Ignore Parents At Your Peril

“Just saying engagement over and over again does not make it engagement.”

– LAUSD Parent in 2018

As one of his last acts before being forced from office, Ref Rodriguez helped to reelect Monica Garcia as the LAUSD Board President. This kept the block of members elected with the support of the Charter School Industry in control of the District’s direction even as the board operated at a 3 - 3 deadlock with its three members matched by three members who supported public education.

The public demanded that former Board Member Jackie Goldberg be appointed to fill the convicted felon’s seat until a special election could be held, but Rodriguez’ allies Nick Melvoin and Garcia joined with Richard Vladovic to block this proposal. The residents of Board District 5 would go unrepresented for almost a year while the election process played out.

One result of this lack of representation was a strike by UTLA, the union representing teachers. Rather than meet with their employees and negotiate a solution, Melvoin and Garcia traveled to Sacramento attempting to get legislatures to force the union to settle. The effort failed and school employees walked off the job.

The charter school block saw the strike as an opportunity to break the union, counting on the District’s parents turning on their children’s teachers. Instead, they kept their children home from school, brought coffee to the picket lines, and marched with them in the rain. The District caved within a week.

One of the reasons for the union’s success was they had built coalitions with parents, many of whom felt ignored by the School Board, the Superintendent, and the District’s bureaucrats. By including demands that were important to parents alongside demands for a pay increase, UTLA made them partners in a fight that would change the long-term direction of the District.

Rather than learn their lesson, Melvoin and Garcia sought to reduce opportunities for parents to give input. A proposal I submitted to the Board would have increased the accessibility of Board meetings to the public. Melvoin laughed at my efforts and instead worked in secret (in violation of the Brown Act) to change the Board’s rules. This included reducing the public speaking time from three to two minutes.

Due to pressure from public education advocates, Melvoin was forced to remove the new time limit from his proposed rules. However, the victory was short-lived. Sometime during the last term, the majority elected by Public Education advocates quietly reduced the time. The speaking time on current agendas is two minutes.

This is just one way that engagement has eroded in recent years. Parents of children with Special Education needs were kept in the dark as Russian hackers stole sensitive information. The District ended the successful Primary Promise literacy program without any input from parents or teachers. During the recent firestorm crisis, information about school closures was allegedly held from school communities until Superintendent Carvalho could announce the information at a press conference.

The Special Education community has been particularly affected by this reduced engagement as I noted in my comments at last month’s Special Education Committee meeting:

I was glad to receive the updated agenda showing that Ms. Griego has been added to this committee. Her experience as a Special Education teacher will bring a valuable voice to these proceedings. Now the only person missing is a representative from the Community Advisory Committee. Under state law, the purpose of the CAC is to advise the District on Special Education policy. Given that this is the Board’s Special Education Committee, shouldn’t a presentation from the CAC be a part of each meeting’s agenda?

One of the subjects on today’s agenda was “Parent and Community Engagement Opportunities for Families of Students with Disabilities.” Like most Committee Presentations, this was given by a District staffer. Because committee members were allowed to ask questions, District leadership will pat themselves on the back feeling that they could count it as another example of engagement, but was it?

There is a wide variety of experiences represented on that dais. This presents an opportunity for real engagement, but how much input did the Committee have in deciding what they wanted to hear from the District Staff? Instead of District leadership controlling the narrative, what if Committee members gave presentations on what their experiences have been? Could some questions be submitted in advance so that District staff could present informed answers?

One example of the problem with how the District approaches engagement is the Ambassador program outlined by Ms. Moran today. The CAC has set up a “Parent Ambassador” program that involves extensive training. The District hijacked the name and set up its own program, once again controlling how information is provided to parents.

It would also be nice to see this Committee take on a proactive role in setting the Special Education agenda. Instead of forcing two Committee Presentations into the meeting, maybe time should be set aside for discussing issues that are currently being experienced by stakeholders. Recommendations could then be forwarded to the Board that would improve the delivery of services.

The current School Board majority should heed the warnings provided by Trump’s victory in the last Presidential election, where enough of the electorate was willing to risk a second Trump Presidency to send a message that they did not feel heard by the Biden/Harris administration. Similarly, public education supporters are not guaranteed victories in their reelection campaigns despite the waning support of charter schools after years of corruption and failed academic results. Sometimes a message that the electorate wants to send is more important to them than the policy implications of their vote.

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.