Candidates Clash Again at Second School Board Forum

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

Policy and politics shared the stage at Paul Revere Charter Middle School last week, as the race for District Four’s school board seat remained contentious.

Steve Zimmer—the eight-year incumbent and board president—appeared resurgent, turning in an energized performance after weathering an at-times hostile crowd and moderator at the race’s first forum last month.

Three challengers are attempting to unseat him: Nick Melvoin, Gregory Martayan and Palisadian Allison Holdorff Polhill.

Major players in the election seem to have paired Melvoin and Polhill as the strongest outside candidates—they’ve both received contributions from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, former LA mayor Richard J. Riordan and other mutual donors.

They also boast a dual endorsement from Speak UP, a parent-activist group that endorsed the pair after hosting the race’s first forum in January.

At last count, Martayan lagged behind the other three candidates in fundraising, and he alluded to the smaller size of his campaign during the forum. He continued to place strong emphasis on justice and security in schools, a major tenet of his platform that’s allowed him to stand out in a field with similar messages.

Alternatives to traditional schools, like charters and magnets, remained a crucial policy topic, as the race’s challengers continued to promise a more effective approach to collaborating with non-traditional models. Melvoin placed emphasis on “fixing the broken co-location system,” through which traditional schools share a campus with alternative models. Melvoin said the process has been treated carelessly, creating tension or disparities between one school and the other when they first cohabitate.

Zimmer fought back against his challengers’ frequent claims that the board hasn’t done enough to support alternative schools, both in a candid opening statement and again in response to a question on the topic.

Greeted by loud cheers from supporters—likely galvanized by Zimmer’s generally negative reception at the previous debate—the incumbent spoke immediately to quell the fears of charter school parents.

“I think I need to just be very, very clear right from the beginning,” Zimmer said. “I support charter schools, the affiliated charter schools and the conversion charter high school in Pacific Palisades. I always have, I always will.”

It was one of Zimmer’s many, more conversational moments that contributed to a strong performance. He joked to the audience that “this was what he looked like in person, not in [their] mailbox” in reference to negative flyers in opposition to his campaign.

The political attacks have not been leveled against the incumbent alone: Melvoin and Polhill both spoke directly to dispel their own negative ads, some of which attempted to link them to the unpopular Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (they have no political connection and few similarities).

In performance, Polhill continued to thrive in the details, taking moments to explain key issues before sharing her stance. This was most effective on sticky financial topics, like the disparity between money available to the board and the amount already pledged to teachers in pensions, which she promised to resolve through tighter fiscal management.

Melvoin drew on his energy and comfort as a speaker, and on his history as a LAUSD teacher to address the issues. He advocated for more adjustments to the “first-in, first-out” method of laying off teachers, which he said is “quality blind” and leaves high-performing but inexperienced teachers on the outside looking in.

The forum—moderated by former Paul Revere principal Fern Somoza—is available in its entirety on YouTube and on Paul Revere’s website.

The stakes are particularly high in this election, as the candidate who wins the seat will serve an extended five-and-a-half-year term in order to align Los Angeles Unified school board elections with other major races. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in March 7’s primary, the top two candidates will compete in a general election on May 16.