Jackie Goldberg was sworn in as the new LAUSD Board Member in District 5 Tuesday and then immediately called on her supporters to hit the streets again to help pass Measure EE, the parcel tax that will raise $500 million a year for Los Angeles public schools, district and charter.

For a wealthy state like California to be in the low 40s in per pupil spending on education is unacceptable, Goldberg said. “In Yiddish we call that a shanda – a shame,” she said. “It is our duty, all of our duty. Those you who spent all of your time getting me elected, I need you now to spend all of your time on EE.”

Shortly after that unifying message for more funding, however, Goldberg turned her attention to complaining about bond funds that voters had specifically allocated to public charter schools to get co-located classrooms ready for kids or to build new school sites so they don’t have to share district facilities.

With veteran politician Jackie Goldberg returning to the LAUSD Board to represent District 5 nearly 30 years after she left, a majority-Latino district will now be run by a majority-white Board that remains bereft of any parents of school-age children.

Goldberg defeated L.A. Unified parent Heather Repenning 72-28 percent with a paltry 7.7 percent voter turnout. Her victory signals an increase in the power of United Teachers Los Angeles in the wake of the January strike, which could complicate the efforts of Superintendent Austin Beutner to rein in district spending at a moment when the County is threatening to take over.

“This is not the end, this is the beginning,” Goldberg told her supporters after initial results came in Tuesday night.

Because this was a special election to fill the seat vacated by Board member Ref Rodriguez, who resigned last summer, Goldberg will only hold the position for about a year before another primary election is held next March. BD5 includes gentrifying neighborhoods of Los Feliz and Echo Park, as well as overwhelmingly Latino Southeast cities of Huntington Park, South Gate, Vernon and Cudahy.

The loss of a Latino representative in District 5 means four of seven LAUSD Board members are now white, despite the fact that 90 percent of L.A. Unified students are kids of color.

“Congratulations to Ms. Goldberg. We hope and trust that she will focus her attention on improving the outcomes for the kids in her district who are least well-served by their local schools,” said Speak UP Founder and CEO Katie Braude. “And we hope she is sincere when she says the families in the Southeast won’t be ignored.”

Goldberg’s victory also poses a potential threat to the future of charter schools in Los Angeles and the 20 percent of L.A. students served by them, the vast majority of whom are low-income kids of color.

“The only reason I came out of retirement is that I can beat the people who are running the charter candidates,” Goldberg, who also served on the City Council and in the state Assembly, said early in her campaign. The California Charter Schools Association, which has been a main funder in previous school board races, chose not to fight Goldberg or endorse any candidate in the primary or the runoff.

Instead, the race shaped up to be a battle between two unions: UTLA, and SEIU Local 99, the union representing bus drivers, janitors, special education aides and cafeteria workers, which backed Repenning, a former deputy and close ally to Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Voters head to the polls Tuesday for a special election in LAUSD’s Board District 5, which has been without representation since last summer, when Ref Rodriguez resigned. The runoff between candidates Heather Repenning and Jackie Goldberg could mark a significant shift in the direction of the board.  

LAUSD is testing a prototype of a new system to evaluate the performance of all L.A. public schools based on student academic achievement, academic growth, school climate and college and career readiness. The School Performance Framework, which stemmed from a resolution the Board passed last April, will have a soft launch in June and is expected to roll out fully in the fall. 

The model being tested, which was unveiled to a stakeholder working group in April, places the greatest weight (40%) on growth in students’ math and English scores on Smarter Balanced (SBAC) standardized tests.

“Growth is a large portion of the School Performance Framework, and that came directly from feedback at stakeholder meetings,” said LAUSD’s senior executive director of strategy and innovation, Derrick Chau, who has been leading the working group made up of labor leaders, district staffers, parents, school leaders and education nonprofit leaders, including Katie Braude, the executive director of Speak UP. “Folks wanted to make sure that schools receive credit for helping students improve.”

Board Member Kelly Gonez (BD6) said that part of her impetus for authoring the School Performance Framework resolution was to address the fact that the California School Dashboard doesn’t measure student academic growth. 

