Please Excuse The Interruption

I attended the LAUSD board meeting yesterday to present the following statement. Ironically, I was not let in to the meeting until after the issue had been closed. I had arrived two hours before the start of the meeting.

My name is Carl Petersen and I am running to replace Tamar Galatzan in next year’s election. I would like to begin by apologizing for taking up your time. It should have been a big hint that you did not want our input when you built this great big building to house an army of bureaucrats and only left room for 155 people to attend board meetings, but some of us still insist on waiting for our turn to speak. You schedule these meetings during work hours to limit access by most stakeholders, but still some of us show up. Even charging us $13 to park our cars does not dissuade us.

In an interview with the LA School Report Ms. Galatzan stated that “Everyday parents...don’t really care who’s on the school board.” To be honest, I have been guilty of feeding this impression in the past. Life gets really busy when you are raising five children and building a successful career in business. It is really easy to forget the importance of researching local issues so that you can participate in local elections. I am ashamed to tell you that I cannot even tell you who I voted for in the last school board election or if I voted at all. As I delve into the problems facing the district, I wish that I had been paying better attention earlier.

One thing I did make sure to always vote for was school construction bonds. Building and maintaining school infrastructure is something that will benefit future generations and, therefore, met the test that I put to any bond measure. In the case of Measure Q, my vote was further influenced by the guarantee of “citizens oversight” in the official description.

Stuart Magruder is a parent who has stepped up and served his community on the Bond Oversight Committee. In this position he has rightly questioned Dr. Deasy’s plan to buy consumer items that will last only a few years with bond money that will be paid back over thirty years. As a public servant, Ms. Galatzan should have met with Mr. Magruder and discussed his concerns. Instead she moved to block his reappointment to the committee. She apparently feels that the committee should simply rubber stamp Dr. Deasy’s agenda.

This board needs to be reminded that you work for the voters, not Dr. Deasy and certainly not the Pearson company. The Superintendent reports to you. It is your job to tell him that we will not buy $1 billion worth of iPads so Pearson can sell us testing materials. I commend Mr. Kayser for moving to reinstate Mr. Magruder and hope that the rest of the board will support him.

I congratulate Mr. Magruder on his reappointment to the committee during yesterday’s meeting. Unfortunately, Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan voted “no.”

____________________________________________

I am running for the District 3 seat on the LAUSD School Board. For additional information about my campaign, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com.