Speak UP has conducted interviews with all of the 2020 LAUSD board candidates who responded to our candidate questionnaire for the March 3 primary. This is the third installment in the series of candidate interviews running on our 2020 Election Watch page. Speak UP has made no endorsements.

Dr. Christina Martinez Duran has an extensive resume as an educator, administrator, auditor and educational consultant for both traditional and charter public schools. She’s running in the March 3 LAUSD school board primary election against incumbent Jackie Goldberg to represent Board District 5, which includes Southeast and Northeast Los Angeles. She holds an undergraduate degree in accounting, a doctorate in educational leadership and administration, and she’s credentialed as a reading specialist, administrator and bilingual multiple subject educator. She has also worked as a special projects director for Compton Unified School District, which included parent advocacy projects. She volunteers her time evaluating schools seeking WASC [Western Association of Schools and Colleges] accreditation.

Speak UP: Tell us a little bit about yourself, and why you are running for school board.

Christina: I'm running because after seeing how our children and parents are being treated at a recent board meeting, I realize that we need our voices to be heard. Children have put their voices out there with pleas and concerns, and they've been ignored. Parents have been ignored and dismissed when they speak. And today, I feel that same urgency to step forward and be at the table on behalf of our children and families. I believe I will be the strongest leader for our students in District 5. I have lived in the district for 20 years. I have over 30 years of educational experience as a teacher and educator.

I feel that this is my calling. I grew up in a time when we were not allowed to speak Spanish in our school. We were sent home if we spoke Spanish. And sometimes I find myself feeling that challenge: “Can I speak Spanish? Is it okay to speak Spanish in this environment?” I totally believe that second languages should be encouraged. They are absolutely what our students need to expand on. It should not be a penalty or, “Oh my goodness, they're Long Term English learners or whatever.” We have to find another way to address our students who are learning English.

Speak UP: Do you think it's important that BD5 has a Latino representative or someone who speaks Spanish?

Christina: I believe that it's critical. As I went out picking up signatures [to qualify for the ballot], going from family to family, I have been able to hear their voices, hear them say, “Please represent us on this, we are asking you.” And then saying, "When you get there, don't forget us because we don't have a voice here in this area."

Speak UP: Do you have children attending public schools? How do you relate to parents in the district?

Christina: My children, I have two, and they're in their thirties. They went to public school, but not in LAUSD. And also, there was a time in there, a short time, where they were in private school.

Speak UP: How do you relate to those parents that you've been talking to? What do you have in common with them?

Christina: Wanting equity and respect for all students. I heard from many parents saying, "I want safety for our children at every level." They want social-emotional support. They want physical safety. They want wrap-around services. They want meal programs, the nutrition to be adequate, after-school programs, interventions, access to facilities and programs for special needs. You had parents actually crying that their students, who had special needs, were not receiving services that they needed. They're out there advocating, but no one's listening or hearing them. And IDEA is a law that says we, as a district, must provide those services.

Speak UP: How much can you relate to those parents in particular?

Christina: I have taught and continue to advocate for children with special needs. I decided to become a teacher soon after both of my children were identified as “gifted.” My experience with my son was perhaps the most life-changing experience, as he was referred to a Resource Specialist Program (RSP) without my knowledge. After the RSP teacher identified him as a “special needs” child, I took him to California State University Los Angeles and had an amazing dean of the education program, who was a special education specialist, assess him, and it was determined that my son had special needs, upper 2% (gifted). My son graduated from high school at age 15 and already had nearly 32 units from CSU Los Angeles. He is now an attorney.

As a parent, I sought learning opportunities in the community, and as an advocate, provided my students with resources. In most cases, the school community is committed to designing learning experiences that differentiate for different populations of students, including students with special needs, gifted and advanced students. Differentiated instruction does not imply that teachers must use a different curriculum, but that the complexity and depth of assignments differ to meet the student’s needs. I believe that the family connection is important to the success of the special needs student. That includes gifted students. Parents should be encouraged to collaborate with school leaders, teachers and children in order to present and develop the IEP [Individualized Education Program] that best meets their child’s needs.

