January 05, 2023
By Joe W. Bowers Jr.
California Black Media
The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) will soon announce its choice for the next County Administrator for the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD).
In the job description, applicants were told “the district has made significant strides toward recovery and is within 3-4 years of being able to meet the minimum milestone for self-governance, offering the successful candidate a rare leadership opportunity.”
If history is any indication, IUSD has had eight State/County Administrators (including 3 interim) in a little over 10 years. The odds are against the ninth administrator being around to coordinate IUSD’s transition back to local control.
The IUSD Board of Education should be selecting the next leader for the school district, not LACOE. But, in 2012 facing the possibility of insolvency, Senate Bill 533 authorized a state loan and gave the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), Tom Torlakson control over IUSD. In 2018, Assembly Bill 1840 transferred authority to LACOE Superintendent Debra Duardo.
Since 2012, IUSD’s five-member Board of Education has been serving in an advisory role to the revolving door of appointed State and County Administrators.
Existing laws governing receivership say that a school district will regain control when it shows adequate progress in implementing the recommendations of a comprehensive review conducted by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance (FCMAT) in five operational areas (financial management, personnel management, community relations and governance, facilities management, and pupil achievement).
FCMAT is an independent and external state agency that provides financial management assistance and general consulting to the state’s school districts. Their latest review of IUSD generated 885 recommendations for implementing 153 operational standards spread across the five operational areas.
IUSD has achieved proficiency in just two of the FCMAT operational areas – governance and personnel management - after 10 years under State and County control.
Existing laws give Duardo, with the concurrence of SPI Tony Thurmond and State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, the power to determine when IUSD can resume local control. However, many Inglewood residents familiar with the school district believe it’s Duardo’s choice of administrators that are failing to conform with FCMAT standards.
The nine reviews FCMAT conducted show that constant turnover of leadership and the number of poor leader choices by the State and County have led to inconsistency in developing and executing effective recovery plans for IUSD, stunted academic progress for the students, and inadequate maintenance of IUSD facilities.
When Torlakson took over IUSD, he said, “The State Administrator will control the district until fiscal insolvency has been eliminated, between two to six years.
The commentary I wrote titled, “After 10 Years it’s Time to Return Control of Inglewood Schools to the Community,” showed that 10 years of state intervention is not a guarantee that a school district in receivership will be better managed.
While existing law mandates that the state controls IUSD to protect its $29 million loan, the opportunity cost to IUSD of the state’s mismanagement has been significantly more than the amount it borrowed.
For example, before receivership, the Los Angeles World Airports (“LAWA”) agreed to fund noise mitigation measures for IUSD not to exceed $118.5 million. The State/County Administrators who took over have only secured $44 million of the funding, leaving $74.5 million on the table.
City Honors High School is a dependent charter school run by IUSD that was recognized by U.S. World and News Report as a silver-medal finalist. When the Charter Schools Facilities Program was awarding grants for charter school construction, Don Brann, who Torlakson had appointed to oversee IUSD, didn’t apply for a state grant.
But, DaVinci Charter schools, which Brann helped found in the Wiseburn Unified School District located next door to IUSD, applied and was awarded a $52.7 Million grant. Had IUSD applied for a grant for a City Honors building it would have been ahead of DaVinci in line for the limited funds.
Since 2012, IUSD has paid FCMAT about $2.6 Million for the nine yearly comprehensive reviews, an expense mandated by the statue authorizing the loan and paid from the school district’s General Fund.
IUSD is no longer in financial trouble. According to the latest 2022-23 budget projections, it will have a positive ending General Fund balance of $94.5 million and positive ending cash balance of $83.7 million. IUSD owes $19.6 million on its state loan.
In a recent review FCMAT conducted, LACOE admitted that IUSD had made little annual progress and is no closer to recovery today than two years ago.
IUSD has gone without local control longer than any school district that’s taken a state loan. It can no longer afford the compromised quality of education being delivered to students by LACOE’s management.
The IUSD community has been expressing its frustration at school board meetings about the quality of the schools the last 10 years, but LACOE lacks the management judgment to effectively respond to community concerns.
