School Board Races Are Set

“You have to be involved during midterm elections, you have to care about what happens at a school board level.”

– Barack Obama

On November 11, 2023, 26 potential candidates for the LAUSD School Board pulled petitions from the Los Angeles City Clerk in their quest to have their names appear on the March 5, 2024, primary ballot. To qualify they had to collect at least 500 signatures from registered voters within their Board District. They had 25 days to accomplish this task.

As the filing deadline approached, the field had already been reduced by two as two candidates had formerly withdrawn from the Board District 1 race. Four additional candidates failed to submit petitions with the required signatures, reducing the number of potential candidates to 21.

After completing the signature verification process, the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office announced on December 12, 2023, that three additional candidates did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The remaining 18 became official candidates and will face the voters on March 5th, 2024:

District 1

George McKenna has held the BD1 Board Seat since winning a special election against Alex Johnson in 2014. He succeeded Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte who passed away while in office the previous year. While he could have run for one more term before term limits kicked in, he instead decided to retire.

Eleven candidates circulated petitions for the opportunity to succeed McKenna. Of these, three of them did not submit completed petitions and one was found to not have enough valid signatures. The seven candidates who did succeed at this task are:

• Sherlett Hendy Newbill
• DeWayne Davis
• Didi Watts
• John Aaron Brasfield
• Kahllid Al-Alim
• Christian Flagg
• Rina Tambor

District 3

Scott Schmerelson was the underdog when he first won his BD 3 Board Seat in 2015, ending incumbant Tamar Galatzan’s political aspirations. In 2020, he beat back the California Charter School Association’s anti-Semitic attacks to win re-election. He has qualified for next year’s ballot and is asking the voters for one more term before term limits force him into retirement.

Seven candidates pulled petitions to run against Schmmerelson, but Richard Ramos announced that he was dropping out of the race as the deadline to submit signatures approached. He has endorsed the incumbent.

Byron Gutierrez and Janie Dam submitted signatures but these were deemed to be “insufficient” by the City Clerk’s office. Dr. Dam is appealing this ruling stating that she submitted “nearly 1000 signatures.”

The four challengers who qualified are:

• Raquel Villalta
• Elizabeth Badger
• Andreas Farmakalidis
• Dan Chang

District 5

Like McKenna, Jackie Goldberg won her BD 5 Board seat for her second stint on the LAUSD Board in a special election. She succeeded charter-industry supporter Ref Rodriguez after he was forced to resign after being convicted of a felony related to his campaign. She too, could have run for another term, but will instead take a well-deserved retirement.

All four of the potential candidates who pulled petitions qualified for the ballot:

• Fidencio Joel Gallardo is the only one of all the LAUSD candidates not to pay the $300 filing fee and instead collected 1,000 valid signatures.
• Graciela Ortiz
• Karla Griego
• Victorio R. Gutierrez

District 7

Incumbent Tanya Franklin won this seat in the 2020 election after Richard Vladovic was forced from office by term limits. She will face Lydia Gutierrez in March.

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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.