Los Angeles Unified school board member George J. McKenna III announced his retirement last year, leaving a vacant seat in District 1, which encompasses much of South Los Angeles, Mid-City, Koreatown and as far west as Palms.
This is an important school board position that needs an experienced leader who can respond to the community and make smart decisions about how to allocate limited resources to improve student achievement, reduce educational inequities, and ensure the safety and well-being of children.
The person best equipped to do so is Sherlett Hendy Newbill, who has spent more than two decades at Susan Miller Dorsey High School as a basketball coach, teacher, dean of students and in other roles. Her extensive on-the-ground experience and her common-sense, independent approach to tackling complex problems give her an edge over the six other candidates vying for this seat in the March primary.
Newbill graduated from Dorsey High School and returned to the Crenshaw district campus after college to coach and teach. Her pragmatic positions on issues like school safety and community engagement appear to be informed by both her perspective as a mother (she has two children, ages 8 and 11, who attend elementary school in District 1) and her work in the campus.
Newbill is an advocate for Black and Latino students and wants Los Angeles Unified to continue investing in strong math and reading instruction in the early grades and in learning programs for older students to help stem declining enrollment. . She is a strong believer in the community schools model and would work to ensure campuses offer a full suite of services, including quality after-school programs, health and mental health services, and other help families need.
She promises to be accessible and responsive, offering an open door to parents, teachers, administrators and community members and enacting policies, such as a question tracking system, that hold the district bureaucracy accountable for responding to the needs and concerns of students. families.
Last year, McKenna hired Newbill as his education policy advisor. Newbill previously ran against McKenna for the District 1 board seat in 2014, placing third among seven candidates. McKenna has now endorsed it, along with several local groups and elected officials.
Since hiring Supt. Alberto Carvalho was given more space by the school board two years ago than his predecessors to pursue new policies and initiatives, which is a good thing. But board members must also hold Carvalho accountable for delivering results.
Newbill believes Carvalho's decision to replace the successful Primary Promise program that helps elementary school students who struggle with reading and math was a mistake. She rightly notes that the district has been too quick to cancel new initiatives, without waiting to evaluate whether they are working.
One of his top priorities would be to ensure continued support for the district's initiative. Black Student Achievement Plan, established three years ago to address educational inequalities faced by Black students. This community-led initiative is promising, but it needs a lot of attention, consistent funding, and most importantly, time to be successful.
Newbill slams 2021 school board decision to remove school police from campuses without a solid plan to keep students safe. She would seek to give each school community the ability to decide whether to have police on campus. It's a position at odds with the powerful United Teachers Los Angeles union, and she suspects it's one of the reasons she didn't get the union's endorsement. But her independence on this issue bodes well for her ability to address complex issues on the board without ideological rigidity.
Another strong candidate is Didi L. Watts, a longtime educator who works as chief of staff for District 7 board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin. She co-founded the Watts Power Foundation, which works to train more black men to become teachers. He has good ideas about how schools can better educate students with special needs and support vulnerable populations, such as foster and homeless youth.
Kahllid A. Al-Alim is the UTLA-endorsed candidate and his positions are firmly in line with the union's agenda, including fighting against the co-location of charter schools in traditional public schools and opposing police on campuses.
The district would be better served by someone who is willing to change course in response to community concerns and oppose powerful interests to meet student needs. Newbill is the most likely candidate to do so.
