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Candidates for LAUSD District 1 (top l-r), Khallid Al-Alim, John Brasfield, DeWayne Davis, Christian Flagg, Sherlett Hendy Newbill, Rina Tambor and Didi Watts.  (Photos courtesy of the candidates)
Candidates for LAUSD District 1 (top l-r), Khallid Al-Alim, John Brasfield, DeWayne Davis, Christian Flagg, Sherlett Hendy Newbill, Rina Tambor and Didi Watts. (Photos courtesy of the candidates)
TORRANCE - 11/07/2012 - (Staff Photo: Scott Varley/LANG) Donna Littlejohn
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In South Los Angeles, there are seven candidates running to represent District 1 on the LAUSD’s school board.

The seven-member Board of Education oversees policy for Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest district in the nation, with about 429,000 students. District 1, currently represented by board member George McKenna, runs from around Beverly Hills southward, around Inglewood and ending at Gardena.

The election is Tuesday, March 5, though vote-by-mail ballots have already gone out.

Here’s a look at the candidates

Kahllid Al-Alim

Community activist Al-Alim was born and raised in the South Los Angeles district and is a parent of former LAUSD students.

He states on his website that his priorities are to stop school “privatization, reconstitution and co-locations” in the district, which has wrestled with the advent of charter schools sharing LAUSD campuses. He backs the creation of the Black Student Achievement Plan and is a member of Service Employees International Union 721.

He said he is passionate about are “parent engagement, ending the school-to-prison pipeline, and making sure every single child gets the resources they deserve.”

His other priorities are investing in green technology, addressing the housing crisis, specifically for unhoused youth, supporting immigrant students and communities.

His website states he served 11 years as an Army medic and has been active in the movement for educational and racial justice. He was elected president of his Neighborhood Council, appointed to the LAUSD African American Education Task Force, and LAUSD’s Parent Advisory Committee.

He could not be reached for further comment.

John Aaron Brasfield

Brasfield, born and raised in L.A., attended LAUSD schools — lettering in four sports and graduating with honors — and went on to become an educator and coach. He attended Azusa Pacific University.

He listed a number of goals he’d work to address within the district, if elected: Implementing a zero-tolerance policy for bullying; focusing on districtwide reading proficiency and raising standards in mathematics; and fostering an environment for well-being, mental health and better communication.

The district’s challenges, he said, including maintaining attendance records, navigating budget constraints and equitable access to resources.

He wants to emphasize feedback from the community and strengthening community partnerships, including making sure students are on campus and are learning; and a stress on keeping facilities up to date.

“I plan to engage with stakeholders,” he said, “including administrators, teachers, parents, students and community members.”

DeWayne Davis

Davis, 54, who began his career as a classroom teacher in Los Angeles, was a principal for 11 years and now is an educational strategist assisting school organizations and districts in developing policies in school operations, finance and instruction.

On his campaign website, he lists his four priorities as developing a comprehensive safety plan on school grounds and for students as they travel to and from school; quality education to address underprepared students to compete and overcome the cycle of poverty; an outreach program to involve parents and bring family members into the education system; and programs targeting the most in-need student populations.

“District 1 schools have historically underprepared students to perform and compete globally, adding to the overall cycle of poverty,” he said on his campaign website. “To address this issue, I will assert the implementation of the Community Schools model throughout our board district.:

The Community Schools model essentially aim to bring families, local organizations and the community in general together to help ensure students have the best shot to succeed, according to the National Education Association.

“The model has been proven successful at supporting students’ diverse needs,” Davis said, “while remaining focused on student learning and outcomes.”

He could not be reached for further comment.

Christian Flagg

Flagg, the director of training at Community Coalition, a nonprofit founded by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to help more candidates of color run for election in Los Angeles, was born and raised in South Central L.A., according to his campaign literature. Flagg grew up in a family of six, though his parents frequently took in friends and neighborhood children.

“This devotion to family and community,” he said on his website, “greatly impressed upon me a duty and obligation to the well-being of others that I carry with me in every aspect of my life.

Trips to museums, community events, and other family outings gave him an appreciation of other cultures, he said.

He attended Normandie Avenue Elementary School, Audubon Middle School and Crenshaw High, later earning undergraduate degrees in sociology and industrial design/product design and development from San Fransisco State University.

