Four candidates are vying for two open spots on the Los Angeles Board of Education in contests that could affect the oversight and growth of charter schools and shift money from some schools to benefit campuses in high-poverty neighborhoods affected by violence.
Check back here after polls close at 8 p.m. for the latest vote totals.
In one contest, Rocio Rivas, who is supported by the teachers union, is opposed by Maria Brenes, who had the backing of charter school proponents and the union that represents the largest number of nonteaching employees.
In the other contest, school board President Kelly Gonez is the heavy favorite against Cleveland High School Spanish teacher Marvin Rodriguez.
The battle between Rivas and Brenes could influence the direction of the seven-member governing body for the nation’s second-largest school system.
Rivas has said she hopes to stop charter school growth and increase oversight of these privately managed public schools. In contrast, a top priority of Brenes is to shift more funding to campuses with the largest percentage of high-need students.
The two are competing to represent District 2, which includes downtown and surrounding neighborhoods and stretches deep into the Eastside.
The runoff between Rivas, 49, a senior aide to school board member Jackie Goldberg, and Brenes, 46, the longtime director of the Boyle Heights-based group InnerCity Struggle, had drawn in two unions and a pair of businessmen — who combined to hurl more than $8.4 million into the race.
All four candidates had pledged to address a dizzying array of challenges — declining enrollment, teen drug abuse, school security concerns, pandemic setbacks and wide achievement gaps affecting Black and Latino students — and have strikingly similar views on many issues.
But especially in District 2 — the contest between Rivas and Brenes — the campaign was driven largely by the candidates’ stances on the years-old debate over charter schools, plus the extent of backing they have received from unions.
Brenes by far raised more money than Rivas — and also benefited from a much larger independent campaign on her behalf. In all, independent spending in support of Brenes surpassed $5.1 million, while United Teachers Los Angeles spent close to $2.9 million in support of Rivas.
Businessmen Reed Hastings and Bill Bloomfield also poured $422,406 into a negative campaign against Rivas, hoping to erode a 14-percentage-point edge she held in the June primary, when four candidates were on the ballot.
Downtown and neighborhoods to the east have long been the political stronghold of Monica Garcia, who could not run again because of term limits. Garcia was known as a strong defender of charter schools — which are mostly nonunion and supported by public school funding — and a key ally of Local 99 of Service Employees International, which includes bus drivers, custodians, teacher aides and cafeteria workers. Garcia also worked closely with outside activists, including Brenes, over such issues as eliminating school police and steering more money into schools serving students they concluded had the highest needs, because of poverty, neighborhood violence and other factors.
Brenes embraced Garcia’s legacy — and largely inherited her supporters — but wanted to avoid being pulled into the charters-versus-teachers union divide.
Rivas, in contrast, spoke directly of wanting to curtail the growth, influence and independence of charter schools whenever possible — although their rights to share public school campuses and funding are rooted in state law.
Rivas’ background included working in the division that oversees charter schools for L.A. Unified.
In District 6, in the east San Fernando Valley, high school teacher Rodriguez, 43, tried to unseat Gonez, who was first elected as school board president in 2017.
Gonez was instrumental in the recent hiring of Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the longtime leader of the Miami-Dade school system.
Gonez, 34, collected all the major endorsements, including that of the teachers union. With $500,000 raised, she had a fundraising advantage over Rodriguez of 47 to 1. In addition, Local 99 and the political action committee of Netflix founder Hastings and retired businessman Bloomfield combined to spend close to $400,000 on her behalf.
In the June primary, Gonez, with 48% of the vote, came close to winning reelection outright.
