Results in L.A. school-reform elections could be withheld until Friday

Ballot counting began Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles for an election over school-reform plans; results will be available by Monday but might not be released until Friday, officials said.  A delay in releasing the results is likely to create yet another controversy over this school-reform strategy.

The purpose of the unprecedented election was to give parents, students, school employees and others -- each voting group tallied separately -- the chance to express a preference regarding who should run 12 long-struggling schools and 18 new ones. The process is part of a groundbreaking school-control plan approved in August by the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education. The plan will affect nearly 40,000 students.

The main competitors are groups of teachers -- often with the backing of union officials and district administrators -- and private charter operators. Charter schools are independently managed and not bound by some rules that govern traditional schools, including union contracts. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also is trying to claim more schools for his nonprofit education organization.

The first round of polling occurred Tuesday, and voting concluded Saturday. The results are not binding, either for Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who will make his own recommendations, or for the school board, which will make selections later this month.

Cortines on Saturday countermanded plans to post results as they became available. He preferred not to have partial -- and possibly inaccurate -- tallies made public, said his special assistant Ana Fernandez.

Results might be withheld until the end of the week, at the district’s request, said officials with the League of Women Voters, which conducted the election.

From the start, Friday has been the deadline for certified results, but unofficial counts are typically made public in an election as soon as they are ready, said Raquel Beltran, the league’s executive director. She said unofficial tallies would probably be ready Monday.

Friday also is the scheduled day for the release of professional evaluations of each reform plan.  So if they are released Friday, the election results will have to share the spotlight with related news.

The notion of a mandated delay bothered some who were observing the counting at the Chamber of Commerce building west of downtown.

“The district should have nothing to hide,” said Joel Jordan, director of special projects for United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union.  "The public has a right to know the results as soon as possible.”

From the start, the school-control process has been both celebrated and maligned. The elections prompted additional complaints over electioneering, alleged voter intimidation and voting rules that left critics questioning the validity of the results.

-- Howard Blume

Comments

[Rhubarb]

Groups of charter parents were being shuttled from one site to another, to vote and vote again. My guess would be that the oversight committee wants to check for duplicate, triplicate signatures. Better delayed results than wildly inaccurate results, in my opinion.

[Carol]

I doubt the Chamber of Commerce donated a conference room for free for this project. Both the UTLA building and LAUSD's Beaudry building have enough space to count ballots, you'd think the two sides could have joined together to use one or the other - at no extra cost.

[Teacher]

Rhubarb, the results will indeed be wildly inaccurate because of the deliberate misinformation that was spread by the union and the intimidation tactics that were deployed.

At Belvedere Middle School on Tuesday, UTLA organized a protest around 5 p.m. that was right outside the main entrance of the school. It was a very intimidating scene with teachers leading students armed with bullhorns and signs with anti-charter slogans. UTLA representatives guarded the entrance intercepting parents, handing out their propaganda and directing families on how to vote. I thought this was supposed to be a civil and open process. However, this incident epitomizes how UTLA is making this is all about politics to save adult jobs and not about solutions to improve children's education. There are many good teachers in LAUSD, but their union, UTLA, has to go.

[Eugene]

Talking about vote manipulation. District pulled 200-300 middle schoolers from classs on Tuesday to go vote for a UTLA school. Teachers were allowed to cast TWO votes. I am only staring...

[Dan Basalone]

As citizens, we know that democracy is imperfect at best, but this attempt at "democracy" is ridiculous. The essence of democracy is one person/one vote. Also, a citizen can reasonably expect that if they vote in a legal election, his or her vote will count in a final outcome. If this is merely advisory, then so be it, and label it as such. When did California become Massachusetts with its town hall form of democracy....LAUSD is like a drowning person grasping for anything to hold and finding nothing. Glub, glub, glub.

[Izzy]

You would think that above all, children should be the number one issue here. Unfortunately it's not. LAUSD, perhaps due to pampered teachers that use the "poor kids" flag to keep their cushy jobs, should recognize they have failed and do not have the resources to offer their students a better education. You've had your chance LAUSD... for several years for that matter. Let someone else try and provide a better education to these kids. They deserve it! Stop using them to keep your own job status! It's disgusting to see your desperate attempts to look out for yourself and not the children.

[what is new?]

So, what is new in the school plans from the teachers and school district to improve the schools? if they have an answer, why didn't they implement it before?

please, someone (a teacher/administrator), answer this question!

[LAUSD Teacher]

To What is New

In the past teachers have been tied down district policies, mandates and bureaucracy. The district told us how to teach, when to teach, who to teach, and with what materials to teach. These curriculum materials do not fit the needs of our students and have a "one size fits all" approach. For the first time, teachers have been give the opportunity to create a school with their students' needs in mind. Teachers make decisions that directly impact the classroom as apposed to district officials implementing senseless policies. Innovation, creativity, and collaboration have been brought to the table to serve our community. So in other words, What is new is increased teacher decision-making and less district control.

Charter schools and other organizations have been running schools for years. The difference now is they want to take over public funded lands and properties, which we the tax payers paid for to run their schools. Instead they should look for their own locations to carry out their own educational visions. Furthermore, most of these charters school neglect to inform the public that they are not required to take all community students. They can pick and choose the "cream of the crop" and isolate students with special needs, English language learners, and behavioral problems. Charter schools compare their scores to public schools, but they have different attendance requirements. Public schools must take every student in the area, and may not pick the best students to test.

Additionally teachers at a charter school may or may not have appropriate state credentials to teach. Some don't have credentials at all, as they are not required by law to prove teacher qualifications. Public schools such as mine, have teachers who are highly qualified holding Master degrees, teaching credentials, special certifications, and national board certification. I myself hold all of the above and have spent eights years of my life dedicated to my professional development as well as thousands of dollars in student debt.

Take a closer look and truly compare what charter schools have to offer to what our new proposals have to offer and you will see a clear benefit to public schooling.

[Teacher]

After participating in the voting process that took place on Saturday I am very upset. The whole process was a complete joke. The roles were not enforced properly by all sites for all schools. As a teacher and a parent of student who attends a local charter school I feel that this process was designed only for some but not for all. Some schools were allowed to do their electioneering in front of the door, small children were allowed to vote, some people were allowed to vote under two categories and some people voted multiple times at the same site because id was not required at all sites. I think that this process just made the mess going on with LAUSD worst. If they wanted specific schools to receive specific sites they just should have given the site to them without making all the rest of the schools, parents, teachers and community members feel they had an actual voice as to how these sites will be operated. It is sad that LAUSD continues to fail our children and can get away with the unfair tactics used in the PSC election process. This whole process was just for show and LAUSD should be ashamed.