Speak UP: What are your thoughts on the job that incumbent Jackie Goldberg has done so far? And how do you differ from her?

Christina: We have to look at funding and policy decisions so that the best interests of our students and families and our communities are made. So that means, I can't go over and misinterpret the law from Prop 39 [which says that all public school students, district and charter, must share equally in public school space]. I cannot call people criminals and deviants, and all these words that she's screaming out at people, because she wants them to make a [Prop 39 over-allocation fee] payment on the spot. Nobody can do that. Executive directors are not going in there with permission from their charter school boards to write the payment on a bill they received the day before they go before approval. But the demeaning attitude that is encouraged by Ms. Goldberg has been perpetuated among the other board members. I'm not saying Melvoin or Garcia participate in that, but the others did.

Speak UP: How do you think Goldberg relates to the Latino parents in her district?

Christina Martinez Duran speak to parents.

Christina: We need to move forward. We cannot keep living in the past, using racist remarks. We've moved away from that. Let's not go back.

Speak UP: What do you think needs to change in the way that the district interacts with parents?

Christina: We need to listen. We need to listen to what they're asking us and what their requests are. We need to look at what has worked, what has not happened and move the system forward. Whoever controls the purse strings controls the vision of the school. And if they [parents] don't have access, they don't have a voice.

Speak UP: Could you name other big issues that you think need to be addressed in LAUSD?

Christina: Equity and respect [for parents] would be my first. I believe in equity, access and respect for all people. This is about children, families and our communities. Funding and policy decisions must be made in the best interest of our students. Our federal funds, Title I, Title II, Title III, all of these funds are connected to [socio]-economics, students receiving free and reduced lunch. Are the students that are generating the money receiving the services? We have to put funds in those communities, for those children that generate it.

There's another key issue. The district does one complete, total LCAP, which is a Local Control Accountability Program. The schools never really interact with that. So, how do you know how your school is addressing the nine priorities that are set up in there? What voice do the schools have on how that spending takes place? A school in the Southeast is going to have different needs than the Northeast. So we have to look at the needs of our children attending those schools. It isn't a broad use of funds.

The other thing is the School Plan for Student Achievement or SPSA, which today is the Local Control and Accountability Plan or LCAP. The school is not involved in formulating these plans, and putting them into place and making choices as to how you're going to address the needs of those students. What do you have? You have a district decision on how these monies are going to be spent.

The third thing that I would work on is developing policy that would ensure a rigorous curriculum for all students, for college and careers. For [children in] foster care, and also, I'm very concerned about the homeless children population. With the federal funds we have to provide for homeless children, I want to see how that is being done.

Speak UP: What are the biggest issues you have heard from families in BD5 they’re facing currently?

Christina: They do hear that charters are taking the students from the schools. But I believe that the funding issue and the dialogue against charters is not true. Because on one point they're saying, "We like that we have choices, that we have magnet schools, that we have all these different options available to us. However, they are making us know that we need to compete with charters." It's not a charter issue. It is a birth rate issue. Yes, the population of students is dropping in a certain area, but that's due to birth rates. It's not due to charters being there. In fact, we're lucky that we have the charter schools to provide that enhanced learning.

Speak UP: What's your overall position on school choice?

Christina: I believe that students need to have school choice. You have students who are maybe more interested in art, in music, and a different type of environment. If we have these options, let's say there's a STEM opportunity, and they want to become a doctor. I think it enhances students' opportunity to grow in the areas they need to grow or want to grow in.

Speak UP: What would you do to help English learners, to make sure they have the same opportunities as other students in school?

Christina: Well, I believe that we have taken a negative approach to learning other languages. I think that we have to value language. There's dual immersion programs in different languages, offered in different district schools. Now, when they go to high school, normally, there aren't ELD courses that count towards graduation. I believe even the best academic settings need English support and writing. I don't think that students should be denied access to courses because they're English learners.

Speak UP: The district is also facing serious financial challenges. What would you propose to fix that problem?

