School Board Hopefuls Sparring

By Kurt Helin and Kelly Garrison

Overseeing budget cuts of $40 million while infighting on the board draws headlines might make you think people would be hesitant to run for the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education.

But incumbent Jon Meyer faces two challengers for his Fourth District seat — another former LBUSD administrator in Karen Thomas Hilburn and attorney Paul Crost. All want to represent the Fourth District that covers Belmont Shore, Los Altos and East Long Beach.

The three candidates bring three different perspectives to the race, which they displayed during a debate last Wednesday in the auditorium at Lowell Elementary School. Organizers from the Lowell PTA invited candidates to share their reasons for running and answer questions about budget, vocational programs and other academically-related topics.

Hilburn was first to introduce herself and explained that one of her top initiatives as a board member would be to improve alternative education programs.

“We have a good district, but it could be better,” she said. “We have students who are being left behind. If everyone said things are just perfect in the Fourth District, I wouldn’t run, but from the beginning, I’ve heard mild to serious concerns.”

Crost followed by announcing his goal to better the district’s methods of resolving conflict and to improve public awareness of pertinent issues.

“I’ll be there to ask the hard questions,” he said. “...I intend to give the public an opportunity to understand decisions that are made.”

Meyer said he would like to continue decades of involvement in the Long Beach school system and enrich local education programs.

“I love being around kids, and I love looking out for them,” he said. “I have a strong passion for the personalization of our schools.”

He joined the school board in 2003, finishing out the term of Ed Eveland, who died while in office. In 2004, voters elected him to a full term. Before retiring, Meyer was a teacher and administrator in Long Beach including serving as principal at Lowell Elementary, Wilson High School and Lakewood High School.

Meyer said than one of his accomplishments since being on the board is promoting the idea of a “school within a school,” or specialized programs. The idea is to make the district’s larger schools feel more intimate for the student, and not let students slip through the cracks.

“We had too many kids who could go to school every day and nobody called them by name,” Meyer said. “If we want kids to succeed at school and as people, they need to know that they matter.”

Meyer also said he pushed for increased security personnel on school grounds.

“Our high school campuses are large and sprawling,” Meyer said. “At lunch time, it is important that we have adults moving amongst the kids and seeing any problems before they escalate.”

Meyer has the endorsement of Chris Steinhauser, the current Superintendent of LBUSD,

Hilburn was a teacher, was principal at Poly High School and served in a number of administrative roles for the LBUSD before she retired.

Her passion in this election is vocational education.

“Where the district is doing a good job is pushing students to go to a four-year college or a community college,” she said. “But we are leaving out a large segment of the population.”

She noted that she helped start what was then the Renaissance Career Academy, which offered students several vocational classes. However, after she had moved on to another position, a large arts grant opened up and was won by the school district, changing the career academy to the Renaissance School for the Performing Arts. She said she still thinks the city needs to move more in that direction.

While she is a former LBUSD employee, she said she understands why Steinhauser and others endorsed Meyer, saying that was how the political game is played. She said if she ran as the incumbent, those endorsements would have gone to her.

Crost is a retired attorney who specialized in labor relations law. He at times represented former LBUSD teachers, and he has the support of the teacher’s union. However, he balked at suggestions he was “the union candidate” that would bring a union-backed majority to the board.

“What I told the union they will get is a voice on the board that is independent of the administration,” Crost said.

Much of Crost’s focus during the campaign has been on opening up the board’s business, saying that too much happens in the weekly closed session that is not discussed in public.

“At the meeting where they cut the second $20 million from the budget, there were one or two questions from the board,” Crost said. “Then they approved it. There should be more public discussion of something like that.”

Crost also said the board should be more proactive in listening to concerns from teachers and parents and pushing the administration to investigate and act. He said there is a “back the principal” mentality that leads to things like the gymnastics room decision at Wilson that a court overturned.

“The district is unwilling to give a second look at administrators,” Crost said. “They have a ‘it’s my principal, right or wrong’ theory.”

The Budget

Whomever the residents elect will have two big areas to deal with when they are sworn in, and the first is the budget. Based on early state estimates, Long Beach has to cut $40 million from next year’s budget and already has started to take those steps.

Meyer, who voted for the cuts, said what he pushed for as much as possible was to keep the cuts from impacting the classroom.

“I think we’ve handled this about as well as we can,” Meyer said. “I can’t say this won’t impact the classroom, though.”

Hilburn said she ultimately thinks the cuts will not be as deep as projected, that often in Sacramento school cuts are threatened and pulled back as part of a political shell game. However, she said of the cuts that will be done there needs to be more transparency.

“I think there can be more cuts in top administration,” Hilburn said. “I think cutting substitute teacher pay by 10% was not a good way to go.”

Crost said that it is hard to tell what is being done with the budget because of how the board operates, but that more voices need to be heard.

“I think we may see increased class size or other things,” Crost said. “I think we should give (teachers) as big a voice as possible in what the priorities should be. They are the ones who have to be in the classroom.”

Board Infighting

The other issue is a board right now that is often seen fighting amongst itself and recently censuring board member Michael Ellis. Meyer was a key part of that vote and said that the problems on the board are not that bad.

“Four of our members work together very well,” he said.

Crost stressed his time spent as a legal mediator, saying he is someone who can work with all the other board members.

“I think it’s very unfortunate that the relationship has deteriorated so much,” Crost said. “I’m hopeful that my background as a mediator will help build bridges.”

Hilburn said the board members need to be reminded of why they were elected in the first place.

“The current board has taking their eye off the ball — and that is what is best for the students,” Hilburn said.

Voters will decide who will represent them on April 8.