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On April 8th some members of our community will have the opportunity to vote in the most important election for our community for this year and next—electing their representatives to the Board of Education for Long Beach Unified School District. For those voting in the LBUSD 2nd District I urge you to re-elect Felton Williams and for those voting in the 4th District to re-elect Jon Meyer to continue the work they have been part of that has LBUSD recognized as one of the very top districts in the nation.
While the media is fully engaged in the Presidential primaries and general election, and will become more engaged in Congressional and statewide races, in our community the most overlooked but probably the most important elected officials are those who govern our school district. Quality of life issues such as crime, housing, business recruitment, retention and development, and leadership are all dependent upon a solid public education system. How many of our current elected officials, community leaders, volunteers, teachers, doctors, firefighters, accountants, small business owners and other solid, productive, positive members of our community attended LBUSD schools from kindergarten through high school graduation? How many of their “replacements” are currently sitting in a first grade class room at Longfellow Elementary, or in a history lesson at Hudson, or an AP English class at Poly right now?
I have written a lot in the past year on the political aspirations of the Teachers Association of Long Beach under the direction of ex-Executive Director Scott McVarish; I detailed the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars they poured into the last election cycle for members of the school board that resulted in two wins (Barton and Ellis) and one loss (Mary Stanton was re-elected, barely, over TALB candidate Jim Deaton). We have seen the results of their judgment on the character of candidate they prefer in Mr. Ellis who keeps his seat despite calls for him to resign. My guess is he is holding out to see if TALB can win one more seat on the board to effect their stated purpose of terminating Superintendent Chris Steinhauser and replace him with a TALB friendly (puppet) candidate.
That is the precipice upon which our school district and the education in this community now stand. With TALB backers Ellis and David Barton, one more victory from either of the TALB-backed and supported candidates will push the majority in TALB’s favor and allow them to enact the agenda of the teacher’s union. Note I say the “teacher’s union” and not the teachers—for most of them concentrate on their students and providing an excellent education for my children and yours. Most teachers stay out of the union politics and infighting that consumes so much time of a very, very small minority of their fellow teachers who run the union and have in the last few years crashed it financially, ethically and operationally as evidenced of the statewide organization having to take over operations.
I have known both Felton Williams and Jon Meyer personally for many years. I know them each to be upstanding members of our community, actively involved in education and local charities and community organizations well before they sought and were elected to public office. I have spoken with them numerous times as they have stated their primary factor in their decisions as members of the board of education is, “How will this affect the students and the quality of their education?”
The Long Beach Unified School District is not perfect, there have been some mistakes made by those at every level, from classroom teacher, to custodial staff, to site administrators to senior district administrators; as there are in all organizations. While some would build any mistake into a mountain, the proof of the seriousness lies in the results. And the results are the Broad Prize for Best Urban School District one year and being a finalist more recently. The results are more students taking Advanced Placement exams. The results are an increase in college acceptances, in test scores and student achievement. These successes are not the result on any one group or part of the Long Beach Unified School District, but the result of a collaborative effort by all parties involved.
Felton Williams and Jon Meyer have been integral to the collaborations that have produced these successes and as such I strongly endorse their candidacies for re-election. Not only do I recognize the benefit of having Williams and Meyer continue their service on the school board, but so do many others as they are both endorsed by a wide range of individuals and organizations—both The Chamber and the Firefighter and Police Unions; elected Democrats and Republicans support and endorse these gentlemen.
While only a portion of our community will have the opportunity to vote for Williams and Meyer on April 8th, anyone in the community may financially support their campaigns and I urge you to do so. Below are their campaign websites, I encourage you to visit them and also to support them—my children’s and your children’s futures depend on it.
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