Different crowds address varied concerns in L.A. school board races

In the home stretch before the May 16 vote, two very different audiences focused on very different concerns at campaign forums for pivotal Los Angeles school board contests.

The first, sponsored by United Way of Greater Los Angeles, handed over the gavel and much of the organizing to its Young Civic Leaders Program. There were probably few voters among the packed crowd of about 200 on Saturday, but students’ questions came from their direct experience in schools. A central goal was to get candidates to commit to putting more counselors on campuses.

Two days later, when parents and community members gathered at Palisades Charter High School, a key theme was privately operated public charter schools and their status within the Los Angeles Unified School District. The unavoidable, underlying campaign dynamic was charter advocates versus the teachers union, which, together, have spent millions of dollars to stuff mailboxes, make calls and pound doors.

The Saturday forum took place on the 30th floor of the United Way’s downtown offices on Olive Street. About 20 high school students — from the Hamilton, RFK, Sun Valley, Cortines and Orthopedic campuses — had prepared questions. To fill the hall, buses and vans brought in students, mostly Latino, from those and other schools, including some middle schools.

The first question compared the money spent on counselors to the larger budget for school police. How did this square with the candidates’ priorities?

The answers were predictable and set the tone: Candidates told students pretty much what they wanted to hear, and they didn’t get much pushback, except for exceeding the allotted speaking time.

Despite a bitterly negative campaign waged through outside groups, the candidates avoided rancor. Still, the setup, with all of them answering each question, sometimes made it seem like three against one — because school board President Steve Zimmer, the lone incumbent, was the only one to defend district progress. L.A. Unified was a fat target for the others (Nick Melvoin, who is running against Zimmer in a Westside/west San Fernando Valley district, and Imelda Padilla and Kelly Gonez, who are running against each other in the east Valley).

Melvoin, Padilla and Gonez each proclaimed that they’d hire more counselors.

Zimmer said he hoped to get more funding for counseling, but said the numbers comparing police and counselors were misleading because they did not include counselors hired through schools’ discretionary money. He also said he didn’t see counselors and police as a zero sum game; there needed to be enough of each.

Asked how hard candidates would work on behalf of students from families with unauthorized immigrants, all the candidates assured them: very hard.

Students also asked how candidates would help make sure all high school graduates were eligible for admission to Cal State and the University of California (a longtime advocacy goal of United Way) and about preparation for meaningful careers.

The students asked no questions about money squandered on iPads, a balky student records system or the handling of employee sexual misconduct. Nothing about underfunded retiree health benefits. Not one question about charter schools.

But the candidates knew they were talking to a potentially larger audience through Facebook Live or online video replay. So without being asked, Melvoin listed the amounts spent on mishandled technology projects and sexual misconduct settlements.

Padilla and Gonez appealed to students in part through their personal stories.

Padilla noted that she is the only candidate who attended public schools in her district throughout her childhood, during which she overcame rickets (needing surgery to straighten her legs) and gang influences. (Her brother, she told the students, was not so fortunate and is currently in prison).

Gonez told students that she worked three jobs to get through UC Berkeley and that the strain nearly drove her to drop out. Instead, she became a teacher. Her mother, she said, had faced discrimination as an immigrant from Peru.

Two nights later, Zimmer and Melvoin faced off in Pacific Palisades, a short, downhill drive from the ocean, before a largely white audience. Melvoin again hammered on technology debacles and settlements as evidence of an unacceptable status quo even though those issues did not come up in questions.

They have, however, been persistent themes in an independent campaign on his behalf by charter-school advocates, which stretches the facts to pile blame on Zimmer.

Melvoin also defended himself against a pro-Zimmer independent campaign funded by the local teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles. Among other things, that campaign has tried to link Melvoin, a Democrat, to President Trump and his controversial Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. That’s because all three support charter schools.

At the forum, Melvoin made a distinction between the nonprofit charter schools he supports and for-profit and low-performing versions that he linked to DeVos and Trump.

As a school that converted to charter status, Pali High was potentially unfriendly turf for Zimmer, but the audience of about 100 mostly contained itself. Zimmer emphasized that L.A. Unified has more charters than any other school system. The district’s strong oversight of charters, he said, has prompted complaints but it also has helped ensure high-quality schools that serve students well.

howard.blume@latimes.com

@howardblume