“Some of our schools have incoming students who are behind, but achieve multiple years of learning [in a single year] once at their new school,” she said. “Progress should absolutely be recognized and celebrated. The School Performance Framework emphasizes student growth so that our schools are meeting students where they are, and we are not penalizing schools serving our highest-needs populations of kids.” 

African American parents and students raised their voices at the LAUSD Board meeting Tuesday in support of resolutions that passed unanimously to boost the academic achievement of African American students and to consider giving students age 16 and above the right to vote in school board elections.   

Speak UP parent Tunette Powell, an educator and mom to three Black boys from South Los Angeles, advocated for the resolution from Board Members George McKenna (BD1) and Kelly Gonez (BD6) to help close the academic opportunity and achievement gap for African American students. But Powell described the problem as an “education debt” and urged the board to provide the financial, staff and policy investments needed to make it work.

“This nation took from African Americans and has not given back or made the direct investments necessary,” Powell said. “If we want to do something different and change the tide, as a district we will have to admit and accept the debt, and begin making investments to pay the debt off.”

Only 32 percent of African American students met or exceeded standards in English Language Arts last year, and only 20 percent in math, compared to 42 percent in English and 32 percent in math for all other student groups. African American students are disproportionately identified for special education services and are under-represented in gifted and talented programs. African American students also receive 26 percent of all suspensions, even though they make up just 8 percent of the student population.

The resolution calls for a five-year action plan with “academic and social emotional supports” to lift achievement for African American students. Several speakers urged the board to add teeth to the resolution with more specific outcome benchmarks and oversight.

LAUSD Board on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution to create an Independent Taxpayer Oversight Committee to report on the spending of any funds generated by measure EE, the proposed school parcel tax that voters will consider on June 4.

The committee will be tasked to report on whether parcel tax funds are spent for the purposes outlined in the measure, whether they’re spent equitably and whether they lead to better student achievement, more college readiness and fiscal stability at LAUSD. An independent audit firm will report on how funds are spent by the district and independent charter schools.

Los Angeles County Office of Education Superintendent Debra Duardo is once again warning LAUSD that the County may step in and take decision-making authority away from the LAUSD Board if it fails to adequately address concerns about fiscal solvency and submit a budget that maintains the required minimum reserve funds.

The sternly worded letter from LACOE is the latest in a series of warnings from the agency that oversees LAUSD’s budget, which took the unprecedented step in January of assigning a team of fiscal experts to help. The letter also arrives as voters consider whether to support a parcel tax on the June ballot to increase school funding.

LACOE gave LAUSD a "qualified certification," citing district failure to address deficit spending, which has led to a "distressed financial condition." LACOE also cited "inattention" to LAUSD's $15.2 billion unfunded retiree healthcare liabilities (the promises made to future retirees, which the district has not set aside money to pay for) and its "inability to consider long-term effects of collective bargaining agreements."

The LAUSD Board at last month’s meeting approved a Fiscal Stabilization Plan that included a 15 percent reduction in central office staff, but the budget the district submitted to the County still fell $3 million short of balancing the budget and maintaining the required 1 percent reserve fund through the 2020-21 school year. 

The budget projections get even worse the following year. Unless a parcel tax passes, LAUSD is expected to have $749 million less than it’s required by law to keep in the bank by 2021-22.

LACOE is requiring LAUSD to work with its fiscal expert team to submit a new Fiscal Stabilization Plan by July 1 that shows a balanced budget with the required minimum reserves in the bank for the next three years.

“The District continues to demonstrate indicators of fiscal distress that must be addressed,” Duardo’s letter said. “Should the Governing Board fail to address all concerns identified in this letter, or fail to submit a 2019-20 Adopted Budget that meets the minimum reserve in any fiscal year, the County Superintendent is prepared to take further action that may include … assigning a Fiscal Advisor with stay and rescind authority over Governing Board actions.” 

That threat means the County could take over, remove local control from the LAUSD Board and start making unilateral cuts.

