In a changing of the regime, the leadership of the Los Angeles school board changed hands.
Six-term president Monica Garcia is out.
Dr. Richard Vladovic was elected as president, with Steve Zimmer as vice-president.
Garcia was a close ally of Mayor Villaraigosa.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Excellent. I’ve heard this guy speak ,he questions everything . Precisely what is needed .
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The article discusses last week’s leaking of an investigation into Vladovic. The timing was more than suspicious.
“The source of the leaked investigation is unclear, but some board members and district staff said they believe Deasy provided the information or that he authorized someone to do so.”
The only hope for Deasy was to get Tamar Galatzan elected board president, but that could not happen without eliminating Vladovic.
I won’t be surprised if Deasy bails on LAUSD before he gets fired. I’m sure Gates will take him back anytime.
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I was there and saw it all, well almost all.
They oversubscribed the invitations so even though I got there at 9:15 AM all the seats in the Board Room were filled and at least 150 of us stood on the sidewalk in the 92 degree heat and waited, and waited. Finally at about 11:00 we were told we could go watch on TV in the cafeteria…and most of us did. We saw Monica’s mother swear her in, brought tears to all eyes. They broke for reception inside at about 11:30 and we all were still waiting outside. Monica came out and saw us and she had water sent out to us, then she came out and there was much hugging and kissing.
All told, a terrific win. Thank you Diane for endorsing her.
The afternoon session was better since some seats opened up and we could enter to see the election. Monica Ratliff is a wonderful winner and is very savvy. She comported herself with strength and dignity and I have great hope that she and Zimmer, who also gave a heart wrenching speech, and the other 3 members who are not under the thumb of Deasy or Villaraigosa, will turn things around. Deasy maintained a rather stricken look throughout the proceedings as did Tamar and Gloria. Hopefully our new Mayor Garcetti will recognize the message that was sent today.
A new dawn for LAUSD.
By 1:30 I left.
PS…what was a real eye opener was the entertainment. They had the
choir from Verdugo HS, the school I have mentioned on this site many times in the last few months, where Deasy got rid of a beloved principal and shut down a community driven program to install his own top-down manager. Have to wonder about that….
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We must have been standing just a few feet from each other. We ended up getting stuck in the cafeteria and then more incompetence ensued. http://www.LASchoolsMatter.info is now online if you care to write about this there…
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The Vladovic alleged leak is believed by many to have been coming from the highest office…and the always biased LA Report repeated it every hour, every day, clearly to influence the election. Vladovic’s office staff was sitting in front of me and they cheered him loudly in support of his election.
Maybe the naysayers and Rheeformers learned today that you can’t fool all the people all the time. Vladovic will be a fair and focused President of the Board.
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Correction…I meant, above, the two who are on the side of the charters are Tamar and Monica Garcia whom I inadvertently called Gloria.
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Good riddance to Monica Garcia and welcome to Valdovic. Next job is for the board to decrease class size and bring our displaced teachers back. Make no mistake L.A Board, we want Deasy out and we will advocate for that to support public Ed.
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I got there at 7:45 as I was sure it would be a zoo and this was way too important to not be there for and video. The students who performed are on You Tube now and by noon Zimmer’s speech after his reinauguration will be finished loading. You Tube takes a long time to load. Then more of the meeting and speakers will be loaded at George1la. You can also see great students performing in Fresno at the putting arts back in schools convention I was recently at. All the students who performed were given a card so they and their friends and family can watch them perform any time they want. With vast new revenue coming in we need someone who cares about accountability and that is not Deasy and Garcia. Deasy, when you see the videos, and his body language show that he knows the end is here not just for him but for the corporate privatizers nationally as LAUSD is one of the prime places of conversion to the “Greed Model” with around 280 charter schools. In 2010 according to the L.A. County Office of Education Manual there were 240 charter schools. Wait until you listen to the speakers and what they say and you will understand why the previous Gang of 4 lost and Ratliff won against great odds. Monica Ratliff’s Mom swore Monica in and because of emotion almost could not read the swearing. She was awesome and had every reason to be extremely proud of her daughter with this awesome win. Ratliff also asked the board before the vote to have the two candidates describe what they would do as board president. Then again before the vote she asked them to state who they would have for board vice-president. Then there was the vote and it was fast. Deasy looked like he would die right there. Wait until you see his face. We even got a great free lunch again.
I personally want to thank Diane Ravich and all who supported Monica Ratliff from across the U.S. for their support as that is probably what put her over that 1.8% edge and what an edge is was. These are the kind of things and changes which can have a national effect. Now we need more districts to drive them out. LAUSD is the second largest school district in the U.S. and the only really large one still under Board control not mayoral control. This can help get rid of the mayoral control in the other districts as the effect of real control and education takes hold. We have to work together and drive those greedy corporate privatizers out in disgrace with their loser policies and practices.
All the video from that day in HD will be loaded up at George1la for all to see what really happened nationally.
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One thing I forgot to mention that is important and that is that not one T.V. station was there with cameras. Other than the LAUSD camera’s I had the only other video running. I have also never had so many people I did not know come up and say how much they like watching me speak and reading what I say on the Ravich Blog. A lot of people are reading it. Many more than I thought were at that board meeting. Former Board members Tokofsky and Korenstein were there to enjoy the day of wonder and amazement at the sun starting to shine again at LAUSD.
There is one other thing I want you to think about and that is can it be legal for a school district to arrange their regular board meetings so that you can only attend 1/2 of them? What they started doing under Garcia is to eliminate your ability to speak at board meetings by not letting you call the board secretary and reserving your speaking on an agenda item. Now you have to get in line and first come first speaking. They have made sure there is lots of butting in line as they ordered the officers to not monitor the line so cheating for district favorites was rampant.
Also, at 9:00 A.M. there is the first regular board meeting of the day, then closed session. Then they clear the room and start the second regular board meeting. If you go to the first board meeting you cannot go to the second board meeting as you are not in line. How can this be legal to be purposely eliminated from 1/2 of the board meetings? This is going to go to the A.G. and many other legally responsible authorities across the state.
If the police do not get control of the line that war will begin also. The board and chief of police will not be happy with what we have in mind for them.
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Monica Garcia is no longer LAUSD board president.
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No matter how many time I hear that, I still love the sound of it.
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