3 LAUSD board seats are in play on November 5 election day
Three seats on the LAUSD Board of Education, which oversees the schooling of more than 400,000 students and an annual budget of $18.4 billion, are up for grabs on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Two of the races — the contest in District 3 in San Fernando Valley, and the contest in District 1 in South Los Angeles — have been marked by controversy. The third race, in District 5 on the Eastside and in the suburbs from Vernon to South Gate, has been quieter.
LAUSD Board of Education District 1: Kahllid Al-Alim, is a community organizer and parent; Sherlett Hendy Newbill is an education policy advisor.
Al-Alim angered many and lost the support of the powerful United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) when his activity on X, formerly Twitter, was criticized as antisemitic, and it was reported that he followed a sexually explicit adult site. Al-Alim’s personal X account was deleted after the controversy in February and he apologized.
Hendy Newbill has been an LAUSD employee for 26 years and is a policy advisor for LAUSD Board District 1 representative George McKenna who is retiring from the school board. Hendy Newbill is an athletic director at Dorsey High School, her alma mater, where she is in charge of the school’s sports program.
LAUSD Board of Education District 3: Daniel Chang is an LAUSD math teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood; incumbent Scott Schmerelson is a former principal.
Schmerelson, who failed to win his longtime board seat outright in the March 5 primary, and his challenger, Chang, have seen a lively contest in which supporters on both sides have poured money into robust campaign mailers that criticize the other side.
In a recent debate sponsored by Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization between Chang and Schmerelson, they held different views on how the district manages its money. Schmerelson defended how the LAUSD budget is spent, citing the workers “in the trenches,” while Chang criticized the size of the district’s bureaucracy, saying, “We (have to) get our money back to our schools.”
District 3 is in the West San Fernando Valley and stretches from North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys to Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Woodland Hills and West Hills.
LAUSD Board of Education District 5: Karla Griego and Graciela “Grace” Ortiz are both teachers vying for the open seat being vacated by longtime board member Jackie Goldberg.
The two teachers share several views and are backed by different but powerful labor organizations. UTLA is backing Griego, and SEIU 99 is supporting Ortiz.
Among the views they share is their criticism of the school district after LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho eliminated the reading and literacy program, Primary Promise, aimed at young children — a successful and admired literacy approach launched by previous Superintendent Austin Beutner.
District 5 includes Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Hollywood, Koreatown, part of Silver Lake, Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park and South Gate.