Unless Los Angeles voters support a parcel tax in June, LAUSD will fall $749 million below the required 1 percent reserve levels during the 2021-22 school year, according to projections from LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Scott Price.

Price presented the latest incarnation of LAUSD’s required “fiscal stabilization plan” to the LAUSD Board Tuesday, which voted 4-1 to approve it. Board Member Scott Schmerelson (BD3) voted no, and George McKenna (BD1) abstained.

That plan was required by the Los Angeles County Office Of Education to show that LAUSD can balance its budget for the next three years. It includes a 15 percent reduction in central office staff at LAUSD’s Beaudry headquarters and in local district offices.

One of the positions listed on the chopping block is the deputy superintendent of schools currently occupied by Vivian Ekchian. That cut alone would save $300,000. It’s unclear whether Ekchian, who served as interim superintendent before Superintendent Austin Beutner was hired, will leave the district or take another position at LAUSD.

She did not return an email seeking comment, and Senior Executive Director of Finance and Policy Pedro Salcido said LAUSD is focused on reducing budgets on specific offices by a targeted amount rather than eliminating specific individual jobs. “There are still decisions being made on central office staff and what that will look like,” Salcido said. “But as you are making reductions in offices, one of the better ways to couch it is in positions, but it doesn’t exactly mean that it will translate into elimination of a deputy superintendent.”

While cutting bureaucratic staff at LAUSD’s Beaudry headquarters, the district is planning to drive more money to school sites, where students may see benefits in reduced class sizes, more nurses, counselors and librarians – all changes that United Teachers Los Angeles pushed for in its new contract.

“We are investing in schools,” Price said. “Those are the benefits those parents will see in each of their local schools.”

The current fiscal stabilization plan and the required three-year budget forecast will take the district through the year 2020-21, and even with the plan in place, LAUSD is projected to fall $3 million below the required reserve amount in 2020-2021. But in June, LAUSD will be required to show its plan for the following school year, too, and at that point LAUSD will move deep into the red unless new revenue is found or more cuts are made.

If the Measure EE parcel tax passes, it will add an estimated $350 million a year to the bottom line of LAUSD (and some smaller amount to independent charter schools) starting next January. That would reduce some of LAUSD’s persistent financial problems. “It would change the dialogue of this district,” Price said.

The LAUSD Board will vote on a resolution Tuesday to give principals more power to choose teachers that best fit their schools and to ensure that teachers are not forced to take assignments at schools against their wishes.

It’s long past time LAUSD ended forced hiring, and the Board should pass this resolution from Board Members Nick Melvoin (BD4) and Richard Vladovic (BD7) in order to help improve both school performance and teacher morale.

“I’ve heard consistently from parents and principals, they want the autonomy to choose the teachers that are right for that school,” Melvoin told Speak UP. “The most important factor in the quality of a kid’s education is the quality of the teacher. School site leaders have a vested interest in making sure they have effective teachers. If you just empower that group of people and let them choose great teachers, instruction will improve.”

The Board already recognized the importance of hiring the right teachers to turning around low-performing schools when it decided last June to exempt the bottom 25 percent of schools from being forced to accept must-place teachers they didn’t want. But there are many schools above the bottom 25 percent where students are also struggling to succeed. No school should be forced to accept teachers that are not a fit, and this resolution would codify the policy across the entire district.

Melvoin also believes that happy teachers are more effective teachers, and principals at low-performing schools have confirmed that teachers who are forced to work at a school against their will rarely do a great job. Principals often prefer substitutes to must-place teachers.

“The idea is to respect teachers as professionals and not put them where they don’t want to be teaching,’ Melvoin said. “A teacher is going to be happier if they’re at a school they want to be at. Happier employees are usually more productive.”  

It was a dark day Tuesday for supporters of school choice. Despite thousands of parents, students and educators rallying against a resolution calling on the state to impose a charter moratorium, LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia stunned her longtime supporters with a yes vote, guaranteeing its passage.

The resolution was part of a backroom deal that Superintendent Austin Beutner and some board members made with UTLA to end its week-long strike. Only Board Vice President Nick Melvoin (BD4) stood up for the rights of kids and voted no.

