L.A. Unified School District 5 election: Griego vs. Ortiz voter guide

The winner of a school board race for the eastern portion of Los Angeles Unified will replace an influential political presence: retiring school board President Jackie Goldberg. Her strong opinions, deep experience and strategic moxie helped drive policy in the nation’s second-largest school system during her board service in the 1980s and since her return in 2019.

Vying to replace her are two school district employees: Karla Griego, who has worked with students with disabilities for most of her career, and Graciela “Grace” Ortiz, a counseling administrator and a City Council member in Huntington Park, a city that is within L.A. Unified.

The seven-member school board sets policy for the nation’s second-largest school district, which educates about 420,000 students and employs some 74,000 teachers, administrators and other staff. The school board is accountable for the district’s $18.4-billion budget. Members also hire and evaluate the superintendent.

Where is the district?

District 5 includes most of the northeastern portion of Los Angeles, including Eagle Rock, Glassell Park and Echo Park. To the southeast, it includes the cities of Huntington Park, Maywood and South Gate. The school board races are nonpartisan.

What is the big picture?

The District 5 race is a contest between candidates with valuable but different professional backgrounds in education. The district’s two most powerful unions are also facing off in the race by supporting opposing sides.

Local 99 of Service Employees International Union is backing Ortiz. Local 99 members include custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, teacher aides and security aides. United Teachers Los Angeles is backing Griego. UTLA represents teachers, psychologists, librarians, nurses and counselors.

Both unions spent comparable amounts — approaching $1 million apiece — in the primary, in which Griego finished in the top position.

Through Oct. 2, Local 99 has outspent UTLA, having poured in more than $590,000 compared to about $391,000. In the primary, however, the teachers union closed a funding gap with later-in-the-game spending.

A defining question for Griego is how much, if any, distance there is between her positions and those of UTLA, which exerts more influence over school district policies than Local 99. Griego has long been a UTLA leader, including serving on the union’s board of directors.

UTLA’s senior leadership has sought to eliminate funding for school police, wants strict oversight over charter schools and to limit their growth, is pushing for an end to much of the district’s standardized testing and has been critical of Supt. Alberto Carvalho. If Griego wins, UTLA potentially would have its strongest ally on the board.

Local 99 wanted its own candidate — one not so closely aligned with the teachers union — and chose Ortiz, even though, as a longtime school counselor, she was an active member of the teachers union.

Local 99’s priorities lean toward bread-and-butter issues, such as protecting and enhancing the jobs, salaries and benefits of the employees it represents. The union — joined by many parents and also by UTLA — has criticized Carvalho for allegedly not upholding contract commitments, and instead pressuring schools to cut jobs and employees’ hours and benefits.

In response to the outcry, district officials have set up a fund from which schools can restore positions, while also asserting they have abided by the terms of the contract. The back-and-forth budget decisions have created difficult situations at schools for employees seeking job stability — and for administrators managing hiring and work hours.

But the bottom line is that Carvalho could face new pressures from the new board member regardless of who wins.

Charter school advocates who have funded big-money independent campaigns have largely sat out this race, but based on individual donations, charter backers appear to favor Ortiz.

The L.A. Unified school police unions also endorse Ortiz. They are concerned that a UTLA-backed candidate would support the teachers union’s call to eliminate the school Police Department.

Ortiz also has served as Huntington Park’s mayor — the job rotates among council members. That city is divided sharply into factions. Issues raised by critics of Ortiz’s faction include a dispute over bus services that came to light in 2017, in which contracts were awarded to a company with political connections that charged more. Ortiz denied any wrongdoing by herself or the city.

Ortiz’s close political allies include Efren Martinez, a city commissioner who is running for the state Assembly.

Ortiz and Martinez were named this year as defendants in a civil lawsuit alleging that they were financially liable for the sexual abuse of a high school student by a worker in a 2021 campaign they were managing. The high school student was working on that campaign.

