George McKenna
Senator Holly Mitchell Announces Support of McKenna!
At Tuesday’s decisive vote State Senator Holly Mitchell, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus announced her support for the appointment of George McKenna:
Statistics tell a dire story about LAUSD’s black student population. We must harness every available tool to write a better educational narrative for our children, one that fully taps the African American experience, informing the curriculum and culture with the best we have to offer. It is important that when families and children turn to this school board for guidance and aid, they see leadership and advocates who look like them. Since December 5th, our community is in need of a new champion. Please help us fill that void.
It is imperative that this seat not be left vacant. Proposition 30 was a hard-fought battle on behalf of students, teachers, and families touched by unified school districts across the state, including the LAUSD. How that funding is allocated and spent is crucial to our neighborhood schools and will be on this body’s agenda over the next few months. The votes that are taken should reflect representation and advocacy on behalf of black students in the LAUSD system.
We do not have the luxury of waiting for an election. The issues coming before this body are too consequential for too many to allow a vacancy in the District 1 seat. Ensuring that LCFF is being properly implemented in a way that works for the students of LAUSD, tackling the issue of willful defiance in a way that is respectful of the educational process and sensitive to the racial realities of students of color, and continuing to discuss Title 1 funding and allocation in a way that is strategic yet equitable are just a few of the critical issues that await this board’s careful consideration and deserve the presence of all seven boardmembers in these seats.
Read the entire letter below.
Breaking: Karen Bass Now Supports McKenna Appointment
In a statement today, Congresswoman Karen Bass endorsed appointing George McKenna to be the caretaker for Marguerite LaMotte’s unexpired term:
“I still firmly believe that voters should and must have the ultimate voice in their representatives. However, having an empty seat at the school board at this time could leave too many children’s needs unmet.
“Fortunately, there is a middle ground. The district should appoint a strong community leader with years of education experience who will serve as a caretaker. They should look for someone who is independent and understands the intricacies of LA Unified and has intimate knowledge of the needs of students and the concerns of parents.
“Dr. George J. McKenna is a strong candidate to fill this seat during the interim, where he can bring his 50 years of education experience—most of those at LAUSD—to the Board. Dr. McKenna will be an advocate for funding equity, and his passion, wisdom and knowledge will be an invaluable asset to our students and our community.
“This path will allow voters to be able to participate in an informed and deliberate election in a year, where ultimately both voters’ voices will be heard and their children will have an advocate at the LAUSD Board.”
Congresswoman Bass’ initially supported a special election, but now supports appointing George McKenna. The Congresswoman’s evolution of position is not unique. Many of the leaders of Appoint McKenna first supported a special election, before we were explained the severe consequences to the our children’s education from having the seat remain vacant for 6 to 8 months. When we were presented with appointing Dr. McKenna as a caretaker, that was clearly the best option for the kids.
It is understandable that the initial reaction of people to any vacancy is for an special election, especially for African-Americans and women who had to fight and many die for the right to vote. However, in this particular instance a special election is more harmful than an appointment of a capable caretaker that the community trusts – George McKenna. Big decisions are going to be made by the LAUSD over the next few months and we must have representation. In a republic voting is not an end, but rather a means to having a seat at the table.
Congresswoman Bass is to be commended for having the political courage to evolve her position when provided with new information. It is what is right for the kids. Her full statement is below.
Black to School?
In today’s CityWatch LA, award-winning columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan wrote about the grassroots movement to appoint George McKenna as the caretaker of Marguerite LaMotte’s seat. The full article is below:
Black to School?
By Erin Aubry Kaplan
December 13, 2013PERSPECTIVE – Los Angeles Unified School District board member Marguerite LaMotte has only been dead a week, but the question of who will fill her seat and how it will be filled is fueling consternation—and some swift action–among LaMotte’s black constituents and education advocates in the first district.
Here’s why: love her or loathe her, LaMotte was regarded as the strongest advocate on the board for the educational well-being of black students, a majority of whom attend first district schools like Crenshaw and Dorsey High.
Blacks hardly comprise a majority of LAUSD’s student population—they are roughly 8 percent, compared to Latinos at 70 percent—but in terms of test scores, graduation rates and other markers of student success, they have long fared the worst of any group. LaMotte was a veteran administrator who had close ties to black students and had wrestled with their problems firsthand; a supporter of public education as a force for social equality, LaMotte opposed charter schools and other types of so-called reform that raise private money and adopt business models that she saw as antithetical to that goal. Many local black leaders agree with her.
So whoever takes her place will be filling that philosophical space—or not. The remaining six members of the school board have 30 to 60 days to either appoint someone to fill LaMotte’s term, which runs until 2015, or to call for a special election next year. To hold an election as soon as March or April, the board must decide on its course of action by this Tuesday, Dec. 17. With such a tight deadline, concerned black observers looking to ensure continuity of LaMotte’s legacy are in the midst of a somewhat breathless campaign to convince the board to appoint George McKenna III, a veteran district educator who, among other things, was LaMotte’s renowned predecessor as principal of Washington Prep High School in South Central.
The Black Community Clergy and Labor Alliance (BCCLA), a leadership accountability organization, says it is pushing McKenna’s appointment for two main reasons: one, he is eminently qualified and two, scheduling an election for spring 2014 would mean that LaMotte’s seat would remain vacant during months of crucial budget discussions and other agenda items that seriously impact the fortunes of African American students. It also argues that a hastily called election such as this would likely give the seat to the most well-funded candidate—that is, someone backed by millionaire charter reform advocates like Eli Broad.
BCCLA stresses that it is not against an election, it is for the short-term procedure that is in the best interest of a student constituency that gets far too little attention. The organization (full disclosure: I am a member) is therefore spending the weekend meeting with black elected officials, leaders and stakeholders to unify them around the McKenna appointment. One of those leaders is county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is looking to run one of his staffers, Alex Johnson, in an anticipated election for LaMotte’s seat. Ridley-Thomas is arguably the most powerful black pol in the state and is critical to the united front BCCLA is seeking to create here. Bob Farrell, former 8th district city councilman and BCCLA steering committee member, emphasizes that McKenna is not simply a champion of black students, but of all students; what with the radical demographic shifts in LA neighborhoods from black to brown, McKenna and others like him have had no choice.
As for the board, sources say it appears split into three groups of two, with Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan favoring an election, Bennett Kayser and Monica Ratliff favoring appointment, and board president Richard Vladovic and Steve Zimmer undecided. Time—a few days, actually—will tell.
Appoint McKenna NOW! 