LAUSD Board Candidate and Mom Marilyn Koziatek Discusses Challenges of Distance Learning and the Politics of Reopening Schools

Marilyn Koziatek is the mother of two kids who attend their LAUSD neighborhood elementary school, and she’s part of the leadership team at Granada Hills Charter High School. She’s running for the school Board seat in District 3, which includes the West San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys, Studio City and North Hollywood. Our first interview, which took place prior to the pandemic, can be found here. 

Speak UP: The education landscape has shifted completely since we spoke in January. How is distance learning working for your kids this fall?

Marilyn Koziatek: I have a second grader and a fourth grader, and my local school has wonderful leadership. Our principal is a visionary, and she has a really dedicated group of teachers. They have done a phenomenal job. One of the unique things they did was they kept my second grader’s first-grade class intact. They just moved them all up into second grade. That was great because of that sense of isolation our children are experiencing right now. So when they log on, it is people they already know because they went to school with them last year when we were in person. With that, they went above and beyond, and I have seen a level of organization and curriculum development for my fourth grader that has astounded me. It is almost like a college-level type of organization, which I really appreciate because as parents, we are in charge of keeping them on pace. We are so integral to this process.  

Speak UP: How are you juggling your job on campus at Granada Hills High with your kids’ distance learning?  

Marilyn: My husband is home two days a week working remotely, but we have to put them in daycare the other three days. To be clear, my daycare is one I am paying for. My school I work for is not providing employee daycare, and I don’t have access to the district childcare because I am not a district employee. I have the ability to pay for it, but that is not the case for the majority of our students in LAUSD. So it’s very difficult. I’ve even heard stories where some essential workers have sent their children to other states to be with grandparents because there was no daycare option. But they are still LAUSD students. It’s a crisis.

Speak UP: Parents are confused why it’s safe to have employees’ kids on campus and parks and recreation centers open for supervised distance learning but not to have others kids on campus for childcare or teachers teaching kids.  

Marilyn: I agree with the confusion.  

Speak UP: What do you think about the L.A. County Health Department’s decision to allow schools to reopen for kids with disabilities and English Learners and UTLA's contention that it’s not safe.  

Marilyn: I believe that science needs to lead this discussion, and we have to rely on our epidemiologists and our public health officials. So when they say that it is safe, with risk mitigations in place, we have to believe them.

Speak UP: Recently, a recording came out of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer saying schools will not reopen before the November elections. There is a concern that some decisions are more political than scientific. 

Marilyn: The concern about politicizing this crisis is a real one. That is one of the reasons why I am running, because I don’t think politicizing this process for our kids is healthy for anyone. As a board member, the lens I am always going to be looking at is, instead of some sort of political agenda, how this is impacting our children and our students, which is our North Star, and make our decisions from there. 

Speak UP: It seems like UTLA is really calling the shots. They came out and said they have the power to veto any decision to return, and basically, LAUSD is silent on that. Do you think that they should be the sole arbiter of when it is safe to reopen schools?

Marilyn: It shouldn’t be where one [entity] has authority over the whole process. That is another reason why I am running. I want to be the independent voice of a mom with kids in the district who says, "We have got to look at this from a kid's-first agenda." I am a school site employee. When I come to work, I worry about my own safety, as well.  I understand that. We have to work together. That’s the point.

To me, there has to be a gradual reopening. That is the logical step. And it has to be for those who are not being served [well] through distance learning -- students with IEPs and English Language Learners. We have not even started talking about younger to older grades yet, but I would naturally think that’s a part of a reopening plan. I think we all know plans can change. 2020 taught us that. But I would like to see a plan.

Speak UP: You recently mentioned you know some teachers in the Valley who are ready to return if UTLA and LAUSD would allow it. Should it be an option for those who want to return to help kids with special needs and English Learners?

Marilyn: What is so important is that we talk to our local stakeholders -- teachers and parents and students. Many parents will not send their children back at all. Period. A child might be immuno-compromised. Then there are some who only want to send their child for speech therapy, but they don’t want them there for six hours a day in a classroom. Who are the families, who are the teachers, therapists and care providers who are willing to come back? We may have a solution right there. [Maybe] it will be just enough. We can’t know that until we start talking to our local stakeholders. That is a crucial part of this reopening process.

Speak UP: In the spring, we uncovered huge inequities in the amount of live instruction kids received based on race, income, disability and English Learner status.

Marilyn: What’s interesting about what we saw in the spring was, here is what has been happening inside our schools for a very long time. It is just now the curtain was unveiled. The inequities in our system are more visible because the kids are outside of school learning. This is an opportunity where we could, with the right leadership, start to make permanent changes that will help our children who are our most vulnerable. 

