"I want to say how honored I am to be sitting in Jackie's (Goldberg) seat."Under the Brown Act, all deliberations by public agencies are supposed to be performed publicly. These strict rules state that "any gathering of a majority of board members that involves any aspect of the decision-making process triggers"open meeting requirements." This includes serial meetings where small groups discuss a topic and then continue the discussions separately with other governing body members, bringing the total number of members involved to a quorum. Staff members acting on the representatives' behalf are included in determining whether a quorum has been reached.
- LAUSD Board President Scott Schmerelson
Despite these rules, the LAUSD's Annual Meeting gave the appearance of Kabuki Theater with the Board pretending that the decision-making was being done publicly when the outcome was already ordained. Kelly Gonez started the process and nominated Scott Schmerelson. This was a solid choice as Schmerelson is the longest-serving member of the Board and he has decades of experience as an educator. However, Gonez and Schmerelson are on opposite sides of the divide between supporters of Public Education and those elected at the behest of the Charter School Industry. While serving as School Board President, Gonez rejected Schmerelson's requests to allow the Special Education Committee to meet during Covid lockdown.
As each member was called on, they either nominated Schmerelson or expressed a desire to do so. Even Tanya Ortiz Franklin, whose campaign was supported by the same people who financed the ethically challenged advertising against Schmerelson, stated that she wanted to nominate him. Scott even nominated himself.
According to the published agenda, the vote was supposed to be taken before the public was allowed to comment. However, this violation of the Brown Act was avoided when comments were taken out of order. My wife, Nicole, presented comments on my behalf:
With Ms. Newbill and Ms. Griego joining the Board, I hope that community engagement will again become a focus of the LAUSD. I supported them in the election because I believed they would be worthy successors to the veteran educators who served before them. Both of them also strongly support public education and have the ability to bring necessary change to this District.
One of the areas that need the most attention is how Special Education services are delivered. Parents are frustrated as it increasingly feels that they are not partners in the IEP process. Things have gotten so bad that last year the District locked the CAC out of participating in the process used to update the SELPA.
Ms. Newbill and Ms. Griego promised during their campaigns to sponsor and work for the passage of the proposed "Improving Special Education Within the LAUSD" resolution. Ms. Franklin has promised to look into the resolution. Dr. Rivas and Mr. Schmerelson have also expressed support during their campaigns for many aspects of this proposal. I look forward to working with this Board to ensure its passage so that children with Special Education needs can get the protections that they need.
With comments concluded, the Board voted unanimously without discussion to make Schmerelson the President of the Board. A similar process was then followed to make Rocio Rivas the Vice President.
According to the agenda, the next order of business was supposed to be the establishment of the committees. Not knowing that comments would be heard before this was done, I sent the following email in advance to the Board Members:
While I thank Board Member Schmerelson for his past service to the Special Education community through his leadership of the Special Education Committee, the continued deterioration of the relationship between parents and the LAUSD requires drastic action. This committee desperately needs new blood.
Incoming Board Member Karla Griego's 19 years of experience as a Special Education teacher makes her a perfect fit. I ask that the new President appoint her as the chair of this committee and allow it to meet monthly.
One of the priorities of the Special Education Committee should be to fine-tune my proposed "Improving Special Education Within the LAUSD" resolution. The District's most vulnerable students deserve these protections and I look forward to working with the Committee and this Board to ensure its passage.
As his first decision, the new Board President tabled the item until the next meeting. Hopefully, this will not mean that the assignments will have already been decided and simply rubber-stamped without an open discussion or public input. This would set a poor precedent for Schmerelson's presidency.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
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