“We’re talking about telling families living in poverty that…they’re out of luck because they don’t have the options that families like mine had,” he said. “That’s about the least progressive thing I can imagine. Let’s be clear: we’re not talking about a moratorium on private schools, which educate 10 percent of the city’s students, and we’re not talking about limiting people’s ability to buy homes in more affluent neighborhoods or to go to magnet schools—many of which are explicitly creaming based on being gifted.”  

The resolution calls on the state to impose a temporary ban on new charter schools while their impact on the district is studied. Its chief sponsor, Board Member Richard Vladovic (BD7), amended his resolution Tuesday to place an 8-to-10-month time limit on the moratorium, which won’t be enacted unless the state legislature passes it and the governor signs it.

The LAUSD Board will vote Tuesday on a resolution from Board member Richard Vladovic (BD7) calling for a moratorium on new LAUSD charter schools and a statewide study to consider policy changes related to charter co-locations, the fiscal impact of charters and facilities management.

It calls on the state to create a moratorium on new charter schools and asks the LAUSD superintendent to find out whether a ballot initiative would be needed to put an end to all new charters within LAUSD boundaries. It also calls for a study on the financial impact of charters on LAUSD – with a goal toward potential policy changes that could result in LAUSD gaining the power to shut down all high-performing charter schools simply because they successfully compete for students with traditional LAUSD schools.

Furthermore, it calls for study of co-locations and facilities management – again with the end goal of calling for policies that could potentially deprive charter children of the right to equal use of public school space.

The resolution upset both district and charter parents who support school choice, who immediately began mobilizing to advocate for its defeat. Jennifer McKay, who has two kids at her LAUSD neighborhood school, signed Speak UP’s petition opposing the resolution.

 “This must be so stressful for many of my friends,” she said. “I am 100 percent on board with improving district schools, but certainly not at the expense of children currently enrolled in a place where they are happy or preventing parents from choosing for their own child what works best. I’m saddened to see this may be [causing] further division among parents.”

The strike is finally over, and parents are breathing a huge sigh of relief that kids will be back in school with their teachers Wednesday. However, parents expressed deep disappointment with a deal that accomplished only minor class size decreases and underscored what was apparently UTLA’s main mission all along: to limit parent choices.

“The small tangible gains they made, do not feel like it was worth a strike,” said Fang Huang, a parent at Broadway Mandarin Immersion program in Venice. “The gains were more in the political arena. It doesn’t seem like they gained that much for students.”

Teachers received the same 6 percent raises that LAUSD had been offering for months, and while UTLA got rid of a clause allowing LAUSD to unilaterally increase class sizes, that also had been offered before the strike began. The deal only decreases class sizes by one student this year, one student next year and by two students in 2021-22 (contingent, perhaps, on the public passing a parcel tax).

While it’s illegal for LAUSD to bargain charter school policy as part of contract negotiations, it looks like that’s exactly what happened. In order to end the strike, UTLA appears to have held the district hostage and is forcing the Board to introduce a resolution next Tuesday calling on the state to cap the number of new charter schools until their impact could be studied at the state.

It’s unclear whether the resolution has enough votes to pass -- and whether a vote on the new UTLA contract would be derailed if the charter resolution does not. Even if it does pass, only the state can place a cap the number of charters, not LAUSD.

Nevertheless, parents saw it as a blatant power grab by the union and a clear attempt overturn the results of the democratic school board elections in 2017, in which voters elected board members who were supportive of school choice. Parents are now gearing up for a battle -- potentially with Board members they had thought were in their corner.

“I’m infuriated,” said Roxann Nazario, a parent at a charter school in Board District 6 who campaigned for Board Member Kelly Gonez, who did not respond to calls or emails asking for her position on the charter cap resolution. “We elected her to protect us from this exact situation. I really hope she would never vote for this.”

UTLA’s decision to keep teachers on the picket lines and out of schools Tuesday, regardless of whether a deal is struck Monday night, infuriated parents and could cost teachers and the district a total of more than $45 million in losses.