Schools LACOE operates not including IUSD, lead all California with the largest gap between Black and White students meeting states standards on the 2022 Smarter Balanced Assessments in English language arts.
Because statues governing state loans offer no way for IUSD to regain local control at this time, legislation amending those statues is needed that recognizes for 10 years State and County administrators have failed IUSD students and that it’s in the best interest of IUSD students to have the school board retain all of its legal rights, duties and powers.
The education system in California is based on local control. The new legislation needs to recognize that a statute of limitations has to be established on how long school districts under receivership have to put up with ineffective state management, especially if the school district is no longer in financial hardship.
Specific agencies have to be identified in the legislation with authority to hold the State or County accountable for addressing the slow progress it is making to qualify the district for a return to local governance. Incentives for quick turnarounds must be offered.
The offices of the legislators representing IUSD – Sen. Steve Bradford (D-District 35) and Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-District 61) and Isaac Bryan (D-District 55) have been approached about the need for legislation to return local control to IUSD. The office of recently elected Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-District 28) was also contacted, but no staff was available to discuss legislation.
Support from the California Legislative Black Caucus is also being solicited.
It will be up to IUSD’s legislators to introduce a bill during this legislative session for the return of IUSD to local control.
January 05, 2023
By Wnedy Gladney
The holidays are just about behind us, the cleaning up has been put in motion, but many of us are dragging our feet to step into the new year.
There are many reasons why we may be moving slow. For one, if you have been traveling during this holiday season, the traffic has been horrendous, especially if you were flying across the country and trying to get home.
Maybe you feel stuck because you were not able to complete some things you were determined to finish in 2022, whatever the reason may be, do not beat yourself up, just decide that you are going to change the things you can and accept the things you cannot. Some of us just may not be ready to do what me must do to get set and go.
Last week in my article, I talked about if we suit up, show up, something is bound to turn up. I absolute believe this to be true. But, what about if you are just not ready to suit up? There are a few things we can practice getting ourselves ready for the new year and off to a good start.
First, keep the main thing the main thing. Do not focus on things that really do not matter and can get you distracted. Take some time over the next few days and think about what really matters to you and your life. Write down what comes to mind and decide if it should have priority on your list.
Oftentimes we have things on our list based on what we think we should do or what we think others want us to do. We must decide to do what God wants us to do.
Once we realize what we truly want to do and what we know God wants us to do, we will be able to position ourselves to get ready and set to go forward into our next season. Sometimes it takes a while for us to figure out exactly what we are meant to do. Usually, the various experiences we have gone through are part of the journey that brings us to where we are meant to be.
All of us are a product of our environment, experiences, and expertise. What we decide to do with all of it is up to us. God gives us free will. Remember where God leads you, he will bring you through it.
I want to encourage everyone to embrace their best selves in the coming year. Do not be afraid to venture in new unknown territory if that is where you are being led. It is time to be bold and courageous.
I know it may be a little scary, but when we are led by the Lord and our inner self, we cannot go wrong. Believe in yourself and examine the gifts you were born with and the skills you have developed during your lifetime to help guide you when you are not sure what you are good at doing.
You can also ask those that are closest to you to share their opinions. Sometimes we do not see what others see in us. It can be a great place to start.
Let us make a commitment to make 2023 our best year yet. Despite everything we may have endured during this past year, there is nothing holding us back from looking at the bright side and looking up for the answer. If you need help, I am here. We can help each other. #HappyNewYear!
Healing Without Hate: It's a choice. It's a lifestyle. Pass it on.
Visit www.WendyGladney.com and www.forgivingforliving.org to learn more. Wendy is a life strategist, coach, consultant, author, and speaker.
December 29, 2022
By Carol McGruder
Contributing Writer
The tobacco industry has spent decades targeting – and killing – Black community members through predatory marketing tactics designed to hook us on deadly products like mint and menthol-cigarettes. What’s worse, in their efforts to protect profits, the industry pushed the lie that these products are a part of Black culture while exploiting our very real fear of police brutality.
The passage of California’s flavored tobacco law in 2022 is groundbreaking not only because it is a giant step forward to ending this exploitation, but because it was designed to avoid further criminalizing Black and Brown folks.