Just after that filing, L.A. Unified briefly removed Ortiz from her job as a counseling administrator before reinstating her several weeks later. The school system won’t comment on the purpose of the investigation or on whether Ortiz was subject to discipline. But she did ultimately return to her job. Ortiz also declined to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, an L.A. Superior Court judge removed Ortiz and Martinez from the lawsuit in April — on the grounds they are not liable based on the evidence presented — but allowed the case to remain active. The victim’s attorney has included Ortiz and Martinez once more in an amended complaint. The next hearing in the litigation is in October.

Ortiz predicted that she would be successful again in getting removed from the case and characterized the lawsuit as politically motivated and frivolous.

“As a full-time educator and counselor, I haven’t let myself get distracted by the politics running for office tries to toss you,” Ortiz said. “I’d much prefer to talk about issues that moms and dads bring up when I knock on their doors in Silver Lake, Eagle Rock and southeast cities.”

The responses below to specific LAUSD issues were compiled through a questionnaire The Times sent to candidates, follow-up emails and conversations with the candidates. The content was supplemented with material from campaign websites and from statements at public campaign forums. Candidates also had the opportunity to provide updated input after the primary.

The answers are summarized or lightly edited for length or clarity.

Who are the candidates?

Karla Griego

A portrait of a woman from the shoulders up

Age: 52

Occupation: Community schools coordinator at McAlister High School, in charge of organizing student and family services and participation.

Political party: Democratic Party

Experience: She became an L.A. Unified teacher in 2001. Her various roles included teaching students with disabilities, English learner coordinator, and resource specialist to support teachers and students with special needs. Griego also served on the board of directors for United Teachers Los Angeles and was involved in the union-allied coalition Reclaim Our Schools L.A. She is the mother of three children — two in college, one in high school.

Quote: Except at “transparent and democratic” community schools, “LAUSD budgets are incomprehensible. They are presented in big binders; allocations of programs and services are disbursed through various lines that make it difficult for people to track where monies are spent. They are also presented in a rushed manner, making it difficult to process and assess the needs. There is also no space for stakeholder input.”

Website: karlagriegoforschoolboard.com

Graciela “Grace” Ortiz

A photo of a woman seen from the shoulders up in front of an American flag

Age: 43

Occupation: Pupil services and attendance administrator for L.A. Unified and a member of the Huntington Park City Council.

Political party: Democratic Party

Experience: She worked as an L.A. Unified pupil services and attendance counselor from 2006 to 2021; elected to the Huntington Park City Council in 2015. Has also served as Hub Cities Workforce Development chair and board member, and as a state and county Democratic Party delegate. Ortiz grew up attending local schools, and as a UCLA student established a chapter of Hermanas Unidas, which focuses on empowering women, predominantly Chicanas and other Latinas, to ensure graduation.

Quote: “LAUSD is the second-largest school district with many diverse communities who are willing to work with the education system.”

Website: gracielaortiz.com

What are your priorities?

Griego: Supporting the whole child, including mental health and social and emotional needs. Reducing district-mandated testing to allow for more learning time. Enriching curriculum; for example, with more electives and career pathways. Increasing support for students with special needs. Improving fiscal transparency and accountability for the superintendent and charter schools. Expanding community schools, the Black Student Achievement Plan and safe passages to and from campuses.

Ortiz: Having fully funded schools, which would allow the filling of all vacant positions and ensure staffing of campus aides, building and grounds workers, special education assistants, bus drivers and community representatives. Also, “we must expand our mental health and counseling services at every school in our district to provide our students the emotional support they need to be academically successful.” Reducing class sizes in all grade levels. Enhancing after-school programs and establishing “comprehensive safety plans for every school.”

What is your evaluation of Supt. Alberto Carvalho?

Griego: Carvalho “has made decisions that have excluded stakeholder input,” she said, and he “needs to prioritize parent, student and educator voices and create a harassment-free LAUSD.” She cited an incident at Saticoy Elementary in which a teacher’s “transgender flag was burned, followed by intimidating emails and threats.” In addition, she said, “all workers need to be protected from rogue supervisors that seek to deter employees from exercising their right to protest” and file grievances over misconduct or inappropriate working conditions.

Ortiz: “I appreciate Supt. Carvalho’s efforts in working with pupil services and attendance to address the importance of breaking down barriers that are impeding our students from attending school regularly.”

