Although billionaire Eli Broad’s candidates lost the last two school board elections, he will still maintain his grip over the Los Angeles school system. The newly elected Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the selection of a Broad-trained educator as his education advisor.
Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana was a classmate of Superintendent John Deasy in the class of 2006 in the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy.
“The Melendez appointment comes two months after she retired as superintendent of Santa Ana Unified, the largest district in Orange County, with more than 57,000 students. In a letter announcing her retirement, Melendez noted that she’d been instrumental in creating key performance indicators for the district and improving parent engagement.
“According to published reports, however, the two years that Melendez spent at the district were marred by conflict with the Santa Ana teachers union and by turmoil at a middle school caused by students running amok.
“In May, she was one of five finalists for the job of Pasadena Unified superintendent, but withdrew from consideration before a scheduled interview with the district’s school board.”
More about her background:
“From 2009-11, she served as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education under U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. That position followed three years spent as schools chief of Pomona Unified, where she also worked as deputy superintendent and chief academic officer from 1999-2005. She was named 2009 Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.”
In an unusual arrangement, the city will pay her salary while the schools pay her benefits. This is intended to build up her state pension.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hey, you can’t beat having some Real (Estate) Minds in charge of public ed❢
Nice to build up her pension while teachers are having theirs taken away.
Yes, sweet deal on salary and pension. They all know to make nice when necessary. The Broad Toads also seem to have repeated attachment to students “running amok”. Many stories about youth ALLOWED to behave like residents of Bedlam. Begins to look like another takeover strategy as what taxpayer would want to pay for anarchy in her school system?
Revealingly, Ms. Melendez de Santa Ana’s Linked In profile shows not a day spent as a classroom teacher.
How can she possibly be referred to as an educator? A Broadie Toady Educrat, perhaps, but not an educator.
From “Education official stirs real tears with fictional tale.” The Virginian-Pilot, 9/6/2010:
At a gathering of teachers in an Oregon school district last week, a high-level official told a story that might sound familiar…
Teachers in Eugene, Ore., sniffled and gave a standing ovation to Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, the assistant to the U.S. secretary of education, when she finished the story.
But former Virginia Beach resident Elizabeth Ungar wrote “Three Letters from Teddy” nearly 40 years ago about a boy she called Teddy Stallard.
Reached last week at her new home in Rockingham, N.C., she was dismayed to hear it’s still being passed off as truth. “I think it’s absolutely wrong to do that.”
Ungar wrote the story under her first married name, Elizabeth Silance Ballard. It was first published in 1974 by HomeLife magazine, a Baptist family publication. She said she gets requests to republish it every year, and it has been in several “Chicken Soup” compilations…
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/09/education-official-stirs-real-tears-fictional-tale
There are references to Ms. Melendez having taught in Montebello as a bilingual teacher, but there is no information as to how many years she remained in that position. I think it IS significant that she left her teaching experience out of her profile. Perhaps, as we have seen with many Broad graduates, teaching experience might actually be a negative. More important is administrative and business backgrounds.
I always thought that politicians avoided conflict. Here Garcetti seems to be courting conflict. It should be an interesting year in LA.
Eli Broad is a powerful man in Los Angeles and in California. No one dares challenge his authority over all things related to art, education, medicine, world affairs, etc. etc. and so forth. At least not in LA.
Unfortunately more of the same privateer influence in L.a. Public Ed. The board approved this appointment so maybe there is no change from before, so disappointing.
She did a real number on my district, spending millions upon millions on consultants (including WestEd, where it was later revealed she was on the board of directors for). The union was in talks to do a vote of no confidence against her when she “retired”.