LAUSD REFORM BID SNUBS PUBLIC INPUT.

Byline: MARIBEL DE LA TORRE Local View

A special meeting of the San Fernando City Council was scheduled for this past Friday with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to discuss reform for the LAUSD. The council, of which I am a member, had agreed to meet with Villaraigosa before taking a formal position on his reform plan, otherwise known as Assembly Bill 1381.

But the meeting was never to take place. The Mayor's Office called three hours before the scheduled start to cancel. Apparently Villaraigosa and his staff were unprepared to host a meeting that would be open to the public, as San Fernando City Council meetings must be to be in accordance with state open-meetings laws.

And herein lies the problems with Villaraigosa's takeover plan for the independent cities that are serviced by the LAUSD.

Although Villaraigosa's office has refused to acknowledge or work with the city of San Fernando's governance structure, he can only be doing this for two reasons. Either he and his office are truly ignorant of our governance structure, or he would rather negotiate directly with mayors who have absolutely no decision-making power. Both reasons should be of concern to all 26 member agencies serviced by LAUSD.

If his actions are based on ignorance, then he should learn how our councils' governance structure functions and how we make decisions. In our cities, our mayors' position is not necessarily the city's position. We are governed by majority rule.

If the meeting was canceled due to his desire to negotiate only with the mayors of the cities, then every single council member and every single resident in every city serviced by LAUSD should be extremely concerned. The reasons our cities engage in majority vote/rule is because it is the democratic way and is to create balance in our communities.

Our City Council represents over 25,000 residents in San Fernando, and our residents entrust us with the daily decisions affecting them. It is our duty to fight for equity. In this case equity must come though checks and balances.

It is the city of San Fernando's position that AB 1381 should be amended to include several provisions, but the overriding and most important should include a super-majority veto power regarding appointment of the superintendent and veto power over the budget approval. (Two-thirds, or 18 of the 26 cities, would have the ability to override Villaraigosa's decision on choosing a superintendent or approving the budget of the school district.)

On a personal level it is my belief that cities should be given options under AB 1381. Those should include the ability for cities to form their own school districts or the ability to contract with either the LAUSD or another school district. Currently, the 26 cities are being forced into a situation which may not be mutually beneficial.

The 26 member agencies serviced by LAUSD have one shot at carving out educational reform and one shot at getting this right. To do this, we must be able to be at the negotiating table as elected bodies ready to make decisions in a very open and transparent manner.

However, in the past several days transparency has been shut out of this process, beginning with Villaraigosa's cancelation of our meeting. Not one single school-reform meeting is being hosted in the San Fernando Valley.

Parents, elected officials, taxpayers and educators should be concerned over the nontransparency of AB 1381 by those who are pushing this agenda forward without wanting to hear from the rest of us.