The seven members of the L.A. Unified’s board oversee the nation’s second-largest school district, with more than 538,000 students enrolled. The district is also the county’s second-largest employer with more than 74,000 educators, administrators, and support staff on its payroll.

Three seats are up for election Nov. 5, including District 3.

Unlike in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., where the mayor appoints education system leaders, Los Angeles schools are run by the school board, which voters elect directly. That means the board members have a lot of power.

What do LAUSD board members do?

• Hire and fire the superintendent — their single most important responsibility
• Pass the budget ($18.4 billion) and decide how it will be distributed.
• Work with parents and resolve disputes in their district over facilities, budgets, etc.
• Vote on every charter school that hopes to open in L.A.

What’s on the agenda for next term?

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges in the district, including declining enrollment, disparities in student learning, truancy, inadequate mental health support, and lackluster standardized test scores.

Go deeper: Read more about what board members do, and the challenges facing the school board

About the Board District 3 race

District 3 is located in the West San Fernando Valley and also encompasses Studio City. Voters elected Scott Schmerelson to represent the district in 2014 and again in 2020. He is now up for reelection.

The candidates:

• Dan Chang, public school teacher
• Scott Schmerelson, teacher/counselor/Incumbent Boardmember

Quick take:

• Two-term incumbent Schmerelson’s decisions are often rooted in his more than 30 years as an LAUSD Spanish teacher and administrator. In our interview, he talked about navigating district bureaucracy to meet the needs of individual schools in his district. Chang said his ideas for change were born from his classroom teaching experience and his education background also includes stints in charter schools, fundraising and educational technology.
• The candidates diverged the most when discussing how the district should handle independently run charter schools. Schmerelson supports limiting their access to traditional public school campuses in high-needs communities while Chang says co-locations benefit students and families from either school.

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Dan Chang

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Dan Chang

Public school teacher

Chang is a math teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood. Chang previously founded organizations that raised money for LAUSD programs and school board candidates. Chang’s first education-related job was at a charter school management organization and he previously led the board of directors for two San Fernando Valley charter schools.

Ahead of the primary, Chang said his top three priorities are:

• Raising academic performance within LAUSD.
• Reducing the central office bureaucracy to return more funding and autonomy to school sites.
• Prioritizing student safety and well-being by strengthening restorative justice practices.

LAist interviewed Chang in July. Here’s what he said:

• Academics can be improved by following through on training: “I think we have the curriculum, I think we have the people. I think one of the missing ingredients is really our expectations for adults in the classroom, right? … I go to a myriad of trainings, like once a week. Other than my first year of teaching, I can't think of a single time an administrator has actually come into my room and actually said, ‘Hey, like, this thing you were just trained on, are you doing it?’”
• LAUSD can counter long-term financial challenges by increasing revenue. Chang says that if LAUSD can make the case it deserves more money, the public will support a property tax increase. “If there's this consistent improvement, I think that's part of the case you need to take to the public. We're improving, right? The scores are improving. Your experience as a student and as a family in an L.A. Unified school is improving. And if people feel that, then I think there'll be a lot of goodwill in the public to support revenue.”
• Schools need better infrastructure, mental health services and the ability to request regular campus police officers to ensure student safety.  Chang says school police are a case-by-case basis. “Any school that wants more school resource officers, for me, as a board member, that's a yes … The demand is there. So let's just capture it and let's make the adjustments that we need.” Chang says as a teacher, he’s seen firsthand how restorative justice practices can help educators reach students who are acting out. “You cannot just send a kid to the Dean and like make it the Dean's problem. Like you got to find a way to connect with the student. And coach that student or get to know that student.”
• LAUSD needs new leadership: “I love what we do in the classroom, and I see how hard everybody works. It really just made me want to run, because we just do the same thing over and over and over again as teachers, and there is no movement and change. So I want to do something about it. I took this opportunity to actually run and see if I could make change at a bigger level for everybody.”

We also asked Chang whether he would have voted with the board majority to:

• Would he restrict where some charter schools can be located? No. “It's a very classic district thing. It's like, oh, we're just going to immediately take a third to 40% of like all, like all spaces off the table. It's such a broad brush approach. I mean, I get the intent, like, hey, if you've got a school that's sort of in a fragile place, you want to make, you know, give it some conditions to be successful. But like the answer is no, I would not have approved that at all.”
• Would he have cut funding to school police? No. Chang says the issue is about not having enough money overall. “We are cutting school police officers, $25 million from the budget. And we're using that $25 million to support this other thing and that approach kind of leads you to where you are now.”

More voter resources:

• Website: Chang4Change.org
• Endorsements: See full list here

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Cooper Bates

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Scott Schmerelson

Teacher/Counselor/Boardmember

Schmerelson is a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board and its current vice president. He has represented Board District 3 since 2014 and is a former Spanish teacher and principal. Schmerelson won reelection in 2020 despite the California Charter Schools Association spending more than $6.3 million to unseat him.

Ahead of the primary, Schmerelson said his top three priorities are:

• Student safety.
• Facility funds for his district to have “clean, safe, and modern school campuses.”
• Fair salaries for school staff and teachers.

LAist interviewed Schmerelson in July. Here’s what he said:

• LAUSD is making up ground academically. “We're doing lots of stuff to catch up. Lots of stuff. Morning to night tutoring all the time, online. We also have so many different programs where kids can take tutoring at school in person. We have after-school programs, and now they involve some physical activity and some sports, but they're always intermeshed with academic programs. So we are constantly working with our students.” He says the district does need to do more to help foster youth and students who are unhoused.
• The district needs to be more transparent on its budget. “I know that the superintendent is working on making it easier for parents to be able to tune into their school on the computer and see exactly what's being done. Sometimes it's a hassle. Sometimes it's not working. I need to make sure that my schools and my parents are able to access their school information all the time.”
• There’s no reason why schools can’t have both support staff and school police to help with student safety. “School police are very well trained. I do not want LAPD [the Los Angeles Police Department] working at my schools. I want school police there. They've been trained, they understand the kids, and they work well. … School police are there for emergencies. They're there to protect me, the teachers, and the kids. And they have a place at school. If the school says, we at X school want an officer in our campus during the day, they should be granted that.”
• Activating parents and community members is necessary for public schools to work their best. Schmerelson talks a lot about hearing from parents on issues like school greening, budget transparency, and political advocacy, as well as simple participation: “You good at math?  Reading. You're a gardener? Oh man, they would love to have you at the school. Volunteerism is so important. Kids need to see older adults like grandmas and grandpas at their school working with them. It's a very calming, calming feeling. Many little, many little kids don't even have grandparents.”

Schmerelson is an incumbent Board member. We looked back at his vote on some key proposals and what he said when he voted.

• Would he restrict where some charter schools can be located? Yes; Schmerelson voted to approve a new co-location directive in February 2024. “I know that many people believe that what this policy includes now is still not enough,” he said at the time. “But we have made progress. For now I am willing to say we will approve this but we will keep the conversation going. Because we don’t actually know for a fact it will be enough to protect our students and our school communities.”
• Would he cut funding to school police? No; Schmerelson voted against cutting the L.A. school police budget in 2020: “We can’t find $25 million to invest in African American initiatives without removing school police and without risking school safety? I’m very surprised,” Schmerelson said at that very long meeting. “Of course every principal will say that achievement is the most important thing in my school and I disagree with that. … There is safety and there is achievement and you can’t have one without the other.”

More voter resources:

• Website: ScottForLAUSD.org
• Endorsements: See full list here

Follow the money

Senior editor Ross Brenneman contributed to this story.

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This voter guide originally published Sept. 4.