In certain communities, they do not have broadband internet. We used to call it the homework gap, and now it is the gap because they cannot access their school [at all]. I know they are giving out hotspots, but that is not enough megabits per second to do Zooms if you’ve got four kids in a house. We could be working with our city, with our private partnerships like Chicago public schools did, where they implemented broadband access that will benefit generations to come. To me, the spring and the crisis, I think it was an unveiling of the way that our public system has been failing these vulnerable children for a very long time.

Speak UP: How do you think we are going to be able to make up for those learning losses that took place?

Marilyn: That is a big concern, on a personal level [as well]. My fourth grader is really struggling with hitting benchmarks right now. He is not meeting grade-level expectations. Assessments are tricky in a distance learning format, but it is hard to listen over Zoom. It is hard to focus when you are only nine. I am worried. I do not know if devastated is too strong of a word, but it’s hard. These are our kids. This is our future. 

Some research [indicates] we may not know the impact of learning losses until much later. As a problem solver I say, "Okay, we know that this is really hurting our kids. The best way to solve it is to make sure that we are providing the highest quality instruction and experience for our children right now during distance learning.” Distance learning and blended learning is not new. There are all sorts of best practices. We have to be pushing the district to be the best we can during this crisis. We need leaders that are laser focused on this issue.

Speak UP: A lot of parents, especially secondary parents, including at Millikan middle school in your district, don’t believe the current plan has enough instructional hours. Do you feel like the current plan is adequate to prepare students for college?

Marilyn: Yes and no. I think the danger is when we talk just about hours, we don’t talk about the quality of the hours. I would really want our instructional leads to be constantly holding every classroom at every school to a very high standard of quality. That is going to involve professional development and being laser focused on models that have been proven to work over decades of research.

Speak UP: Parents have really felt left out of the discussion. If you are elected, you will be the only parent of LAUSD kids on the school board. How important is it to have parents be part of the process and to have people on the board who understand parents’ perspectives?

Marilyn: I think it is vital. That is one of the reasons why I am running -- to have a literal seat at the table. Professionally, I have been involved in parent engagement at a public school for many years, and I have seen firsthand how when parents come alongside this journey for what is best for their kids and school, the outcomes are elevated for kids.

We always wonder about how to improve achievement data in the district, and this is a crucial piece. I have really sophisticated communication models that I use with parents, and other schools and districts have implemented some amazing tools that elevate parents as true partners. This is a process that we have to have our board focused on. The incumbent sits on the parent subcommittee for the board. I have watched his work for five years. I have never seen any outcomes come out of that parent engagement subcommittee that I feel are meaningful. So, they have had their chance, right? The board has known this is a problem, they are "working on it," and they failed. It is time to have a parent have a seat at the table.

Speak UP: Aside from being a parent, how else do you differentiate yourself from the incumbent?

Marilyn: Being a school site professional in the year 2020 is important. Schools are unrecognizable from what they were in the 80s and the 90s. I have seen the work that my school has done to push our curriculum into the 21st century. We embraced one-to-one Chromebooks five years ago. We implemented a climate change curriculum with Next Generation Science Standards that inspired kids to make a change in their lives forever. It is so important to be a boots-on-the-ground candidate. That perspective differentiates us a lot.

The incumbent also comes from inside LAUSD. There is a depth and a breadth that boards should have to be effective. Someone like myself who knows how to build relationships with the community, with people from inside and outside the district, all of us together working to elevate our school system, that is so important and something that I know I will do a lot better than [Board Member] Scott [Schmerelson].  

Speak UP: The board didn’t have a single discussion about distance learning until a week before school started, but they spent a lot of time making new rules for charter schools. What are your thoughts about those rules and the tenor of the board discussion?

Marilyn: As a district mom, I have to say I was unhappy with watching those hours tick by and wondering when they were going to start talking about my son's education. We are in the worst public health crisis in over a century. That should have been the number one on the agenda. Why would they spend [so much time on] what could be considered a fringe issue during such a crisis? It is obviously politics, and I grow weary of that as a mom, as a constituent. I am tired of politics being the main part of the LAUSD board. There is so much work to be done for kids. So much work to be done. Let’s focus on that.

-- Speak UP reached out to all of the 2020 general election L.A. school board candidates requesting interviews before the Nov. 3 election. Marilyn Koziatek responded, while her opponent Scott Schmerelson did not. Both candidates will appear in a forum co-hosted by Speak UP on Sept. 23 at 6 p.m. Speak UP has made no endorsement in this race.