LAUSD board member Scott Schmerelson is operating for reelection in opposition to 4 different candidates in a race to symbolize West San Fernando Valley’s District 3.
District 3 contains practically 20 San Fernando Valley communities, together with Canoga Park, Porter Ranch, Northridge and Van Nuys.
The seven-member Board of Training oversees coverage for Los Angeles Unified College District, the second-largest district within the nation, with about 429,000 college students.
The election is Tuesday, March 5, although vote-by-mail ballots have already gone out.
Right here’s a have a look at the candidates:
Elizabeth Badger
Badger has run for the board previously after being pissed off by an effort to get well-suited particular schooling courses for her eighth-grade son and fifth-grade daughter, each identified with autism and ADHD, based on a 2015 piece on the nonprofit information web site LA College Report.
She additionally ran unsuccessfully for an L.A. Metropolis Council seat in 2013, based on the identical article.
Badger doesn’t seem to have a marketing campaign web site and her X (previously Twitter) account has not posted something.since 2020. Her final put up, although, was a hyperlink to a video on the LA CityView 35 Studios YouTube web page the place she mentioned her candidacy for that election cycle.
In that video, Badger — who has lived within the San Fernando Valley for practically three many years and has a bachelor’s diploma from Cal State Northridge — mentioned she’d need to spend money on security, college students with particular wants and early childhood schooling.
“Our kids have failed,” she mentioned in that video, “as a result of we now have in reality failed them.”
Dan Chang
Chang of Sherman Oaks, is a math instructor at LAUSD’s James Madison Center College in North Hollywood, in addition to a mother or father and schooling nonprofit chief.
He’s operating to “be a brand new voice” for the colleges, based on his marketing campaign web site.
His priorities are to chop “downtown forms,” which he says mires San Fernando Valley colleges in too many laws, based on his marketing campaign web site.
He desires to cut back the “downtown price range” and absolutely fund and empower Valley colleges to get the most effective out of scholars, together with by guaranteeing their well-being.
“Valley public college college students are going through an growing variety of dangers to their bodily and emotional well-being,” he mentioned on his marketing campaign web site. “We want change so that each scholar learns in joyful school rooms. That begins by working collectively to strengthen restorative justice practices on college websites to enhance self-discipline and general college local weather.”
Andreas Farmakalidis
Farmakalidis, 40, of Northridge, is a veteran and proprietor of a music college and studio.
Moreover being captivated with schooling general, he mentioned he acknowledges the significance of music and the humanities, and would work to strengthen arts packages alongside core educational topics, if elected.
In an e mail, he mentioned he envisions “a district the place each baby has entry to complete arts schooling.”
“As an immigrant and veteran,” Farmakalidis mentioned, “I perceive firsthand the challenges and alternatives that include embracing a brand new nation and serving its individuals.”
The district, he mentioned, stands at a “pivotal juncture,” pointing to funding disparities and an achievement hole between White college students and college students of coloration. To deal with declining enrollment, he mentioned, the district wants to enhance educational efficiency, affordability, accessibility, neighborhood engagement and communication, and deal with particular points that arose throughout and after the pandemic.
Scott Schmerelson
Schmerelson has been the board’s consultant for District 3 since 2015.
A former instructor, counselor and principal, he was the primary member of his household to attend school, graduating from Temple College with a bachelor’s diploma in overseas language schooling. He started his profession as a highschool Spanish instructor in Philadelphia and, in 1978, moved to Los Angeles to start a profession with LAUSD.
He was a instructor, college counselor and assistant principal throughout his 12 years at Virgil Center College, later serving as assistant principal at Griffith Center College in East Los Angeles for 5 years. He was principal at Lawrence Center College in Chatsworth additionally for 5 years and retired as principal of Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Center College in South Los Angeles.
Schmerelson desires to undertake a studying curriculum that displays a “new understanding” of the best way kids be taught, and properly utilizing state arts funding, based on his marketing campaign web site.
“I desire a college system that cares for the entire baby and expands the alternatives for each scholar to be taught,” he wrote on his marketing campaign web site. “Meaning extra enriched studying packages, prolonged days and summer time packages, overseas languages, world citizenry and real-world experiences.”
Raquel Villalta
Villalta of Mission Hills is an educator who has kids within the district. She started her educating profession in 2006 and has labored with college students from kindergarten to sixth-grade.
Villalta helps mentor new academics and is an advocate at her kids’s colleges, serving on parent-teacher committees and the College Web site Council. She additionally has been concerned in Cub Scouts and church ministries.
She was positioned on unpaid go away after she refused, citing a spiritual exemption, to get the COVID-19 vaccine, based on her marketing campaign web site.
If elected, based on her marketing campaign web site, Villalta would work to honor parental rights, improve scholar achievement, improve monetary transparency and enhance public security.
“Her profound understanding of the challenges and alternatives in schooling, mixed together with her ardour for scholar success, makes her an excellent candidate to symbolize District 3 on the LAUSD College Board,” her marketing campaign web site mentioned. “Together with her as a champion for our youngsters’s schooling, we will look ahead to a brighter future for all college students within the district.”
LAUSD Board of Training District 3
Candidates: Scott Mark Schmerelson (incumbent), Dan Chang, Elizabeth Badger, Andreas Farmakalidis, Raquel Villata.
Time period size: 4 years.
District boundaries: North Hills, North Hollywood, Northridge, Mission Hills, Porter Ranch, Reseda.
Key points: Declining enrollment, public security, the achievement hole.
2024 presidential main election
Election day: March 5, 2024. Polls shut at 8 p.m.
Early voting: You possibly can vote on the Los Angeles County registrar’s workplace starting Monday, Feb. 5. The registrar’s headquarters are at 12400 Imperial Freeway, Room 3002, in Norwalk. That workplace is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.
Vote-by-mail: Ballots started going out on Thursday, Feb. 1. You possibly can submit VBMs in 3 ways: By mailing them to the registrar’s workplace (VBMs embrace return envelopes with the proper deal with and postage already included); by putting them in an official drop field; or by dropping them off at any county Vote Middle.
VBM deadline: VBMs despatched by way of mail should arrive no later than seven days after the election, however they have to be postmarked by March 5. The deadline to put VBMs in a drop field or ship them to a Vote Middle is 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Vote Facilities: Vote Facilities open 10 days earlier than Election Day. This 12 months, that’s Saturday, Feb. 24. You possibly can vote at any Vote Middle in Los Angeles County. Previous to Election Day, the Vote Facilities can be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Election Day, they are going to be open from 7 a.m. to eight p.m.
In regards to the ballots: In California, the order races are listed on ballots goes from native to federal, which means the nominees for president can be listed on the backside. Aside from presidential races, California’s primaries for “partisan” workplaces – now referred to as “voter-nominated workplaces” have a top-two system. Meaning the highest two vote getters in a given race advance to the overall election, no matter political social gathering.
To discover a drop field or Vote Middle and for extra data: lavote.gov.
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