He said the educational system has failed to help minority students meet basic academic standards and his focus is on expanding the district’s commitment to equity and educational justice.

He could not be reached for further comment.

Sherlett Hendy Newbill

Newbill, 51, of Windsor Hills is a former teacher, basketball coach and mentor at Dorsey High School, with two decades of experience in education as a coach, teacher, union vice chair, curriculum writer, athletic director and dean of students. She attended LAUSD elementary, middle and high schools and was born and raised in South Los Angeles.

She is an education policy advisor to the incumbent, McKenna, who has endorsed her. In an email, Newhill said she is motivated by her faith and her two boys (ages 8 and 11).

She “understands how passionate parents are about giving our children the highest quality education they need and deserve,” she said.

Newhill said she sees the district’s biggest challenges as teacher and administrator shortages and school safety.

She supports creating pathways in the district for teacher academies and magnet programs; creating more ways for retired teachers to fill vacancies; and a moratorium on approving new charter schools in the district while an analysis can be done on their impacts.

Rina Tambor

Tambor is a tutor, according to information filed with the city clerk’s office.

“Honor the rights of parents and the innocence of children,” she said on her campaign website.

Tambor is originally from New York and describes herself as having a lifelong commitment to children. She said she has helped manage large overnight camps across Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York. She also has tutored in subjects including math, reading, history, science and art.

She wants the district to refocus on core areas, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, and wants to increase funding for students with special needs, according to her website.

She also said reducing class sizes “is crucial for creating a more effective learning environment, achieved through a lower student-to-teacher ratio.”

She could not be reached for further comment.

Didi Watts

Watts, 52, of Los Angeles is an educator whose motivation to run for school board was her 2-year-old granddaughter.

“I want to see her attend her neighborhood school and get a great education because that wasn’t the case for her mother — my daughter — and it wasn’t the case for me,” she said in her campaign materials.

Watts said she had to leave her neighborhood to “get a good education” and that her own children attended a mix of traditional district, charter and private schools.

Watts served as a teacher, school psychologist, special education administrator, school principal and a nonprofit administrator . She is currently chief of staff to LAUSD board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin, who is running for reelection in District 7, serving the Harbor Area and South Bay.

Her priorities would include improving special education services, creating equitable policies for students who have been underserved, increasing “authentic” family engagement, and engaging with constituents to ensure their needs are being addressed by setting up advisory councils.

LAUSD Board of Education District 1

Candidates: Kahllid Al-Alim, John Aaron Brasfield, Christian Flagg, Sherlett Hendy Newbill, Didi Watts, DeWayne Davis, Rina Tambor

Term length: 4 years

District boundaries: L.A. Mid-City, Crenshaw, Arlington Heights, and Westmont neighborhoods.

Key issues: Districtwide absenteeism, declining enrollment, charter schools.

2024 presidential primary election

Election Day: March 5, 2024. Polls close at 8 p.m.

Early voting: You can vote at the Los Angeles County registrar’s office beginning Monday, Feb. 5. The registrar’s headquarters are at 12400 Imperial Highway, Room 3002, in Norwalk. That office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Vote-by-mail: Ballots began going out on Thursday, Feb. 1. You can submit VBMs in three ways: By mailing them to the registrar’s office (VBMs include return envelopes with the correct address and postage already included); by placing them in an official drop box; or by dropping them off at any county Vote Center.

VBM deadline: VBMs sent via mail must arrive no later than seven days after the election, but they must be postmarked by March 5. The deadline to place VBMs in a drop box or deliver them to a Vote Center is 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Vote Centers: Vote Centers open 10 days before Election Day. This year, that’s Saturday, Feb. 24. You can vote at any Vote Center in Los Angeles County. Prior to Election Day, the Vote Centers will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Election Day, they will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

About the ballots: In California, the order races are listed on ballots goes from local to federal, meaning the nominees for president will be listed at the bottom. Except for presidential races, California’s primaries for “partisan” offices – now known as “voter-nominated offices” have a top-two system. That means the top two vote getters in a given race advance to the general election, regardless of political party.

To find a drop box or Vote Center and for more information: lavote.gov.

Editor’s note: Because of an editing error, Kahllid Al-Alim’s given name was misspelled in a previous version of this story.

Originally Published:

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