Tobacco is toxic, and so is the racism and inequality that’s central in the tobacco industry and criminal justice system, including who gets policed and why. Laws that criminalize the purchase, use, and possession of tobacco products are called PUP laws.
These laws have attempted to reduce youth smoking rates, but can result in fines, citations, arrests, and targeting of those who buy and use tobacco products. PUP laws inflict criminal penalties against people of color, especially Black youth. Black and Hispanic/Latino youth report higher PUP citation rates than their White peers even after accounting for smoking frequency.
Tobacco policies must be crafted and enforced in a way that prevents harm, loss of life, and acts of violence against Black and Brown communities. Tobacco laws should decrease community access to these deadly addictive products. Public health must provide culturally tailored services and programs, such as Kick It California, that decrease demand by supporting people who want to use these products.
PUP laws just don’t work. They can lead to racial targeting and violence and there’s little evidence they work. Laws focusing on tobacco retailers by restricting product sales hold businesses, rather than consumers, accountable. With proper funding and enforcement, retailer sales restrictions have proven to be better than PUP laws at reducing youth initiation and ongoing tobacco use.
California is committed to ending the tobacco epidemic in the state without causing further harm to our communities. To ensure tobacco laws are equitable and work as intended, a California state law decriminalized the purchase, use and possession of all tobacco products or paraphernalia in 2016. However, this law did not prohibit local jurisdictions from including PUP provisions in local tobacco laws.
Removing all local PUP provisions and enforcing California’s new flavored tobacco law are important steps to reducing Big Tobacco’s influence. Laws that focus on retailers and not the criminalization of individuals is not only better policy — it’s one way that Californians can address racial injustice.
Learn more about California’s path forward to undo the damage at undo.org.
Carol McGruder is the co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council.
December 29, 2022
By Wendy Gladney
My grandmother had little sayings and phrases that she would tell her children, grandchildren, and probably anyone that would listen. The other day, one of my cousins reminded me of one of them.
As we were talking about family stuff, she said, “Do you remember when Mother Dear would say, ‘if you suit up, show up, something is bound to turn up.’” I stopped and thought for a while, and I remembered my grandmother saying that statement several times.
She would also say, sometimes opportunities do not always go to the smartest person or to the one you think should get something, but it may go to the one who is consistent, dependable, and shows up.
I know for a fact that I have not always been the smartest person in the room, or even possibly the most qualified, but no one was going to beat me at suiting up, showing up, and my grandmother was right, things would turn up. Life is interesting in that it is not always about who is able to do something, but rather who makes themselves available.
There are a lot of talented people in this world that have special gifts, but they never make themselves available to fulfill a specific need. God can take our availability and turn it into something magical when we are willing to give something or someone our best.
All of us reach a point where we are not sure about ourselves, that is normal. Sometimes we go left when we should have turned right, and we get a little confused on our journey. We may not even be sure or clear about what direction we should be going in, but do not give up. If you continue to try and give life your best, and keep showing up for yourself and others, something will eventually turn up.
Continue to take baby steps if you must, just do not stop. I have had to pivot several times personally and professionally over the past six decades, but what I have learned is that we can take our mistakes or stumbling blocks and turn them into steppingstones to where we are supposed to go. It is all about our perspective and attitude.
As we close out one year and begin the journey into a new one, there are many things we need to let go of and leave behind. Make up your mind that you are not going to carry unnecessary baggage, past mistakes, hard aches, negative thoughts, and unforgiveness into 2023.
Let us be determined that we are going to show up for ourselves and put on our best suit (this represents our internal and external self), and I guarantee you that something positive will happen for you, even if it starts with just a better attitude about yourself and life. If you need help, I am here for you. The best can still be yet to come.
When we make up our minds there is nothing we cannot accomplish. The road may seem a little slow, but you will get there. Along your journey when you can bring others along, you will not get lonely and you may just be what they needed in their life. I try to practice doing all the good I can, to all the people I can, while I can, and something great always turns up. Happy New Year!
Healing Without Hate: It's a choice. It's a lifestyle. Pass it on.
Visit www.WendyGladney.com and www.forgivingforliving.org to learn more. Wendy is a life strategist, coach, consultant, author, and speaker.