Christina: I did look at some financial reports. One of the interesting things that I noticed was the audits that said that there was not enough information. Therefore, they cannot issue an opinion, which is really, really ridiculous. You have over 200, 300 pages of financial information, and then there is no opinion. The opinion normally is, they're solid, they can carry on, blah, blah, blah. No, it’s clear that there's a deficit. There was one report I saw...it showed a $1.46 billion deficit.

Speak UP: In your opinion, what needs to be done about it?

Christina: Increasing student enrollment alone would not solve the deficit projected. Even if you got all the kids from the charter schools, you would not solve that deficit.

You need to go line by line. Look at the spending, look at the programs, look at all the strings that are attached. All the strings attached to the programs, how can you spend it? What is allowable? What is not allowable? And reconfigure everything. Now, it takes everybody doing that, not just the central office. It would take every school in your community to make that happen. You would have to have leadership that would engage everybody in making those recoveries.

Speak UP: There was a recent battle over analyzing enrollment data at LAUSD to decrease segregation. The three UTLA backed board members initially opposed that attempt. What did you think about that?

Christina: Segregation is a true battle. Equity and access should be available to all children, and to segregate into White, Hispanic, Black, is not going to help anybody.

Speak UP: There was recently another battle over providing parents the data to compare how well schools are helping kids grow. What did you think of the School Performance Framework that would have allowed school ratings?

Christina: The difficult part of making sure that you have the right information out there is, you have to be sure that it's transparent, that there isn't a situation where you're manipulating information that goes out to the parents, but that it's consistent across the board. I don't know if you're aware, but charter schools get visited every year. When they're visited every year, they're given a rating for governance, for academics. I mean, there is a rating system for charters. Why can't our traditional schools be rated the same way?

We have this new AB 1505 [law] for charters. California will be using the five-by-five measurement of student performance. So that will be accessible to everyone. We also have five-by-five for LAUSD schools. All schools have that information. So there is a rating system right now. I think it has to be expanded on, with well-thought-out policies, and it has to be put into place. We can't just randomly say, "Let's just do this, lets..." No, it has to be transparent, and informative for all of us, for all parents, for all our community.

Speak UP: On the issue of funding, did you support Measure EE, and why do you think it failed?

Christina: I think it failed because of lack of confidence in the district. Also, there have been so many bonds that people are just skeptical. They're just afraid of, okay, I see this new bond coming on, and their tax is increasing.

Speak UP: Will you support the ballot measures to bring more funding into LAUSD in 2020?

Christina: I think we're going to need something. But I think that we have to carefully configure it. One of the first steps would be to decrease the polarization [around] the word “choice.” We need to help people understand, once again, that a win-lose proposition for children is not helpful, rather it's harmful. I would continue to seek and carve out win-win solutions, moving educational policies forward. My priority would be to work toward regaining public trust in LAUSD. And I think when we fight, when we argue publicly in the media, we send the message that everything is horrible in the L.A. educational landscape, and this is not true. There's some phenomenal work going on in our district.

Speak UP: How can the district attract more teachers to the profession and improve the quality of the teaching workforce?

Christina: We have to be sure that we provide resources to teachers. It's not just the salary, it's resources within the classroom, availability from leadership to make sure that teachers have what they need in teaching. So every school and every teacher needs to focus on ensuring that all students are attaining academic success. How do we do that? Collectively, we all work towards providing that. There's a lot of programs out there for anti-bullying efforts. And in creating our focus on equity for teachers, and resources for teachers, we have to also look at what our policies are for bullying of teachers, not just our children.

Speak UP: If there is a competition between the needs of adults and kids, will you put kids first?

Christina: Oh my god, absolutely! Kids have to be first. We have to put all the needs of our children first. You might hear that out in the community. The parents actually speak to that and say, "You know, we were promised this, and we were promised that, and there were no results." So, we do have to do what's best for our children in all aspects. By law, that's who we're there to serve, our children.

Electionwatch

Christina Martinez Duran, LAUSD Board District 5 Candidate: 'Parents Have Been Ignored and Dismissed'