The Los Angeles school board candidates with the most money behind them generally were holding leads in early returns, including two strong contenders whose campaigns became turbulent in the final weeks of the race.
One of them, Kahllid Al-Alim, was dropped by the union that propelled him into prominence, but could still be a top finisher in District 1, which encompasses much of South L.A. and southwest L.A.
Al-Alim, a community activist, was in first place among seven candidates who are seeking to replace incumbent George McKenna, who is retiring when his terms ends in December.
Closely behind Al-Alim was longtime Dorsey High teacher and coach Sherlett Hendy Newbill. Following her was veteran school district administrator DeWayne Davis and then Didi Watts, an educator whose experience spans both traditional and charter schools.
Al-Alim and Watts had expensive campaigns on their behalf that were funded by independent political action committees. In the case of Al-Alim, the teachers union withdrew its endorsement, but only on Monday night, the evening before the election ended.
If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the top two finishers will face off in a November runoff.
Another leading contender, Graciela Ortiz in District 5, was temporarily removed in January from her school district job for an internal investigation, but won’t say why.
She also was faring well in early returns in an area that stretches north to south along the eastern portion of the nation’s second-largest school system.
There are four candidates in District 5 who are seeking to replace incumbent and school board President Jackie Goldberg, who also is retiring in December at the end of her term.
In the early returns, Ortiz, a counseling administrator for L.A. Unified, was in first place, followed by teacher Karla Griego. Teacher and school board adviser Fidencio Gallardo was in third and retired principal Victorio Gutierrez in fourth.
Ortiz and Griego had considerable outside funding in support of their campaigns.
Four seats — a majority of the Los Angeles Board of Education — were on the ballot in a primary contest that will shape the direction of the nation’s second-largest school system as it faces pressing academic and financial challenges.
Big-picture issues include declining enrollment, potential school closures, the ending of pandemic-relief aid, the future of school police and student drug use. But there also are personal issues swirling around two leading candidates.
Board members serve four-year terms. Three contests appear likely to go to a November runoff.
Incumbents and challengers
The contest in District 7, which stretches from South L.A. to the Harbor area, will be settled Tuesday because only two candidates are on the ballot. In that race, one-term incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin was holding a comfortable lead over teacher Lydia Gutierrez.
Gutierrez, a longtime teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District, had limited fundraising, $3,484, to reach voters.
In contrast, Franklin’s campaign raised $81,202, and she also benefited from an independent campaign paid for mostly by retired businessman Bill Bloomfield, who has been the biggest individual donor to L.A. Unified races in recent years. Bloomfield spent more than $731,000 in a positive campaign for Franklin as well as more than $350,000 in a negative campaign against Gutierrez.
In District 3, in the west San Fernando Valley and adjacent areas, two-term incumbent Scott Schmerelson was opposed by four challengers.
Schmerelson held a significant lead in early returns but not enough to avoid a runoff against middle school math teacher Dan Chang, who was far ahead of the other challengers.
Schmerelson has benefited from an independent campaign of about $610,000 by the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles. A competing PAC has spent $870,080 on behalf of Chang . This PAC was bankrolled mostly by Bloomfield.
New leadership
New members could flip the board’s ideology — from one that wants to rein in charter schools to one that supports these independent and mostly nonunion public schools. Charters compete with district-operated schools for students, and competition is intense as overall enrollment continues to decline. A narrow board majority recently put new limits on when and where charter schools would be allowed to operate on district-owned campuses.
Addressing declining enrollment — and the funding and staff reductions that come with it — is a key issue facing the district. Candidates, however, have largely declined to discuss the real — but unpopular — likelihood of having to close campuses.
School policing is a hotly debated issue on which candidates have differed. Some candidates call for disbanding the school police; others see them as essential for safety.
The new board also will evaluate the progress of L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the one official they supervise. Carvalho, who is about halfway through a four-year contract, has pledged a full academic recovery from pandemic-era learning setbacks by the end of the current school year. If he is successful, there will still be more to accomplish in raising overall learning, especially for Black and low-income Latino students.
Among the initiatives launched by Carvalho was an order to stock schools with the overdose drug Narcan, but drug use and availability among students remains a concern for parents.
Campaign turbulence
Late campaign turbulence in two competitive races complicated two contests.
For about two weeks, Al-Alim has been in self-described “damage control,” dealing with the revelation that he retweeted and “liked” social media posts that promoted antisemitic content, glorified guns and celebrated pornographic images.
After a series of apologies that became successively more contrite, Al-Alim staked out a somewhat different position at a campaign forum last week, asserting, “I’m not ashamed of anything.”
On Monday night, the teachers union, UTLA, formally withdrew its endorsement of Al-Alim during an emergency meeting of its House of Representatives. The House did not settle on an alternate endorsement — and it would have been late in the game to make one.
UTLA officially suspended its big-money campaign on behalf of Al-Alim on Feb. 22, but union materials touting his candidacy continued to reach voters through website postings and materials distributed directly to voters.
Some teachers union members and supporters had urged Al-Alim to drop out, saying that he would have no chance of winning a runoff.
Al-Alim declined to step aside, insisting last week that his campaign was doing well and that he was prepared to prove his lack of bias and prejudice in working for all families.
In District 5, which runs north to south along the eastern portion of the school system, L.A. Unified counseling administrator Ortiz also faced sensitive issues.
Early this year, officials removed her from her job pending a confidential investigation. It’s not clear why the district launched an investigation, but it began shortly after a civil lawsuit was filed in January alleging that Ortiz and a political ally are liable for the actions of a campaign worker, who pleaded no contest to sexual misconduct with an underage volunteer.
Last week, the school system confirmed that the investigation had been completed and that Ortiz had returned to work. No other details were released.
Ortiz declined to answer questions about either the investigation or the lawsuit. A spokesman for Ortiz called the lawsuit frivolous and politically motivated. In a campaign forum last week, Ortiz faulted the media for writing about these issues.
Ortiz, who also is a City Council member in the Southeast L.A. County city of Huntington Park, benefited from a campaign by Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, which spent $810,861 on her behalf and stood by its endorsement of her.
In this race, it was union versus union, with UTLA spending more than $760,000 urging voters to elect Griego.
Longtime high school teacher Gallardo, who also is the mayor of Bell, won the support of some rank-and-file teachers and pro-union parents who splintered off from the UTLA-endorsed candidate. Gallardo has recently served as a senior aide to retiring District 5 board member Jackie Goldberg, who endorsed him.
Local 99 launched a negative campaign against Gallardo, spending $38,441.