“It is important to know, whether or not we reach an agreement late tonight, we will NOT be going to work,” UTLA wrote on its Facebook page. “Report to picket lines as usual in the morning on Tuesday.”

The patience of parents who had been trying to support the teachers was starting to wear thin.

“If they make a deal, what’s the point in still striking?” said Tanisha Hall, who has two kids at Washington High, one at Bret Harte middle school and one at 95th Street elementary in South L.A.. “This is super irritating. I need these kids back in school.”

While UTLA said that teachers needed to ratify the tentative agreement before ending the strike, some observers said there was no reason they had to do that. The decision means that teachers will lose pay for both the Monday holiday and Tuesday – costing every teachers an additional $20 million and costing LAUSD around $25 million.

That means the total losses could top $45 million for keeping teachers out of the classroom an extra day.

Some questioned whether the real reason was that UTLA had another celebrity-filled rally planned for Tuesday that it didn’t want to cancel. A UTLA flyer posted on social media advertised: “Invited Guest: Alyssa Milano” and musical performances by Quetzal and DJ Phatrick.

Parents noticed that UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl spent Friday in the audience of Bill Maher’s show rather than at the negotiating table.  

“I’m with the teachers getting a fair shake, but not if they’re striking for publicity,” Hall said. That’s foolish and irresponsible.”

With net losses at the district topping $75 million Friday, the union representing LAUSD principals – who have borne the brunt of running schools and supervising kids with skeleton staffs all week – called for an end to the teachers strike, saying UTLA’s demands would “castrate” principals.

“The time has come for the strike to be settled and for teachers to return to the classroom immediately, if not sooner,” Associated Administrators of Los Angeles wrote in its weekly newsletter. AALA also said UTLA’s demands would “usurp” control over school decision-making from principals, including all school expenditures.

“AALA is vehemently against UTLA’s proposals to castrate the little to almost no decision-making authority principals currently have," AALA wrote. “Great schools do not exist apart from great leaders. AALA must go on record petitioning the District to protect the little autonomy principals and assistant principals currently have," or it will become "nearly impossible to meet the needs of the students."

As a day of bargaining at the mayor’s office came to a close with no resolution in sight, Board Member Richard Vladovic put out an almost panicked statement on social media, indicating that perhaps LAUSD should just give UTLA what it wants to end the strike – even though it would result in insolvency.

“I can no longer take the suffering that is taking place by everyone that has been disrupted by this work stoppage,” Vladovic said. “Therefore, I have decided that the District should do anything reasonable to settle these contract demands…Without the support of our Legislature, the Governor, and our labor partners, this District may cease to exist due to bankruptcy, jobs may be lost; and at that stage, I wish whoever succeeds me on the Board of Education has the necessary solutions to address this crisis.”

As LAUSD and UTLA returned to the negotiating table Thursday, student attendance plummeted 37 percent from the day before to its lowest level yet, and the district’s net losses from the strike grew to $57 million.

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and Superintendent Austin Beutner met briefly with Mayor Eric Garcetti to set some ground rules Thursday, and then both men decided to delegate talks to their bargaining teams. The two sides continued to negotiate at City Hall, with the mayor’s staff mediating until shortly after midnight. Talks resume at 11 a.m. Friday and are expected to last through the weekend.

Caputo-Pearl said both sides had agreed to keep the details of the talks confidential, but the sticking points were over class sizes, charter co-locations and hiring. “I would not frame it as us being close to each other,” he said, but “we’ve made an agreement to grind this out until we get an agreement.”

After facing pressure from black clergy and business leaders, UTLA is returning to the negotiating table Thursday, with Mayor Eric Garcetti attempting to mediate a solution.

“We will be in bargaining tomorrow,” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, who met with Garcetti and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond on Wednesday. Talks are likely to continue into the weekend, he added.

In a strongly worded letter sent Wednesday, more than 20 African-American clergy members urged Caputo-Pearl to get back to the negotiating table, saying “the fortunes of African American children do not improve on the picket line."