Three seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, which is responsible for the education of more than 400,000 students, are up for election on November 5. In addition, voters were asked whether or not to approve a last-minute bond measure.
LAUSD’s seven-member school board sets policies for the country’s second-largest school district in the nation, with a workforce of about 74,000 teachers and staff. They also manage the district’s $18.4 billion budget and are responsible for hiring a superintendent.
Two of the races — District 3 in the San Fernando Valley and District 1 in South Los Angeles — have been contentious. In contrast, the third race, in District 5 covering the Eastside and suburbs from Vernon to South Gate, has seen less controversy.
LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: See a chart of the latest vote counts
Here is the status of the races as of election night, though these results are preliminary. The initial round of results were composed entirely of vote-by-mail ballots that arrived before Election Day. The L.A. County registrar’s office will continue counting ballots over the coming days and has until December 3 to certify the election results.
LAUSD Board of Education District 1:
Sherlett Hendy Newbill, an education policy advisor, led in early results, ahead of Kahllid Al-Alim, a community organizer and parent.
Al-Alim sparked controversy and lost the backing of the influential United Teachers Los Angeles, or UTLA, when his posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, were criticized as antisemitic, and reports surfaced that he followed a sexually explicit adult site. Following the February controversy, he apologized and deleted his personal X account.
Hendy Newbill has worked for LAUSD for more than two decades and currently serves as a policy advisor for George McKenna, the District 1 LAUSD Board representative who is retiring. She is also the athletic director at her alma mater, Dorsey High School, overseeing the school’s sports program.
LAUSD Board of Education District 3:
Board incumbent and former principal Scott Schmerelson was narrowly ahead of math teacher Daniel Chang.
The two men are running for the seat on the board to represent District 3, which encompasses several neighborhoods stretching from North Hollywood to Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and most of the West Valley communities.
Schmerelson served as assistant principal at Griffith Middle School in East Los Angeles for five years and then as principal at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth for another five years.
His challenger, Chang, is a math teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood who graduated from UC Berkeley and the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
LAUSD Board of Education District 5:
Teacher Karla Griego was ahead of teacher Graciela “Grace” Ortiz competing for the open seat left by longtime board member Jackie Goldberg.
The two teachers hold several similar views and are each supported by influential labor organizations, with UTLA endorsing Griego and SEIU 99 backing Ortiz.
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LAUSD $9 billion school construction bond:
A surprise bond measure that was added to the November ballot at the last minute that would raise property taxes was ahead. To win the bond measure must get 55% approval from voters.
The LAUSD Board of Education unanimously approved the bond measure in a special meeting on Aug. 7, just a day after the proposal was publicized on the board’s agenda. The LAUSD school board barely made the Aug. 8 deadline for submitting material to the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office to get a measure on the ballot.
If the bond measure wins, the funds would go to projects such as upgrading HVAC systems and aging roofs. But Michael Hamner, the chair of LAUSD’s Bond Oversight Committee, said on Aug. 8, “The lack of adequate engagement or notice raises concerns.”