Their Children Attend the Second Largest School District. They Have No Representation

“We are living at a time in our nation when democracy and true representative government is being attacked and eroded at every level of leadership”

- LAUSD Board Member Scott Schmerelson

It has been almost three months since the LAUSD School Board rejected Board Member Scott Schmerelson’s “Providing a Voice and a Vote for the Constituents of Board District 5” resolution. As a result, the seat vacated by Ref Rodriguez has remained empty as the LAUSD careens towards a teacher’s strike. One-seventh of the LAUSD’s stakeholders have had no voice while Superintendent Austin Beutner is working on a secret plan to make another attempt at reorganizing the District’s bureaucracy. Parents had no one to turn to as yet another under-regulated charter school within Board District 5’s boundaries closed down in the middle of the school year.

At the meeting where Schmerelson’s resolution was considered, Board Member Nick Melvoin claimed that he wanted a temporary replacement to be named but felt that the community should have more input. He, therefore, attempted unsuccessfully to hijack the resolution with a substitute motion that would have had…