I’m Back

For those of you who don’t know, I have been working on Assemblyman Paul Krekorian’s campaign for the Los Angeles City Council. At the end of a five-month stint with the campaign, the team has come up victorious. The campaign itself was both impressive and beautiful, in retrospect, and it was an honor of a lifetime to be a part of. More on that later…but I will tell you it wasn’t easy.

Since then Burbank has been in the business of banning cat declawing, losing a Superintendent, and possibly removing Civil Service Board Members…All I can say is lovely.

When it comes to the loss of our Superintendent, I must say its a bittersweet thing. I met the man and thought he had great vision for our district. However, I did later learn that his leadership style was a little too confrontational. What really put me off was his proposed goals for the district. Yes, the district should set annual goals but, the goals should be constructive and achievable.

As a part of the Superintendent’s goals he planned to mandate A-G Requirements. A-G Requirements set out which high school courses must be taken and passed, before graduation, in order to be accepted to a CSU or UC. The implementation of this goal would have killed classroom-based extra-curricular activities (i.e. choir, band, yearbook and ASB) and other vocational electives for non-college bound students due to lack of time. As a result, you would have seen a decrease in attendance and increase in dropout rates because the elective classes that keep some of our students in school, would have been facing the chopping block.

I think now is the time to be supportive of our Board of Education. They had no way of knowing this man’s leadership style. Happy to hear we’re moving on from this and wish the Board the best of luck in their search.

To the Civil Service Board…There is no reason to merit removals. Yes, they made a very controversial decision, but it was a decision that was based in logic. Could someone out there disagree with the decision they came to? Sure. But, that doesn’t merit their removal. Their removal, should it move forward, would severely undercut the independence of boards and commissions and would keep the type of discussions and disagreements that are vital to a city’s growth to a minimal.

On another front, expect me to be writing more about the upcoming Assembly race for our district. It’s going to be a blast.

Advertisement