth Garfield touting the district’s improving finances.

Garfield, who remains on the seven-member board, credited college presidents, district employees and board members for carrying out reforms resulting in a $20-million turnaround. Although problems remain, “we can look back on this year as one of our best,” she said.

Candaele said more needs to be done to encourage local employers to support the community colleges. “Often, all we have to do is ask. We need to do more asking,” he said.

Meanwhile, local colleges need to assume more control over curriculum, hiring and graduation requirements as part of the continuing effort to decentralize, he said.

He promised to create a strategic planning committee to look ahead “five, 10, 15 years,” so that the board can “spend at least as much time on broader policy questions as on personnel issues.”

The district also will be looking into new partnerships with Los Angeles public schools, Candaele said, possibly involving high-school “academies” on community college campuses.