Silke Bradford has worked as a teacher, assistant principal and principal in South L.A. and Compton. She currently works as a charter school authorizer in the Compton Unified School District, a position she previously held at the Los Angeles County Office of Education and Oakland Unified. She has a doctorate of education in leadership and policy, and she successfully advocated for the state assembly to mandate that charter schools serve free and reduced lunch to low-income students. She’s running for school board in District 7, which runs from South L.A. down to San Pedro.

Speak UP: Tell us who you are and why you’re running for school board.

Silke Bradford: I'm a lifelong educator. I started in education while in college, working with the [California] Special Education Hearing office, which was personal because my brother had Down Syndrome. Teaching became my focus because one of my professors was a principal [who] created a position for me. In Stockton, I was an in-school suspension teacher, in response to the Office of Civil Rights rulings about over-suspension.

What I found, at 21, arriving at a middle school in South Stockton, was that the kids were being made to copy dictionary pages. I get into Ed code about in-school suspension, make copies, go to the next faculty meeting. I was like, “I just wanted to let you guys know that Ed code says that when students are in suspension, they can not only make up the work that they're missing, but also the assessments.”  

They were not getting an education, and it almost became a reward. “Oh, you don't want to be held accountable and be in class? Go to in-school suspension, where you can hang out with your other friends.” My Dad was in the military. He was never rigid, but for some reason as a teacher, I was like, “OK, everyone has to sit separately. We're going to walk single-file from the cafeteria to the library. You cannot talk to your friends, the most you can do is a head nod.” I was going overboard, as a 21-year-old teacher, but interestingly, it was a success. I also did home visits. That really had an impact. Except two kids who kept coming. I'm like, “Why are you here again? ” They said, “Miss, I get more work done at in-school suspension than I do in my classroom.” 

Mike Lansing, CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor, worked as an educator for more than 17 years and represented District 7 on the LAUSD school board from 1999-2007. He is running for the open seat to replace retiring School Board president Richard Vladovic, representing San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Lomita, Gardena, Carson, Florence and Watts.

Speak UP: Can you tell us about yourself and why are you running for school board again? 

Mike: Sure. I was born and raised in San Pedro, graduated from San Pedro High School, business finance undergraduate degree, and then earned my teaching credential and Masters in School Administration here at Cal State Dominguez Hills while working full-time. Seventeen plus years as an educator. Middle School Math teacher, athletic director, assistant principal. The last 25 years, I've been the CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor. 

We've grown from one site when I started to 20 sites now. We focus on the kids that need us the most. My nonprofit experience has been around academic support for mainly students of color and poverty-level students: 95% of my members are children of color, and 85% of them are free and reduced lunch eligible. We built programs, the main one being our College Bound program, which is a college pathway support program. We focus on high school kids because I truly believe we're not putting enough effort and resources to help them finish that first leg of their race, which is high school graduation, and then, what's the plan beyond?

My whole life has been working for children. I'm running because the school district is facing some serious challenges both fiscally and in terms of the amount of resources we're prioritizing for our students, especially students in some of our most disenfranchised communities.  

Either we make some really tough and correct decisions over the next three to five years, or the district could find itself bankrupt. We need people on the school board that are willing to stand up for students first and make tough decisions. This is not a stepping stone for another position. I think I was a voice of reason when I was on the school board previously, and I hope to bring that back to what is probably one of the most dysfunctional boards I've seen in a long time. We're talking about charter schools when we have so many other issues that are real issues. We have to change that voice and that dynamic.  

Voters will decide on four LAUSD school board seats, including the seat in District 1, where Board Member George McKenna will appear alone on the ballot but will face a write-in candidate, Michael Batie, president of the Los Angeles Council of Black Engineers. Batie filed as a write-in candidate after parent challenger Tunette Powell determined there was no legal path to getting on the ballot and declined to launch a write-in campaign herself.

Five candidates are running for an open seat in District 7 currently held by Board President Richard Vladovic, who is retiring. Incumbents Scott Schmerelson (BD3) and Jackie Goldberg (BD5) are also running for reelection.

Like McKenna, Goldberg has only one challenger, educator Christina Martinez Duran, so the races in BD1 and BD5 will be decided in March. If no one gets 50% of the vote in board districts 3 or 7, though, then runoffs will be held on Nov. 3, the same day as the presidential general election.

Previous school board races have not aligned with presidential elections, and turnout typically has been low. In a huge Blue Wave presidential election year, turnout is expected to surge in 2020, and the outcome could shape the direction of the school board for years to come.

In fact, we’ve seen that a change in just one board seat can dramatically alter the course of the board. The addition of Goldberg this year, for instance, led to the board dismantling a new system to let parents know how well all schools are serving kids on the eve of its launch, which the board had supported in a 6-1 vote just last year.  

Here’s a look at the new candidates who have qualified for the ballot:

Parents Tunette Powell and Kenchy Ragsdale plan to challenge the Los Angeles City Clerk’s decision this week that their signatures were insufficient to qualify for the ballot in their LAUSD school Board races.

If Powell’s challenge falls short, the incumbent District 1 Board Member George McKenna will run unopposed in 2020.

“We are planning to fight the City Clerk’s insufficient decision today,” Powell posted on Facebook. “We sincerely believe that the District 1 incumbent should not run unopposed. We owe it to our Village to fight. And we will.”