What is your evaluation of retiring board member Jackie Goldberg, whom you’d be replacing?

Griego: Goldberg “has been a trailblazing elected official for years, a public ed champion who recently co-authored a resolution that will create transparency” when campuses are required to share space with charter schools, said Griego, adding: “I admire that she has been a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community for years.”

Ortiz: Goldberg “was not able to dedicate the time and effort to really understand the needs of board District 5 communities,” Ortiz said, noting that communities throughout LAUSD vary greatly, and that Cudahy’s needs, for example, vary greatly from those of Eagle Rock or South L.A. Goldberg did bring “past knowledge to the board, as she was a board member decades ago,” she said. “However, our educational system needs drastic and innovative changes now.”

What is your position on charter schools?

Griego: They “need to have more accountability and transparency,” she said. “I support the current board’s recent motion to study the process and effects” of sharing LAUSD campuses with charter schools, with the goal of limiting the placement of charters at designated community schools or schools with a Black Student Achievement Plan program.

Ortiz: Ortiz said it was premature to assess the pending restrictions that would limit the opportunities for charters to share campuses with district-run schools, as the new rules are still under development.

What is your position on school police and how would you keep schools safe? Would you restore officers to campuses or eliminate police?

Griego: “When there is imminent danger on campus, as we have tragically seen in the past 30 years, school police have not been able to intervene. In fact, it is school personnel who have done everything possible to limit the tragedies,” Griego said. She noted that students themselves have helped curtail tragedies by reporting knowledge of potential danger to teachers and counselors they trust, leading to investigations after administrators and the district are informed. “This has been the protocol at my daughter’s school this year. There has been no need for police to come on campus for the issues that have arisen,” she said. “If there is a reasonable threat, then police should be called.”

Ortiz: “LAUSD must have their own school Police Department that is responsible for keeping our students, employees and school surroundings safe,” she said. “School police officers do not need to be on campus at all times, but patrolling outside our schools is important for response time and knowledge of our school system and students.”

What is your position on the $9-billion bond measure that the school board has placed on the November ballot?

Griego: “The school bond would provide much-needed structural improvements to some of our oldest schools that need to be retrofitted for earthquakes and for accessibility. In a time of growing climate crisis, our schools are in dire need to have their facilities upgraded to withstand higher temperatures and create more green space where students can stay cool and learn about our environment in hands-on ways. At the same time, the LAUSD school board has a duty to demonstrate to the public that they are using existing funds appropriately and diligently ... so they will retain the public’s trust.”

Ortiz: “I fully support the LAUSD school bond because many of our school facilities are in urgent need of repairs and accessibility upgrades. It’s critical that we modernize our schools to ensure all students have safe, well-equipped learning environments that prepare them for the future. Far too many schools, particularly in disadvantaged communities, have endured broken air conditioning, outdated technology, and playgrounds or classrooms that are simply unfit for children. This bond is essential.”

How well has the school district managed the use of Proposition 28 funds for increased arts education?

Griego: “The district mismanaged Proposition 28 funds ... and is causing chaos in its attempts to address the issue. We need folks on the board like me who will demand accountability and transparency. Clearly, evidence from school site budgets demonstrate that there were many schools in [District] 5 that did not see arts supplementation. Some schools lost arts instruction while others remained the same. At the high school level, there were cuts to arts departments at the end of the year. Thanks to the outcry and demands from parents and community members that this be fixed, LAUSD allocated $30 million for elementary schools. However, secondary schools did not receive extra funding.”

Ortiz: “Proposition 28 funds have raised concerns among parents, educators and community members, as they have not seen a noticeable increase in arts programs at their local schools. Given the long-standing equity issues in communities like the Southeast, transparency and accountability are crucial when managing Proposition 28 funds. By law, 80% of the funds must be used to hire teachers and support staff, with the remaining 20% allocated for art supplies and materials. However, there is a lack of clarity around how individual schools are spending these funds, as the district has not provided clear communication regarding hiring or program implementation. All stakeholders deserve to know exactly how these funds are being used and what improvements are being made.”