Another Commission, Another Report

Today, MAV spoke of a great commission he was sending to summer school. This 30 member commission was sworn in Wednesday to study the Los Angeles Unified School District and consider whether to recommend changes in the way it is run. According to the LA Times, the commission is the brainchild of City Council President Alex Padilla and L.A. Unified board President Jose Huizar.

Unfortunately, this commission will probably just issue another report which everyone heralds but no one has the muscle to actually implement. I hate to be pessimistic, but until one of these things actually does something other than collect dust, you'll just have to excuse my pessimism.

Rather than delve into the substance of what the commission will actually recommend, I thought I would report on the commission members themselves and see what little tidbits and insight I could find.

The complete list of appointees follows:

1. Robert R. Barner, assistant superintendent-education programs, Los Angeles County Office of Education - The Wave Newspaper Group thinks that Roy Romer has pushed, harassed, schemed, disgusted, planned or shoved out many African-Americans from the LAUSD including Barner, yet he remains
2. Ed Burke, chief of staff, school board member John Lauritzen - Quoted in the Daily News "We're building schools, but we better be doing something inside of them. If things get worse in Sacramento, then I think you'll find out a lot of people will be taking a closer look at parcel taxes,"
3. Maria A. Casillas, president, Families in Schools - Quoted in the Daily News regarding College Prep classes "The board will receive an F from the community if they don't adopt this quickly"
4. Yvonne Chan, principal, Vaughn Next Century Learning Center charter school -Chan's school, Vaughn Elementary, became the first public school in the United States to convert to a charter school 12 years ago. It has since been named a California Distinguished School and National Blue Ribbon School.
5. Bill Clay, retired general manager, AT&T
6. Carl Cohn, independent monitor, L.A. Unified - Quoted in the Daily News "It is a big, big ship and trying to get a big ship to turn quickly and focus on a new direction is often hard."
7. Jose Cornejo, chief of staff, Councilman Tony Cardenas - His boy Tony has been overshadowed by AV yet again, so we'll have to see how nicely they play this time around. The past hasn't always been pretty
8. David Cunningham, president, Los Angeles Police Commission - Cunningham is collaborating with the Community Redevelopment Agency to turn a number of properties with heavy soil and vapor contamination into one major retail site. A good fit for LAUSD
   
9. Maria Davila, vice mayor, South Gate
10. Donald L. Dear, former mayor, Gardena - $1,000 in contributions to Frank O'Brien and Leo Terrell
11. Marquee Harris-Dawson, executive director, Community Coalition - Donated funds to Karen Bass and Martin Ludlow
12. Ofelia Hernandez, mayor, Huntington Park -On 1-05-04, Mayor Ed Escareo, Mario Gomez and Ofelia Hernandez give the residents of Huntington Park a New Year's surprise: they quietly passed a resolution giving themselves a pay raise of $350 per month each, five days into the new year, when it seemed nobody was watching. Ed Escareo and Ofelia Hernandez were seemingly unemployed at the time.
13. Jerry Horowitz, principal, Byrd Middle School - Soda in Schools - Jerry Horowitz, principal at Byrd Middle School, supports Canter's proposal but believes that the ban should be extended to cover all school facilities, including teachers' lounges and the district headquarters. The proposal only targets sales of soft drinks to students. "I really think all soft drinks that are non-nutritious should not be available at any school sites," Horowitz said. "If we are fostering healthy diets, how can we have the superintendent drink a Coke in an office and say it's bad for kids at Byrd?"
14. Robin Kramer, chief of staff, Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa - COS to Riordan as well. Enough said.
15. Cecilia Moreno, community relations, Shell Oil Co.
16. Ramon Muniz, program coordinator, Cal State Northridge - Will probably clash with AV, having donated $1200 to the likes of Pacheco, Feuer, Becerra and Reyes, all of whom AV has clashed with.
17. Mary Rose Ortega, teacher - Donated $350 to AV and $100 to Alvin Parra; 2004 Winner of the Ted Bass Award Recognizing an Outstanding Teacher in Politics.
    
18. Erin Pak, chief executive, Korean Health, Education, Information and Research - Heavy political donor (approx $8,250) including AV, Holden, Pacheco, Chick, Hahn, Garfield, Reyes, Cardenas, Hertzberg, Krisiloff, Deron Williams, and Greig Smith
19. Scott Plotkin, executive director, California School Boards Assn. - When asked if the LAUSD is declining, he responded "Yes they are. And this is going to mean that L.A. is going to have to make huge budget cuts for the coming year."
20. Ron Prescott, retired deputy superintendent, L.A. Unified - Donated $1,000 to Hahn, and along with Barner above, The Wave Newspaper Group thinks that Roy Romer has pushed, harassed, schemed, disgusted, planned or shoved out many African-Americans from the LAUSD including Prescott as well
21. Mary Rodriguez, parent and community activist - Thoughts on King Middle School - When their mother, Mary Rodriguez (46), first visited there six years ago, King Middle School itself looked like “a penitentiary. There was graffiti everywhere. The landscaping, all the plants, everything green had been torn out,” says the mother-turned-activist. Even then it was obvious that the Los Angeles School District (LAUSD) was in dire need of massive reform and its schools were in still greater distress.
    
22. Julie Ruelas, mayor, San Fernando
23. Carla Sanger, president and chief executive, L.A.'s BEST after-school program - Has donated $1600 to Soboroff, LaBonge, Perry and Greuel, also major benefactor of MAV's innauguration dinner last evening
24. Colleen Schwab, teacher, Parkman Middle School
25. Camilla Townsend, Los Angeles Harbor Commission member - She's enraged many of the local port activists who would like to see her removed from the Harbor Commission, so dealing with the LAUSD should just be a barrel of monkeys
26. Howard Welinsky, member, California Postsecondary Education Commission - King of the donors on this list he has donated a total of $24,250 to Villaraigosa, Padilla, Feuer, Galanter, Sanchez, Griego, Tuttle, Garfield, Hirschberg, Weiss, Perry, Wildman, Woo, Miscikowski, Greuel, Hertzberg, Jones Sawyer, and Krisiloff. ($10,500 of which went to MAV's campaigns)
27. Andrew Westall, adjunct professor, Pasadena City College - While not a large money donor, many electeds owe him their political lives. As a chief line cartographer for the State and LA redistricting processes, he helped carve the chaos we have today. Also rumored to be running for Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees
28. Paul White, teacher, West Valley Leadership Academy
29. Tyree Wieder, president, Los Angeles Valley College - Donated $1,624 to Perkins, Garfield, Greuel and Hertzberg
30. Johnathan Williams, founder, Accelerated School - Donated $100 to Perry