Declining enrollment over the past two decades. School policing issues. Funding and resource management. Learning losses due to the global pandemic. Children having to learn remotely.

These are some of the key issues at stake in the Los Angeles Unified School District election. One of the two open seats falls in District 2, which covers East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Downtown Los Angeles, and Lincoln Heights. Parents and others are already lining up behind the candidates, María Brenes and Rocio Rivas.

Shayna Chabner, a parent of three LAUSD students,  says that there isn’t a single person or solution for improving the schools.

“It will require dedication, care, consistency, and above all understanding, and someone who is open to listening to and working with others from all backgrounds,” she said. “As the mom of two elementary-aged kids and a preschooler, I’m supporting fellow LAUSD parent Rocio Rivas. As a parent, Rocio appreciates first-hand the challenges and obstacles for our students and families in returning to a post-pandemic world…She also appreciates the importance of community in creating positive change.”

In Los Angeles, unlike other major cities such as Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York, residents in the city elect board members responsible for how their schools are run. In other major cities, the mayor controls who runs the education system.

The election affects parents, teachers, employers who want to hire qualified workers, and of course, the 542,000 students attending both public and charter schools in the district. Since Nick Melvoin won the District 4 seat outright in the primary, only Districts 2 and 6 are part of the November election, according to Ballotpedia. In District 4  —  which covers West Los Angeles and some parts of the San Fernando Valley  — the candidates are Kelly Gonez and Marvin Rodríguez. 

Some parents in District 2 say they’re ambivalent about the two candidates because both come from personal backgrounds they can relate to. It’s their policies that will set them apart.

Rivas moved with her family from Mexico to the U.S. when she was 2-years-old, according to Rivas’ campaign website. She attended LAUSD, graduated from Reseda High School, and is the mother of an LAUSD student. She was the first in her family to graduate with a college degree and later earned a doctorate in education.

As part of her academic training, she was involved in conducting research and doing evaluations of both public and charter schools. She’s very involved in her community and has also served as a secretary and president of the historic Highland Park neighborhood council as the chair of the family youth and education committee, according to Rivas’ campaign website.

Her priorities include authentic parent participation in public education, ensuring that LAUSD schools are a sanctuary for both students and teachers, and proposing a socio-emotional toolkit that has all resources to help parents’ mental health. She also shares her opposing views on the co-location policy of sharing resources between public and charter schools, as she believes that co-location is another instrument to drain resources from neighboring schools, according to Rivas’ campaign website.

Brenes, who was born in East L.A., and moved to the San Fernando Valley, has a longtime history of being the executive director of a Boyle Heights activist group known as InnerCity Struggle, which she also helped establish.

She is a mother of two children who are attending LAUSD schools. She was very involved and active in the school’s efforts to ensure safe and healthy environments for both students and teachers during the pandemic by raising funds through a foundation that was allocated to provide school supplies, food, masks, and other items to assist learning at home, according to Brene’s campaign website. 

Her policies include prioritizing college preparation for high school students, proposing an equity-based funding system, creating climate policies that aim to uplift minority communities faced with systemic racism, and focusing on the whole needs of children, including stable housing, food, and health, including well-being.

Although other candidates like Erica-Vilardi Espinosa did not make it past the primary for the District 2 seat, some parents shared their support of them and their policies, and hope the current candidates will take those issues into consideration.

“Espinosa…has experience with school as a mother. She has seen that the overcrowding issue needs to be fixed. The need for a stronger curriculum that includes current issues is key,” said Maelyn Kit, an LAUSD parent, in an interview with UT Community News. “I think she understands what needs to be done and she will bring much-needed value since she has already gone through the school system with her kids.”

Kit added she would still be paying close attention to this race with the remaining candidates because it is important for her children’s education.