Powell turned in 663 signatures last Monday, two days before the filing deadline, but did not hear back from the City Clerk for an entire week that just 378 them were valid. She needed 500 to qualify. Had the City Clerk reviewed her petitions sooner, she may have had time to gather more signatures before the Dec. 4 filing deadline.

In fact, one City Council candidate, Bill Haller, filed his signatures the same day as Powell, learned the next day that they were insufficient and had time to gather enough additional signatures to get on the ballot.

Ragsdale learned Wednesday evening that he had fallen just eight signatures short of qualifying in his race against incumbent Scott Schmerelson in District 3. "I'm just stunned," Ragsdale told Speak UP. "We worked so hard, and to fall eight signatures short seems unfathomable. We’re going to examine every possible legal option to challenge this decision. The stakes are just too high to give up when the needs of L.A.’s kids are so great.”

He pointed out that congressional candidates need just 40 signatures to get on the ballot if they pay a fee of $1,700, he said. “How is getting on the ballot to give the kids of Los Angeles a better chance at an education more difficult than qualifying to run for Congress?” Ragsdale asked.

Two other candidates in District 3, Marilyn Koziatek and Elizabeth Bartels-Badger, did qualify for the ballot in the race against Schmerelson.

The City Clerk will release a final candidate list on Monday, Dec. 16. The only way a candidate can contest the ballot qualification decision is through legal action, said a spokeswoman for the City Clerk’s office.

“We won’t let this stop us,” Powell told Speak UP in an interview. “Whatever we have to do, we are committed to doing. Our village deserves more, deserves a candidate who really is here for the people. That hope for something better is where the fight in me lies.”

Powell, whose kids attend LAUSD’s Baldwin Hills elementary, is a doctoral candidate at UCLA in Urban Schooling and program director of the UCLA Parent Project, focused on building parent engagement among historically marginalized parents of color.

Ragsdale is the father of a child with special needs and the founder of the Kids Not Politics education advocacy organization. He serves as treasurer of the board of iLead California and president of the board of the foundation supporting his child’s school, Santa Clarita Valley International Charter.

Teacher Maria Del Pilar Avalos learned on Tuesday that her signatures were also insufficient to qualify for the ballot in District 5. However, Christina Martinez Duran has qualified to run against incumbent Jackie Goldberg.

 All five candidates who filed petitions to run for the open seat in District 7 have qualified for the ballot: Mike Lansing, Silke Bradford, Tanya Ortiz Franklin, Patricia Castellanos and Lydia Gutierrez.

Despite 80 percent public support for the United Teachers Los Angeles strike in January, voters on Tuesday decisively rejected Measure EE, the parcel tax that was needed to pay for promises made to settle the strike, including lower class sizes and more hiring of nurses, counselors and librarians.

With a two-thirds majority needed to pass it, only 45.7% of voters supported the measure, while 54.3% voted no. Some mail-in ballots are still outstanding, but with 100% of precincts reporting on election night, 304,321 of the the 2.4 million eligible voters turned out to vote.

“We are deeply disappointed that Los Angeles voters did not support efforts to increase education funding for L.A. kids,” said Speak UP Founder and CEO Katie Braude. “Our parents worked very hard to pass this, and we will not give up efforts to lift California from its abysmal position near the bottom of states in education funding. I know that we can do better, and our kids deserve more.”

The final vote count released Thursday confirms that parent Heather Repenning will face Jackie Goldberg in a May 14 runoff for the LAUSD Board District 5 seat. The vote will be certified Friday. Graciela Ortiz, in third place by just 31 votes, can still demand a recount but would have to pay for it. She has made no public statement since the results were released, but there's no sign so far that she will ask for a recount.

SEIU-backed candidate Heather Repenning has declared victory in the race for a runoff spot against Jackie Goldberg in the May 14 LAUSD BD5 special election. If Repenning wins, she will be the only parent of a current LAUSD student on the Board of Education.

After all valid ballots were counted Friday, Repenning led third-place candidate Graciela Ortiz by just 31 votes.  “I look forward to a spirited campaign in the coming weeks that centers on how we can best bring a new chapter of change to LAUSD as we sprint to the May 14 runoff election,” Repenning said in a statement Friday after thanking all the voters, her supporters and the other candidates.

It's unclear whether Ortiz will concede or ask for a recount after the vote is certified March 22. “At work. Can’t talk,” Ortiz texted Speak UP when asked to comment. Anyone willing to pay for it can request a machine or manual recount within the five days after the vote is certified. There is no automatic recount, regardless of the margin.

The tight race for a second-place runoff spot certainly went down to the wire. Repenning had landed in third place on election night but later pulled ahead after more mail-in ballots arrived. Her lead narrowed, however, every time a new batch of votes was counted.

“These results show how critical every last vote is, and how important your support has been,” Reppening posted on Facebook and Twitter March 12.

Voters that submitted ballots that were missing valid signatures still have an opportunity to send in corrected ballots by Wednesday, but voters rarely respond to that opportunity so Friday’s vote tally was considered all but final. “There are no remaining ballots to be counted,” said a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office.

The race between Repenning and Goldberg means that two white, union-backed political insiders from the northern part of the district will face off in a district that was specifically drawn to maximize Latino representation. Ortiz, a Councilmember from Huntington Park, as well as a high school attendance counselor and UTLA member, had strong grassroots support from many parents and voters in the primarily Latino Southeast portion of BD5.