Tanya Ortiz Franklin’s Election Tips Balance of Power Toward a Kids-First School Board

Speak UP’s endorsed school board candidate Tanya Ortiz Franklin won the race to replace retiring Board President Richard Vladovic in District 7, a result that means the United Teachers Los Angeles union no longer controls the school board, and the interests of high-needs students may finally be put first at LAUSD.

Teacher and attorney Ortiz Franklin led Patricia Castellanos by 58%-42% in District 7, which runs from South L.A. to San Pedro, prompting her UTLA-backed opponent Castellanos to concede. In District 3 in the San Fernando Valley, parent and Granada Hills Charter High School employee Marilyn Koziatek was trailing incumbent Board Member Scott Schmerelson 54%-46%, which she said in a statement were not “the results we were hoping for.”

That means the board is likely to remain without a single parent of LAUSD kids having a seat at the table. Nevertheless, with only three out of seven board members elected with financial support from UTLA, control of the school board will now shift, and the voices of parents and students are expected to carry more weight, which could be significant in coming months as LAUSD schools plan for a possible hybrid reopening.

“I’m excited and optimistic and hopeful about the great things we’ll be able to do for kids, but also I feel very heavy,” Ortiz Franklin told Speak UP. “It’s weighty. The pandemic and racial justice and kids struggling with learning and all of these big issues, I now get to do something about it. I have to do something about it.”

Speak UP parents and students campaigned for Ortiz Franklin, texting and calling hundreds of thousands of voters, sending daily tweets and launching a Facebook ad campaign to support her election.  

"We are thrilled that Tanya Ortiz Franklin is the new school board member in District 7 and that the balance of power on the school board is shifting,” said Speak UP Founder and CEO Katie Braude. "We believe the interests of our highest-needs kids will now be prioritized by this school board to a much greater degree. Tanya will have a laser-like focus on making sure that all students are learning. Equity won today."

Parents in Los Angeles have been frustrated with LAUSD’s slow pace in reopening schools for the 25% of high-needs students with disabilities, English learners and early learners that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health now says schools are allowed to serve in person on campuses.

UTLA has been fighting the Health Department’s determination that it’s safe to reopen for the highest-need kids for whom distance learning is not working. And while UTLA won a clause in its distance learning side letter, negotiated behind closed doors a week before school started, saying that no employees could be required to return to campus until it’s safe for all to return, that deal expires at the end of the year.

While UTLA as of this week is allowing its members to return voluntarily to provide tutoring, special education services and small-group instruction, only 500 teachers and 200 paraprofessionals have signed on to return to campus to help just 1,000 kids. That’s a mere drop in the bucket now that roughly 150,000 students are permitted on campuses by the Health Department. 

Ortiz Franklin places a high priority on getting more high-needs kids back on campuses safely.

“I think about the private schools that are bringing kids back, the smaller wealthier districts bringing kids back,” she told Speak UP. “There’s no reason Los Angeles Unified kids need to be further disadvantaged from their neighboring communities because we haven’t figured out how to do this yet. We have a lot of brilliant people. They just need to make the plans.”

Ortiz Franklin, who has worked as a special education attorney, said that LAUSD needs to do more to help kids with disabilities, as well as other students struggling during distance learning.

“I think about students who are struggling to learn how to read,” she said. “I think about our youngest students for whom six hours of online instruction is not developmentally appropriate. I think about the [TK-2nd grade] kids learning fine motor skills and needing to move around objects in person. Not being able to interact with peers is socially inappropriate for young children, for adolescents. There’s a big need for social-emotional connection, and some of that happens much better in person than virtually.”

While LAUSD has focused much of its efforts in recent months on operational issues, such as setting up grab-and-go-food centers, distributing devices and devising a COVID testing program, Ortiz Franklin, who has worked as a teacher and a trainer of teachers, promises a stronger focus on “teaching and learning,” despite the challenges presented by the pandemic.

“I will be so steadfast on, ‘Are our kids learning?’ when I get on the board,” she said. “We’re not there yet.”

With LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner making preparations to reopen for all students in hybrid form as early as January, Ortiz Franklin said she  wants to see more decentralization in the decision-making, which she believes belongs at school sites.

“Those closest to kids in classrooms make the best decisions,” she said. “Yes, a conversation should be happening at the district level, local districts, community of schools, but the most important conversations should be at school sites with principals, teacher leaders and families and students, saying, ‘What should our plan look like for hybrid instruction?’ The decision-making power needs to be released for planning purposes to the folks closest to the kids.”

The election of Ortiz Franklin could also ease recent district hostility toward students attending independent charter schools, which have been saddled with extra fees and broad new rules governing charter renewals and authorizations. Ortiz Franklin supports the rights of all students to get an excellent education, regardless of school model.

Nevertheless, she graduated from and has taught and worked her entire career in traditional district schools, and she believes there has been too much media focus placed on a union-versus-charter school narrative.

“That’s not what the decisions are in front of the board that I’m thinking about right away,” she said. “Of course, there will be charter approvals. But it’s more about, how are we returning to school and are kids learning? And SENI [Student Equity Needs Index] and the School Performance Framework and all of the things that matter for our highest-need kids.”